Archduchess Louise of Austria

Archduchess Louise of Austria (2 September 1870, in Salzburg – 23 March 1947, in Brussels) was the second daughter of Ferdinand IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Crown Princess of Saxony as the wife of the future King Frederick Augustus III.

Louise was born in Salzburg to the exiled Grand Duke of Tuscany and his second wife, Alice, and grew up in a relatively informal household. At the age of 17, she began to attract suitors, and in the end chose the crown prince of Saxony, Frederick Augustus, and they married in 1891.

Upon arriving in Dresden, she rejected the strict rules of Saxon court life, which brought her into conflicts with her Wettin in-laws. However, Louise gave birth to six children, increasing her popularity among the Saxon people. Her unhappiness with her husband moved her to have numerous affairs, her father-in-law threatening to have her confined to an asylum. Whilst pregnant with her seventh child, Anna Monika Pia, she fled Dresden to Lake Geneva, where her brother Leopold awaited her. This incident was extremely damaging to the devout Catholic Saxon royal family.

Her father-in-law the Saxon king dissolved their union in 1903 and a year later, she was barred from returning to Saxony. She first lived with her lover, giving birth to a daughter who was officially the daughter of Frederick, until late 1903 when they separated. In 1907, Louise married again to the Italian musician, Enrico Toselli but this union only produced one child and they divorced in 1912. Following this, she relied on the charity of her wealthy Habsburg family, but when Austria-Hungary collapsed in 1918, Louise lost this income and largely fell into poverty and died as a flower seller in 1947.