Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy
1701 - 1714
The second daughter of Victor Amadeus II (1666-1732), Duke of Savoy, and Anne Marie d'Orléans (1669-1728), the princess Maria Luisa Gabriella was educated at the court of Turin. Her marriage to Philip V (1683-1746), ratified in Figueras on 3rd November 1701, was arranged by Louis XIV of France, the King's grandfather, in order to strengthen the alliance between the House of Savoy and the Bourbons, within the context of the War of the Spanish Succession. Although the King and Queen were wed when Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy was not yet thirteen, the Queen surprised the Spanish court with her maturity: “she has the spirit and penetration of a woman in her thirties", confessed a contemporary witness after meeting her. Endowed with considerable personal charm......
