Louise of Austria

Archduke Louise was born December 2, 1870 in Salzburg, becoming the second child and first daughter in the family of the titular Duke of Tuscany Ferdinand IV and his second wife, Princess Alice of Bourbon-Parma . Father is the son of Leopold II , Grand Duke of Tuscany and Archduke of Austria and Maria Antonia Bourbon-Sicilian , mother is the daughter of the Parma Duke Charles III and the French Princess Louise Maria Theresa, granddaughter of King Charles X of France .

Her father was expelled from Tuscany in 1860 after the abdication of his father in 1859. All attempts to return the throne were in vain, and the family moved to Salzburg, where she began to live at the court of Emperor Franz Joseph , with whom they were related.

At the time of Louise’s birth, the son of Archduke Leopold Ferdinand was already in the family. Over time, eight more children appeared. At birth, Louise received the name Louise Antoinette Maria Theresa Joseph John Leopoldin Caroline Ferdinand Alice Ernestina von Habsburg-Lorraine with the title "Her Imperial Highness the Archduke of Austria, Princess of Hungary, Princess of Bohemia and Princess of Tuscany . " Louise was the cousin of the last Austrian Empress Zita , Felix , wife of the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg Charlotte , Jaime , Duke of Madrid and Princess of Bulgaria Maria Louise .

At the age of 17, Louise received a marriage proposal with Prince Pedro Augustus of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha , grandson of the Emperor of Brazil Pedro II . After refusing to her, Ferdinand , the prince of Bulgaria, married. He was also refused.

In her youth, Louise was described as "a living girl with a good sense of taste . " ^[one]

On November 21, 1891, Louise married Crown Prince of Saxony Friedrich Augustus , son of King of Saxony George and Maria Anna of Portugal . The wedding took place in Vienna and cost 20,000 marks. In the marriage, seven children were born:

• Georg (1893-1943) - Crown Prince of Saxony, became a priest and renounced his right to the throne in 1923, not married;
• Friedrich Christian (1893-1968) - Margrave Meissen, was married to Elizabeth Helena Thurn-i-Taxis , had five children;
• Ernst Heinrich (1896-1971) - was married to Sofia of Luxembourg , after her death - to Virginia Dulon, had three sons from his first marriage;
• Maria Alix Carola (born and d. 1898);
• Margarita Carola (1900-1962) - the wife of Prince Friedrich Hohenzollern , had seven children;
• Maria Alice (1901-1990) - wife of Prince Franz Josef Hohenzollern-Emden , had four children;
• Anna Pia (1903-1976) - the wife of Archduke Joseph Franz of Austria , then Reginald Casagnani, had eight children from his first marriage.

Louise was very popular in Saxony. However, she did not get along with her husband's family, especially with sister-in-law Matilda of Saxony . She did not observe court etiquette, because of which she constantly quarreled with her father-in-law.

December 9, 1902 she fled from Dresden. King George threatened to take her to a psychiatric hospital for life if she did not return. Louise's family supported her in this. She left all her children in Saxony, being at that time pregnant with a seventh child.

On February 1, 1903, she divorced Crown Prince Frederick Augustus, but this divorce was not recognized by Emperor Franz Joseph. The young daughter Anna Pia stayed with her mother. ^[2]

On September 23, 1907, Louise re-married the Italian musician Enrico Toselli . They had one son:

• Carlo Emmanuele (1908-1969).

Five years later, the couple divorced. The son stayed with his father. The conclusion of a second marriage by Louise greatly angered Franz Joseph. He stripped her of all the titles and ranks, and also she was no longer part of the imperial family. Her father, the titular Duke of Tuscany, gave her the title of Countess Montignoso . After the second divorce, Princess Anna Pia moved from her mother to Dresden to her brothers and sisters, and her father, who by this time had already become king of Saxony ^[3] . Louise tried to return to Dresden to see her children. But she was constantly disturbed by the royal ministers. In the end, she was allowed to see them on private visits. All the children spoke warmly about the mother in their memoirs.

The former Archduke lived in the castle of Rameau in Lyon, visited the UK. In 1904, she moved to her family, which owned a castle off the shores of Lake Constance, and later moved to Florence ^[4] .

In 1911, she published a memoir in which she openly accused Saxon politicians and her father-in-law of being afraid that when Louise became queen, she would have a great influence on state affairs and would decide which of the ministers should be fired. The book shows that her popularity in Saxony has always been higher than that of her father-in-law king and ex-husband. Louise was really popular in Saxony. She compared herself to Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, who, like Louise, did not like court life and avoided formal events.

After the fall of the monarchy in Austria, Louise gave herself the new title "Countess de Ysette . " Her former first husband no longer married, as he believed that the Catholic Church did not break his alliance with Louise.

Louise died in Brussels on March 23, 1947 at the age of 76. She was cremated, an urn with her ashes is stored in Sigmaringen, and her children are buried there. All the property of Louise was transferred to the Central State Archive of Dresden ^[5] .

She was a lady of the Spanish Order of the Queen Maria Louise .

• Louise of Tuscany, former Crown Princess of Saxony "My Story", London 1911 ISBN 3-86530-047-2
• Erica Bestenreiner “Louise of Tuscany”, Piper, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-492-23194-2

• Photo by Louise of Austria
• Profile at Geneall.net
• Thepeerage.com Profile