by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2021

The Kingdom of Sardinia: The House of Savoy had been Counts and then Dukes of Savoy, since the 11th century and ruled from the city of Turin, now in northern Italy. Vittorio Amedeo II, Duke of Savoy became King of Sicily in 1713 as a result of his participation in the War of the Spanish Succession. However, in 1720, Vittoria Amedeo II was forced to exchange the Kingdom of Sicily for the less important Kingdom of Sardinia after objections from the Quadruple Alliance (Great Britain, France, Habsburg Austria, and the Dutch Republic).

Sardinia, now in Italy, is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea after Sicily, also now in Italy, but the Kings of Sardinia of the House of Savoy ruled from Turin, the capital of the Duchy of Savoy. They styled themselves as Kings of Sardinia because the title was superior to their original lesser title as Dukes of Savoy. However, they retained the regnal numerical order of the Dukes of Savoy.

Vittorio Emanuele II became the last King of Sardinia upon the abdication of his father in 1849. He then became a driving force behind the Italian unification movement along with Giuseppe Garibaldi, a general and nationalist, and Giuseppe Mazzini, a politician and journalist. Garibaldi conquered Naples and Sicily, the territories of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, while the Sardinian troops occupied the central territories of the Italian peninsula, except Rome and part of Papal States. With all the newly acquired land, Vittorio Emanuele II was proclaimed the first King of the new, united Kingdom of Italy in 1861.

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Anne Marie d’Orléans was the first wife of Vittorio Amedeo II, King of Sardinia. She was born on August 27, 1669, at the Château de Saint-Cloud in Hauts-de-Seine, France, near Paris, France. Anne Marie had an impeccable royal genealogy. Her parents were first cousins. Her father was Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, the younger of the two sons of Louis XIII, King of France and Anne of Austria, and the only sibling of Louis XIV, King of France. Her mother was Princess Henrietta of England, the youngest child of Charles I, King of England and Henrietta Maria of France. Philippe’s father Louis XIII and Henrietta’s mother Henrietta Maria were siblings, the children of Henri IV, King of France and Marie de Medici from the famous House of Medici. As the granddaughter of Louis XIII, King of France, Anne Marie was entitled to the style and title Her Royal Highness Petite-fille de France (Granddaughter of France).

Anne Marie had two siblings:

• Marie Louise of Orléans (1662 – 1689), married Carlos II, King of Spain, no children
• Philippe Charles d’Orléans, Duke of Valois (1664 – 1666) died in early childhood

On June 30, 1670, when Anne Marie was only ten months old, her mother died at the age of 26. King Louis XIV wanted a male heir to continue the Orléans line and looked for a second wife for his brother Philippe himself. King Louis XIV rejected many potential second brides for his brother before settling on the Protestant Princess Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, known as Liselotte. She was the only daughter of Karl I Ludwig, Elector Palatine and Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel. Liselotte’s paternal grandmother was Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of King James I of England and granddaughter of Mary, Queen of Scots. Liselotte converted to Roman Catholicism and married Philippe on November 19, 1671.

Due to the attitude of the court, as well as the homosexual relations of her husband Philippe, which he did not hide, Liselotte devoted much attention to Philippe’s daughters. Liselotte acted as a mother to Anne Marie and her elder sister Marie Louise and maintained correspondence with them throughout their lives. As with his first marriage, Philippe had homosexual affairs but was intent on fulfilling his dynastic responsibility of having children. Philippe and Liselotte had three children who were the half-siblings of Anne Marie:

• Alexandre Louis d’Orléans, Duke of Valois (1673 – 1676), died in childhood
• Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (1674 – 1723) married his cousin Françoise Marie de Bourbon, a legitimized daughter of King Louis XIV and one of his mistresses Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise of Montespan, had eight children
• Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans (1676 – 1744) married Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, had thirteen children, were the grandparents of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, born Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria

Always eager to maintain his influence in the Duchy of Savoy which bordered France, King Louis XIV of France offered his niece Anne Marie as a bride to Vittorio Amedeo II, Duke of Savoy, the future King of Sardinia, and he agreed to the match. The proxy marriage of Vittorio Amedeus and Anne Marie took place at the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France on April 10, 1684. Anne Marie’s cousin Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine stood in for the groom and King Louis XIV gave Anne Marie a huge dowry of 900,000 livres. Philippe, Duke of Orléans accompanied his daughter as far as Juvisy-sur-Orge, 18 kilometers south of Paris, and then Christine d’Estrées, Comtesse de Lillebonne accompanied Anne Marie to Savoy. Anne Marie and Vittorio Amedeo met at the House of Savoy’s Château de Chambéry where the marriage ceremony was performed by Étienne Le Camus, Archbishop of Grenoble on May 6, 1684. Two days later, the newlyweds made their “Joyous Entry” into Turin.

Anne Marie and Vittoria Amedeo had six children:

• Princess Marie Adélaïde of Savoy (1685 – 1712), married Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Le Petit Dauphin of France had three sons, only one son King Louis XV of France survived childhood
• Princess Maria Anna of Savoy (1687 – 1690), died in childhood
• Princess Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy (1688 – 1714), married King Felipe V of Spain, had four sons, only two survived childhood and both became Kings of Spain
• Vittorio Amadeo, Prince of Piedmont (1699 – 1715), died in his teens from smallpox
• Carlo Emanuele III, King of Sardinia (1701 – 1773), married (1) Anne Christine of Sulzbach, had one son who died in infancy (2) Polyxena of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg, had six children, two died in infancy (3) Elisabeth Thérèse of Lorraine, had three children, only one survived childhood
• Prince Emanuele Philibert of Savoy (born and died 1705), died in infancy

Upon arrival at the court of Savoy, Anne Marie fell under the influence of her pro-French mother-in-law Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours who had been born at the Hôtel de Nemours in Paris and was a half-first cousin once removed of King Louis XIV of France. The close relationship between his wife and mother was not appreciated by Vittorio Amadeus. When Vittorio Amedus severed ties with France in 1690, Anne Marie and her children along with her mother-in-law left Turin, the capital of Savoy, for a period of time in protest. Vittorio Amedeo had extramarital affairs which Anne Marie quietly accepted. His longest affair, eleven years, was with Jeanne Baptiste d’Albert de Luynes with whom he had two children.

On August 26, 1728, the day before her 59th birthday, at the Villa della Regina in Turin, Duchy of Savoy, now in Italy, Anne Marie died after a series of heart attacks. She was buried at the Basilica of Superga in Turin.

Anne Marie is an important link in the Jacobite succession to the thrones of England and Scotland, and now to the United Kingdom.  In 1688, Anne Marie’s maternal uncle James II, King of England/James VII, King of Scots was deposed. After James II lost his throne, the Jacobite (from Jacobus, the Latin for James) movement formed. The goal of the Jacobites was to restore the Roman Catholic Stuart King James II of England/VII of Scotland and his Roman Catholic heirs to the thrones of England and Scotland.

When the line of the deposed King James II of England died out the Jacobite claims to the British throne descended from the line of Henrietta of England, Duchess of Orléans, James II’s sister and Anne Marie’s mother. Since Anne Marie’s elder sister had died and had no children and her brother died in childhood, the Jacobite claims descended through Anne Marie. Her great-grandson Carlo Emanuele IV, King of Sardinia was the first Jacobite heir from the House of Savoy. All subsequent Jacobite heirs have been descendants of Anne Marie. Although no Jacobite heirs after James II’s son and grandsons made a claim on the British throne, the Jacobite line of succession has proceeded over the years from the House of Savoy to the House of Austria-Este, and to the House of Wittelsbach (Bavaria). It appears in the future, that it will proceed to the House of Liechtenstein.

• Unofficial Royalty: The Jacobite Succession – Pretenders to the British Throne

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Kingdom of Sardinia Resources at Unofficial Royalty

• Kingdom of Sardinia Royal Burial Sites

Works Cited

• En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Anne Marie d’Orléans – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Marie_d%27Orl%C3%A9ans> [Accessed 17 June 2021].
• Flantzer, Susan, 2019. Philippe I, Duke of Orléans. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/philippe-i-duke-of-orleans/> [Accessed 17 June 2021].
• Flantzer, Susan, 2021. Vittorio Amedeo II, King of Sardinia. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/vittorio-amedeo-ii-king-of-sardinia/> [Accessed 17 June 2021].
• It.wikipedia.org. 2021. Anna Maria di Borbone-Orléans – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Maria_di_Borbone-Orl%C3%A9ans> [Accessed 17 June 2021].
• Jacobite.ca. 2021. The Jacobite Heritage. [online] Available at: <http://www.jacobite.ca/> [Accessed 17 June 2021].
• Ru.wikipedia.org. 2021. Анна Мария Орлеанская — Википедия. [online] Available at: <https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%90%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%9C%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%9E%D1%80%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F> [Accessed 17 June 2021].