Matilde d'Este (February 7, 1729 – November 14, 1803) was a Modenese princess by birth. She was the daughter of

Francesco III d'Este, Duke of Modena Francesco III d'Este (Francesco Maria; 2 July 1698 – 22 February 1780) was Duke of Modena and Reggio from 1737 until his death. Biography He was born in Modena, the son of Rinaldo d'Este, Duke of Modena, and Duchess Charlotte of Brunswick-L ...

and

Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans (22 October 1700 – 19 January 1761) was Duchess of Modena and Reggio by marriage to Francesco III d'Este. She was the third daughter of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans and his wife, Françoise-Marie de Bourbon. Sh ...

Biography

Matilde was born in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, the second daughter and fifth child of

, the sovereign Duke of

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) 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 I ...

and his wife,

, ''Mademoiselle de Valois'' — a granddaughter of

Louis XIV of France , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Versa ...

and

Madame de Montespan Madame may refer to: * Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French * Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel * ''Madame'' ( ...

.''Journal de la vie de S.A.S. madame la Dsse. d'Orléans, douairière''
/ref> Her mother separated from her father in the 1740s after an affair with the

Duke of Richelieu Duke of Richelieu (french: duc de Richelieu) was a title of French nobility. It was created on 26 November 1629 for Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu (known as Cardinal Richelieu) who, as a Roman Catholic clergyman, had no issue to pass it down ...

was discovered at the Modenese court. Exiled to France, Charlotte Aglaé still managed to arrange the marriages of her daughters. Her eldest sister Maria Teresa married her second cousin, the Duke of Penthièvre. Her younger sister, Maria Fortunata also married a cousin of theirs, Louis François Joseph de Bourbon, heir to the

Prince of Conti The title of Prince of Conti (French: ''prince de Conti'') was a French noble title, assumed by a cadet branch of the princely house of Bourbon-Condé. History The title derives its name from Conty, a small town in northern France, c. 35 km ...

. However, all marriage negotiations for Matilde failed. After the death of her sister Maria Teresa in 1754, her mother tried to arrange a marriage between Matilde and her sister's widow. However, the grieving Duke declined the offer and never remarried. Matilde would also remain unmarried. She died in 1803 and was interred in the chapel of the Convent of the Visitation in Venice. Two of her siblings, Ercole III of Modena and Maria Fortunata, are also buried there.

Ancestry

References

External links

Picture of Charlotte as Duchess of Modena
{{DEFAULTSORT:Este, Matilde D 1729 births 1803 deaths 18th-century Italian people 18th-century Italian women House of Este Modenese princesses Daughters of monarchs