, house = Wettin , father = Maximilian, Crown Prince of Saxony , mother = Princess Carolina of Parma , birth_date = , birth_place =

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

, death_date = , death_place =

Brandýs nad Labem-Stará Boleslav Brandýs nad Labem-Stará Boleslav (; german: Brandeis-Altbunzlau) is an administratively united pair of towns in Prague-East District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 19,000 inhabitants and it is the second larges ...

, place of burial = Imperial Crypt , religion = Roman Catholicism } Princess Maria Ferdinanda of Saxony (27 April 1796 – 3 January 1865) was a daughter of Maximilian, Crown Prince of Saxony and his first wife Princess Carolina of Parma. She was by marriage

Grand Duchess of Tuscany The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was founded in 1569. It succeeded the Duchy of Florence. The grand duchy was initially ruled by the House of Medici, until their extinction in 1737. The grand duchy passed to the House of Lorraine, and then, to its cad ...

from 1821 to 1824.

Early life and family

Maria Ferdinanda was born to Maximilian, Crown Prince of Saxony and his first wife Princess Caroline of Parma on 27 April 1796. She was their second eldest daughter. As her mother died in 1804, her father remarried in 1825 to Princess Maria Luisa Carlota of Parma, but this marriage would produce no new siblings. Her father died in 1838, having renounced his rights to the succession of Saxony in favor of his eldest son. Maria Ferdinanda had seven siblings, most of whom married well. Her older sister was Princess Amalie, a notable composer. Her next younger brother would become

Frederick Augustus II of Saxony , image = Friedrich August II of Saxony.jpg , caption = Portrait by Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein , image_size = 220px , reign = 6 June 1836 – 9 August 1854 , coronation = , predecessor = Anthony , ...

in 1836. Her next brother was Prince Klemens, who would die at the age of 24. Her next three siblings ( Maria Anna,

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

, and Maria Josepha Amalia) would become by birth or marriage

King of Saxony This article lists dukes, electors, and kings ruling over different territories named Saxony from the beginning of the Saxon Duchy in the 6th century to the end of the German monarchies in 1918. The electors of Saxony from John the Steadfast on ...

, and

Queen 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 ...

respectively. In 1817, Maria Ferdinanda accompanied her younger sister Princess Maria Anna of Saxony to Florence, where she was going to marry the future Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany.Toscana, p. 18. The two were very close, so that Maria Anna was too scared to go without Maria Ferdinanda's company. The couple duly married. Something decidedly unexpected occurred however. Maria Ferdinanda caught the eye of Leopold's elderly father

Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "protection", "peace" (PIE "to love, to make peace") or alternatively "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "co ...

Marriage

On 6 May 1821, Maria Ferdinanda was married to

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

. She was his second wife, and he was twenty-seven years older. She was his first cousin once removed as well as a first cousin once removed of his first wife Princess Luisa of Naples. Ferdinand may have desired this second marriage because the succession was in doubt: though his only son had recently married Maria Ferdinanda’s sister Maria Anna, he was considered sickly. No children were born of this marriage. As Maria Ferdinanda's younger sister Princess Maria Anna of Saxony was married to Ferdinand's son Leopold, Maria Ferdinanda thus became her own sister's step-mother-in-law. Ferdinand died in 1824 in Florence, causing his son Leopold, and Leopold's wife Maria Anna, to succeed as Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Tuscany.

Later life

In 1859, the Tuscan royal family lost their claims to the throne during the Italian Unification. The royal family left the

Palazzo Pitti The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

in Florence for the Austrian court of

Emperor Francis Joseph Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his ...

and Empress Elisabeth in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. Maria Ferdinanda lived mainly from then on in Schlackenwerth, but was often a guest of her brother King John of Saxony in Dresden. She had an especially close relationship with her sister Amalie. Maria Ferdinanda was a bearer of the royal Order of the Noble Ladies of Maria Luisa, an order founded by Queen Maria Louisa of Spain. Maria Ferdinanda remained a widow for forty-one years, finally dying on 3 January 1865. She was buried in the

Imperial Crypt, Vienna The Imperial Crypt (german: Kaisergruft), also called the Capuchin Crypt (''Kapuzinergruft''), is a burial chamber beneath the Capuchin Church and monastery in Vienna, Austria. It was founded in 1618 and dedicated in 1632, and located on the Ne ...

Ancestry

References

Sources

* * This article is partly based on its counterpart in the German Wikipedia as it stood on 3 February 2010. , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Maria Ferdinanda Of Saxony, Princess 1796 births 1865 deaths Nobility from Dresden Saxon princesses House of Wettin Grand Duchesses of Tuscany Albertine branch Burials at the Imperial Crypt