Maria Josepha Amalia of Saxony, Queen of Spain

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

Maria Josepha Amalia of Saxony; Credit – Wikipedia

Given a long string of names, Maria Josepha Amalia Beatrix Xaveria Vincentia Aloysia Franziska de Paula Franziska de Chantal Anna Apollonia Johanna Nepomucena Walburga Theresia Ambrosia, the third wife of King Ferdinand VII of Spain, Princess Maria Josepha Amalia of Saxony, was born in Dresden, Electorate of Saxony, now in Saxony, Germany on December 7, 1803.  She was the youngest child of the seven children of Prince Maximilian of Saxony and his first wife Princess Caroline of Parma, who was a granddaughter of Maria Theresa of Austria.   When  Maria Josepha Amalia was only three months old, her mother died and she was sent to a convent to be raised by nuns.  Her childhood in the convent was quite austere and as a result, she was a very ardent Roman Catholic.

Maria Josepha Amalia had six older siblings:

King Ferdinand VII of Spain’s first two wives (of four) had died and he had no surviving children.  His choice for a third wife was the nearly 16-year-old Maria Josepha Amalia.  The couple was married in Madrid on October 20, 1819.  The king fell in love with the beautiful, young princess, but her youth and inexperience made the adjustment to marriage difficult.  There was much pressure upon Ferdinand VII to produce an heir.  There were rumors that Maria Josepha Amalia’s devout Roman Catholicism caused her to believe that sexual relations between spouses were wrong and that it took Pope Pius VII to convince her that such relations were permissible.  However, the marriage remained childless and Maria Josepha Amalia died of a fever at the age of 25 on May 18, 1829, at the Royal Palace of Aranjuez.  She was buried in the royal crypt at the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo El Real.  King Ferdinand VII eventually got his heir through his fourth marriage to Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies who gave birth to Queen Isabella II of Spain.

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