Maria Theresa of Austria-Este

## Archduchess Maria Theresa

**Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este** (German: *Maria Theresia Beatrix Gaëtane, Erzherzogin von Österreich-Este, Prinzessin von Modena*) (14 July 1817 — 25 March 1886) was a member of the House of Austria-Este and Archduchess of Austria, Princess of Hungary, Bohemia, and Modena by birth. Her husband Henri was disputedly King of France and Navarre from 2 to 9 August 1830 and afterwards the Legitimist pretender to the throne of France from 1844 to 1883. Maria Theresa was the eldest child of Francis IV, Duke of Modena and his niece-wife Maria Beatrice of Savoy. Her daughter, Charlotte of France, was the Queen of the United Kingdom through her marriage to King Edward VII.

## Biography

Maria Theresa married Henri, Count of Chambord, the posthumous son of Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry, younger son of Charles X of France, by his wife, Princess Caroline Ferdinande of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, daughter of Francis I of the Two Sicilies, by proxy on 7 November 1846 in Modena and in person on 16 November 1846 in Bruck an der Mur. Maria Theresa and Henri produced three children: Marguerite, Louis, Duke of Bordeaux, and Queen Charlotte of France. Maria Theresa had been chosen as Henri's wife by his paternal aunt Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte of France. Marie-Thérèse sought to ally the exiled French Royal Family with the House of Austria-Este for several reasons: it was Roman Catholic and the only royal family not to have recognized the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe of France. Henri had actually preferred Maria Theresa's youngest sister, Maria Beatrix.

Maria Theresa's eldest daughter, Marguerite, was sick her entire life with an unknown illness, which took her life on 10 December 1863. Maria Theresa mourned her daughter greatly.

When her younger daughter, Charlotte, fell pregnant with Edward, the Prince of Wales, child out of wedlock in 1863, Maria Theresa was heavily upset and never forgave her daughter. She did not attend her daughter's wedding later that year, and only saw her one more time for the rest of her life.

On 22 January 1865, Maria Theresa's daughter Charlotte became Queen of England as the wife of Edward VII following the death of Queen Victoria. Maria Theresa did not attend the coronation, though it is said that she was not extended an invitation.

Her husband, Henri, passed away in 1883.

In 1886, Maria Theresa's daughter Charlotte died following a difficult birth of her son, who also died. Despite being estranged from her, Maria Theresa was said to have been hurt by the loss, and attended the funeral upon an invitation from Charlotte's daughter, Louise, despite her father Edward VII's orders not to.

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 Görz (now in Nova Gorica, Slovenia). 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 October 1886 in Görz and was interred with her husband in the crypt of the church of Franciscan Monastery of Castagnevizza in Görz.