Archduchess Luise of Austria, Princess of Tuscany

Luise of Tuscany (2 December, 1870 in Salzburg–23 March, 1947 in Brussels) ("Luise Antoinette Maria Theresia Josepha Johanna Leopoldine Caroline Ferdinande Alice Ernestine, Princess Imperial and Archduchess of Austria, Princess of Tuscany, Hungary and Bohemia") was a daughter of Ferdinand IV of Tuscany and his second wife Alice of Bourbon-Parma, daughter of Duke Charles III and Louise d'Artois. Archduchess Luise was thus a great-great-granddaughter of Charles X of France.

Crown Princess of Saxony

In Vienna on 21 November 1891 she married the Crown Prince of Saxony, Frederick Augustus. She was very popular in Saxony. She didn't follow etiquette at the court, which resulted in arguments with her father-in-law. On 9 December 1902 she left Saxony without her children but pregnant with her youngest daughter. For a while she lived with her children's French tutor, André Giron, who was wrongly believed to be the father of her youngest daughter, Monika.

She was divorced from her husband on 11 February 1903 by the royal decree of her father-in-law, King Georg of Saxony. Emperor Franz Josef did not acknowledge the civil divorce of Luise. It was only after her marriage to her second husband that as head of the House of Habsburg he stripped her of her imperial titles and dignities. Her father created her Countess of Montignoso, as sovereign of the former Grand Duchy of Tuscany. After protracted negotiations, Luise's last child with Frederick Augustus, was sent to Dresden to live at the court, where she was raised as a member of the Saxon royal house. Luise had tried to return to Dresden, but was prevented from seeing her children by her husband's ministers. She was allowed to see them on a private visit to a Saxon embassy. None of her children ever spoke out against their mother in their memoirs.

econd marriage and later life

On 25 September 1907 Luise married the Italian musician Enrico Toselli in London. They had one son and were divorced five years later.

In 1911, Luise broke her silence and published a memoir blaming her disgrace on her late father-in-law and Saxon politicians who feared that when she became Queen she would use her influence to dismiss them from office. Throughout the book, she claimed that her popularity exceeded that of her father-in-law the King Georg of Saxony, and her husband the future king. There is strong evidence to support this. Luise implied that her popularity had alienated her from the royal family and politicians. Luise was indeed popular with her husband's late childless Uncle. She ascribed her popularity to her insistence on ignoring the etiquette of the Saxon court and, perhaps to cast herself as a victim, compared herself to her Habsburg relative Marie Antoinette, who disliked court rituals at Versailles and, like Luise, had avoided the noble courtiers who depended on those rituals to affirm their places at court. Her sister-in-law, Mathilda did a great deal to harm her. Luise's flight from Dresden was due to her father-in-law threatening to have her interned in Sonnestein Mental Asylum for life. Her brother supported her in her wish to escape Saxony.

After the Habsburg monarchy collapsed in 1918, Luise called herself "Comtesse d'Ysette," a title with even less legitimacy than the one her father gave her. Her former husband, the ex-King of Saxony, never remarried as he believed in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church that he was still married to Luise. She died in Brussels and her urn is in the Erdlinge Church in Sigmaringen. A number of her children are buried nearby including her son Prince Ernst Heinrich.

Children with Friedrich August III

They had seven children:
* Friedrich August Georg, Crown Prince of Saxony (1893- 1943). A priest, he renounced his rights in 1923.
* Friedrich Christian, Margrave of Meissen, Duke of Saxony (1893-1968). Married Princess Elisabeth Helene of Thurn and Taxis (1903-1976) and had issue.
* Ernst Heinrich, Prince of Saxony (1896 - 1971). Married first Princess Sophia of Luxembourg (1902-1941), daughter of Guillaume IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, in 1921 and second Virginia Dulon (1910-2002) in 1947 (morganatically). Had issue with Sophia.
* Maria Alix Carola, stillborn 22 August 1898
* Margarete Carola Wilhelmine (1900 - 1962). Married Friedrich, Prince of Hohenzollern (1891-1965).
* Maria Alix Luitpolda (1901 - 1990). Married Franz Joseph, Prince of Hohenzollern-Emden (1891-1964).
* Anna Pia Monika (1903 - 1976). Married firstly Joseph Franz, Archduke of Austria (1895-1957) and secondly Reginald Kazanjian (1905-1990).

The birth of their two eldest sons was something rather uncommon among the courts of Europe. Their two eldest sons, Friedrich August and Friedrich Christian were born in the same year, 1893, but were not twins. Friedrich August was born in January, while Friedrich Christian was born in December.

Children with Enrico Toselli

*Carlo Emanuele Toselli 7 May 1908 - 1969

Ancestry

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1= 1. Archduchess Luise of Austria, Princess of Tuscany
2= 2. Ferdinand IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany
3= 3. Princess Alice of Bourbon-Parma
4= 4. Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany
5= 5. Princess Marie Antoinette of the Two Sicilies
6= 6. Charles III, Duke of Parma
7= 7. Princess Louise Marie Thérèse of France
8= 8. Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany
9= 9. Princess Luisa of the Two Sicilies
10= 10. Francis I of the Two Sicilies
11= 11. Maria Isabella of Spain
12= 12. Charles II, Duke of Parma
13= 13. Princess Maria Teresa of Savoy
14= 14. Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry
15= 15. Princess Caroline Ferdinande Louise of the Two Sicilies
16= 16. Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor
17= 17. Maria Louisa of Spain
18= 18. Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies
19= 19. Marie Caroline of Austria
20= 20. Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies (= 18)
21= 21. Marie Caroline of Austria (= 19)
22= 22. Charles IV of Spain
23= 23. Maria Luisa of Parma
24= 24. Louis of Etruria
25= 25. Maria Louisa of Spain
26= 26. Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia
27= 27. Maria Teresa of Austria-Este
28= 28. Charles X of France
29= 29. Princess Marie Thérèse of Savoy
30= 30. Francis I of the Two Sicilies (= 10)
31= 31. Archduchess Maria Clementina of Austria

Bibliography

*Louise of Tuscany, Former Crown Princess of Saxony, "My own Story", London 1911
* Erika Bestenreiner, "Luise von Toskana", Piper 2006 (A German book)