Anna Maria Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg was the legal Duchess of Saxe-Lauenburg in the eyes of the Holy Roman Emperor, the overlord of Saxe-Lauenburg, from 1689 until 1728; however, because her distant cousin George William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, conquered the duchy by force in 1689, she exercised no control over the territory, instead living in her manors in Bohemia. She was Grand Duchess of Tuscany as the wife of the last Medici Grand Duke, Gian Gastone. Anna Maria Franziska was the elder surviving daughter of Julius Franz, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, and Maria Hedwig of the Palatinate-Sulzbach. She married Philipp Wilhelm August of the Palatinate in 1690, with whom she had her only child, Maria Anna, in 1691. She was widowed in 1693. Four years later, she married Gian Gastone de' Medici, a Prince of Tuscany. With her brother-in-law Ferdinando de' Medici's death in 1713, her husband became Tuscany's heir-apparent. She became Grand Duchess of Tuscany upon the incumbent ruler's death in 1723. She was Grand Duchess for fourteen years before being widowed again in 1737.
Biography
Early life
Anna Maria Franziska was born on 13 June 1673. She was the second child of the reigning duke of Saxe-Lauenburg and Maria Hedwig of Sulzbach, who died when Anna Maria was nine years-old. With the death of her father Duke Julius Francis on 30 September 1689 the Lauenburg line of the House of Ascania was extinct in the male line. However, female succession was possible by the Saxe-Lauenburgian laws. So the legal female heir to the throne, Duchess Anna Maria Franziska, and her sister Sibylle of Saxe-Lauenburg fought for the succession of the former, the elder of them. Also Julius Francis' cousin, Eleonore Charlotte of Saxe-Lauenburg-Franzhagen, claimed the succession. Their weakness was abused by Duke George William of the neighbouring Brunswick-Lunenburgian Principality of Lunenburg-Celle, who invaded Saxe-Lauenburg with his troops, thus inhibiting Anna Maria's ascension as Duchess regnant. Also other monarchies claimed the succession, evoking a conflict further involving the neighbouring duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and of Danish Holstein, as well as the five Ascanian-ruled Principalities of Anhalt, the Electorate of Saxony, which had succeeded the Saxe-Wittenbergian Ascanians in 1422, Sweden and Brandenburg. The conflict was finally settled on 9 October 1693, definitely ousting the dispossessed Anna Maria and her sister. Both sisters never gave up the claim. Emperor Leopold I rejected Celle's succession and thus retained the Saxe-Lauenburgian exclave of Hadeln, which was out of Celle's reach, in his custody. Only in 1728 his son Emperor Charles VI enfeoffed George II of Great Britain with Saxe-Lauenburg, finally legitimising the de facto takeover by his grandfather in 1689 and 1693. In 1731 George II also gained Hadeln from imperial custody.
Cosimo III de' Medici coaxed his son into marrying Anna Maria Franziska for dynastic purposes, she was very wealthy, and brought a possible claim to the Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg through her father. The Medici family need an heir, Gian Gastone's brother, Ferdinando, had not produced a child. They were married on 2 July 1697 by the Bishop of Osnabruck at Düsseldorf but they lived in the Kingdom of Bohemia, at chateaux of Ploskovice and Zákupy. The new Princess of Tuscany had sprawling estates in the region. At the time of their marriage, contemporaries described the princess as "appalling and immensely fat". Anna Maria Franziska dominated her weak husband, which drove him into the arms of alcohol. He deplored her behaviour, "capriciousness, peevish faces and sharp words". Gian Gastone stayed with his wife for a mere ten months, before fleeing to Prague. The princess refused to leave Reichstadt, despite her husband's constant protestations. She believed that the Medici were in the habit of murdering their consorts. The Grand Duke attempted to force his daughter-in-law to move back to Tuscany with Gian Gastone. He asked the Pope, Clement XI, to send the Archbishop of Prague to reproach her, and convince her to fulfil her wifely obligations. She replied that there was no point because Gian Gastone was "absolutely impotent". He left without her in 1708. Ferdinando, the heir to the collapsing grand duchy, died in 1713. Therefore, she became the Grand Princess of Tuscany.
Later life
Gian Gastone became Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1723, and, she, the Grand Duchess. Her husband continued to live in Florence, Tuscany's capital, and never saw his wife again. Gian Gastone lived a frivolous life there, staying up all night and waking up in the afternoon. As Grand Duchess, Anna Maria Franziska kept to her life of solitude at her castle, where she talked to the horses in the stables. Gian Gastone died in 1737. As the Medici had no male heir, Francis Stephen of Lorraine ascended the grand ducal throne. She died in 1741.
