, mother =

Elisabeth Farnese Elisabeth Farnese ( Italian: ''Elisabetta Farnese'', Spanish: ''Isabel Farnesio''; 25 October 169211 July 1766) was Queen of Spain by marriage to King Philip V. She exerted great influence over Spain's foreign policy and was the ''de facto'' r ...

, birth_date = , birth_place =

Alcázar of Seville The Royal Alcázars of Seville ( es, Reales Alcázares de Sevilla), historically known as al-Qasr al-Muriq (, ''The Verdant Palace'') and commonly known as the Alcázar of Seville (), is a royal palace in Seville, Spain, built for the Christian ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

, death_date = , death_place =

Castle of Moncalieri The Castle of Moncalieri is a palace in Moncalieri (Metropolitan City of Turin), Piedmont, in northern Italy. It is one of the Residences of the Royal House of Savoy listed by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites in 1997. History The first structu ...

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 ...

Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...

, burial_date = September 1785 , burial_place = Basilica of Superga, Turin Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain (María Antonia Fernanda; 17 November 1729 – 19 September 1785) was

Queen of Sardinia This is a list of consorts of the Savoyard monarchs. Countess of Savoy, 1003–1416 Duchess of Savoy, 1416–1713 ;As courtesy title Queen of Sardinia, 1720–1861 Between 1859 and 1861 the Kingdom of Sardinia incorporated the majo ...

by marriage to

Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia Victor Amadeus III (Vittorio Amadeo Maria; 26 June 1726 – 16 October 1796) was King of Sardinia from 1773 to his death. Although he was politically conservative, he carried out numerous administrative reforms until he declared war on Revolu ...

. She was the youngest daughter of

Philip V of Spain Philip V ( es, Felipe; 19 December 1683 – 9 July 1746) was King of Spain from 1 November 1700 to 14 January 1724, and again from 6 September 1724 to his death in 1746. His total reign of 45 years is the longest in the history of the Spanish mo ...

and

. She was the mother of the last three mainline Kings of Sardinia.

Life

Early years

Detail of the 1743 portrait of the Family of Philip V of Spain, (María Teresa Rafaela and María Antonia Fernanda) L M van Loo

She was born at the Royal Alcázar of Seville in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Penins ...

and was the youngest daughter of

and of his second wife

. She was born in Seville during the signing of the

Treaty of Seville The Treaty of Seville was signed on 9 November, 1729 between Britain, France, and Spain, formally ending the 1727–1729 Anglo-Spanish War; the Dutch Republic joined the Treaty on 29 November. However, the Treaty failed to resolve underlying t ...

which ended the Anglo-Spanish War. She spent her infancy in the city of her birth before moving to

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

in 1733. She was baptised with the names ''María Antonia'' along with ''Fernanda'' in honour of her half brother, then the heir to the throne. Variations in her name range from "Antonia Fernanda" and "Antonietta Ferdinanda". As a daughter of the

King of Spain , coatofarms = File:Coat_of_Arms_of_Spanish_Monarch.svg , coatofarms_article = Coat of arms of the King of Spain , image = Felipe_VI_in_2020_(cropped).jpg , incumbent = Felipe VI , incumbentsince = 19 Ju ...

, she held the title of Infanta of Spain and style of Royal Highness. In a double marriage plan she would marry Louis, Dauphin of France, and her brother, Infante Philip, would marry the Dauphin's sister

Louise Élisabeth of France es, María Luisa Isabel de Borbón it, Maria Luisa Elisabetta di Francia , spouse = , issue = Isabella, Archduchess Joseph of Austria-Tuscany Ferdinand I, Duke of Parma Maria Luisa, Queen of Spain , house = Bourbon , fat ...

. Her mother consented to the latter union but insisted on waiting for Maria Antonia Ferdinanda to reach a more mature age. The Infanta's hand was also sought by the Electoral Prince of Saxony. The marriage between Infante Philip and Louise Élisabeth occurred in 1739 and eventually her older sister Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela married the Dauphin in 1745. However, upon the death of Maria Teresa Rafaela in 1746

Ferdinand VI , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Philip V of Spain , mother = Maria Luisa of Savoy , birth_date = 23 September 1713 , birth_place = Royal Alcazar of Madrid, Madrid, Spain , death_date = , death_place = Villavici ...

tried to engage Maria Antonia Fernandina to the Dauphin but the idea was snubbed by

Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...

as "

incest Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity ( marriage or stepfamily), ado ...

". Instead he chose Maria Josepha of Saxony.

Duchess of Savoy

Having married by proxy in

on 12 April 1750 she was married in person at Oulx on 31 May 1750 to Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, the eldest son of Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia and his late wife

Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg Princess Polyxena of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg (Polyxena Christina Johanna; 21 September 1706 – 13 January 1735) was the second wife of Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont whom she married in 1724. The mother of the future Victor Amadeus II ...

. The marriage had been arranged by Maria Antonia Ferdinanda's half brother, Ferdinand VI and was used to strengthen relations between

and

as the two courts had fought on opposing sides during the

War of the Austrian Succession The War of the Austrian Succession () was a European conflict that took place between 1740 and 1748. Fought primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italy, the Atlantic and Mediterranean, related conflicts included King George ...

. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ended the war.Morselli. Mario: ''Amedeo Avogadro, a scientific biography'', Springer, 1984, p 6 As a wedding gift, the apartments of the new Duchess of Savoy at the

Royal Palace of Turin The Royal Palace of Turin ( it, Palazzo Reale di Torino) is a historic palace of the House of Savoy in the city of Turin in Northern Italy. It was originally built in the 16th century and was later modernized by Christine Marie of France (1606–1 ...

were remodelled by the architect Benedetto Alfieri. Maria Antonia Ferdinanda was given a

dowry A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment ...

of 3,500,000 Piedmontese Lires as well as Spanish possessions in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

. In Italy she was known as ''Maria Antonietta Ferdinanda''. Operas by

Baldassare Galuppi Baldassare Galuppi (18 October 17063 January 1785) was an Italian composer, born on the island of Burano in the Venetian Republic. He belonged to a generation of composers, including Johann Adolph Hasse, Giovanni Battista Sammartini, and C.&nbs ...

were specially composed for her marriage to the Duke of Savoy. The match was seen as unpopular, but the two remained close until her death. From marriage until her husband's accession she was styled as the Duchess of Savoy. The couple surrounded themselves with modern thinkers and various politicians. The first lady of the land, she brought a rigid

etiquette Etiquette () is the set of norms of personal behaviour in polite society, usually occurring in the form of an ethical code of the expected and accepted social behaviours that accord with the conventions and norms observed and practised by a ...

from her native Spain to the court of Savoy. She was very religious and was said to have a cold, shy personality.Artemont. Louis Leopold d' :''A sister of Louis XVI, Marie Clotilde of France, Queen of Sardinia (1759–1802), 1911, p. 111 She was the mother of twelve children, three of whom died in childhood. Two of her children had issue.

Queen of Sardinia

At the death of her father-in-law Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia in 1773, her husband succeeded him as Victor Amadeus III. She was the first queen of Sardinia in over thirty years since the death of Elisabeth Therese of Lorraine in 1741. Her oldest son Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont married Marie Clotilde of France, sister of

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

in 1775. Marie Clotilde and Maria Antonia Ferdinanda would become very close. Queen Maria Antonia Ferdinanda died in September 1785 at the

.Bertolotti. Davide:''Istoria della R. Casa di Savoia'', Antonio Fontana, 1830, p. 289 She was buried at the Royal Basilica of Superga. Her husband outlived her by eleven years.

Issue

Portrait of the family of the Duke of Savoy by Giuseppe Duprà circa 1760

# King Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia (24 May 1751 – 6 October 1819) married Princess Marie Clotilde of France in 1773, no issue. # Princess Maria Elisabetta Carlotta of Savoy (16 July 1752 – 17 April 1753) died in infancy. # Princess Marie Joséphine of Savoy (2 September 1753 – 13 November 1810) married Louis XVIII, King of France in 1771, no issue. # Prince Amadeus Alexander of Savoy (5 October 1754 – 29 April 1755) died in infancy. #

Princess Maria Theresa of Savoy Maria Theresa of Savoy (french: Marie Thérèse de Savoie; 31 January 1756 – 2 June 1805) was a French princess by marriage to Charles Philippe, Count of Artois; he being the grandson of Louis XV of France, and younger brother of the future Lou ...

(31 January 1756 – 2 June 1805) married Charles X, King of France in 1773, had issue. # Princess Maria Anna of Savoy (17 December 1757 – 11 October 1824) married Prince Benedetto of Savoy in 1775, no issue. # King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia(24 July 1759 – 10 January 1824) married Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este in 1789, had issue. # Maria Cristina Ferdinanda of Savoy (21 November 1760 – 19 May 1768), died in childhood. # Prince Maurizio of Savoy, Duke of Montferrat (13 December 1762 – 1 September 1799) died unmarried of malaria. #

Princess Maria Carolina of Savoy Maria Carolina of Savoy (Maria Carolina Antonietta Adelaide; 17 January 1764 – 28 December 1782) was a Princess of Savoy from her birth. She was the youngest daughter of the future Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia and married in 1781 to the E ...

(17 January 1764 – 28 December 1782) married Anthony, Electoral Prince of Saxony in 1781, no issue. # King Charles Felix of Sardinia (6 April 1765 – 27 April 1831) married Princess Maria Cristina of Naples and Sicily in 1807, no issue. # Prince Giuseppe of Savoy, Count of Asti (5 October 1766 – 29 October 1802) died unmarried of malaria.

Ancestors

References

External links

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Maria Antonia Of Spain Sardinian queens consort Spanish infantas 1729 births 1785 deaths Duchesses of Savoy Princesses of Savoy House of Bourbon (Spain) House of Bourbon Italian royalty People from Seville Burials at the Basilica of Superga 18th-century Spanish women Daughters of kings