Biography of Maria Luisa of Spain
Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain (Spanish: María Luisa, German: Maria Ludovika) (24 November 1745 – 15 May 1792) was Grand Duchess of Tuscany as the spouse of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Empress, German Queen, and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia,
Maria Luisa was born a Princess of Naples and Sicily. Her father, the future Charles III of Spain, had become King of Naples and Sicily in 1735 after its occupation by the Spanish in the War of Polish Succession. After her father became King of Spain at the death of her half-uncle, Ferdinand VI of Spain, in 1759, she became known as Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain.
Maria Luisa was born in Portici, in Campania, the site of the summer palace (Reggia di Portici) of her parents, King Charles, King of Naples and Sicily and Maria Amalia of Saxony. She was the fifth daughter and second surviving child of her parents. With her father's ascension, she moved with her family to Spain. Her first cousins included Louis XVI, Maria I of Portugal and Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia.
Maria Luisa was originally intended to marry the future Emperor Joseph II, but this was stopped by the discontent of Louis XV of France, who instead wished for Joseph to marry his granddaughter, Isabella of Parma. On 16 February 1764 she was married by proxy in Madrid to Leopoldo, the second son of Empress Maria Theresa I, Holy Roman Empress and Francesco Stefano, Duke of Lorraine, and the heir apparent to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Before her marriage she was made to renounce her rights to the throne of Spain upon the wish of her father. After her wedding by proxy, she traveled to Austria by way of Barcelona, Genova and Bolzano. The next year, on 5 August, she married Leopoldo in person at Innsbruck. Only a few days later, the death of Emperor Francis made Maria Luisa's husband the new grand duke of Tuscany, and the newly married couple moved to Florence, where they would live for the next twenty-five years. The couple arrived in Florence 13 September 1765 and settled in Palazzo Pitti.
At the time of her wedding, Maria Luisa was described as a blue-eyed beauty with a vivid charm, unpretentious, simple, and with a disposition to be generous and kind. Her natural warm friendliness was said to have contrasted with the somewhat cold nature of Leopold. By her strict Catholic upbringing, Maria Luisa was raised to endure any hardship of pregnancy and marriage without complaint, a role she also fulfilled during her marriage. The relationship between Maria Luisa and Leopoldo has been described as happy, and Maria Luisa as a supporting and loyal wife. She accepted the infidelities of her spouse without complaints. Among his lovers was the ballerina Livia Raimondi, with whom he had a son, Luigi von Grün (1788–1814), and to whom he gave her own palace at Piazza San Marco.
As Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Maria Luisa made herself popular in Florence during her first year there. It was 1765, a year of famine, when she provided the poor and needy with food and medical aid. She was referred to as an ideal "model of feminine virtue". She was never crowned as Grand Duchess, though she was present at the coronation of Leopoldo in July 1768. She accompanied her consort and her sister-in-law, Maria Carolina of Austria, at the latter's marriage to her brother, the King of Naples: the couple remained there for the summer of 1768. In 1770 she accompanied Leopoldo on his visit to Vienna. Neither Maria Luisa nor Leopoldo enjoyed formal occasions and they rarely participated in much of a ceremonial court life. While Leopoldo spent his time with politics and the pleasures of his personal life, Maria Luisa isolated herself almost completely from high society and devoted herself to the upbringing of her children. Maria Luisa and her spouse gave their children a very free upbringing, away from any formal court life, and occasionally took them on trips to the countryside and the coast. She remained mostly unknown in the local aristocracy and restricted her private social life to a very small circle of friends.
In 1790 on the death of Leopoldo's childless brother, Emperor Joseph II, Leopoldo himself inherited the Habsburg lands in Central Europe and was shortly thereafter elected Holy Roman Emperor. Taking the name of Leopold II, the new emperor moved his family to Vienna where Maria Luisa took the role of imperial consort. Leopoldo died scarcely two years later on 1 March 1792. Maria Luisa followed her husband to the grave in less than three months, not living long enough to see her eldest son, Francis, elected as the last Holy Roman Emperor.
Mozart's opera La Clemenza di Tito was commissioned by the Estates of Bohemia as part of the festivities that accompanied the coronation of Maria Luisa and her husband Leopoldo as king and queen of Bohemia in Prague on 6 September 1791. In musical circles Maria Luisa is famous for her putative denigration of Mozart's opera, which she supposedly dismissed as "una porcheria tedesca" (Italian for "German swinishness"), however no claim that she made this remark predates the publication in 1871 of Alfred Meissner's Rococo-Bilder: nach Aufzeichnungen meines Grossvaters, a collection of stories about cultural and political life in Prague in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Maria Luisa was born a Princess of Naples and Sicily. Her father, the future Charles III of Spain, had become King of Naples and Sicily in 1735 after its occupation by the Spanish in the War of Polish Succession. After her father became King of Spain at the death of her half-uncle, Ferdinand VI of Spain, in 1759, she became known as Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain.
Maria Luisa was born in Portici, in Campania, the site of the summer palace (Reggia di Portici) of her parents, King Charles, King of Naples and Sicily and Maria Amalia of Saxony. She was the fifth daughter and second surviving child of her parents. With her father's ascension, she moved with her family to Spain. Her first cousins included Louis XVI, Maria I of Portugal and Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia.
Maria Luisa was originally intended to marry the future Emperor Joseph II, but this was stopped by the discontent of Louis XV of France, who instead wished for Joseph to marry his granddaughter, Isabella of Parma. On 16 February 1764 she was married by proxy in Madrid to Leopoldo, the second son of Empress Maria Theresa I, Holy Roman Empress and Francesco Stefano, Duke of Lorraine, and the heir apparent to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Before her marriage she was made to renounce her rights to the throne of Spain upon the wish of her father. After her wedding by proxy, she traveled to Austria by way of Barcelona, Genova and Bolzano. The next year, on 5 August, she married Leopoldo in person at Innsbruck. Only a few days later, the death of Emperor Francis made Maria Luisa's husband the new grand duke of Tuscany, and the newly married couple moved to Florence, where they would live for the next twenty-five years. The couple arrived in Florence 13 September 1765 and settled in Palazzo Pitti.
At the time of her wedding, Maria Luisa was described as a blue-eyed beauty with a vivid charm, unpretentious, simple, and with a disposition to be generous and kind. Her natural warm friendliness was said to have contrasted with the somewhat cold nature of Leopold. By her strict Catholic upbringing, Maria Luisa was raised to endure any hardship of pregnancy and marriage without complaint, a role she also fulfilled during her marriage. The relationship between Maria Luisa and Leopoldo has been described as happy, and Maria Luisa as a supporting and loyal wife. She accepted the infidelities of her spouse without complaints. Among his lovers was the ballerina Livia Raimondi, with whom he had a son, Luigi von Grün (1788–1814), and to whom he gave her own palace at Piazza San Marco.
As Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Maria Luisa made herself popular in Florence during her first year there. It was 1765, a year of famine, when she provided the poor and needy with food and medical aid. She was referred to as an ideal "model of feminine virtue". She was never crowned as Grand Duchess, though she was present at the coronation of Leopoldo in July 1768. She accompanied her consort and her sister-in-law, Maria Carolina of Austria, at the latter's marriage to her brother, the King of Naples: the couple remained there for the summer of 1768. In 1770 she accompanied Leopoldo on his visit to Vienna. Neither Maria Luisa nor Leopoldo enjoyed formal occasions and they rarely participated in much of a ceremonial court life. While Leopoldo spent his time with politics and the pleasures of his personal life, Maria Luisa isolated herself almost completely from high society and devoted herself to the upbringing of her children. Maria Luisa and her spouse gave their children a very free upbringing, away from any formal court life, and occasionally took them on trips to the countryside and the coast. She remained mostly unknown in the local aristocracy and restricted her private social life to a very small circle of friends.
In 1790 on the death of Leopoldo's childless brother, Emperor Joseph II, Leopoldo himself inherited the Habsburg lands in Central Europe and was shortly thereafter elected Holy Roman Emperor. Taking the name of Leopold II, the new emperor moved his family to Vienna where Maria Luisa took the role of imperial consort. Leopoldo died scarcely two years later on 1 March 1792. Maria Luisa followed her husband to the grave in less than three months, not living long enough to see her eldest son, Francis, elected as the last Holy Roman Emperor.
Mozart's opera La Clemenza di Tito was commissioned by the Estates of Bohemia as part of the festivities that accompanied the coronation of Maria Luisa and her husband Leopoldo as king and queen of Bohemia in Prague on 6 September 1791. In musical circles Maria Luisa is famous for her putative denigration of Mozart's opera, which she supposedly dismissed as "una porcheria tedesca" (Italian for "German swinishness"), however no claim that she made this remark predates the publication in 1871 of Alfred Meissner's Rococo-Bilder: nach Aufzeichnungen meines Grossvaters, a collection of stories about cultural and political life in Prague in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.