Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este

Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este
Empress consort of Austria
Queen consort of Hungary and Bohemia
Tenure 6 January 1808 – 7 April 1816
Queen consort of Lombardy–Venetia
Tenure 9 June 1815 – 7 April 1816
Born (1787-12-14)14 December 1787
Monza, Duchy of Milan
Died 7 April 1816(1816-04-07) (aged 28)
Verona, Lombardy-Venetia
Spouse Francis I of Austria
House Austria-Este
Father Ferdinand I, Archduke of Austria-Este
Mother Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d'Este
Religion Roman Catholicism

Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este, also known as Maria Ludovika of Modena, (German: Maria Ludovika Beatrix von Modena; 14 December 1787 – 7 April 1816) was the daughter of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este (1754–1806) and his wife, Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d'Este (1750–1829). She was a member of the House of Austria-Este, a branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.

Biography

Maria Ludovika was born in Monza, but her family fled from Italy to Austria when Northern Italy was conquered by Napoleon in 1796. This caused her a hostility for Napoleon. In Austria, the Emperor fell in love with her during his visits to her mother.

On 6 January 1808 she married her first cousin Francis I, Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia. They had no children.

She, as leader of the war party in Austria,[1] was a great enemy of the French Emperor Napoleon I of France and therefore also in opposition to the Austrian foreign minister Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich. The French had protested against the marriage because of her political views. She had considerable influence on her husband, and her talent at ruling marvelled many officials, including the Prussian minister who considered her the ruling genius at court. Maria Ludovika was also immensely popular with her subjects who hailed her a second Maria Theresa. Together with her brother-in-law Archduke Johann, she made the war effort popular.[2][3] During her coronation in Pressburg, she impressed the Hungarians so much that they declared large financial and military support for the monarchy if needed.[4] But the Emperor hesitated and Archduke Karl who had extensive control over military matters advised caution. Only the effects of the Spanish revolt in 1808 allowed the war party to prevail.[5]

Metternich showed her private correspondence with her relatives to her husband, the Emperor Francis I, in the hope that it would miscredit her. She was conservative in her views, suspicious of peasant revolts,[6] but also patriotic towards her adopted land,[3] and genuinely disturbed by atrocities that Napoleon's armies created in Spain.[7] She supported the war against Napoleonic France in 1808. From this year, her health deteriorated. She was opposed to the marriage between Napoleon and her step-daughter Marie Louise in 1809. In 1812, she was a reluctant guest to the assembly of German monarchs gathered by Napoleon to celebrate his war against Russia.

She was the hostess of the Vienna congress in 1815. When Napoleon was finally defeated she traveled at the end of the year 1815 to her home country, North Italy, but died of tuberculosis in Verona. She was only 28 years old.[8] She is buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.

The Ludovica Military Academy in Budapest established in 1808 was named after Maria Ludovika who contributed 50,000 Forint for its upkeep from the funds of the Honours list proclaimed at the Coronation in St. Martin's Cathedral, in Pressburg.

Goethe admired Maria Ludovika greatly, and was tortured because he promised never to pay a public tribute to her nor mention her name in public.[9]

Titles and styles

Ancestry

Notes

  1. ↑ Musulin, Stella (1975). Vienna in the Age of Metternich: From Napoleon to Revolution, 1805-1848. Westview Press. p. 56. ISBN 9780891585015.
  2. ↑ Langsam, Walter Consuelo (1930). The Napoleonic Wars and German Nationalism in Austria, Issue 324. Columbia University Press. p. 34.
  3. 1 2 Herold, J. Christopher (2016). Napoleon. New Word City. ISBN 9781612308623.
  4. ↑ Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Historische Kommission (1990). Neue deutsche Biographie: Maly-Melanchthon. Duncker & Humblot. p. 192. ISBN 9783428001811.
  5. ↑ Esdaile, Charles J. (2014). Wars of Napoleon,The. Routledge. p. 30. ISBN 9781317899181.
  6. ↑ Englund, Steven (May 11, 2010). Napoleon: A Political Life. Simon and Schuster,. ISBN 9781439131077.
  7. ↑ Dwyer, Philip (2013). Citizen Emperor: Napoleon in Power 1799-1815. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781408837818.
  8. ↑ Brigitte Hamann: Die Habsburger. 1988, p. 333f.
  9. ↑ Mommsen, Katharina (2014). Goethe and the Poets of Arabia. Boydell & Brewer. p. 262. ISBN 9781571139085.
Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este
Cadet branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine
Born: 14 December 1787 Died: 7 April 1816
German royalty
Preceded by
Maria Teresa of the Two Sicilies		 Empress of Austria
1808–1816 		Succeeded by
Caroline Augusta of Bavaria
Queen consort of Hungary and Bohemia1
1808–1816
Notes and references
1. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/216736/Francis-II
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.