Countess Palatine Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg

Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg (5 July 1670 – 15 September 1748) was Duchess of Parma from 1696 to 1727 by marriage to Francesco, Duke of Parma. She served as Regent of the Duchy of Parma for her grandson Charles I, Duke of Parma between 1731 and 1735.

On 3 April 1690, she married by proxy Odoardo Farnese, Hereditary Prince of Parma, heir to the throne of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza. They would eventually marry in-person on 17 May 1690; the festivities for their wedding were the most splendid that had ever taken place in Parma. In their three years of marriage, they had two children, a son who died in infancy and a daughter, Elisabeth, future Queen of Spain.

Duchess of Parma

Her husband died on 6 September 1693, only a month after the death of their son. On 7 December 1696, Dorothea married Odoardo's half-brother, Francesco Farnese, who had become Duke of Parma when his father died in 1694.

Enrichetta's pregnancy was questioned by Elisabeth, though Dorothea Sophie, who wished to defend the right of Charles, as well as by Pope Clement XII, who wished to annex the duchy to the Papal State. However, Enrichetta was supported by Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, who opposed Spanish influence in Parma. Of the request of Spain, Enrichetta was examined in May 1731 by doctors confirming her pregnancy. The news was reported around Parma and then around the European courts. Her regency could thus continue, with support by the emperor.

On 22 July however, the Second Treaty of Vienna officially recognised the right of Charles as the duke of Parma and Piacenza, pursuant to the Treaty of London (1718). When Spain demanded that the delivery of Enrichetta should be a public affair, the emperor retracted his support to Enrichetta and discontinued the original plan to arranged a simulated birth.

Queen Elisabeth of Spain convinced her mother to have Enrichetta examined again on 13 September 1731; it was then reported that there was in fact no child, and the House of Farnese was extinct. Charles of Spain was thus recognised as duke, deposing the regency of Enrichetta d'Este. Since Charles was still a minor, Dorothea Sophie (his maternal grandmother) was named regent.

Dorothea ruled as regent until 1735, when the duchy was ceded to Austria after the War of the Polish Succession.

She died in Parma in 1748 and was buried at the Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Steccata.

Issue Both of her children were with her first husband Odoardo Farnese, Hereditary Duke of Parma. Alessandro Ignazio Farnese (6 December 1691 – 5 August 1693) died in infancy. Elisabeth Farnese (25 October 1692 – 11 July 1766) married Philip V of Spain and had issue.

Ancestry

Notes and references