Maria Teresa of Savoy (Maria Teresa Fernanda Felicitas Gaetana Pia; 19 September 1803 – 16 July 1879) was Duchess consort of Parma and Piacenza by marriage to

Charles II, Duke of Parma Charles Louis ( it, Carlo Ludovico; 22 December 1799 – 16 April 1883) was King of Etruria (1803–1807; reigned as Louis II), Duke of Lucca (1824–1847; reigned as Charles I), and Duke of Parma (1847–1849; reigned as Charles II). He was the ...

(Duke Charles I of Lucca).

Early life

Maria Teresa was born in

Palazzo Colonna The Palazzo Colonna () is a palatial block of buildings in central Rome, Italy, at the base of the Quirinal Hill, and adjacent to the church of Santi Apostoli. It is built in part over the ruins of an old Roman serapeum, and it has belonged to t ...

in Rome, the daughter of King

Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia Victor Emmanuel I (Vittorio Emanuele; 24 July 1759 – 10 January 1824) was the Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia (1802–1821). Biography Victor Emmanuel was the second son of King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia and Maria Antonia Ferdinanda o ...

and of his wife, Archduchess Maria Teresa of Austria-Este. She had a twin sister Maria Anna. The two princesses were baptised by Pope

Pius VII Pope Pius VII ( it, Pio VII; born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti; 14 August 1742 – 20 August 1823), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 14 March 1800 to his death in August 1823. Chiaramonti was also a m ...

. Their godparents were their maternal grandparents,

Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este Archduke (feminine: Archduchess; German: ''Erzherzog'', feminine form: ''Erzherzogin'') was the title borne from 1358 by the Habsburg rulers of the Archduchy of Austria, and later by all senior members of that dynasty. It denotes a rank within ...

and his wife

Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d'Este Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial *170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, da ...

. In the

Museo di Roma The Museo di Roma is a museum in Rome, Italy, part of the network of Roman civic museums. The museum was founded in the Fascist era with the aim of documenting the local history and traditions of the "old Rome" that was rapidly disappearing, bu ...

can be seen a painting of the baptism. Maria Teresa spent the majority of her childhood in

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

on the island of

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

, where her family had taken refuge from the armies of

Napoleon I of France Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

. In 1814 her father was restored to rule in

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

and the family returned to

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

. She had hoped to marry her cousin

Charles Albert of Savoy Charles Albert (; 2 October 1798 – 28 July 1849) was the King of Sardinia from 27 April 1831 until 23 March 1849. His name is bound up with the first Italian constitution, the Albertine Statute, and with the First Italian War of Independen ...

who in 1817 married Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, a daughter of the Duke of Tuscany.

Marriage

On 5 September 1820, in

Lucca Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957. Lucca is known as one o ...

, Maria Teresa married Charles Louis, Prince of Lucca. They had two children: * ''Luisa'' Francesca di Paola Teresa Maria Anna Clothilde Beatrice (29 October 1821 – 8 September 1823). * ''Carlo'' Giuseppe Maria Vittorio Baldasarre, Duke of Parma (14 January 1823 – 27 March 1854). Maria Teresa was beautiful, tall, regal with a noble and melancholic expression. Charles Louis, Prince of Lucca was handsome and they were said to be the best looking royal couple of their time. However they were mismatched.Sainz de Medrano, ''Changing Thrones: Duke Carlo of Parma'', p. 99 She was a deeply religious woman committed to her Catholic faith. Charles Louis lived largely for his own pleasure often ignoring his governmental responsibilities. They lived most of their married life apart from each other. "Even if there was no love", Charles Louis later commented, "there was respect". On 13 March 1824, Charles Louis' mother died, and he succeeded her as Duke Charles I of Lucca; Maria Teresa became ''Duchess of Lucca''. Neglected by her husband who had numerous affairs, she turned increasingly towards religion and grew disdainful of court life and entertainments, to which her husband was attached. He sometimes dragged her in his travels and in 1829 she accompanied him visiting the court of Saxony. Their relationship, cold from the beginning, deteriorated quickly with time.

Later life

Eventually she retired completely from the court of Lucca, settling permanently first in Villa di Marlia and later to her villa at Pianore, where surrounded by priest and nuns, she dedicated her life to religion. After 1840 she lived in complete religious seclusion in Pianore.Sainz de Medrano, ''Changing Thrones: Duke Carlo of Parma'', p. 100 She was very attached to her own Sardinian family and lived a life dedicated to religion. She surrounded herself by her confessor and her homeopathic doctors. Her husband visited her but he commented that her weak intellect and lack of sensitivity "would enable her to live a century ". She had little influence over their son who, in 1845, married princess Louise Marie Thérèse d'Artois, a daughter of the Duke of Berry and the only sister of the French legitimate pretender the Count of Chambord. On 17 December 1847, the

Empress Marie Louise french: Marie-Louise-Léopoldine-Françoise-Thérèse-Josèphe-Lucie it, Maria Luigia Leopoldina Francesca Teresa Giuseppa Lucia , house = Habsburg-Lorraine , father = Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor , mother = Maria Theresa of ...

died, and, in accordance with the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

, Charles exchanged the duchy of Lucca for that of Parma, becoming Duke Charles II of Parma; Maria Teresa became ''Duchess of Parma'' but only for few months. The

revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

broke out in March 1848. In March 1849 Charles abdicated as duke of Parma and was succeeded by their son, Charles III. Maria Teresa lived mostly at her villa at

Viareggio Viareggio () is a city and ''comune'' in northern Tuscany, Italy, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. With a population of over 62,000, it is the second largest city within the province of Lucca, after Lucca. It is known as a seaside resort as ...

, particularly after the assassination of her son in 1854. There she built a chapel as a memorial for her son. Later she lived in a villa in San Martino in Vignale on the hills just north of

served only by her confessor and the administrator of the property. The villa is still called "Tenuta Maria Teresa" in her honor. There she died in 1879 as a result of cerebral arteriosclerosis. She was buried in the Verano cemetery in Rome, dressed in the habit of the Third Order of St. Dominic.

Ancestry

Notes

Bibliography

* Mateos Sainz de Medrano. Ricardo. ''Changing Thrones: Duke Carlo II of Parma''. Published in Royalty History Digest, Vol 3, N 1. July 1993.

External links

*
''Dizionario biografico degli Parmigiani
' *
Tenuta Maria Teresa Duchessa di Lucca
' , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Maria Teresa Of Savoy, Princess 1803 births 1879 deaths Nobility from Rome 19th-century Italian women Nobility from the Republic of Lucca Princesses of Bourbon-Parma Duchesses of Parma Princesses of Savoy Italian twins Daughters of kings