Princess Marie Thérèse of Savoy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not to be confused with Maria Teresa of Savoy.

Marie-Thérèse of Savoy (31 January 1756 - 1805), princess of Sardinia and of Piedmont, was the wife of Charles, Comte d'Artois, the youngest grandson of Louis XV of France, who would become Charles X of France.

Maria Teresa di Savoia was the fifth child and third daughter of Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia and his Queen consort Maria Antonieta Fernanda of Bourbon, Infanta of Spain. Her paternal grandparents were Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia and his wife Polyxena Christina of Hesse-Rotenburg. Polixena was a daughter of Ernest Leopold, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg. Her maternal grandparents were Philip V of Spain and his second wife, Elizabeth Farnese.

Marie-Thérèse married Charles-Philippe, Comte d'Artois, on 16 November 1773; her sister, Marie Josephine, had married his brother, Louis de Provence, some two and a half years before. Charles had previously been intended to marry the Princesse de Condé, and was emotionally close to his other sister-in-law, Marie Antoinette of Austria; his marriage to Marie-Thérèse failed to interest either bride or groom. She was one of the most disliked figures at the French court of the time, although she avoided the worst of the abuse directed at Marie Antoinette.

Marie-Thérèse and Charles produced four children, the last direct line of the Bourbons:

She fled France with her husband in 1789, after the beginning of the French Revolution. She died in exile at Graz in 1805. Because she died before her husband became Charles X of France, she was not Queen, instead being buried as the Comtesse d'Artois. She was buried in the Imperial Mausoleum next to Graz cathedral.

In Sophia Coppola's 2006 film, "Marie Antoinette," Comtesse de Provence was played by French actress Clémentine Poidatz.