Maria Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Massa

1750 – 1829 · Generation XVII · Duchess of Massa

Maria Beatrice (1750 – 1829). Duchess of Massa. Married Ferdinand Karl in 1771. Heiress of Massa and Carrara; wife of Ferdinand Karl. The only surviving child of Ercole III d’Este and Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, she was the last of the Este line, and treaties of 1753 made her the channel through which Modena would pass to a Habsburg husband — first meant to be Archduke Leopold, then, from 1763, his younger brother Ferdinand Karl, four years her junior. Their wedding in Milan in October 1771, celebrated with Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba, founded the House of Austria-Este. The couple spent nearly twenty-five years in Milan, where he served as governor, and raised ten children. She inherited Massa and Carrara from her mother in 1790 and proved a careful ruler, though she never lived there. The French conquest of northern Italy sent her to Austria; in 1808 her daughter Maria Ludovika married Emperor Francis. Restored to her duchy in 1815, she was succeeded in 1829 by her son Francis IV of Modena.

Place in the family

Maria Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Massa married Ferdinand Karl, Archduke of Austria-Este, a son of Maria Theresa.

Partners

Married Ferdinand Karl, Archduke of Austria-Este (1754 – 1806) in 1771

Life

1750 — Born
1771 — Married Ferdinand Karl
1829 — Died