page_title: Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma
section_title: Later life
hierarchical_section_title: Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma / Later life
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria (1746-1804)label QS:Lit,"Ritratto di Maria Amalia d'Austria, duchessa di Parma e Piacenza" label QS:Len,"Portrait of Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria (1746-1804)"
context_page_description: Maria Amalia was the Duchess of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla by marriage. Maria Amalia was a daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I. She was thus younger sister to Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor and older sister to Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples and Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.
context_section_description: In May 1796, during the French invasion of Italy under General Napoleon Bonaparte, the Duchy of Parma was invaded by French troops. Against the opposition of Amalia, who detested the French after the execution of her sister Marie Antoinette, Ferdinand was ambivalent because of him being half French, and had declared the Duchy neutral against her will, but the neutrality was not respected by the French. Napoleon offered to refrain from conquering the Duchy if they agreed to let troops pass. After having received no reply, he offered Ferdinand the island of Sardinia in exchange for Parma. After being refused, he had French troops occupy Parma under General Cervoni and forced Ferdinand to agree to terms dictated by the French.  Though Ferdinand and Amalia were formally allowed to keep their titles, they were kept under French guard, the Duchy was ruled by French representatives and used for taxes to finance the French army.
  By the Treaty of Luneville in February 1801, the Duchy of Parma was declared to be annexed to a newly founded French puppet state, the Kingdom of Etruria, which was granted to the son of Amalia, who was married to a Princess of Spain, Napoleon's ally. Both Ferdinand and Amalia opposed the treaty, and it was therefore understood, that the Duchy would not be annexed until after the death of Ferdinand.  The new French governor of Parma, Andoche Junot, placed Ferdinand and Amalia under house arrest, and Amalia reportedly feared for Ferdinand's life.  
  On 9 October 1802, Maria Amalia was appointed head of the Regency Council in Parma by the dying Ferdinand. Her official reign, however, lasted only for a short time. On 22 October 1802 the French under Napoleon I annexed the Duchy and expelled her from Parma. Ferdinand was reported to have been poisoned; there were rumors claiming that Amalia poisoned him to win back her former de facto power, but also that he had been poisoned by the spies of Napoleon, who wished to annex Parma to Etruria.
  Amalia participated in the funeral procession the French allowed for Ferdinand alongside her daughters. She was given permission by her nephew, the Emperor, to establish her residence in Prague Castle in Prague, together with her two youngest daughters and a small retinue of servants, where she died in 1804. Her body was interred at the royal crypt of the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague while her heart was taken to Vienna and placed inside an urn (number 33) at the family's Herzgruft (heart crypt).
caption: Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma. Portrait by Domenico Muzzi. Currently displayed at the Galleria nazionale di Parma.
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