









































40 
 

Bourbon Ceremony in the Former 
Habsburg Territory 

Maria Amalia and Ferdinand’s Wedding in Parma (1769) 
 

 
Mike Zhou 
University of Alberta 
 
 
Abstract 
This article examines descriptions of the wedding ceremony of Habsburg Archduchess 
Maria Amalia and Duke Ferdinand of Parma in 1769 and specifically analyzes the decision-
making behind her marriage and the symbolism replete in her wedding ceremony. While 
scholarship on this Habsburg archduchess is extremely scarce and predominantly focuses 
on her later life as a ruling duchess in Parma, this article sheds light on an important 
moment in her life and one that had widespread political implications. Situating the 
marriage in the historical and political context of the eighteenth century, this article 
contends that Maria Amalia and Ferdinand’s alliance was made by Habsburgs as a part of 
mid-eighteenth-century “Diplomatic Revolution,” which aimed at repairing the relationship 
with Bourbons after the War of Austrian Succession. Hosted in the Duchy of Parma, a 
region which had been ceded to Bourbons from the Habsburgs in 1748, the wedding 
ceremony was marked by the high-profile and laudatory celebrations of the Bourbons, 
which contrasted with the humble and censored presence of the Habsburgs. This contrast 
reflected the larger political situation: Defeated by Bourbons in the War of Austrian 
Succession, Habsburgs’ prestige had plummeted dramatically since the mid-eighteenth 
century. They were not allowed to present themselves politically in their former territory. 
Hence what welcomed the Habsburg bride in Parma was a ceremony with strong 
militaristic features and full of Bourbon propaganda. 
 
 
Article 
Introduction 
Among the various children of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis Stephen, 
Archduchess Maria Amalia had the worst relationship with her mother. Historians 
commonly believe that this antagonism stemmed from Maria Amalia’s marriage to 
Ferdinand of Parma, a Bourbon-Parman duke, in 1769. The empress made this decision 
against Maria Amalia’s will.1 With perfect beauty and talents, Maria Amalia was raised as 
an ideal partner for suitable royalty and a precious asset for the Habsburg dynasty. While 

 
1 Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, Maria Theresa: The Habsburg Empress in Her Time (Princeton: Princeton 
University Press, 2021), 579. 



41 
 

Maria Amalia expected to marry Prince Charles II of Zweibrücken, a distant cousin whom 
she had fallen in love with, her mother mapped out a different course.  
 
Why did the empress insist on Maria Amalia marrying Ferdinand, despite her daughter’s 
wishes to the contrary? What significance did the marriage have? This article investigates 
these questions by analyzing the surviving descriptions of the marriage ceremony between 
Maria Amalia and Ferdinand. I argue that Maria Amalia’s marriage was a dynastic sacrifice, 
a theme that emerges repeatedly in the history of Habsburg women. I also contend that this 
wedding, with its strong Bourbon influence and modest Habsburg presence, was a 
reflection of the broader political situations: Bourbons seized this wedding as a great 
opportunity to demonstrate their powers and dominance; Habsburgs’ influence had 
plummeted dramatically during the mid-eighteenth century and their position and prestige 
was intentionally minimized from this wedding held in Parma, a duchy which had been 
occupied by them just over two decades before the wedding.  
 
Dynastic Sacrifice 
The 1740s was a period of crisis for the Habsburgs. When Charles VI died in 1740, he left 
no son, and despite his efforts to secure the succession of his daughter, Maria Theresa, 
before his death, her status as heir was frequently challenged, leading to prolonged 
disputes over the inheritance of the Habsburg imperial title. The Habsburgs held the title of 
Holy Roman Empire for hundreds of years, but this came to an end in 1742, when Charles 
Albert, from the Wittelsbach family, was elected as the new Holy Roman Emperor.2 The 
Habsburgs’ neighbors seized upon this instability and used the occasion to encroach upon 
Habsburg territories. Most notably, the Hohenzollerns occupied Silesia in 1740.3 Facing all 
these issues, young matriarch Maria Theresa and her Habsburg family were pushed into 
the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748) to defend the family’s territories and status. 
 
It was amid this intense situation that a daughter arrived. On February 26, 1746, Maria 
Amalia was born in Vienna, the eighth child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and 
Emperor Francis Stephen.4 The War of Austrian Succession ended two years after Maria 
Amalia’s birth, with the Habsburgs losing Silesia, part of the Netherlands, and almost its 
entire holdings in the Apennine Peninsula.5 Stumbling through this crisis with huge losses 
of influence in Western and Southern Europe, the dynasty started a long path to regrouping 
and a new understanding of their place on the European stage. This context determined the 
fates of Maria Amalia and many of her sisters: Born amid the crisis, they were destined to 
fix the crisis.  
 
In the wake of these struggles following Charles VI’s death, the mid-eighteenth-century 
Habsburg dynasty readjusted its foreign policy, a shift coined the “Diplomatic Revolution” 
by historians. Habsburgs abandoned their traditional alliance with Britain and instead 

 
2 Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, The Holy Roman Empire: A Short History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 
2018), 123. 
3 Andrew Wheatcroft, The Habsburgs (London: Penguin Books, 1996), 219. 
4 Stollberg-Rilinger, Maria Theresa, 240. 
5 M.S. Anderson, The War of Austrian Succession 1740-1748 (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2013), 96. 



42 
 

turned toward the Bourbons, and in doing so, they aimed to regain lost territories and 
deter the Hohenzollerns from further invasions.6 To make peace with the Bourbons, whom 
the Habsburgs had rivaled against for most of the eighteenth century, a series of marriages 
were sealed between the young generation of Habsburgs and their Bourbon counterparts. 
Leopold II married Bourbon Princess Maria Luisa in 1764. His younger sister Archduchess 
Maria Josepha had been set to marry Ferdinand of Two Sicilies, a descendant of Spanish 
Bourbons, but it failed when she died of smallpox in 1767; Maria Josepha was swiftly 
substituted by Maria Carolina, who married Ferdinand in 1768.7 When Maria Amalia 
expressed the inclination of marrying Charles of Zweibrücken, Empress Maria Theresa 
firmly turned down the idea. Maria Amalia was instead arranged to marry Ferdinand of 
Parma, a descendant of Spanish and French Bourbons with more status and prestige.8 
 
In his essay, historian Joseph Patrouch compared Habsburg women to the Greek hero 
Protesilaus, who departed from home and loved ones to fight against the Trojans, arguing 
that the Austrian daughters’ faraway departures from their parents and siblings, 
sometimes forcible, had contributed tremendously to the prosperity of the house and those 
who remained at home.9 From Giovanna of Austria, who despite the failure in relationship, 
consistently demonstrated the pious image of Austria in the Duchy of Tuscany till her 
death, to Empress Maria Leopodina of Brazil, who was shipped across the ocean to hold 
office in a different continent, Habsburg women’s marriages were constantly marked by 
personal sacrifices.10 When we observe the destiny of Maria Theresa’s daughters, 
particularly those who were born in the War of Austrian Succession, it is clear that they 
were shouldering the responsibility of repairing the diplomatic damages caused by that 
warfare. Given that Maria Amalia was coerced into a marriage when she desired someone 
else, her wedlock was a sacrifice of no less tragic proportion. 
 
The Martial Demonstration 
Maria Amalia’s carriage entered the city of Parma in July 1769, accompanied by her older 
brother Joseph, the future emperor of the Habsburg Empire. A grand wedding was held in 
the ducal palace of Parma on July 19th, where the marriage between twenty-three-year-old 
Maria Amalia and eighteen-year-old Duke Ferdinand of Parma, was celebrated. The 
surviving sources indicate that Amalia and Ferdinand’s wedding celebrations consisted of 
several gatherings and performances. The details of Parman-organized events were written 
in Descrizione delle feste celebrate in Parma (Description of the festivals celebrated in 
Parma, abbreviated as Descrizione), a pamphlet printed in Italian and French with rich texts 

 
6 Jeremy Black, “Essay and Reflection: On the ‘Old System’ and the ‘Diplomatic Revolution’ of the Eighteenth 
Century,” in The International History Review 12, no. 2 (1990): 302, https://www.jstor.org/stable/40106181. 
7 Stollberg-Rilinger, Maria Theresa, 370. 
8 Stollberg-Rilinger, Maria Theresa, 579. 
9 Joseph Patrouch, “‘Bella gerant alii.’ Laodamia’s Sisters, Habsburg Brides: Leaving Home for the Sake of the 
House,” in Early Modern Habsburg Women: Transnational Contexts, Cultural Conflicts, Dynastic Continuities, 
eds. Anne J. Cruz and Maria Galli Stampino (New York: Routledge, 2013), 25. 
10 Alice E. Sanger, Art, Gender and Religious Devotion in Grand Ducal Tuscany (New York: Routledge, 2016), 37; 
Lilia Moritz Schwarcz, “Portraits: Empress Maria Leopoldina of Brazil,” in The Brazil Reader: 
History, Culture, Politics, eds. James N. Green, Victoria Langland, and Lilia Moritz Schwarcz (Durham: Duke 
University Press, 2019), 158-161. 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/40106181


43 
 

and illustrations and issued by the Royal Printing House of Parma in 1769. According to 
this pamphlet, a series of gatherings and performances were hosted and celebrated in Duke 
Ferdinand’s court. The pamphlet is composed of five parts: Description (Description), which 
narrates the performative contest and military parade which took place in the Ducal 
Palace; Description Des Habits (Description of Clothes), which exhibits the images of 
participants of the said contest and parade in their garments; Noms Des Personnes Nobles 
(Names of Noble People), which lists the nobles who participated in the contest and the 
parade; Les Bergeres D’Arcadia (The Shepherdesses of Arcadia), which narrates the Arcadia 
Party, the second event in Maria Amalia and Ferdinand’s wedding ceremony; and lastly, La 
Foire Chinoise (The Chinese Fair), the last event of their wedding ceremony. Run by the 
Bourbon statesman Guillaume du Tillot, the Parman court had been infused with strong 
French influence since the mid-eighteenth century. This clue is key to help us understand 
the strong Bourbon narratives existing in these celebratory gatherings.11  
 
While the wedding primarily featured events presented by the groom’s family, the one 
exception was an opera festival named Le Feste d'Apollo (The Festival of Apollo), which was 
composed by Bohemian playwright Christoph Willibald Gluck. A playwright who spent his 
career in multiple European states, Gluck had a close relationship with Habsburgs 
throughout lifetime.12 Before composing Le Feste d'Apollo, he had participated in the 
production of various works for the Habsburgs, including a serenata for Archduke Joseph 
and Isabella of Parma’s wedding in 1760.13 In the year 1769, Gluck traveled to Parma to 
supervise his opera’s performance in Maria Amalia and Ferdinand’s wedding.14 Given 
Gluck’s close relationship with the Habsburgs, the Le Feste d'Apollo might be considered the 
only Habsburg presence, and as I shall discuss later, it was a modest and muted one in this 
Habsburg-Bourbon wedding. 
 
The first noteworthy element in this wedding is the heavy military features. Among three 
performances which were recorded in the wedding pamphlet Descrizione, the military 
tournament has the most detailed description. Local Parman noblemen participated in the 
event and were divided into nine quadrilles. Each quadrille was composed of a knight and 
his pages and assigned a color. A coliseum was constructed in the ducal palace for the 
performance and viewing of this event (figure 1).15 According to Descrizione, Maria Amalia 

 
11 On the cultural transition of Parma under Bourbon occupation, see Gregory Hanlon, Early Modern Italy, 
1550-1800 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), 350-352. Halon argues that the Bourbon reform had been 
taking place in Parma since the 1750s under Guillaume du Tillot’s guidance, and it had deeply changed the 
cultural sphere of Parman court.  
12 Gluck was living in Vienna from 1752 to 1760, but his relationship with the Habsburgs lasted much longer. 
Not only did he produce the opera for Maria Amalia’s wedding in 1769, he was also patronized by Maria 
Antoinette during his later years in Paris. See Bruce Alan Brown and Julian Rushton, “Gluck, Christoph 
Willibald, Ritter von,” Oxford Music Online (January 2001): 39. 
13 It is noteworthy that Joseph is Maria Amalia’s older brother, and Isabella of Parma is a sister of Ferdinand. 
Predating Maria Amalia and Ferdinand’s wedding, their marriage was also sealed to repair the relationship 
between Habsburgs and Bourbons. See Brown and Rushton, “Gluck, Christoph Willibald,” 12.  
14 Brown and Rushton, “Gluck, Christoph Willibald,” 21. 
15 Descrizione delle feste celebrate in Parma l’anno MDCCLXIX. Per le auguste nozze di sua altezza reale l’infante 
Don Ferdinando colla reale arciduchessa Maria Amalia. (Parma: Nella Stamperia Reale, 1769), 5. 



44 
 

and her husband were sitting in the most visible place in the coliseum. The judges of the 
tournament sat one floor below the royal couple. 
 

 
 

Figure 1: An illustration of the coliseum from Descrizione delle feste celebrate in Parma. 
 
The military tournament itself was composed of duels, races, and parades, which all took 
place inside the coliseum. The participants entered the coliseum, bowing deeply in front of 
the grand box, where Maria Amalia and her husband were seated, and started dueling 
against each other with different weapons. Although these duels were performed as a sort 
of entertainment, their seriousness was not reduced, as several knights did not quit fighting 
until they broke several spears.16 These fights were followed by foot racing and horse 
racing. Eventually, all the participants were assembled in quadrilles, marching inside the 
coliseum in a martial parade fashion. As Descrizione recorded, the military tournament was 
ended with the public pledge of allegiance: “The judges of arms asked the knights for the 
names of the ladies whom they had fought for. They responded that the names were 
written on their handlebars; the pages advanced forward towards the grand box, 
displaying the handlebars before the eyes of the Princes. All had fought for the same lady: 
the handlebars showed the same name, that one of Marie Amalia. The lady of the 
tournament, so worthy to boost their courage, honored them with her praise, and took 
them all as her knights.”17 

 
16 Descrizione delle feste celebrate in Parma, 13. 
17 Descrizione delle feste celebrate in Parma, 14. This translation and all the following ones are by the author 
from the original French. 



45 
 

 
 

Figure 2: An illustration from the Descrizione, showing cherubs holding different weapons.  
 
 

 
 

Figure 3: The illustration of military items found in the Descrizione. 
 



46 
 

The detailed narration of this military tournament is quite conspicuous in this official 
description of the wedding. Over a hundred pages of the Descrizione is related to the 
military tournament, and only thirty pages were left to describe the other two events: the 
Arcadia Party and the Chinese Fair. In addition to its disproportionate focus on the military 
tournament, strong martial features are found almost everywhere in this pamphlet, 
including on the title page where the coat of arms of Bourbon Parma was decorated with 
cannon, spears, and arrows. The majority of other illustrations in the pamphlet also feature 
different military items. Some images depict cherubs holding a large spear, others simply 
put random military items together (see figures 2 and 3). This evidence indicates that 
militancy was a major theme of the wedding celebration. Moreover, since the events 
narrated in this pamphlet were prepared by Parman Court, which had been tightly 
controlled by Bourbons since the 1750s, we can also understand Maria Amalia’s wedding 
ceremony as a martial demonstration designed by Bourbons.  
 
While the strong militaristic presence may seem unfitting in a wedding, the intention 
behind this antique-fashion military performance must be appreciated in the historical 
context. Eighteenth-century Europe had witnessed several large-scale wars, including the 
War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714), War of Polish Succession (1733-1735), and War of 
Austrian Succession. Such a highly hostile context made a demonstration of military might 
necessary, and Maria Amalia’s wedding provided a great opportunity for such a 
demonstration. While the strong militaristic features did not necessarily relate to Maria 
Amalia and Ferdinand’s alliance, the chivalric, heroic tournament was designed to echo the 
contemporary environment on the continent. Moreover, given that the control of Parma 
had switched between several families during the early and mid-eighteenth century, a topic 
which I will go into detail in the next section, it is reasonable for Bourbons to present a 
tournament performed by local Parman nobilities as a demonstration of harmony between 
them and their Parman subjects. The attention generated by royal weddings provides great 
occasions for the hosts to advertise their political images. From the public spectacle of 
Giovanna of Austria’s entry in 1565 to Maria Louise and Napoleon’s grand wedding 
procession in 1810, several Habsburg women’s weddings had been utilized by the groom’s 
families to disseminate their ideologies, and it seems like in the year 1769, the Bourbon-
Parman court had similar arrangement for Amalia and Ferdinand’s wedding, as they hosted 
a militaristic one to propagandize the Bourbon hegemony.18 
 
The Unequal Presence 
It is pivotal to our understanding of this wedding that, although Parma was occupied by 
Bourbons in 1769, it had been part of the Habsburg’s holdings not that long ago. Situated at 
the northern tip of the Apennine Peninsula, the Duchy of Parma had been ruled by the 
Farnese family from 1545 to 1731.19 While nominally independent, Parma was inevitably 
swept into the vortex of enormous polities’ rivalries, specifically between Habsburgs and 
Bourbons. The lack of male heirs within the House of Farnese provided an ample 
opportunity for both powers to exert influence, and the Bourbons seized it, when Philip V 

 
18 Sanger, Art, Gender and Religious Devotion, 37; Imbert de Saint-Amand, The memoirs of the Empress Marie 
Louise (London: Remington & Co, 1886), 208-216. 
19 Hanlon, Early Modern Italy, 351. 



47 
 

of Spain married Elizabeth Farnese, the female heir of Parma in 1714. When the duke, 
Antonio Farnese, died in 1731, his status was inherited by Charles, the son of Philip V and 
Elizabeth Farnese.20 
 
This inheritance soon affected the rivalry between Habsburgs and Bourbons, as the two 
houses were pitted against each other in the War of Polish Succession. When the conflict 
ceased in 1738, Bourbons handed over the Duchy of Parma to the Habsburgs in exchange 
for Naples and Sicily.21 This led to a ten-year Habsburg occupation of Parma until their 
defeat against Bourbons in the War of Austrian Succession. The Habsburg Empire lost a 
huge amount of its holdings, including the Duchy of Parma and various other regions in the 
Apennine Peninsula.  
 
When we look into the sources related to this wedding, it is evident that the Habsburgs 
were politically censored and even implicitly blamed for the previous conflicts between the 
two houses. The Parman-issued wedding pamphlet started with the narration of Bourbon-
Habsburg relationships. It referred to the bride’s mother, Maria Theresa, as “a virtuous 
princess,” who “has reunited the dispersed parts of the heritage of her ancestors with effort 
… designed the project to devote her power to the happiness of mankind.”22 However it 
referred to the groom’s grandfather Louis XV with even more complimentary terms, 
glamorizing him as a prince who “had been conquering only to be a peacemaker… whose 
equity and moderation had been tested by the fortune.”23 The introduction of this pamphlet 
was highly complementary to both families, their leaders, and their members. While 
nobody was directly blamed in this section, it is noteworthy that these lines referred to 
Habsburg ancestors’ heritage as “dispersed.” It foreshadows the following contents, and as 
we shall see, the Habsburgs would be criticized and disdained for the “dispersed heritage,” 
which they had tough time bringing together after their loss in the Habsburg-Bourbon 
conflict. 
 
The pejorative narrative against Habsburgs gradually comes to the surface in the following 
part of this pamphlet. Following the military tournament, Descrizione recounts the second 
part of the wedding celebration: the Arcadia Party, the theme of which was derived from 
Virgil’s classic literature. This party was held in the royal garden, where noble men and 
women dressed up in costumes, played music, sang poems, and danced in a classic fashion. 
In Descrizione, the narration of this event implicitly attacks the Habsburgs: “The ladies 
thought that no law prevents the pastoral land (of Arcadia) from being established in our 
countryside, to convene themselves an assembly in such a happy occasion; and that they 
must revenge on the rigid leaders who never called them to their sessions.”24 Given that the 
Habsburgs were ruling Parma until the end of the War of Austrian Succession and the 
Farnese family’s occupation was quite distant from 1769, these lines were clearly poking 
fun at the period of Habsburg occupation of Parma from 1738 to 1748. In general, this 

 
20 Hanlon, Early Modern Italy, 351. 
21 Hanlon, Early Modern Italy, 351. 
22 Descrizione delle feste celebrate in Parma, 2.  
23 Descrizione delle feste celebrate in Parma, 2.  
24 Descrizione delle feste celebrate in Parma, 66. 



48 
 

section depicted a peaceful and harmonious gathering between Parman nobilities and their 
Bourbon sovereign. The mention of Parman nobilities’ participation in the party and their 
complaints against Habsburgs portrayed Bourbons as well-loved in Parma and the 
previous Habsburg occupation of Parma as fatuous.25 
 
According to Descrizione, Maria Amalia and Ferdinand’s wedding celebration ended with 
the Chinese Fair, a festival organized by local Parman merchants. The narration of this 
event once again derogatorily referred to the previous Habsburg occupation: “The 
merchants of Parma were also eager to report their joy and their deep gratitude. Imbued 
with what the august father of the infante has done in their favor, everyday they reap new 
fruits from the kindness and wisdom of the prince. Protection, encouragement and aid 
multiplied.”26 These lines could be considered as the most explicit attack, for they 
mentioned “the august father of the infante.” This refers to the groom’s father, Philip, duke 
of Parma, to whom the bride’s father, Francis Stephen, ceded Parma in 1748. The “aid 
multiplied” referred to the ten-year Habsburg occupation of Parma as austere and 
uncaring.  
 

 
 

Figure 4: The illustration that presents wedding families’ coats of arms in Descrizione delle 
feste celebrate in Parma. 

 
Not only were Habsburgs defamed by Bourbons multiple times in this pamphlet, their 
dynastic symbols were also suppressed and erased during the wedding. Among the various 
illustrations portrayed in the Descrizione, the Habsburg symbol only vaguely appears once. 

 
25  Descrizione delle feste celebrate in Parma, 66. 
26  Descrizione delle feste celebrate in Parma, 73.  



49 
 

It is in an illustration of angels holding two coats of arms, the Habsburg Emperor Francis 
Stephen’s coat of arms is relegated to the back, overshadowed by the Bourbon-Parman coat 
of arms, which takes center stage (figure 4).27 Francis’s coat of arms is supposed to include 
a double-headed eagle with the sword, the orb, and the scepter in its claws, but it appears 
to be intentionally altered—neither the orb nor the scepter appears in the eagle’s claw. 
Both items are strong symbols of power and sovereignty, and the alteration of this 
Habsburg coat of arms was clearly done to erase any symbols that could potentially evoke 
the memory of previously Habsburg sovereignty on this Bourbon-controlled territory. 
 

 
 

Figure 5: The title page illustration of a Bourbon coat of arms, with a Golden Fleece 
necklace hanging down at the bottom, from Descrizione delle feste celebrate in Parma. 

 
The scepter and the orb are not the only things that got erased; the Golden Fleece necklace 
was also stripped from the Habsburg eagle’s neck. It instead appears in the title page 
illustration, hanging down from the Bourbon coat of arms (figure 5). This leads to a very 
interesting issue: the disputable claim regarding the Order of Golden Fleece. Founded by 
Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1430, the Order of Golden Fleece was one of the most 
renowned Christian chevalier orders in early modern Europe. After Maximilian I married 
Philip’s granddaughter, Mary of Burgundy, Maximilian claimed the ownership of the Order. 
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Order was headed by Charles II of Spain, a 
Habsburg descendant who held power in Iberia. Following his death in 1700, as the head of 
the Habsburg family, Charles VI claimed to be the legitimate heir of the Order, but his claim 

 
27  Descrizione delle feste celebrate in Parma, 14. 



50 
 

was countered by Philip V, the Bourbon King of Spain. The Order then split into two 
branches.28 It is noteworthy that Charles VI and Philip V are respectively the bride’s and 
groom’s maternal grandfathers. By placing the necklace under their coat of arms, the 
narrative once again favored Bourbons and diminished Habsburgs’ prestige. The placement 
of the necklace reflects the wide rift between the two houses, which had been created since 
the early eighteenth century. 
 
Finally, the two houses’ unequal presence in the wedding ceremony is conspicuous when 
we compare the Bourbon repertoire to that of the Habsburg one. Organized by Bohemian 
playwright Christoph Willibald Gluck, Le Feste d'Apollo might be the only section of 
Amalia’s wedding celebration that was prepared by the Habsburgs. Performed in Parman 
Court Theater under Gluck’s supervision, this opera is composed of four scenes, each 
adapted from Virgil or Ovid’s classic writings. What reflects the Bourbon censorship this 
time is not any alteration or deletion but instead the opera itself. Composed of classic love 
stories, this Habsburg-directed opera’s apolitical nature contrasted dramatically with the 
Bourbon parts of the wedding, which—as discussed above—was highly militaristic and 
political. The Habsburgs’ more muted presence must be understood in its broader context. 
Having lost the war against Bourbons twenty years ago, it would be illogical for Bourbons 
to allow Habsburgs to have a strong political presence in the territory that they had ruled 
from 1738 to 1748. Together with the derogatory reference and altered coat of arms, these 
clues strongly suggest that the two houses were not equally presented in the wedding 
ceremony. While Bourbon hegemony was advertised and praised, Habsburg symbols were 
filtered and removed. 
 
Conclusion 
From the arrangement of marriage to the wedding ceremony itself, there are various 
conclusions we can make about Maria Amalia’s marriage. In the dynastic context, the 
almost-coerced wedlock between Maria Amalia and Ferdinand was sealed as part of 
Habsburgs’ Diplomatic Revolution in the mid-eighteenth century, which aimed at securing 
the Bourbons as an ally in the precarious postwar environment of the continental Europe. 
Like many of her female predecessors and peers in the history of the Habsburg dynasty, 
Maria Amalia’s marriage was sacrificed for a dynastic cause. Celebrated in Parma, a 
Bourbon-controlled duchy that had been previously occupied by the Habsburgs, the 
wedding celebration was by large a martial demonstration and a propaganda event, which 
intended to demonstrate Bourbons’ military might and the harmony between them and 
their Parman subjects. Furthermore, it is not a wedding with an equal presence from both 
families. The imbalance is indicated by the predominant Bourbon narratives and the 
censored Habsburg culture in the ceremonies can be explained by two factors: First, the 
Bourbons were the ones who triumphed in the previous conflicts, most significantly in the 
War of Austrian Succession. Second, the political presence of Habsburgs in Parma was a 
very sensitive issue. Given that the Habsburgs ceded this duchy to Bourbons in 1748, any 
form of Habsburg presence would evoke the local Parmans’ memories of their previous 
occupiers, which simply could not be tolerated by Bourbons. Thus during this Habsburg-

 
28 J. Balfour Paul, “The Order of the Golden Fleece,” The Scottish Historical Review 5, no. 20 (July 1908): 410. 



51 
 

Bourbon marriage ceremony, the House of Habsburg was subtly defamed and 
marginalized.  
 
In general, Maria Amalia’s wedding ceremony epitomizes the Habsburg dynasty in the 
eighteenth-century political context. Stumbling out of the crisis of inheritance, the Austrian 
royal house’s prestige plummeted. They no longer held absolute advantages against 
multiple continental rivalries, and they sought to stabilize their already weakened 
sovereignty, particularly in the western flank of the empire, by repairing diplomatic 
relationships with Bourbons. Maria Amalia, along with many of her sisters who were 
married to Bourbons, were sacrificed for such a dynastic cause. 


