Countess Palatine Maria Franziska of Sulzbach

Her father was the designated successor both of his own father Theodore Eustace, Count Palatine of Sulzbach and of his father-in-law Charles III Philip, Elector Palatine, but he never took possession of his inheritance due to his early death in 1729. Maria Franziska's older sister Elisabeth Auguste later married the next heir of the Palatinate Electorate, Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria. After the death of Charles Theodore in February 1799 without surviving legitimate offspring, the Palatinate and Bavaria were inherited by Maria Franziska's youngest son Maximilian IV Joseph (later King Maximilian I of Bavaria); thus, Maria Franziska became the ancestor of all the Bavarian Kings until 1918 and the still living royal branch of the Wittelbachs.

On 6 February 1746, Maria Franziska married Frederick Michael, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld. Around 1760, after having given birth to five children, the relationship with her husband began to deteriorate.

According to herself she was seduced "by the bad example of the court", and began an affair with an actor from Mannheim. When she became pregnant, Maria Franziska was banished from the court. In Strasbourg she gave birth to a son. She was then confined to a semi-detention in a series of monasteries, firstly at the Ursuline in Metz and then to the Augustinians of Bonnevoie in the Duchy of Luxembourg. After the death of her husband in 1767, she was allowed to return to Sulzbach Castle.

Maria Franziska died in Sulzbach and was buried in the local parish church. Her heart was buried separately and since 1983 was located in the Shrine of Our Lady of Altötting.[1]

• Oskar Klausner: Die Familienzweige der pfälzischen Wittelsbacher. Die ersten Wittelsbacher, die Kurlinie, die Seitenlinien. Editorial Schimper, Heidelberg 1995.
• Karl Weich: Mannheim - das neue Jerusalem. Die Jesuiten in Mannheim 1720–1773. Palatium-Editorial, Mannheim 1997, p. 142, 151.

• thePeerage.com