Princess Joséphine of Lorraine

Joséphine de Lorraine (Marie Joséphine Thérèse; 26 August 1753 – 8 February 1797) was a princess of the House of Lorraine by birth and Princess of Carignan by virtue of marriage. She was the paternal grandmother of King Charles Albert of Sardinia, from whom the modern royal house of Italy descends.

Joséphine
Princess of Carignano
Portrait by Ludwig Guttenbrunn
Born(1753-08-26)26 August 1753
Died8 February 1797(1797-02-08) (aged 43)
Palazzo Carignano, Turin, Italy
SpouseVictor Amadeus II, Prince of Carignano
Issue
Detail
Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Carignano
Names
French: Marie Joséphine Thérèse de Lorraine
Italian: Maria Giuseppina Teresa di Lorena
HouseLorraine
FatherLouis of Lorraine, Prince of Brionne
MotherLouise de Rohan

Biography

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Joséphine with her sister Charlotte, c. 1770

Marie Joséphine Thérèse de Lorraine was the second of four children born to Louis de Lorraine, prince de Brionne, a cadet of the House of Guise, among the most influential families of France's ancien regime. The senior, sovereign branch of the House of Lorraine would merge with the Imperial House of Habsburg during her lifetime through marriage of the last reigning duke, Francis, to Maria Theresa of Austria. Her mother was princess Louise Julie Constance of Rohan (1735-1815), who also belonged to a powerful family of princes étrangers, the House of Rohan. Her brother, Charles Eugène de Lorraine, prince de Lambesc (25 September 1751 – 11 November 1825), escorted his kinswoman Marie Antoinette to France from Vienna in 1770, became Austrian ambassador to France, and would be the last male of the Guise branch of the House of Lorraine.

On 18 October 1768 Joséphine married Prince Victor Amadeus of Savoy, the son and heir of Louis Victor, Prince of Carignan and his German wife, the Landgravine Christine Henriette of Hesse-Rotenburg. Amadeus was also the brother of the princesse de Lamballe,[1] the tragic confidante of Queen Marie Antoinette.

Prince Charles Emmanuel of Savoy was born to Joséphine in Turin on 24 October 1770. She died aged 43 in Turin at the Palazzo Carignano and was buried at Turin Cathedral until 1816, when she was moved to the Basilica of Superga during the reign of Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia.

Issue

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Ancestry

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References and notes

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  1. ^ Princess Maria Teresa Luisa of Savoy married Louis Alexandre de Bourbon in May 1768. Louis Alexandre was a grandson of Louis XIV and Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart, Marquise de Montespan