Maria Ludovika of Austria

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On December 14th. 1787,  Maria Ludovika of Austria was born in Monza,as a daughter of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este and Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d'Este. They were members of the House of Austria-Este, a branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.

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Maria Ludovika of Austria - Source picture: Wikipedia

Her family fled from Italy to Austria when Northern Italy was conquered by Napoleon in 1796. This caused her a hostility for Napoleon.

She was the third wife of her cousin Emperor Francis of Austria.

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Emperor Francis of Austria
Source picture:  Wikipedia

She had considerable influence on her husband, and her talent at ruling marvelled many officials, including the Prussian minister who considered her the ruling genius at court.

Maria Ludovika was also immensely popular with her subjects who hailed her a second Maria Theresa. Together with her brother-in-law Archduke John, she made the war effort popular. During her coronation in Pressburg, she impressed the Hungarians so much that they declared large financial and military support for the monarchy if needed.

Metternich showed her private correspondence with her relatives to her husband, the Emperor Francis I, in the hope that it would discredit her. She was conservative in her views, suspicious of peasant revolts, but also patriotic towards her adopted land,and genuinely disturbed by atrocities that Napoleon's armies created in Spain. She supported the war against Napoleonic France in 1809. From this year, her health deteriorated. She was opposed to the marriage between Napoleon and her step-daughter Marie Louise in 1809. In 1812, she was a reluctant guest to the assembly of German monarchs gathered by Napoleon to celebrate his war against Russia.

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She was the hostess of the Congress of Vienna in 1815. When Napoleon was finally defeated she traveled at the end of the year in 1815 to her home country, North Italy, but died of tuberculosis in Verona. She was only 28 years old.She is buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.

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Goethe admired Maria Ludovika greatly, and felt tortured because he promised never to pay a public tribute to her nor mention her name in public.
Location: Vienna, Austria

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