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Maria Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Massa

Maria Beatrice d'Este (Maria Beatrice Ricciarda; 7 April 1750 – 14 November 1829) was the last descendant of the House of Este, of the House of Cybo-Malaspina and, through her maternal grandmother Ricciarda, also of the House of Gonzaga of Novellara and Bagnolo. Ducal princess of Modena and Reggio, she became the sovereign duchess of Massa and Carrara from 1790 until 1796 and from 1815 until her death in 1829. Through her marriage, she was co-founder of the new House of Austria-Este.

Biography[edit]

Early life[edit]

Maria Beatrice was born on 7 April 1750 in Modena. She was the eldest child of Ercole Rinaldo d'Este, heir to the Duchy of Modena and Reggio (and future Duke, in 1780, under the name of Ercole III), and Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, Duchess of Massa and Princess of Carrara.


Her parents' marriage was unhappy and they lived separated from each other; they only had two children: Maria Beatrice herself and Rinaldo Francesco, born on 4 January 1753. The death of Rinaldo aged four months (5 May 1753) left Maria Beatrice as the only surviving daughter and it was evident that her parents would produce no further issue. Since in Modena and Reggio (but not in Massa and Carrara) the Salic law was in force which prohibited female succession to the throne, the duke her grandfather Francis III set out to prevent the Duchy, as an imperial fief, from being simply absorbed by the Empire, just as, almost two centuries earlier, Ferrara, a papal fief, had been absorbed by the Papal State.


Therefore, in the same year 1753, two simultaneous treaties (one public and one secret) were concluded between the House of Este and the House of Austria, by which the Archduke Leopold, Empress Maria Theresa's ninth-born child and third son, and Maria Beatrice were engaged, and the former was designated by Francis III as heir for the imperial investiture as Duke of Modena and Reggio in the event of extinction of the Este male line. In the meantime, Francis would cover the office of governor of Milan ad interim, which was destined for the archduke. In 1761, however, following the death of an older brother, Leopold became heir to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany as provided for the second male heir of the imperial couple, and the treaties had to be revised.

Marriage[edit]

In 1763, in spite of the harsh opposition of Maria Beatrice's father, the two families agreed to simply replace the name of Leopold with that of Maria Teresa's fourteenth child, Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria, who was four years younger than his betrothed. In January 1771 the Perpetual Diet of Regensburg ratified Ferdinand's future investiture and, in October, Maria Beatrice and he finally got married in Milan, thus giving rise to the new House of Austria-Este. Festivities arranged for this occasion included the operas Ascanio in Alba by Mozart and Il Ruggiero by Johann Adolph Hasse.

Velde, François R. . Heraldica.org. Retrieved 16 June 2024.

"The Succession Laws of Modena"