Marie-Louise of Austria

Empress of France
1791-1847

French Revolution Posters
Love Letters from Napoleon

A pleasant and loving Austrian princess, Marie-Louise was 19 when she married Napoleon Bonaparte.

It must have been strange, at first, for Marie-Louise to be in France. Her father was Francis I of Austria and her great aunt, Marie-Antoinette, had been executed during the Revolution.

The marriage, which started off as a political necessity binding her father's Austria and France more closely, appeared to be a contented one for both Bonaparte and his young bride.

They had a son, Francois, the King of Rome, who, after Bonaparte's first abdication, went to Vienna to live with his mother.

Given Italian lands by her family, the now Duchess of Parma married twice after Bonaparte's death.