Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este, Empress of Austria

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este, Empress of Austria; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Ludovika was the third of the four wives of Franz I, Emperor of Austria. On December 14, 1787, Archduchess Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este, Princess of Modena was born at the Royal Villa of Monza, built between 1777 and 1780, when Lombardy (now in Italy) was part of the Austrian Empire. She was the youngest of the ten children of Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria-Este and Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d’Este. Maria Ludovika’s father was the fourth son and fourteenth child of Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria, and (in her own right) Queen of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia, and Franz Stefan, Duke of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor.  Maria Theresa had arranged a treaty whereby her son Ferdinand would marry the only child of Ercole III d’Este, Duke of Modena and Reggio, become his heir, and form the House of Austria-Este, a cadet branch of the House of Habsburg and the House of Este.

Maria Ludovika’s parents, Ferdinand and Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d’Este; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Ludovika had nine siblings:

Maria Ludovika’s education was overseen by her strict grandmother Maria Theresa, who had arranged the marriage of her parents. She spent her early years at her birthplace, the beautiful Royal Villa of Monza in Milan, modeled after her father’s birthplace Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. In 1796, when Maria Ludovika was nine years old, Napoleon‘s invasion of Milan forced the family to flee the French forces. The family first fled to Trieste, and then to Wiener Neustadt, a city just south of Vienna. Finally, the family settled in the Palais Dietrichstein in Minoritenplatz in Vienna. This experience gave Maria Ludovika a lifelong hatred of Napoleon. Maria Ludovika’s father died in Vienna in 1806, but after Napoleon’s final defeat, the Congress of Vienna recognized her eldest brother Ferdinand as Duke of Modena.

In 1807, Maria Ludovika’s first cousin, Franz I, Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia became a widower for the second time when his second wife Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily (his double first cousin, also a first cousin of Maria Ludovika) died after childbirth along with her 12th child. The 39-year-old Emperor consoled his grief with visits to his aunt (by marriage) Maria Beatrice Ricciarda and fell in love with the beautiful and literate Maria Ludovika who was 19 years old. Maria Ludovika and Franz were married on January 6, 1808, in a ceremony conducted by the bride’s brother Karl, Archbishop of Esztergom, Primate of Hungary. The marriage was childless.

Franz’s father Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II and Maria Ludovika’s father were brothers. Franz became Holy Roman Emperor at age 24 in 1792 after the two-year reign of his father. Holy Roman Emperor Franz II feared that Napoleon could take over his personal lands within the Holy Roman Empire, so in 1804 he proclaimed himself Emperor Franz I of Austria. Two years later, after Napoleon’s victory at the Battle of Austerlitz, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved. Lands that had been held by the Holy Roman Emperor were given to Napoleon’s allies creating the Kingdom of Bavaria, the Kingdom of Württemberg, and the Grand Duchy of Baden.

The French had protested Franz’s marriage to Maria Ludovika and there were fears in Vienna that the new Empress’ hatred of Napoleon could cause Austria to go back to war. In 1809, Austria did attack France again, hoping to gain an advantage over Napoleon because of France’s involvement in the Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal. Austria was again defeated, and this time Franz was forced to ally himself with Napoleon. He had to cede territory to the French Empire, join the Continental System, and marry his eldest daughter Marie-Louise to Napoleon, who had divorced his first wife Joséphine because she had failed to produce an heir. Maria Ludovika, who was only four years older than her stepdaughter, was vehemently against the marriage. After the final defeat of Napoleon, Franz and Maria Ludovika hosted the Congress of Vienna from September 1814 to June 1815. The objective of the Congress was to provide a long-term peace plan for Europe by settling critical issues arising from the Napoleonic Wars.

Maria Ludovika, Empress of Austria; Credit – Wikipedia

During the years of the Napoleonic conflicts, Maria Ludovika was ill with tuberculosis. After the Congress of Vienna, she visited her former home in Modena, now liberated, and other Italian cities with her husband. Maria Ludovika was now very ill and weak and told her mother that she wanted to die. In March 1816, she was in Verona, too ill to continue her travels. Her physician who was traveling with her, called in numerous famous doctors, but to no avail. On April 7, 1816, 28-year-old Maria Ludovika died at the Palazzo Canossa in Verona, Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, now in Italy, with her husband at her bedside. Maria Ludovika was buried at the Capuchin Church in the Imperial Crypt in the Franzensgruft (Franz’s Vault) in Vienna, Austria, where her husband and his three other wives are also buried.

Tomb of Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este; Credit – Wikipedia

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Austria Resources at Unofficial Royalty