Luisa Maria von Neapel-Sizilien

Luise Maria Amalia Theresia of Bourbon-Sicily was born on 27 July 1773 at the Royal Palace of Caserta near Naples. She was the second-oldest daughter of Ferdinand IV, King of Naples and Sicily, and his wife, Maria Carolina of Austria. She therefore descended from two prominent European dynasties: her father belonged to the House of Bourbon, while her mother was a daughter of Emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa. Luise Maria grew up with seventeen siblings. They included Maria Theresa, the future wife of Emperor Francis II, and Maria Amalia, who became Queen of the French, as well as several future kings and queens of Europe. Many of her siblings died in childhood. On 15 August 1790, Luise Maria was married by proxy in Naples to Archduke Ferdinand Joseph Johann of Austria-Tuscany. He was the second son of Emperor Leopold II and became Grand Duke of Tuscany as Ferdinand III that same year. The ceremonial wedding took place in Vienna on 19 September 1790. Through this marriage, Luise Maria became Grand Duchess of Tuscany and a link between the Bourbon and Habsburg ruling houses. Her marriage to Ferdinand was a dynastic union between close relatives, but it also shaped the future of the Tuscan branch of the family. The couple had six children, three of whom reached adulthood. Their older children, Carolina Ferdinanda and Archduke Francis Leopold, died in childhood. Their son Leopold later became Grand Duke of Tuscany as Leopold II. Their daughter Maria Theresa Franziska married Charles Albert, the future king of Sardinia-Piedmont. Another daughter, Maria Luisa Josepha, also survived childhood. Their sixth child was stillborn in 1802. Luise’s life was increasingly shaped by the political upheavals of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1799, the troops of the French general Bonaparte entered Florence and occupied the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The grand-ducal family was forced to flee and found refuge in Austria with Ferdinand’s relatives. During the years of exile, Luise Maria gave birth to three of her children. At that time, her family lived under uncertain political conditions, as the future of Tuscan rule depended on peace treaties and Napoleon’s decisions. Under the Peace of Lunéville and the Treaty of Aranjuez, Ferdinand III lost his title as Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1801. Bonaparte incorporated the country into the French-dependent Kingdom of Etruria. Ferdinand was thus forced to relinquish his rule, while the family continued to live away from its former residence. Only after the end of the Napoleonic Wars was Ferdinand able to return to the Tuscan throne in 1814. Luise Maria died in Vienna on 19 September 1802, shortly after giving birth to her last child. She succumbed to puerperal fever at the age of twenty-nine. Her death occurred only a few months before Ferdinand received the secularized possessions of the Archbishopric of Salzburg as compensation under the Treaty of Paris of 26 December 1802. The political changes that had shaped her family therefore continued immediately after her death. Nine years after Luise’s death, Ferdinand married again in 1821. His second wife was Maria Ferdinanda of Saxony, who was connected to the family as the sister-in-law of his son Leopold. This marriage produced no children. Through Luise Maria and Ferdinand, their descendants established the Tuscan side branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, which continued to play an important role in European dynastic history through the rule of their son Leopold II and their daughter’s connections to the rulers of Sardinia-Piedmont.