Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria

Maria Amalia of Austria
Duchess consort of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla
Tenure	1769 - 1802
Spouse	Ferdinand, Duke of Parma
Issue
Princess Caroline of Parma Louis of Etruria Princess Marie-Antoinette of Parma
House	House of Habsburg-Lorraine
Father	Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother	Maria Theresa of Austria
Born	26 February 1746(1746-02-26) Vienna, Austria
Died	18 June 1804 (aged 58) Prague, modern day Czech Republic

Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria (26 February 1746 – 18 June 1804) was the Duchess of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla by marriage. Maria Amalia was a daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I. She was thus younger sister to Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor and older sister to Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples and Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.

Archduchess of Austria

She was the eighth child of Maria Theresa of Austria and Emperor Francis Stephen. Raised in the Habsburg Viennese court, Maria Amalia was in her youth a very popular socialite and considered quite beautiful, but she grew up in the shadow of her more illustrious siblings. Her mother doted on her brother, the future Emperor Joseph II, and her older daughters. Her mother described Amalia as lively and haughty. Maria Theresa constantly compared Maria Amalia to her elder sisters, which resulted in a strained relationship between mother and daughter for the rest of their lives. She had a talent in painting and one of her works, St. Therese and the child Jesus, still exists today in a private collection. She was also musically talented (a coloratura soprano) and the court poet in Vienna waxed poetic rapture about her enchanting voice and her angelic figure.

When she was 22 years old, Maria Amalia wanted to marry the young, handsome and intelligent Prince Charles of Zweibrücken, who frequented the Court of Vienna and had asked for her hand in marriage. However Maria Theresa and her minister Kauntiz both considered that union as not being good enough for an archduchess, the prince was to rule over the duchy of Zweibrucken and although he had prospects of inheriting both Bavaria and the Palatinate from his distant cousins, his claims to said domains were not guaranteed. Moreover, Austria had plans to acquire Bavaria when the Elector, Maximilian III Joseph, died and as Charles could inherit it from his distant Wittelsbach cousin (after Clement, Duke of Bavaria and Charles Theodore of the Palatinate, who both had no direct heirs), it was decided that the marriage of an archduchess to said prince would be bad politics, considering their plans for Bavaria later on. Moreover, they already had plans of marrying Maria Amalia to either the King of Naples or the Duke of Parma, after the death of Archduchess Maria Josepha, to strengthen Bourbon ties and Austrian influence in Italy. Charles then left Vienna permanently embittered against Maria Theresa and Austria.

Marriage

Against her will, Amalia was married to Ferdinand of Parma (1751 - 1802), a grandson to Louis XV of France by his favourite daughter Princess Louise-Élisabeth. He was also a grandson to Philip V of Spain. The marriage was also supported by the future Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, whose first beloved wife had been Ferdinand's sister, Isabella Maria of Parma.

The Archduchess's marriage to the Duke of Parma was part of a complicated series of contracts that married off Maria Theresa's daughters to the King of Naples and Sicily and the Dauphin of France. All three sons-in-law were members of the House of Bourbon.

Children

She and Ferdinand had nine children:

• Princess Caroline of Parma (22 November 1770 – 1 March 1804). Married Prince Maximilian of Saxony and was the mother of King Frederick Augustus II and King Johann I of Saxony.
• King Louis I of Etruria (5 August 1773 – 27 May 1803). The first of only two kings of Etruria. Married his first cousin, Maria Louisa of Spain, and created an Infante of Spain in 1795.
• Princess Marie-Antoinette of Parma (28 November 1774 – 20 February 1841), joined the religious order in 1802 and became an Ursuline abbess.
• Princess Charlotte Maria of Parma (7 September 1777 – 5 April 1813), joined the religious order in 1798 and became a Dominican prioress.
• Prince Philip Maria of Parma (22 March 1783 – 2 July 1786), died in childhood.
• Princess Antoniette Louise of Parma (21 October 1784), died in infancy.
• Princess Marie Louise (Aloysia) of Parma (17 April 1787 – 22 November 1789), died in childhood.
• Stillborn Daughter, twin (21 May 1789)
• Stillborn Son, twin (21 May 1789)

Duchess of Parma

She left Austria on 1 July 1769, accompanied by her brother, Joseph II, and married Ferdinand on 19 July, at the Ducal Palace of Colorno. Once in Parma, Maria Amalia started to interfere in the politics of the country, initially with the complete support and advice of her mother, Maria Theresa. The Empress believed that her daughter needed to be active in politics, but only as a support to Ferdinand. Still, there is evidence that Maria Theresa indeed intended to turn Parma to Austrian influence so it can also be said that Amalia only fulfilled her mother's wishes, albeit methods that her mother did not approve of.

The court of Parma received financial support and political aid from France and Spain, both of which wanted to control the duchy. However, the new duchess wanted to substitute Austrian influence to the existing Franco-Spanish one. Her husband at that time was not interested to rule the duchy and preferred his private amusements. Given her natural taste for power and dominating nature, Maria Amalia began to meddle in political matters. The minister Du Tillot had many enemies and many people in Parma were looking at the duchess to effect a change in ministers. Maria Amalia and Du Tillot also did not get along. Two years after her arrival in Parma, Maria Amalia secured the dismissal of Du Tillot, her husband's minister, and replaced him by a Spanish appointee, Jose del Llano, who was highly recommended by Charles III of Spain. Contrary to popular belief, Duke Ferdinand also did not like Du Tillot and the two already had strained relations even before his wife reached Parma. A letter of Louis XV to his grandson dated May 1769 attests to this, wherein he counseled his grandson not to despise the minister who served his parents well; moreover, there was no one to replace him, said the French king. It is worthy to note that although ruled by a Spanish Bourbon, Parma was a sovereign duchy and Ferdinand, at this point, also rebelled to all that he had been forced to accept but were never in line with his own convictions.

Maria Amalia and her husband

Ferdinand would dismiss Del Llano in 1772 and replace him with his own minister of choice. It is suspected that Amalia was behind the dismissal as well but there is no proof of that. By this point, Austria, France and Spain would break diplomatic ties with Parma. Relations were restored at the birth of Ferdinand and Amalia's heir, Louis, the following year. France and Spain took advantage of said reconciliation to settle what they deemed as the disorders in the duchy but both countries would never have the same influence in the duchy again in the remaining years of Duke Ferdinand's reign.

Amalia would remain largely estranged from her mother, except for a brief reconciliation in 1773 when her son was born, despite the latter's repeated efforts at reconciliation. The duchess resisted her mother's efforts to control her from afar. When her sister Archduchess Marie Christine, known to the family as Marie or Mimi, visited Parma in 1775, she reported to their mother that Amalia lost much of her beauty and glamour and was also less gay and discriminating. Still, Mimi was known for her sharp tongue, criticisms, and a penchant for creating trouble for her siblings. However strained her relations was with her daughter, Maria Theresa commissioned a portrait of her grandchildren in Parma by Johann Zoffany. Later on, Amalia and her husband would get along much better. Despite the early scandals of her marriage and eccentricities, her subjects generally regarded her well for she was said to have a good heart and was courageous.

Maria Amalia was in touch with her sisters, Queen Marie Antoinette of France and Queen Marie Caroline of Naples and Sicily for most of their married lives. The three sisters exchanged letters, portraits and gifts. In fact, one of Marie Antoinette's last letters during her imprisonment was written to her sister Maria Amalia and had to be sent secretly. Maria Amalia also named her second daughter after Marie Antoinette. After Marie Antoinette and her husband were executed, Maria Amalia formed a deep hatred for France and the revolutionists.

When Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Italy and her husband died, Maria Amalia was appointed as Head of the Regency Council in Parma by the dying Ferdinand (suspected to be poisoned) but the regency lasted only a few days. On 22 October 1802 the French expelled her from Parma and she established her residence in Prague, particularly at Prague Castle, where she died in 1804. She was the only child of Maria Theresa who lived at Prague Castle. Her body was buried at the royal crypt of the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague while her heart was taken to Vienna and placed inside an urn (number 33) at the family's Herzgruft (heart crypt).

Ancestry

External links

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