Maria Theresa of Tuscany

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The Queen with her two sons, painted by Fernando Cavalleri,

Princess Maria Theresa of Tuscany, Archduchess of Austria, Princess of Hungary and Bohemia, in Italian Maria Teresa Francesca Giuseppa Giovanna Benedicta, in German Maria Theresia Franziska Josepha Johanna Benedikta (Vienna, 21 March 1801 - Vienna or Turin, 12 January 1855), was a daughter of Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany and wife of King Charles Albert of Sardinia.

She was born in Vienna during the exile of her parents due to the invasion of Tuscany by Napoleon Bonaparte. Her father was Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany and her mother Princess Luisa of the Two Sicilies, who died one year after Maria Theresa's birth.

After the Restoration of 1814, Ferdinando III was made Elector of the secularized archbishopric Salzburg and the family moved to Würzburg.

Theresa married in Florence on 30 September 1817 with Charles Albert of Sardinia (Paris, 29 October 1798 - Porto, 28 July 1849), and a wedding mass was celebrated on 2 October in the Florence Cathedral.
On 14 March 1820 an heir to the throne was born:

Victor Emmanuel who would become the first King of a united Italy.

Two more children followed :

Ferdinand (1822–1855), 1st Duke of Genoa, and
Maria Cristina (1826–1827).

In 1824 Charles and Maria Theresa were appointed heirs to the throne by Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia and became King and Queen in 1831, when his successor Charles Felix of Sardinia died without issue.

After the death of her husband in 1849 in Oporto, Queen Mother Maria Theresa stopped appearing in public and even returned to Tuscany in 1851, where she died 4 years later. She was buried in the Basilica of Superga in Turin.

A convinced Catholic and conservative, she had a great influence on her eldest son.

[edit] Ancestry

Even among the frequently tangled genealogies of European nobility, the ancestry of Maria Theresa of Tuscany was unusual. Her grandparents consisted of two brother/sister pairs. Her paternal grandfather, Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, was the brother of her maternal grandmother, Maria Caroline of Austria. Matching that combination, her paternal grandmother, Maria Louisa of Spain, was the sister of her maternal grandfather, Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. As a consequence she only had four great-grandparents rather than the usual eight. (Although not so unusual, it may be worth pointing out that her grandmothers and great-grandmothers were all surnamed "Maria".)

Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor

Maria Theresa of Austria

Charles III of Spain

Maria Amalia of Saxony