Marie-Louise of Austria

Marie-Louise of Austria (1791-1847), Hapsburg archduchess, eldest daughter of the last Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II, who married Napoleon I, Emperor of France, in April 1810, during the Napoleonic Wars, thus confirming the peace treaty between Austria and France that had followed Napoleon’s victory in the Battle of Wagram (July 1809).

As an Austrian princess, Marie-Louise had been brought up to hate and fear Napoleon as the enemy and despoiler of her country, which had been progressively deprived of its empire by the success of French military action after 1796. The crushing victory of Napoleon over Austrian forces in the Battle of Austerlitz (1805) had been confirmed by the failure of renewed resistance to the French in the Aspern-Essling and Wagram campaign of 1809. Napoleon, now ruling most of continental Europe through a network of his own family members, wished to provide himself with an heir: his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais, had not done so. He also wanted to secure his legitimacy by allying himself by marriage with one of the great dynasties of Europe. After divorcing Joséphine, he thought first to marry a Russian heiress, but eventually, through the diplomacy of Prince Klemens Metternich, the Austrian Chancellor, he made a match with Marie-Louise of the House of Habsburg, the oldest ruling house in Europe. Metternich wanted the marriage to give Austria a respite from French attacks as well as some freedom of manoeuvre against France. At age 19 (22 years younger than her husband), Marie-Louise became Empress of the French.

Although the reasons for the marriage were almost entirely diplomatic and dynastic, Napoleon and his bride grew fond of each other, and on campaign his almost daily letters to her were affectionate. Both took pleasure in the birth of their son, styled the King of Rome, and the future Napoleon II, on March 20, 1811. For Napoleon, his wife was “bonne Louise”, and through her he was able to maintain good relations with Francis II and the Austrian ministers, key elements in the coalition of powers assembled for the invasion of Russia in 1812. She acted as Regent of France while he was absent on campaign.

Napoleon’s defeat in Russia, however, changed both the political circumstances and the personal situation of the Empress. Austrian troops had been annihilated in the campaign, alongside their French allies, and revived national feeling encouraged the ruling house to change sides. As a good Austrian, Marie-Louise stayed in Vienna with her son when Napoleon was forced to abdicate in 1814 and was exiled to Elba. With his further exile to St Helena after the Hundred Days and the Battle of Waterloo, the marriage was effectively over.

In the reorganization of Europe after the dismemberment of the French Empire in 1815, Marie-Louise was given sovereignty over three Italian principalities, including Parma. She remarried twice after Napoleon’s death in 1821: to Adam Adalbert, Count von Neipperg, in 1821, and Charles René, Count de Bombelles, in 1834. She died in Parma in 1847. Her son, recognized in some quarters as Napoleon II, had died in 1832.