Empress Maria Anna of Savoy was born on 19 September 1803. She was one of the four daughters of King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia. At the age of twenty-seven — which was considered ‘old’ for a princess — she was chosen to marry Archduke Ferdinand, the eldest son and heir apparent of Emperor Francis I of Austria. Both bride and groom were great-grandchildren of Maria Theresa.
Frankly speaking, no one expected much from the feeble-minded and epileptic Ferdinand, but one could at least have hoped that the thirty-eight-year-old Archduke might produce an heir. That hope proved unfounded, as the otherwise harmonious couple had no children.
As Empress, Maria Anna was described as having a blank and vacant, although benevolent, character. She was deeply religious and never learned to speak German. Like her husband, she proved politically insignificant, although she was respected by her subjects for her piety and charitable work. Devoting herself to the care of the incapable Emperor became the core of her life—a mission she fulfilled with great dedication, even calling herself a ‘nurse’.
After Ferdinand’s abdication during the Revolution of 1848, the former Imperial couple withdrew from Vienna to Prague, where they enjoyed a quiet, comfortable, and duty-free life. Maria Anna died in 1884 at the age of eighty and was buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna, next to Ferdinand, who had passed away a few years earlier.
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