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Principessa Maria Anna of Sardinia
(1803–84)

Other names: Maria Anna Carolina Pia

Biographical

Maria Anna was born at Rome along with her twin sister, Maria Adelaide. Metternich arranged her marriage with Ferdinand, crown prince of Austria, in the delusive hope of strengthening the hold of the Habsburgs on their Italian possessions. Although Maria Anna did not master the German language completely, she proved herself to be a loyal wife of the emperor, who was almost unable to govern due to poor health. This also applied to the events of 1848, when conflict between Piedmont and her adopted country turned into war. Her influential sister-in-law, Sophie of Bavaria, initially supported Metternich's policy, and Maria Anna was in agreement with her, but later took a harder line against the revolution. She tried to persuade her husband, Emperor Ferdinand I, to abdicate after the outbreak of the revolution, but this initially failed due to Metternich's resistance. On the 2nd of December that year, she finally convinced him, and he abdicated in favour of his nephew (he was childless), Franz Joseph, Sophie's son. After his abdication, she and her husband retired to Prague and lived at the castle there. Maria Anna was a devout Catholic, of an earnest and retiring disposition, and a rigid observer of etiquette. Because of her congenial nature, her ignorance of German and the fact that she was childless meant that she possessed less influence at court than Sophie. She spent her retirement devoting herself to charity, particularly to encouraging female orders in Bohemia to care for the sick and the education of girls. Maria Anna was the last descendant of the elder line of the house of Savoy.

Place of birth: Rome
Place of marriage: Vienna
Place of death: Prague
Place of burial: Capuchin Church, Vienna

Daughter of King Vittorio Amedeo I of Sardinia and Maria Therese of Austria-Este (Habsburg). She married Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria (Habsburg) in 1831, and had no issue.

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