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Principessa Maria Teresa of Sardinia
(1756–1805)

Biographical

After her father had organised the marriage of her elder sister, Giuseppina, to the count of Provence, he then negotiated with his cousin, Louis XV, for the marriage of Maria Teresa to the count d'Artois, the future Charles X. After her father's death, negotiations were continued by Vittorio Amedeo III. The marriage proved to be unhappy for Maria Teresa. Her husband engaged in a number of extramarital affairs, and there were rumours concerning his relationship with Marie Antoinette. Maria Teresa dedicated herself to the artistic circle of the court, as did her sister, Giuseppina, and it was she who recommended the painter Louis August Brun to Marie Antoinette. At the outbreak of the Revolution in July 1789, Maria Teresa found refuge at Turin, along with her children, and stayed at the castle of Moncalieri, without her husband. They were together again in 1792 when they both, along with her husband's mistress, the comtesse de Polastron, moved to Britain after the outbreak of the war with France, and were given protection by George III. Under the pseudonym of Marquise of Maisons, Maria Teresa later moved to Klagenfurth, in Carinthia, and then to Styria in Graz, where she lived modestly on subsidies. As with her sister, Maria Teresa never became queen.

Place of birth: Turin
Place of marriage: Versailles
Place of death: Goritz
Place of burial: Styria (her heart was entombed in the church of Santa Caterina in Chiaia, Naples)

Daughter of King Vittorio Amedeo III of Sardinia and Infanta María Antonieta of Spain (Borbón). She married Charles, comte d'Artois (later King Charles X of France) (Bourbon) in 1773, and had issue.

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