Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony

Electress consort of Bavaria
Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony
Portrait by Georg Desmarées
Electress consort of Bavaria
Tenure9 July 1747 – 30 December 1777
Born(1728-08-29)29 August 1728
Dresden Castle, Dresden
Died17 February 1797(1797-02-17) (aged 68)
Fürstenried Palace, Munich
Burial
Katholische Hofkirche
SpouseMaximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria
Names
Maria Anna Sophia Sabina Angela Franciska Xaveria
HouseWettin
FatherAugustus III of Poland
MotherMaria Josepha of Austria

Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony (Maria Anna Sophia Sabina Angela Franciska Xaveria; 29 August 1728 – 17 February 1797) was a daughter of King Augustus III of Poland and his wife Maria Josepha of Austria who became Electress of Bavaria by marriage to Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria.

Biography

Maria Anna as a child, by Louis de Silvestre. C. 1735.

Maria Anna's parents had sixteen children; her most notable siblings were Frederick Christian, Elector of Saxony, Queen Maria Amalia of Spain and Maria Josepha, Dauphine of France, the mother of Kings Louis XVI, Louis XVIII of France, and Charles X of France.

Maria Anna was married to her first cousin, the Bavarian Elector Maximilian III Joseph in 1747.

Having no children of her own, Maria Anna negotiated with King Frederick II of Prussia after her husband's death in 1777 to secure Bavaria's independence against Austria and to support the succession rights of the Wittelsbach branch Palatinate Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld in Bavaria, when the new Elector of Bavaria Charles Theodore attempted to cede Lower Bavaria to Austria. A secret treaty with Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II had been concluded in the end. In exchange for Lower Bavaria, Charles Theodore was to receive the Austrian Netherlands (close to his ancestral domains), the Palatinate (already his patrimony), Jülich and Berg.

However, these plans failed with the War of the Bavarian Succession in 1778, in which King Frederick II stifled the Austrian attempts to exchange the Austrian Netherlands for Bavaria. When Emperor Joseph II tried the scheme again in 1784, Frederick II created the Fürstenbund.

After her husband Maximilian III Joseph died, Maria Anna Sophia spent the rest of her life at Fürstenried Palace and enjoyed the gratitude of the Bavarian people and the heirs of the Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld branch: Charles II, Duke of Zweibrücken, and his brother Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, who finally succeeded Charles Theodore in 1799 as first King of Bavaria.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony[1]
16. John George II, Elector of Saxony
8. John George III, Elector of Saxony
17. Magdalene Sibylle of Brandenburg-Bayreuth
4. Augustus II of Poland
18. Frederick III of Denmark
9. Anne Sophie of Denmark
19. Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg
2. Augustus III of Poland
20. Erdmann August of Brandenburg-Bayreuth
10. Christian Ernst, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth
21. Sophie of Brandenburg-Ansbach
5. Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth
22. Eberhard III, Duke of Württemberg
11. Sofie Luise of Württemberg
23. Anna Katharina of Salm-Kyrburg
1. Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony
24. Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor
12. Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor
25. Maria Anna of Spain
6. Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor
26. Philipp Wilhelm, Elector Palatine
13. Eleonore-Magdalena of Neuburg
27. Landgravine Elisabeth Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt
3. Maria Josepha of Austria
28. George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
14. John Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
29. Anne Eleonore of Hesse-Darmstadt
7. Wilhelmina Amalia of Brunswick
30. Edward, Count Palatine of Simmern
15. Benedicta-Henrietta of Simmern
31. Anna Gonzaga

References

  1. ^ Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans [Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. 1768. p. 100.
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