Coats of arms Maria Theresia of Austria-Este, 160px Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este () (14 July 1817,

Modena Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbis ...

Duchy of Modena and Reggio The Duchy of Modena and Reggio (; ; ) was an Italian state created in 1452 located in Northern Italy, Northwestern Italy, in the present day region of Emilia-Romagna. It was ruled since its establishment by the noble House of Este, and from 1814 ...

– 25 March 1886,

Görz Gorizia (; ; , ; ; ) is a town and (municipality) in northeastern Italy, in the autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Regional decentralization ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

) was a member of the

House of Austria-Este The House of Habsburg-Este (), also known as the House of Austria-Este () and holder of the title of Archduke of Austria-Este (; ), is a cadet branch (but not sovereign branch) of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, which originally also descended fr ...

and Archduchess of Austria, Princess of Hungary, Bohemia, and Modena by birth. Her husband,

Henri Henri is the French form of the masculine given name Henry, also in Estonian, Finnish, German and Luxembourgish. Bearers of the given name include: People French nobles * Henri I de Montmorency (1534–1614), Marshal and Constable of France * H ...

, was disputedly

King of France France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions. Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I, king of the Fra ...

and

Navarre Navarre ( ; ; ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre, is a landlocked foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Autonomous Community, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and New Aquitaine in France. ...

from 2 to 9 August 1830 and afterwards the

Legitimist The Legitimists () are royalists who adhere to the rights of dynastic succession to the French crown of the descendants of the eldest branch of the Bourbon dynasty, which was overthrown in the 1830 July Revolution. They reject the claim of t ...

pretender A pretender is someone who claims to be the rightful ruler of a country although not recognized as such by the current government. The term may often be used to either refer to a descendant of a deposed monarchy or a claim that is not legitimat ...

to the throne of France from 1844 to 1883. Maria Theresa was the eldest child of

Francis IV, Duke of Modena Francis IV Joseph Charles Ambrose Stanislaus (Italian: ''Francesco IV Giuseppe Carlo Ambrogio Stanislao d'Asburgo-Este''; 6 October 1779 – 21 January 1846) was Duke of Modena, Reggio, and Mirandola (from 1815), Duke of Massa and Prince of ...

and his niece-wife Maria Beatrice of Savoy.

Biography

Maria Theresa married

Henri, comte de Chambord Henri, Count of Chambord and Duke of Bordeaux (; 29 September 1820 – 24 August 1883), was the Legitimist pretender to the throne of France as Henri V from 1844 until his death in 1883. Henri was the only son of Charles Ferdinand, Duke of ...

, the posthumous son of

Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry Charles Ferdinand d'Artois, Duke of Berry (24 January 1778 – 14 February 1820), was the third child and younger son of Charles, Count of Artois (later King Charles X of France), and Maria Theresa of Savoy. In 1820 he was assassinated at the P ...

, younger son of

Charles X of France Charles X (Charles Philippe; 9 October 1757 – 6 November 1836) was King of France from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. An uncle of the uncrowned Louis XVII and younger brother of reigning kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported th ...

, by his wife,

Princess Caroline Ferdinande of Bourbon-Two Sicilies Marie-Caroline of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duchess of Berry (Maria Carolina Ferdinanda Luise; 5 November 1798 – Brunsee, Styria, Austria 16 April 1870) was an Italian princess of the House of Bourbon who married into the French royal family, an ...

, daughter of

Francis I of the Two Sicilies Francis I of the Two Sicilies (; 19 August 1777 – 8 November 1830) was King of the Two Sicilies from 1825 to 1830 and regent of the Kingdom of Sicily from 1806 to 1814. Early life Francis was born the son of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicili ...

, by proxy on 7 November 1846 in Modena and in person on 16 November 1846 in

Bruck an der Mur Bruck an der Mur () is a city of some 15,970 people located in the district Bruck-Mürzzuschlag, in the Austrian state of Styria. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Mur and Mürz. Its manufacturing includes metal products and paper. ...

Styria Styria ( ; ; ; ) is an Austrian Federal states of Austria, state in the southeast of the country. With an area of approximately , Styria is Austria's second largest state, after Lower Austria. It is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and cloc ...

. Maria Theresa and Henri produced no children. Maria Theresa had been chosen as Henri's wife by his father’s cousin Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte of France. Marie-Thérèse sought to ally the exiled French Royal Family with the

for several reasons: it was Roman Catholic and the only royal family not to have recognized the

July Monarchy The July Monarchy (), officially the ''Kingdom of France'' (), was a liberalism, liberal constitutional monarchy in France under , starting on 9 August 1830, after the revolutionary victory of the July Revolution of 1830, and ending 26 Februar ...

Louis-Philippe of France Louis Philippe I (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850), nicknamed the Citizen King, was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, the penultimate monarch of France, and the last French monarch to bear the title "King". He abdicated from his thron ...

. Henri had actually preferred Maria Theresa's youngest sister, Maria Beatrix. After Henri's death on 24 August 1883, Maria Theresa and a minority of Henri's supporters held that Juan, Count of Montizón, as senior male descendant of

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

, was his successor. Juan's wife was Maria Theresa's sister, Maria Beatrix. Maria Theresa was instrumental in building a crypt for the French Royal Family at the Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady on Castagnevizza in

(now in

Nova Gorica Nova Gorica () is a town in western Slovenia, on the border with Italy. It is the seat of the Municipality of Nova Gorica. Nova Gorica is a planned town, built according to the principles of modernist architecture after 1947, when the Treaty of pe ...

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

). It was her wish that the last of the Bourbons be gathered in one place together within the monastery at Castagnevizza. Three years after the death of her husband Henri, Maria Theresa died on 25 March 1886 in Görz and was interred with her husband in the crypt of the church of Franciscan Monastery of Castagnevizza in Görz.

Honours

* : Dame of the

Order of the Starry Cross The Order of the Starry Cross (also known as Order of the Star Cross or Star Cross Order; German: ''Sternkreuz-Orden'') is an imperial Austrian dynastic order for Catholic noble ladies, founded in 1668. The order still exists under the House of Ha ...

Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Kaiserthumes Österreich
(1868), p 110, Sternkreuz-Orden

Gallery

Image:Children of Maria Beatrice of Savoy by Bernardino Rossi 1836.jpg, The children of Maria Beatrice of Savoy - Duchess of Modena and Reggio, by Bernardino Rossi, 1836 Image:Maria Theresa of Austria-Este, Countess of Chambord.jpg, Portrait of the Countess of Chambord, 1846 Image:Marie-Thérèse de Modène, Comtesse de Chambord.png, The Countess of Chambord during the last years of her life, 1880s Image:MariaTheresiavonOesterreich-Este1886-01.jpg, Portrait of Maria Theresa, c.1885

Ancestry

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Maria Theresa Of Austria-Este, Archduchess 1817 births 1886 deaths 19th-century Austrian people 19th-century Austrian women House of Austria-Este Austrian princesses Modenese princesses Princesses of France (Bourbon) Burials at Kostanjevica Monastery Daughters of dukes Henri, Count of Chambord