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29-792: Violante may refer to: Given name [ edit ] Duchess Violante Beatrice of Bavaria (1673–1731), Grand Princess of Tuscany Violante Beatrice Siries (1709–1783), Italian painter Violante do Ceo (1601–1693), Portuguese writer and nun Violante Placido (born 1976), Italian actress and singer Violante of Vilaragut , Majorcan noble Violante Visconti (1354–1386), Italian noble Other [ edit ] Luciano Violante (born 1941), Italian judge and politician Signora Violante , 18th century dancer and theatre company manager. Violante (Titian) , oil painting Violante Inlet , inlet in Antarctica Topics referred to by

58-459: A favorable impression with her good French. When she entered Strasbourg , she was addressed in German, but interrupted the greeting by saying, "Gentlemen, I speak French!" The impression of her appearance, however, was not as good, and she was called "terribly ugly". Others said that although she may not have been beautiful, she did have personal charm. As soon as she married the dauphin, Maria Anna

87-718: A succession crisis and leaving his wife a childless and therefore purposeless widow. The Dowager was so distraught that she had to be bled by doctors in order to calm her down. Cosimo III gave her a set of blue sapphires as a token of mourning. Violante Beatrice considered returning to her homeland when she caught wind of the Electress Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici's impending return. The two did not get along. Violante Beatrice, additionally, would be usurped as first-lady of Tuscany. To quell any future tiffs regarding precedence, Cosimo III appointed Violante Beatrice Governor of Siena, whose duties as such kept her away from

116-469: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Duchess Violante Beatrice of Bavaria Grand Prince Ferdinando died from syphilis in 1713, leaving his childless widow without purpose at the Tuscan court. Upon the return of the Electress Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici , daughter of the then reigning, Cosimo III , thus Violante Beatrice's sister-in-law,

145-727: The Palazzo Madama . During her time in the Papal States , she met Pope Benedict XIII , who found her so agreeable that he bestowed upon her the golden rose , a great mark of Papal favour. Upon her return from Rome, Violante Beatrice and the Electress Anna Maria Luisa decided to do something about Gian Gastone's public image and the Ruspanti , his entourage. In order to distract him from the Ruspanti , Violante Beatrice threw banquets, to which she invited

174-613: The Dowager Grand Princess contemplated retiring to her brother's court at Munich ; however, Gian Gastone convinced her to stay, and Cosimo III appointed her Governor of Siena , where she then resided. As Governor, she formally defined the boundaries, names and number of Sienese Contrade — akin to administrative divisions — in 1729. During Grand Duke Gian Gastone's rule, the Governor was responsible for formal court audiences. Violante Beatrice, in collaboration with

203-486: The Electress Anna Maria Luisa, attempted to withdraw Gian Gastone from the Ruspanti , his salacious entourage, by arranging banquets and public appearances. Gian Gastone, however, was immune to these approaches and spent the last eight years of his reign confined to bed, entertained by the myriad Ruspanti . Violante Beatrice, the youngest child of the Elector of Bavaria, Ferdinand Maria , and Henriette Adelaide of Savoy ,

232-660: The Grand Duke. Consequently, much to the Grand Princess's mortification, he commissioned three days' religious observance to remedy their lack of children in April 1694. Any hopes of an heir were dashed when Ferdinando contracted, in 1696, syphilis during the Carnival of Venice, a disease to which he succumbed seventeen years later. The Grand Princess, meanwhile, fell victim to a state of melancholy, which did not escape

261-515: The Grand Prince, Cosimo was obliged to reimburse Ferdinand Maria's son Maximilian II. With this obstacle surmounted, the marriage contract was signed on 24 May 1688, granting Violante Beatrice a dowry of 400,000 thalers in cash and the same amount in jewellery. She married the Grand Prince by proxy in Munich on 21 November 1688 and was married in person on 9 January 1689. The wedding reception

290-454: The Pitti , on a litter. Just five months before the arrival of troops on behalf of Gian Gastone's Spanish heir , Violante Beatrice of Bavaria, Dowager Grand Princess of Tuscany, Governor of Siena, died. During the funeral procession, her hearse briefly paused before the Pitti, an action that incensed the Grand Duke, who ordered the hearse to move along in words a contemporary dubbed "unfit for

319-583: The Tuscan court, and gave her possession of the Villa di Lappeggi , which became, in the words of historian Harold Acton , "a sort of literary academy". Here, she feted poets Lucchesi, Ghivanizzi and Morandi. Although precedence was laid out cognisant of Violante Beatrice's dignity, the Electress on several occasions disregarded it. Thus, Violante Beatrice refused to appear with her in public. The Governor entered her domain in April 1717, taking up residence in

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348-523: The Villa La Quiete. Violante Beatrice dominated the royal court as Gian Gastone resigned his public duties to her, and literally chose to spend most of his time in bed. The "religious gloom" of Cosimo III gave way to a period of rejuvenation: Violante Beatrice instituted French fashions at court, compelled myriad Ecclesiastes to retire and patronised Siense poets Perfetti and Ballati. Violante Beatrice brought Perfetti to Rome in 1725 and stayed at

377-579: The agent, Pucci, eventually requisitioned full recognition. King Philip V and Frederick IV of Denmark paid Violante Beatrice visits in 1703 and 1709, respectively. The former chose to ignore the other members of the Tuscan Royal Family and reluctantly deigned only speak to her. The latter, on the other hand, was taken with Violante, going as far as to refuse to leave the room while she was changing clothes. The Grand Prince, after much suffering, died from syphilis on 31 October 1713, sparking

406-478: The city-centre. Violante Beatrice's most memorable act as Governor was the reorganisation of the Sienese Contrade — akin to administrative divisions — whose names, number and boundaries she formally defined which remain there to this day. The Grand Duke Cosimo III died on 31 October 1723; Gian Gastone ascended to the throne. He immediately recalled Violante Beatrice to Florence and banished his sister to

435-556: The first time on 7 March 1680 in Châlons-sur-Marne . She was the first dauphine of France since Mary, Queen of Scots , married Francis II of France in 1558. Upon her marriage, Maria Anna took on the rank of her husband as a Fille de France (Daughter of France); this meant that she was entitled to the style " Royal Highness " and the form of address Madame la Dauphine . When she first arrived in France, Maria Anna made

464-458: The foremost members of Tuscan society. The Grand Duke's behaviour, vomiting, belching and cracking rude jokes, literally sent the guests scrambling to leave. The Electress was more fortunate for her part. She succeeded in making Gian Gastone appear on Saint John the Baptist's day, 1729. However, during the ceremony, the Grand Duke became so intoxicated that he had to be dragged back to his palace,

493-547: The lowest of harlots, let alone for a gentle high-born princess". The bulk of Violante Beatrice's remains were interred in the Convent of Saint Teresa, Florence; her heart was placed in her husband's coffin in the Medicean necropolis, San Lorenzo . When in 1857 her sarcophagus was re-discovered, it bore the imperial stamp of Napoleon I of France , who had had it moved from the convent to San Lorenzo. On 26 February 1858, she

522-555: The middle of a protocolary spat between Tuscany and Spain. The Grand Duke sent an agent to the court of Philip V of Spain with the objective of procuring a license for the Grand Prince and Princess—who, hypothetically, acquired royal dignity with Cosimo III on 5 February 1691 from the Holy Roman Emperor , Leopold I's , diploma—to use the style Royal Highness in correspondence with Spain. Philip V initially deigned only to sanction his aunt Violante Beatrice's use; however,

551-439: The notice of her brother-in-law, Prince Gian Gastone , who befriended her as a result. Violante Beatrice rarely alluded to her emotional pain in conversation, but, on one documented occasion, in the presence of her ladies, branded Ferdinando's lover Cecchino de Castris the focus of her woes. That Ferdinando often openly declared his wife "too dull and too ugly" only worsened matters. The Grand Princess found herself, in 1702, in

580-521: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Violante . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Violante&oldid=855299914 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Disambiguation pages with given-name-holder lists Disambiguation pages with surname-holder lists Hidden categories: Short description

609-510: The second daughter of Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici , thus her husband the dauphin was her second cousin. Born in Munich, capital of the Electorate of Bavaria , Maria Anna was betrothed to the dauphin of France in 1668, at the age of eight, and was carefully educated to fulfill that role. Besides her native language of German, she was taught to speak French, Italian and Latin. She

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638-520: The wife of the king's younger brother Philippe . She was said to be depressed having to live at a court where beauty was so much prized, not being beautiful herself. Elizabeth Charlotte, Madame Palatine said in her letters that Madame de Maintenon did not wish for the Dauphine to gain influence at court, and that she bribed Barbara Bessola to keep her isolated from society, while in parallel her lady-in-waiting Marguerite de Montchevreuil arranged for

667-749: Was born on 23 January 1673 in Munich , the capital of Bavaria. Her siblings were Maria Anna Victoria, Dauphine of France , Elector Maximilian II and Joseph Clemens, Archbishop of Cologne . Grand Duke Cosimo III of Tuscany in 1688 sought Violante Beatrice as a prestigious bride — Bavaria was one of the most powerful states of the Holy Roman Empire — for his elder son and heir, Ferdinando, Grand Prince of Tuscany . As Cosimo's father, Ferdinando II , had embroiled Elector Ferdinand Maria in an abortive financial venture costing him 450,000 ungheri worth of gold, relations between Munich and Florence were sour. In order to acquire Violante Beatrice's hand for

696-465: Was completely unsympathetic to her situation and accused her falsely of hypochondria . Her husband took mistresses, and she lived an isolated life in her apartments, where she spoke with her friend and confidant Barbara Bessola in German, a language her husband could not understand. She was close to a fellow German – and the second Wittelsbach – at court, Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate ,

725-539: Was held at the Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence . The new Grand Princess was instantly enamoured with the bridegroom, in spite of the fact he loathed her. Cosimo III, however, could not find fault in his daughter-in-law, saying, "I have never known, nor do I think the world can produce, a disposition so perfect". The grand princely couple's lack of offspring after six years of marriage perturbed

754-501: Was known as la Grande Dauphine . The Dauphine was regarded a "pathetic" figure at the court of France, isolated and unappreciated due to the perception that she was dull, unattractive and sickly. She is the ancestor of all Spanish monarchs following her son Philip V . Maria Anna was the eldest daughter of Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria and his wife Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy . Her maternal grandparents were Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy and Christine Marie of France ,

783-421: Was restored to the convent, brought there in the royal hearse. [REDACTED] Media related to Violante Beatrice of Bavaria at Wikimedia Commons Duchess Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria Maria Anna Christine Victoria of Bavaria ( French : Marie Anne Victoire ; 28 November 1660 – 20 April 1690) was Dauphine of France by marriage to Louis, Grand Dauphin , son and heir of Louis XIV . She

812-408: Was said to have looked forward to the fate of becoming dauphine of France. Maria Anna was very close to her mother, who died in 1676. Her siblings included Violante of Bavaria , future wife of Ferdinando de' Medici as well as the future Elector of Bavaria, Maximilian II Emanuel . Prior to her marriage to the dauphin, there was a proxy ceremony in Munich on 28 January 1680; the couple would meet for

841-469: Was the second most important woman at court after her mother-in-law, Queen Maria Theresa , consort of King Louis XIV . When the queen died in July 1683, Maria Anna ranked as the most prominent female at court and was given the apartments of the late queen. The king expected her to perform the functions of the first lady at court, but her ill health made it very difficult for her to carry out her duties. The king

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