Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma

Marie Louise was born on 12 December 1791, the eldest child of Francis II of Austria, and grew up watching Napoleon dismantle her world - his wars bled Austria, forced her father to dissolve the Holy Roman Empire. The marriage on 2 April 1810 was realpolitik: she became Empress of the French despite a lifetime of taught contempt, bore Napoleon a son in 1811 titled King of Rome, and briefly embodied the truce between Vienna and Paris. His 1812 Russian catastrophe shattered it all. By 1814 Austria had switched sides, Napoleon abdicated, and the Treaty of Fontainebleau handed her Parma as a consolation duchy. She never saw her husband again. She ruled Parma for thirty-three years, married her equerry Count von Neipperg in 1821 and had three children with him, then married her chamberlain Count de Bombelles in 1834 after Neipperg's death. She died in Parma on 17 December 1847, having outlasted the empire and the emperor both.