Story Highlights
- Historical event
- 2 July 1849
- The last Bavarian Queen Maria Theresa was the great-grandson of the famous Empress and the Hungarian-Croatian ruler Maria Theresa.
This day in 1849 marked the birth of Maria Theresa of Austria-Este, the last Queen of Bavaria.
Namely, Bavaria was a kingdom (1806-1918) after the abolition of the monarchy. Maria Theresa’s husband was the last Bavarian king, Ludwig III (of the Wittelsbach dynasty).
Maria Theresa of Austria-Este was born as the daughter of Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Karl Viktor, who was a member of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty.
She was a cousin of the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph through the male line, and he was also a member of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty.
Maria Theresa was the great-grandson of the famous empress and Hungarian-Croatian ruler Maria Theresa.
It is interesting to note that Maria Theresa of Austria-Este was also a successor to the British throne (the Stuart dynasty).
Namely, the Stuart dynasty ruled Great Britain, but was deposed in 1688 (in the so-called Glorious revolution). The last members of the Stuart dynasty were Catholics, and their successors were Protestants.
There are no surviving male members of the mentioned dynasty, but there are women. Those who support this dynasty are known as the Jacobites (named after James II of England), and they considered Maria Theresa of Austria-Este as their Queen.
When she married the Bavarian King, the Jacobite heritage came under control of the Wittelsbach dynasty.
Franz, Duke of Bavaria is the Jacobites’s pretender to the throne. He is the great-grandson of Maria Theresa of Austria-Este.
