Maria Clementina: An Intimate Portrait of a Forgotten Princesss

I. Humble Beginnings

By the time of Clementina's birth in 1798, the Holy Roman Empire's existence was being challenged by France. The French Revolution, which resulted in the death of Clementina's great-aunt, Queen Marie Antoinette of France, did nothing to help the imposed Empire. In 1805, when Clementina was seven years old, the Holy Roman Empire (Austria) joined a coalition against France, of which ultimately ended in the end of the Empire after the Austrian and Russian armies lost. The Holy Roman Empire was reduced to the Austrian Empire, of which Francis now ruled, and his consort, Maria Teresa, was denoted to the Empress of Austria. The road to this act was not easy, and Clementina's family had to flee their homeland many times. The upbringing in which the children of Francis and Maria Teresa received is a footnote for the futures of the children. Archduchess Maria Ludovica, the elder sister of Clementina, married Austria's enemy, Napoleon Bonaparte, in 1810—mainly due to the War of the Fifth Coalition, in which Austria became a French ally.

The years 1806 and 1807 were not good to the Imperial family. During the winter of 1806, Empress Maria Teresa, pregnant with her twelfth child, fell ill with tuberculous pleurisy. The Imperial physician, Andreas Joseph von Stifft, attempted bloodletting, but to no avail. On 6 April 1807, Maria Teresa gave birth to Amalie Theresa, Clementina's youngest sister. When Maria Teresa went into labor, Francis was in Hungary. When he heard of the news, he rushed to Vienna to be at the side of his consort when she gave birth. However, the birth was premature, brought on by the bloodletting. Three days later, on 9 April, young Amalie Theresa died. Maria Teresa died on 13 April 1807 due to a high fever, only four days after the death of her newly born daughter. It was a terrible and tragic scene. The unlucky emperor was inconsolable and had to be removed from the bed of his dead wife. Francis wrote to his mother-in-law, the Queen of Naples and Sicily, "You can imagine my condition after such a happy marriage as it was with my wife and children, a good number of whom still need a mother." Clementina was only nine years old at the funeral of her mother. Her father, who was terribly saddened by the death of his wife, and her two eldest siblings, Maria Ludovica and Ferdinand, went to Ofen instead of attending.
In 1808, only a few months after the death of his wife, Francis married Maria Ludovika Beatrix of Modena. Maria Ludovika was the daughter of Ferdinand Karl, Archduke of Austria-Este, the fourth son and fourteenth child of Holy Roman Emperor Francis Stephen and Empress Maria Theresa. He was the founder of the House of Austria-Este. His wife, Maria Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Massa, was the daughter of Ercole III, Duke of Massa, and Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina. Maria Beatrice was the only child of Ercole III and Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina to survive to adulthood. Their son, Rinaldo Francesco, born nearly three years after Maria Beatrice, died in infancy. Empress Maria Ludovika took on a maternal role for Clementina's elder sister Maria Ludovica, and she was well-received within the family; she, too, hated the French for depriving her father of the Duchy of Modena and Reggio.
            The rest of Clementina's early life and childhood is shrouded in mystery. Of course, in 1810, Clementina's eldest sister, Maria Ludovica, married Napoleon Bonaparte. A painting of the Imperial children by Pauline Auzou, completed in 1812, two years after Maria Ludovica's arrival in France, as they receive diamonds from their eldest sister. This painting included Clementina with Maria Ludovica, Ferdinand, Leopoldina, Caroline, Franz Karl, and Marie Anne. The diamonds distributed were those of their mother, Maria Teresa.

At the instigation of the Austrian Chancellor Fürst von Metternich, Clementina was wed to Prince Leopold of the Two Sicilies, her uncle. Leopold was the fifteenth and penultimate son of King Ferdinand I of Naples and Sicily and his consort, Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria. Leopold was also the Prince of Salerno, a title held since the reign of King Charles I of Naples in the thirteenth-century. Clementina's marriage was celebrated on 28 July 1816 at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria. Clementina was eighteen years old at the time of her marriage celebration; Leopold was twenty-six, his birthday being celebrated on 2 July 1790, eight years before the birth of Clementina herself. It must be noted that, during 1816, Clementina's stepmother, Maria Ludovika Beatrix, died due to tuberculosis. During that same year, two months after the death of Maria Ludovika, Francis married Princess Caroline Augusta of Bavaria. Carolina Augusta was the daughter of Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and Princess Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt. Frederick Lamb, an English diplomat, claimed Carolina Augusta was "ugly, clever and amiable".