- Princess Marie Josephine Louise of Savoy
Marie Josephine Louise of Savoy (
2 September ,1753 -13 November ,1810 ), titularQueen consort ofFrance , wife ofLouis XVIII of France , princess ofSardinia and ofPiedmont , was born inTurin and died atHartwell House , English residence of the exiled French Royal family.Princess of the
House of Savoy Maria Giuseppina Luigia, as she is called in Italian, was the third child and second daughter of
Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia and his Queen consort Maria Antonieta Fernanda of Bourbon,Infanta ofSpain .Her paternal grandparents were
Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia and his wifePolyxena Christina of Hesse-Rotenburg . Polixena was a daughter ofErnest Leopold, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg .Her maternal grandparents were
Philip V of Spain and his second wife,Elizabeth Farnese .Her sister, Maria Teresa, married
Charles X of France , Marie Josephine's brother-in-law.She was also a cousin of the ill-fated
Princesse de Lamballe who was instrumental in the arrangement of the marriage."De jure" Queen of France
Marie Josèphe de Savoie, as this princess is known to French history, married Louis Stanislas Xavier de Bourbon, Count of Provence, the future Louis XVIII on
16 April ,1771 and went with him into exile in theKingdom of Great Britain in 1791.There were no children of the marriage. She became pregnant in 1774 and 1781, but both pregnancies ended in miscarriages [Cite book | last = Phillip | first = Mansel | title = Louis XVII | publisher = John Murray | year = 2005 | pages = pp. 13-14| isbn=0-7195-6709-2] .
Louis XVII of France , only surviving son ofLouis XVI of France andMarie Antoinette , died while imprisoned in the Temple on8 June ,1795 . The Count of Provence was proclaimed King of France as Louis XVIII (16 June ,1795 ) by the exiled French Court. Thus Marie Josèphe became "de jure "Queen consort of France. During the exile, Marie Josèphe and her husband were constantly fighting, especially over her possible lesbian relationship with one of her ladies-in-waiting.Fact|date=April 2008 As a result, the two were frequently separated.Death and Burial
Queen Marie-Josèphe died at Hartwell House but was buried at the Cathedral of
Cagliari , capital ofSardinia . There her brother, KingCharles Felix of Sardinia , had an imposing monument erected over her grave, whereon she is described personally as "sapiens, prudens, pientissima" and as "Galliarum Regina", literally "Queen of the Gauls", i.e. of France [Fraser, Lady Antonia: "Marie Antoinette: The Journey". New York, Doubleday, 2001.] [ [http://geneweb.inria.fr/roglo?lang=en Genealogy - roglo ] ] .Ancestry
Ancestors of Marie Josephine Louise of SavoyReferences
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