Princess Matilde d'Este

Princess of Modena

Matilde d'Este

Princess of Modena

Born

(1729-02-07)7 February 1729
Genoa, Italy

Died

14 November 1803(1803-11-14) (aged 74)
Treviso, Italy

Burial

Convent of the Visitation, Venice

Names
Matilde d'Este

Father

Francesco III d'Este, Duke of Modena

Mother

Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans

Matilde d'Este (February 7, 1729 – November 14, 1803) was a Modenese princess by birth. She was the daughter of Francesco III d'Este, Duke of Modena and Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans.

Biography

Matilde was born in Genoa, the second daughter and fifth child of Francesco III d'Este, Duke of Modena, the sovereign Duke of Modena and his wife, Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans, Mademoiselle de Valois — a granddaughter of Louis XIV of France and Madame de Montespan.^[1] Her mother separated from her father in the 1740s after an affair with the Duke of Richelieu was discovered at the Modenese court. Exiled to France, Charlotte Aglaé still managed to arrange the marriages of her daughters. Her eldest sister Maria Teresa married her second cousin, the Duke of Penthièvre. Her younger sister, Maria Fortunata also married a cousin of theirs, Louis François Joseph de Bourbon, heir to the Prince of Conti. However, all marriage negotiations for Matilde failed.

After the death of her sister Maria Teresa in 1754, her mother tried to arrange a marriage between Matilde and her sister's widow. However, the grieving Duke declined the offer and never remarried. Matilde would also remain unmarried. She died in 1803 and was interred in the chapel of the Convent of the Visitation in Venice. Two of her siblings, Ercole III of Modena and Maria Fortunata, are also buried there.

Ancestry

Ancestors of Princess Matilde d'Este^[2]

16. Alfonso III d'Este, Duke of Modena

8. Francesco I d'Este, Duke of Modena

17. Isabella of Savoy

4. Rinaldo d'Este, Duke of Modena

18. Taddeo Barberini, Prince of Palestrina

9. Lucrezia Barberini

19. Anna Colonna

2. Francesco III d'Este, Duke of Modena

20. George, Duke of Brunswick-Calenberg

10. John Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Calenberg

21. Anne Eleonore of Hesse-Darmstadt

5. Charlotte of Brunswick

22. Edward, Count Palatine of Simmern

11. Benedicta Henrietta of the Palatinate

23. Anne Gonzaga

1. Matilde d'Este

24. Louis XIII of France

12. Philippe I, Duke of Orléans

25. Anne of Austria

6. Philippe II, Duke of Orléans

26. Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine

13. Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate

27. Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel

3. Charlotte Aglaé of Orléans

28. Louis XIII of France (= 24)

14. Louis XIV of France

29. Anne of Austria (= 25)

7. Françoise Marie de Bourbon

30. Gabriel de Rochechouart, duc de Mortemart

15. Madame de Montespan

31. Diane de Grandseigne

References

^ Journal de la vie de S.A.S. madame la Dsse. d'Orléans, douairière
^ Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans [Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. 1768. p. 86.