Maria Ludovica,wife of Emperor Leopold II

[synnadene]

Daughter of King Carlos III. of Spain and Maria Amalia of Saxony. Wife of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II., who was 25 years long GD of Tuscany. Maria Ludovika lived 1745-1792. She had 16 children.

[Marc]

[Marc]

[Marc]

[umigon]

She was a very intelligent and funny person.

She tolerated his husband's extramarital affairs with great philosophy and humour. She once said in a letter to a friend: " If I had thirteen children and I am now expecting my fourteenth, imagine the great number I would have if Peter Leopold didn't give me a break with his mistresses!"


When she walked through the streets with her children she once told them: " When a child says hello, answer them in the same manner, they could be your siblings!"


For me this says much in favour of her good natured character!

[Daniela]

Can you tell more, please?

Maria Ludovica died a couple of months after her husband Leopold. Was she ill or was she perhaps so affected and troubled because of his death?

Daniela

[Daniela]

What was her relationship with her brother in law, Emperor Joseph II?
Did they get along, I mean, she gave his brother sixteen children, Joseph, himself wasn’t lucky with his two wives and also his two little daughters died so young.

Daniela

[Eric_Lowe]

She was not exactly beautiful with such a long face. Yet she was considered much better looking than her sister who was a dwalf.

[Marc]

[Marc]

One more of Empress Maria Ludovica...

[mardam]

[Gabriel Antonio]

She was not exactly beautiful with such a long face. Yet she was considered much better looking than her sister who was a dwalf.

Was the dwarf her older sister Maria Josepha or another one- I thought all her other sisters died as young children.

[Gabriel Antonio]

What was her relationship with her brother in law, Emperor Joseph II?
Did they get along, I mean, she gave his brother sixteen children, Joseph, himself wasn’t lucky with his two wives and also his two little daughters died so young.

Daniela

I do not know if Maria Ludovica ever met Joseph II in person. She and Leopold were married in Innsbruck, (not Vienna) in the summer of 1765, and Joseph and Leopold's father Emperor Francis died almost immediately afterwards. I think Leopold and Maria Ludovica went directly from Innsbruck to Florence and stayed there with only trips to neighboring Italian areas for 25 years. I believe it was only after Joseph II died in 1790 that they went to Vienna. So, unless Joseph attended their wedding, I do not think they ever met.

[CountessKate]

I do not know if Maria Ludovica ever met Joseph II in person. She and Leopold were married in Innsbruck, (not Vienna) in the summer of 1765, and Joseph and Leopold's father Emperor Francis died almost immediately afterwards. I think Leopold and Maria Ludovica went directly from Innsbruck to Florence and stayed there with only trips to neighboring Italian areas for 25 years. I believe it was only after Joseph II died in 1790 that they went to Vienna. So, unless Joseph attended their wedding, I do not think they ever met.

Joseph was present at Leopold's marriage in Innsbruck, with the rest of the court, where it is hard to imagine he would not have actually met his brother's bride.  And since Joseph II himself visited Florence in 1769 during his extensive Italian tour, and prolonged his stay there for several weeks, and visited again (briefly) in 1783, he and Maria Ludovica would therefore have met on a number of occasions, though there is no evidence he showed any interest in her (or she in him).  He approved of his brother's many children, particularly their sons, but it doesn't appear that he gave Maria Ludovica any credit for their appearance!  His relationship with Leopold had its ups and downs, which are more likely to have influenced Maria Ludovica's attitude to Joseph, since she was supremely loyal to her husband. 

[CountessKate]

Was the dwarf her older sister Maria Josepha or another one- I thought all her other sisters died as young children.

Maria Josefa (1744-1801) was the eldest surviving daughter of Carlos III of Spain but because she was "pequeña y algo contrahecha" (small and somewhat misshapen) she was not offered in marriage to any princes where fertility was an important issue.  In Goya's portrait of the Spanish royal family of 1800, Maria Josefa is at the back and while short, she does not appear to be that small (and certainly Goya did not appear to flatter the royal family unduly).  Although she is rather bent, it is not possible to see from this or other portraits of her what might be meant by 'misshapen'.  She was offered in marriage to Louis XV when he became a widower, but as he had three grandsons in the male line as his heirs, fertility would not have been an issue, unlike in the case of the Habsburgs. There it was a very important issue since Joseph had had no sons by either of his marriages; the Habsburgs at that stage could not have risked importing a wife who did not appear to be able to bear children in a normal way, so Maria Ludovica was preferred to her sister for Leopold.  The birth of his and Maria Ludovica's first son was welcomed by Joseph very warmly and by Maria Theresa with tremendous excitement; she rushed to the imperial box at the theatre and called to the spectators in Viennese "Der Pold'l hoat a Buabn!" (My Poldy has a boy).