Queen Maria Theresa of Bavaria

Maria Theresa Henriette Dorothea of Austria-Este (also Marie Therese; 2 July 1849 – 3 February 1919) was the last Queen of Bavaria. She was the only child of Archduke Ferdinand Karl Viktor of Austria-Este and Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria.

Biography On 20 February 1868, she married the future Ludwig III of Bavaria, eldest son of Bavaria's Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria, in the Augustinerkirche in Vienna. The couple had fallen in love during a visit of Ludwig to Austria to attend the burial of his cousin Archduchess Mathilda of Austria. Their decision to marry initially angered the Emperor, who had wished for her to marry Ferdinand IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany. The chief witness was Count Antonius Schaffgotsch.

The family mostly lived on their farms at Leutstetten south of Munich, where Maria Theresa cultivated rose gardens. She spoke German, Hungarian, Czech, French, and Italian.

Maria Theresa became queen consort of Bavaria in 1913 when her husband the ruling Prince Regent proclaimed himself king as Ludwig III in place of his cousin Otto, King of Bavaria who was alive but allegedly had a severe mental illness. She became the first Roman Catholic queen consort since Bavaria had been made a kingdom 1806.

In 1914, she hosted festivities during the royal Bavarian jubilee. She appeared with her husband when war was announced. During World War I, she visited wounded soldiers and encouraged the women of Bavaria to support the troops by providing food and clothes, including with the donations references to legendary heroines.

On 7 November 1918, Ludwig III was forced to abdicate the Bavarian throne, and Maria Theresa fled Munich with her family to Wildenwart Castle near Frasdorf, in order to escape from the Bolsheviks. The health of the Queen soon declined and she died there on 3 February 1919, being buried at the local chapel. On 5 November 1921 her remains were transferred to the Frauenkirche, Munich, along with those of her husband, who had died less than a month before.

Jacobite succession Maria Theresa was the niece and heir-general of the childless Francis V, Duke of Modena who had been, at the time of his death, the Jacobite heir-general to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland. She became the heiress after his death in 1875. She never pursued this claim, although the Order of the White Rose, founded in 1886 by Bertram Ashburnham, 5th Earl of Ashburnham, hoped to put her on the throne.

Ancestry