A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Maria Louisa Leopoldine Caroline
MARIA LOUISA LEOPOLDINE CAROLINE,
Archduchess of Austria, Duchess of Parma, was the eldest daughter of Francis the First, Emperor of Austria, by his second marriage, with Maria Theresa, daughter of the King of Naples. She was born in 1791, and April 1st., 1810, married Napoleon. Her son was born March 20th., 1811. When Napoleon left Paris to meet the allied army, he made her regent of the empire. On the 29th. of March, 1814, she was obliged to leave Paris; Napoleon abdicated his authority April 11th., and Maria Louisa went to meet her father at Rambouillet, who would not allow her to follow her husband, but sent her, with her son, to Schönbrunn. When Napoleon returned, from Elba, he wrote to his wife to join him, but his letters remained unanswered. In 1816 she entered upon the administration of the duchies of Panna, Piacienza, and Guastalla, secured to her by the treaty of Fontainebleau. While there she privately married her master of the horse, Colonel Neipperg, by whom she had several children. She was apparently amiable, but weak, self-indulgent, and surrounded by artful advisers, who kept her in the thraldom of sensuous pleasures till she lost the moral dignity of woman. What signified her royal blood and high station! She lived unhonoured, and died unwept.