Countess Palatine Maria Anna of Neuburg

Who was Countess Palatine Maria Anna of Neuburg?

Maria Anna of Neuburg was a daughter of Anna Maria, Grand Duchess of Tuscany's first marriage to Philip William August of Neuburg. She married Duke Ferdinand Maria of Bavaria on 5 February 1719 in Reichstadt, Bohemia, a younger son of Elector Maximilian II of Bavaria.

She was still an infant when her father and older sister, Leopoldina, died within a month of one another in 1693. Her mother, a wealthy widow, was married for a second time, against her wishes, on 2 July 1697 in Düsseldorf to Prince Gian Gastone de' Medici, a younger son of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, to whom she brought the prospect of inheriting substantial lands in Bohemia. Rather than dwelling in her father-in-law's capital, Florence, the couple initially took up residence at his wife's Bohemian domain, the castle of Ploskovice near Reichstadt. In less than a year Gian Gastone left his wife for Prague, thence resuming residence in Florence, and the couple never again cohabited.

Maria wed Duke Ferdinand Maria of Bavaria, who became an Imperial general, on 5 February 1719 in Reichstadt, Bohemia. Of their three sons, all of whom bore the title Duke of Bavaria, none married. In 1723 Maria's stepfather became Grand Duke Gian Gastone of Tuscany, succeeding his elder brother, and her mother became Grand Duchess of Tuscany, although she never set foot in her husband's realm. Maria Anna's husband died in 1738. She herself died in 1751 aged 58.