Duchess Mathilde Ludovika in Bavaria

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Duchess Mathilde Ludovika, around 1870.

Mathilde Ludovika, Duchess in Bavaria (30 September 1843, Possenhofen Castle - 18 June 1925, Munich) was the fourth daughter of Maximilian, Duke in Bavaria and Princess Ludovika of Bavaria. Her maternal grandparents were Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and his second wife Friederike Karoline Wilhelmine Margravine of Baden.

Mathilde was a younger sister of (among others) Elisabeth of Bavaria and Maria Sophie of Bavaria. She was an older sister of (among others) Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria.

On 5 June 1861, Mathilde married Lodovico, Count of Trani. He was Heir Presumptive to his older half-brother Francis II of the Two Sicilies. Francis was married to her older sister Maria Sophie. The bride was seventeen years old and the groom about twenty-three. They had a single daughter:

Princess Maria Teresa of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (15 January 1867 - 1 May 1909). She married Prince Wilhelm of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.

However the Two Sicilies were conquered by the Expedition of the Thousand under Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1861. Garibaldi served the Kingdom of Sardinia which was in the process of Italian unification.

Lodovico was still the heir of Francis as head of a deposed Royal House. He retained this position for the rest of his life but predeceased Francis on 8 June 1886. Francis was eventually succeeded by their younger brother Prince Alfonso, Count of Caserta. Mathilde survived her husband by thirty-nine years but never remarried.