Баварияның соңғы патшайымы Мария Тереза

Queen of Bavaria from 1913 to 1918

Maria Theresa Henriette Dorothea of Austria Este (also Marie Therese; 2 July 1849 – 3 February 1919) was the last Queen of Bavaria. She was the only child of Archduke Ferdinand Karl Viktor of Austria Este and Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria.

On 20 February 1868, she married Prince Ludwig, eldest son of Bavaria's Prince Regent Luitpold, in the Augustinerkirche in Vienna. The couple had fallen in love during a visit of Ludwig to Austria to attend the burial of Archduchess Mathilda. Their decision to marry initially angered the Emperor, who had wished for her to marry Ferdinand IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany. The chief witness was Count Antonius Schaffgotsch. The family mostly lived on their farms at Leutstetten south of Munich, where Maria Theresa cultivated rose gardens. Maria Theresa became queen consort of Bavaria in 1913 when her husband the ruling Prince Regent proclaimed himself king as Ludwig III in place of his living but insane cousin King Otto. She became the first Catholic queen in Bavaria since Bavaria was made a kingdom 1806. She spoke German, Hungarian, Czech, French, and Italian. In 1914, she hosted festivities during the royal Bavarian jubilee. She appeared with her husband when war was announced. During World War I, she visited wounded soldiers and encouraged the women of Bavaria to support the troops by providing food and clothes, including with the donations references to legendary heroines. On 7 November 1918, Ludwig III was forced to abdicate the Bavarian throne, and Maria Theresa fled Munich with her family to Wildenwart Castle near Frasdorf, in order to escape from the Bolsheviks. The health of the Queen soon declined and she died there on 3 February 1919, being buried at the local chapel. On 5 November 1921 her remains were transferred to the cathedral of Munich along with those of her husband, who died less than a month before.

Maria Theresa was the niece and heir of the childless Francis V, Duke of Modena who had been, at the time of his death, the Jacobite heir general to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland; as such, she became the heiress after his death in 1875. Neither she, nor any of her Jacobite forebears since 1807, ever seriously pursued this claim. Following her death in 1919, Maria Theresa's son Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria inherited the Jacobite claim. Like his mother, he and his descendants have not pursued a claim to the British thrones.