Duchess Mathilde Ludovika in Bavaria


Mathilde Ludovika, Duchess in Bavaria was the fourth daughter of Maximilian, Duke in Bavaria and Princess Ludovika of Bavaria. Her mother was the youngest daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria by his second wife Margravine Karoline of Baden.

Early life

Born and raised at Possenhofen Castle, Mathilde was a younger sister of Duke Karl-Theodor in Bavaria, Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria and Duchess Marie Sophie in Bavaria. She was an older sister of Duchess Sophie in Bavaria.

Marriage and family

On 5 June 1861, Mathilde married Prince Lodovico of Bourbon Two-Siclies, Count of Trani. He was heir presumptive to his older half-brother Francis II of the Two Sicilies. Francis was married to her older sister Marie Sophie. The bride was seventeen years old and the groom was twenty-two. They had one child, a daughter:
Allegedly, during the early years of her marriage, Mathilde had an affair with the Spanish diplomat Salvador Bermúdez de Castro, Duke of Ripalda and Santa Lucía, with whom she had a daughter at the Villa Farnesina in Rome:
However, the Two Sicilies were conquered by the Expedition of the Thousand under Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1861. Garibaldi served the Kingdom of Sardinia which was in the process of Italian unification.
Lodovico was still the heir of Francis as head of a deposed Royal House. He retained this position for the rest of his life but predeceased Francis on 8 June 1886. Francis was eventually succeeded by their younger brother Prince Alfonso, Count of Caserta. Mathilde survived her husband by thirty-nine years but never remarried.

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