Princess Maria Francesca of Savoy (Maria Francesca Anna Romana; 26 December 1914 – 7 December 2001) was the youngest daughter of

Victor Emmanuel III of Italy Victor Emmanuel III (Vittorio Emanuele Ferdinando Maria Gennaro di Savoia; 11 November 1869 – 28 December 1947) was King of Italy from 29 July 1900 until his abdication on 9 May 1946. He also reigned as Emperor of Ethiopia (1936–1941) and ...

and

Elena of Montenegro Elena of Montenegro (; 8 January 1873 – 28 November 1952) was a Montenegrin princess as the daughter of King Nicholas I of Montenegro and his wife, Queen Milena. She was Queen of Italy from 1900 until 1946 as wife of King Victor Emmanuel ...

. She was a sister of

Umberto II of Italy en, Albert Nicholas Thomas John Maria of Savoy , house = Savoy , father = Victor Emmanuel III of Italy , mother = Princess Elena of Montenegro , birth_date = , birth_place = Racconigi, Piedmont, Kingdom of Italy , ...

and of Queen Giovanna of Bulgaria.

Marriage and issue

Maria Francesca of Savoy and Luigi Carlo of Bourbon-Parma wedding 1939-01-23

Maria Francesca was born in Rome as the fifth and youngest child of her parents. She had three elder sisters, Yolanda, Giovanna, Mafalda, and a brother, Umberto. On 23 January 1939, in the Pauline Chapel of the

Quirinal Palace The Quirinal Palace ( it, Palazzo del Quirinale ) is a historic building in Rome, Italy, one of the three current official residences of the president of the Italian Republic, together with Villa Rosebery in Naples and the Tenuta di Castelporzia ...

in Rome, Maria Francesca married Prince Luigi of Bourbon-Parma (1899–1967), a younger son of

Robert I, Duke of Parma Robert I (Italian: ''Roberto Carlo Luigi Maria''; 9 July 1848 – 16 November 1907) was the last sovereign Duke of Parma and Piacenza from 1854 until 1859, when the duchy was annexed to Sardinia-Piedmont during the ''Risorgimento''. He was a m ...

, and

Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal ''Infante'' (, ; f. ''infanta''), also anglicised as Infant or translated as Prince, is the title and rank given in the Iberian kingdoms of Spain (including the predecessor kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, Navarre, and León) and Portugal to th ...

.''Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Fürstliche Häuser, XII''. "Haus Bourbon". C.A. Starke Verlag, 1984, p. 19. (German). Her husband was a brother of Zita, Empress of Austria, the last Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. The couple moved to

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. T ...

, where all four of their children were born. Maria was

interned Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

with her husband and two elder children by the Nazis during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

.de Badts de Cugnac, Chantal. Coutant de Saisseval, Guy. Nouvelle Imprimerie Laballery. Paris. 2002. pp. 597-598, 619. (French) In 1945 the Anglo-Americans freed them and they returned to Italy. After the war, they lived in Italy for a while, then returned to France. She took up permanent residence in

Mandelieu Mandelieu-la-Napoule (; oc, Mandaluec la Napola; locally spelled Mandelieu-La Napoule) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera, just to the ...

, near Cannes, after her husband's death in 1967. They had four children: *Prince Guy of Bourbon-Parma (7 August 1940, Cannes – 10 March 1991,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

) married Brigitte Peu-Duvallon on 11 November 1964; divorced 17 September 1981, with issue. * Prince Rémy of Bourbon-Parma (born 14 July 1942, Cannes) married firstly Laurence Dufresne d'Arganchy 10 February 1973; divorced 1983, with issue. He wed secondly Elisabeth Tardif on 5 July 2003. * Princess Chantal of Bourbon-Parma (born 24 November 1946, Cannes) married firstly Panayotis Skinas on 1 July 1977; divorced 1987, with issue. She wed secondly Francois-Henri Georges on 24 September 1988. * Prince Jean of Bourbon-Parma (born 15 October 1961, Cannes) married Virginia Roatta on 26 March 1988, with issue. Jean is the youngest grandchild of

Honours

* House of Savoy: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarusgenmarenostrum.com
page with the Italian Royal family members' honours
/ref> * : Dame Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, 3rd First Class * Austrian Imperial and Royal Family: Dame of the Order of the Starry Cross, 2nd Class

Ancestry

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maria Francesca Of Savoy, Princess 1914 births 2001 deaths Deaths in France Princesses of Savoy Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus Knights of Malta Italian Roman Catholics 20th-century Roman Catholics 21st-century Roman Catholics Nobility from Rome Italian people of Montenegrin descent Italian exiles Daughters of emperors Daughters of kings