- Marie Jeanne of Savoy-Nemours
Marie Jeanne Baptiste de Savoie-Nemours (
11 April ,1644 –15 March ,1724 ) was Regent of Savoy from 1675 to 1684. She was the second wife ofCharles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy and by him the mother ofVictor Amadeus II of Sardinia .Biography
Marie Jeanne Baptiste was born in
Paris , on 11 April 1644, the daughter ofCharles Amadeus of Savoy, 6th Duke of Nemours (1624–1652) and Elisabeth de Vendôme, herself a granddaughter of Henry IV, King of France via her fatherCésar de Bourbon, duc de Vendôme .In 1662 Marie Jeanne Baptiste was engaged to
Charles V, Duke of Lorraine , but on10 May ,1665 she marriedCharles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy (1634-1675). They had one son, Victor Amadeus, futureDuke of Savoy and King ofSicily andSardinia .After the early death of her husband, Marie Jeanne Baptiste became
Regent of Savoy in the name of her underage son. An energetic and ambitious woman, she called herself Madama Reale in honor of her respected mother-in-law Christine de France, (also half sister of César) who had also reigned as a regent of Savoy.She tried to gain the throne of
Portugal for her son by engaging him to his cousinIsabel Luísa, Princess of Beira , only child and presumptive heiress of her father,Peter II of Portugal . This would have left Marie Jeanne Baptiste permanently in full control of theDuchy of Savoy as Regent because her son would have had to live in Portugal with his new wife.But the birth of a son for King Peter and a revolt in
Piedmont supported by Victor Amadeus forced Marie Jeanne Baptiste to abandon her plans and hand over power to her son on14 March ,1684 .Retired from politics, she still had a great influence over her granddaughter
Princess Marie-Adélaïde of Savoy , who married Louis, Duc de Bourgogne in 1697 and who became Dauphine in 1711. She instructed the young girl in the ways of the French court of Louis XIV by means of a continuing correspondence.She lived in the Palazzo Madama in
Turin , still named after her and her mother-in-law, and died in that city in 1724. She was the last Countess of Geneva, which was united withSavoy after her death.
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