Princess Maria Felicita of Savoy

Maria Felicita
Full name
Maria Felicita di Savoia
House	House of Savoy
Father	Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia
Mother	Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg
Born	(1730-03-19)19 March 1730 Royal Palace of Turin, Turin
Died	13 May 1801(1801-05-13) (aged 71) Naples
Burial	Royal Basilica of Superga, Turin

Maria Felicita of Savoy (19 March 1730 – 13 May 1801) was) a princess of the house of Savoy, the third daughter of Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia and his second wife Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg. A religious woman, she died unmarried.

Biography

Born at the Royal Palace of Turin, she was the third daughter of Charles Emmanuel III, King of Sardinia and his second wife Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg. Her mother died in 1735 when she was just four years old. Her father married again in 1737 to Elisabeth Therese of Lorraine, the youngest sister of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor. Charles Emmanuel III and Elisabeth Therese went onto have three children, including the Duke of Chablais.

Her maternal cousins included Victor Amadeus II, Prince of Carignan and his younger sister the future princesse de Lamballe, both of which were born at the court of Savoy. Her paternal cousins included Ferdinand VI of Spain, who was king of Spain at the time of her birth.

She was a very religious woman and never married. She founded a boarding school in her native Turin called the Convitto per donne nubili e vedove), a boarding school for widows and unmarried ladies in the Kingdom of Sardinia.

On 6 December 1798, the French First Republic declared war on Sardinia.

Her brother Charles Emmanuel (then king) was forced to abdicate all his territories on the Italian mainland and to withdraw to the island of Sardinia. As Charles Emmanuel took little interest in the rule of what was left of his kingdom, he and Clotilde lived in Rome and then in Naples as guests of the wealthy Colonna family. Maria Felicita went with her nephew to live as fugitives in Italy.

She died in Rome unmarried and was buried at the Royal Basilica of Superga overlooking Turin, the traditional burial place of the House of Savoy. She outlived all her siblings except the Duke of Chablais.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

• 19 March 1730 – 13 May 1801 Her Royal Highness Princess Maria Felicita of Savoy, Princess of Sardinia and Piedmont