Marie Louise

Marie Louise (1791-1847), daughter of Emperor Francis I of Austria and second wife of Napoleon I, emperor of France. Her marriage during the Napoleonic Wars confirmed the peace treaty between Austria and France that had followed Napoleon’s victory over Austrian forces in the Battle of Wagram in July 1809.

Marie Louise was born in Vienna, Austria, on December 12, 1791. As an Austrian princess she had been brought up to hate and fear Napoleon as the enemy 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 in 1805 had been followed by Austria’s defeat in the Wagram campaign of 1809.

After the defeat of the Austrians, Napoleon ruled most of continental Europe and wished to produce 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. Eventually, through the diplomacy of Prince Klemens Metternich, the Austrian minister of foreign affairs, he made a match with Marie-Louise of the house of Habsburg, one of the oldest ruling families in Europe. Metternich, who was instrumental in obtaining Marie Louise’s consent, hoped the marriage would give Austria a respite from French attacks as well as some freedom of maneuver against France. In April 1810, 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 his almost daily letters to her while on military campaigns were affectionate. In March 1811 both took pleasure in the birth of their son, François Charles Joseph, who was given the title king of Rome. For Napoleon, his wife was “bonne Louise” (good Louise), and through her he was able to maintain good relations with the Austrian emperor and ministers, a key element in the coalition of powers he assembled for an invasion of Russia in 1812. She acted as regent of France while Napoleon was absent on campaigns.

Napoleon’s defeat in Russia, however, changed both the political circumstances and the personal situation of Marie Louise. Austrian troops had been annihilated in the campaign alongside their French allies, and a revival of national feeling encouraged Austria’s ruling house to change sides. As a good Austrian, Marie Louise stayed in Vienna with her son after Napoleon was forced to abdicate in 1814 and was exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba. With Napoleon’s escape from Elba and his subsequent exile to the island of Saint Helena after the Battle of Waterloo, the marriage was effectively over.

At the Congress of Vienna, which reorganized Europe after Napoleon’s defeat, Marie Louise was awarded three Italian principalities: Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla. In Vienna, she had fallen in love with Adam Adalbert, Count von Neipperg, and the two moved to Parma. After Napoleon’s death in 1821 she married Neipperg, who died in 1829. She married another Austrian, Charles René, Count de Bombelles, in 1834. Marie Louise died in Parma on December 17, 1847, and was buried in Vienna. Her son, recognized in some quarters as Napoleon II, had died in 1832.