Maria Clementina: An Intimate Portrait of a Forgotten Princesss

III. Tragedy

Tragedy struck on 10 March 1851, when Clementina's husband, Leopold, died. At the time of his death, he was sixty; Clementina was barely fifty-three, as her birthday had just occurred on 1 March. The cause of Leopold's death is roughly unknown. Leopold was buried in the Basilica of Santa Chiara, in Naples, of which was located in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (present-day Italy). Lina was aged twenty-eight during this time. After the death of her husband, Clementina was admitted to live in the castle of her son-in-law, Henri. This certain castle resides in France, where it is hidden by ponds. It was the Chantilly Castle where she resided. Once Clementina began her new life in France, not much is known about her tale—until 1866. On 24 May 1866, Lina's eldest son, Louis, died. His funeral took place on 29 May 1866 and was buried at the Royal Chapel of Dreux, France. The death of Louis devastated Lina, and she herself died on 6 December 1869, nearly four years after her son. Four days after her death, Lina was buried at the Catholic Chapel of Weybridge, when, in 1876, her husband reburied her in the Royal Chapel of Dreux. Her husband, Henri, never remarried. Clementina remained in the Château de Chantilly, and until her own death in 1881 not much is known of her life there.
            In 1872, Clementina's grandson, François Louis, the Duke of Guise, died at the age of eighteen. It appears that Clementina's later life was surrounded by tragedy. Her siblings, by 1880, had all perished. Her son-in-law was, however, still alive by 1880 and allowed Clementina to remain in the Château de Chantilly.
On 3 September 1881, Clementina, suffering from bouts of poor health throughout her life, died from pneumonia at the Château de Chantilly. She was buried in the tomb chapel of the House of Orléans at the Royal Chapel of Dreux, in France. She was eighty-three years old.

An Authors Note:
The life and happenings of Maria Clementina Franziska Josepha have long been forgotten. She is certainly a footnote in the lives of her parents; for, she helped tie the ties with Austria and Naples, and had lived throughout her parents' reigns in the Holy Roman Empire and the Empire of Austria, witnessing their lives slowly changing for the worse. She saw France renter a revolution, crushing the hopes of a return to the monarchy, and had even seen her elder sister's disgrace in France. Her life, almost fully undocumented, is still interesting to research. Clementina proves to be a much more interesting and important historical figure than what many have thought. Although it takes time, it was still worth all of it—and it was, on 13 November 2022, when I began to learn about Clementina. She is now one of my favorite historical figures.
—Dia