Maria Klementine von Österreich

Maria Klementine Josepha Johanna Fidelis of Austria, also known as Maria Klementine of Habsburg-Lorraine, was born on April 24, 1777, at Villa Poggio Imperiale near Florence. An archduchess from the House of Habsburg, she was the tenth child of Leopold II, later Holy Roman Emperor, and his Spanish wife, Maria Ludovika. At the time, her parents lived in Florence as Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Tuscany. Their marriage was considered happy, and their children were raised comparatively freely, away from the strict formalities of court life. The family often made excursions into the surrounding countryside and to the coast. Maria Klementine had two older sisters, Maria Theresia and Maria Anna, and several brothers, including Franz, Ferdinand, Karl, Alexander Leopold, Maximilian, and Joseph. Another brother had died in infancy before her birth. After Maria Klementine was born, the family grew by six more children. She was named in honor of her great-uncle Clemens Wenzeslaus of Saxony, the last Elector of Trier, who was also one of her godfathers. In 1790, after the death of his childless brother, Maria Klementine’s father ascended the throne of the Holy Roman Empire and took the name Leopold II. The family then moved to Vienna. There, Maria Klementine’s marriage to Franz, the heir to the thrones of Naples and Sicily, was soon arranged. The two were cousins. Their marriage contract was signed in Vienna on September 19, 1790, as part of a broader political plan to strengthen relations between the Viennese court and the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily. Shortly beforehand, Maria Klementine’s older brothers Franz and Ferdinand had married Neapolitan princesses. Her own wedding, however, was initially postponed, and she continued to live with her parents. Leopold II died after only two years on the throne, when Maria Klementine was not yet fifteen. Her mother survived him by just two months. Maria Klementine’s eldest brother succeeded him as Franz II. At the same time, France and the Habsburgs began military confrontations in the Austrian Netherlands. The resulting War of the First Coalition lasted five years, and Italy was a major theater of war for much of that period. Following the Peace of Leoben between Austria and France in April 1797, Maria Klementine was able to travel to her future husband. Two months later, she sailed from Trieste to the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily. She was described as kind, educated, and dignified. Her face bore traces of smallpox, but this did not significantly detract from her appearance. On June 26, 1797, at the age of twenty, she married the same-aged Franz in Foggia. He held the title of Duke of Calabria and was the son of Ferdinand, the reigning King of Naples and Sicily, and the Austrian archduchess Maria Karolina. The wedding was simple and took place without elaborate celebrations. Her mother-in-law, Maria Karolina, who was also her aunt, initially welcomed the young woman warmly. She wrote that Franz was passionately in love with Maria Klementine and that she loved him in return. Nevertheless, Maria Klementine was unhappy away from home. She appeared withdrawn, troubled, and largely uninterested in her new surroundings. Her husband’s affection consoled her, and even in public the couple behaved like people deeply in love. They were also united by their shared dislike of court life and their enjoyment of games, walks, and informal conversation. Since Maria Klementine was regarded as the more educated and intelligent of the two, she apparently played the more dominant role in the marriage. About six months after the wedding, she became pregnant. In November 1798, she gave birth to a daughter, Maria Karolina. That same month, Naples attacked the Roman Republic, contrary to the terms of the 1796 Treaty of Paris. The campaign went badly, and at the end of December the royal family was forced to flee to Sicily aboard an English ship. In Palermo, Maria Klementine and Franz devoted themselves chiefly to family life and time in the countryside, avoiding political affairs. They lived at Villa Spedaletto, a modest single-story building on a hill at the edge of the Solanto plain, surrounded by olive groves. After the birth of their son, Ferdinand Franz, in 1800, Maria Klementine asked the king to spare the life of the condemned aristocrat Luisa Sanfelice. The king refused to grant the pardon. Their son died after only ten months. In 1801, the family returned to Naples. Maria Klementine soon became ill with a lung disease, probably tuberculosis, and died on November 15, 1801. She was buried in the Basilica of Santa Chiara in Naples. Only ten days after her death, Franz expressed a wish to marry again, saying that single life oppressed him. He chose his cousin Maria Isabella of Spain. His father supported the plan, while Maria Karolina, who had not been consulted, was deeply distressed by the haste and the lack of an appropriate period of mourning. Nevertheless, five months later Franz married the twelve-year-old Spanish infanta. He survived Maria Klementine by twenty-nine years and ascended the throne of the Two Sicilies as Franz I in 1825. Maria Klementine had two children. Her daughter Maria Karolina later married the French prince Charles Ferdinand d’Artois and, after his death, the Italian duke Ettore Carlo Lucchesi-Palli. She had nine children from the two marriages. Her son Ferdinand Franz died in infancy in 1801. Maria Klementine belonged to the Order of the Starry Cross. She also appears in Alexandre Dumas’s 1864 novel “La San-Felice” and in Italian film and television productions about Luisa Sanfelice.