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Polyxena with her two eldest children by a member of the Piedmontese School | |
Queen of Sardinia | |
Consort | 3 September 1730 – 13 January 1735 |
Burial | 1786 Royal Basilica of Superga, Turin |
Spouse | Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia |
Issue | Victor Amadeus III, King of Sardinia Princess Eleonora Princess Maria Luisa Princess Maria Felicita Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta Carlo, Duke of Aosta |
House | House of Savoy House of Hesse-Kassel |
Father | Ernest Leopold, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg |
Mother | Eleonore of Löwenstein-Wertheim |
Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg (Polyxena Christina Johanna; 21 September 1706 – 13 January 1735) sometimes Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg was the second wife of Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont, future Charles Emmanuel III, whom she married in 1724. The mother of the future Victor Amadeus III, she was Queen of Sardinia from 1730 until her death in 1735.
Biography
Polyxena was born at Langenschwalbach in Hesse and was a Landgravine of Hesse-Rotenburg by birth – this entitled her to the style of Her Serene Highness. The child was baptised with the name Polyxena in honour of her maternal grandmother Maria Polyxena of Lichtenberg und Belasi.
King Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia approached her family and proposed a union between Polyxena and Victor Amadeus II's son and heir Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont. A previous match orchestrated by Agostino Steffani with a daughter of Rinaldo d'Este, Duke of Modena had come to nothing. His first wife, Anne Christine of Sulzbach died March 1723, less than a year after her marriage and barely a week after childbirth, leaving a son, Victor Amadeus.
Although only two years younger, Polyxena had been a niece of Charles Emanuel's first wife, and belonged to the only Roman Catholic branch (since 1652) of the reigning House of Hesse. In fact, she had been nominally a canoness of Thorn since 1620.
The engagement was announced on 2 July 1724, and she wed Charles Emmanuel by proxy on 23 July in Rotenburg. The marriage was celebrated in person at Thonon in Chablais on 20 August 1724. From then on, she took on the style of Her Royal Highess the Princess of Piedmont. The happy union between Charles Emmanuel and his wife produced six children, four of which would survive infancy.
Her stepson Victor Amadeus, heir after his father and grandfather to the Sardinian crown, died at the age of two, a year after Polyxena's marriage and before she had a child of her own. Nonetheless, she is said to have had a close relationship with her mother-in-law Anne Marie d'Orléans and the two frequented the Villa della Regina outside the capital, where the latter died in 1728.
When King Victor Amadeus announced his decision to return to the throne after having abdicated in 1730, Polyxena used her influence over her husband to imprison his father at the Castle of Moncalieri, where he was joined for a while by his morganatic spouse Anna Canalis di Cumiana, Polyxena's former lady of the bedchamber.
Praised as an attractive, cultured and virtuous woman, Polyxena founded a home for penniless mothers in the city of Turin in 1732, redecorated the Villa della Regina, the hunting lodge of Stupingi, and the Church of Saint Giuseppe in Turin. She carried out various improvements with Filippo Juvarra and popularised chinoiserie. She was also a patron of Giovanni Battista Crosato, a baroque painter.
Having been ill since June 1734, she died at the Royal Palace of Turin. Originally buried at the Cathedral of Saint Giovanni Battista, she was moved to the Royal Basilica of Superga in 1786 by her son Victor Amadeus III. Two years after her death, her widower married Elisabeth Therese of Lorraine, sister of the future Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor.
Legacy
The senior branch of the House of Savoy ended with her grandson Charles Felix of Sardinia. The Villa Polissena in Rome is named in her honour.
Issue
- Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia (26 June 1726 – 16 October 1796) married Maria Antonia of Spain and had issue.
- Princess Eleonora of Savoy (28 February 1728 – 14 August 1781) unwed.
- Princess Maria Luisa of Savoy (25 March 1729 – 22 June 1767) unwed.
- Princess Maria Felicita of Savoy (19 March 1730 – 13 May 1801) unwed.
- Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy (17 May 1731 – 23 April 1735) Duke of Aosta.
- Prince Carlo of Savoy (23 July 1733 – 28 December 1733) Duke of Chablais.
Ancestry
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Titles and styles
- 21 September 1706 – 23 July 1724 Her Serene Highness Landgravine Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg
- 23 July 1724 – 3 September 1730 Her Royal Highness the Princess of Piedmont
- 3 September 1730 – 13 January 1735 Her Majesty the Queen of Sardinia
Notes
- Huberty 1976, p. 129, 153-154 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFHuberty1976 (help)
- ^ van de Pas, Leo. "Landgräfin Polixene von Hessen-Rheinfels-Rotenburg". Genealogics .org. Retrieved 2010-10-30.
- sometimes styled Princess
- "Savoia". Retrieved 2010-08-26.
- Timms. Colin: Polymath of the baroque: Agostino Steffani and his music, Oxford University Press US, 2003, p 117
- Marek 2008
- Huberty 1976, p. 75 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFHuberty1976 (help)
- Huberty 1976, p. 130 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFHuberty1976 (help)
- ^ Storia politica, civile, militare della dinastia di Savoia dalle prime origini a Vittorio Emanuele II, Paravia, 1869, p 266
- Vitelleschi. Marchese: The romance of Savoy, Victor Amadeus II. and his Stuart bride Volume II, Harvard College Library, New York, 1905, p 488
- Vitelleschi. Marchese: The romance of Savoy, Victor Amadeus II. and his Stuart bride Volume II, Harvard College Library, New York, 1905, p 494
- Vitelleschi. Marchese: The romance of Savoy, Victor Amadeus II and his Stuart bride. Volume II, Harvard College Library, New York, 1905, p 497
- Symcox. Geoffrey: Victor Amadeus II: absolutism in the Savoyard State, 1675-1730, University of California Press, 1983, p 229
- Two Allegorical Sculptures by Francesco Ladatte, Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 41, (2006), p 121-131
- "Mafalda di Savoia". Santi, Beati e Testimoni. Retrieved 2010-08-26.
- Huberty 1976, p. 129 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFHuberty1976 (help)
Bibliography
- Cantogno. Domenico Carutti di: Storia del regno di Carlo Emanuele III Turin, 1859
- Symcox. Geoffrey: Victor Amadeus II: absolutism in the Savoyard State, 1675-1730, University of California Press, 1983, ISBN 9780520049741
- Huberty, Michel; Giraud, F. Alain; Magdelaine, F. & B. L'Allemagne Dynastique (Tome I Hesse-Reuss-Saxe). Le Perreux: A. Giraud, 1976. ISBN 2901138012
- Marek, Miroslav (2008), "Rulers of Savoy and Sicily", Genealogy.EU, retrieved 2010-08-29
- Vitelleschi. Marchese: The romance of Savoy, Victor Amadeus II. and his Stuart bride Volume II, Harvard College Library, New York, 1905
External links
Media related to Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg at Wikimedia Commons
See also
Landgravines of Hesse-Rotenburg | |
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The generations start from the children of Herman IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg and his brother Ernest, Landgrave of Hesse-Rheinfels | |
2nd generation | |
3rd generation | |
4th generation |
Princesses of Savoy by marriage | |
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2nd generation | |
3rd generation | |
4th generation |
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5th generation | |
7th generation | |
8th generation | |
9th generation | |
10th generation | |
11th generation | |
12th generation | |
13th generation | |
14th generation | |
15th generation | |
16th generation | |
17th generation | |
18th generation | |
19th generation | |
*also a princess of Savoy by birth **Princess of Savoy-Genoa ***Princess of Savoy-Aosta |
Princesses of Piedmont | |
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Queens of Sardinia | |
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- 1706 births
- 1735 deaths
- People from Bad Schwalbach
- Landgravines of Hesse-Rotenburg
- 18th-century German people
- Sardinian queens consort
- House of Hesse-Kassel
- German nobility
- Italian royalty
- House of Savoy
- Princesses of Savoy
- Burials at the Cathedral of Saint Giovanni Battista, Turin
- Burials at the Basilica of Superga
- Princesses of Piedmont
- Disease-related deaths in Italy