Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, Duchess of Massa
Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina was the sovereign Duchess of Massa and Princess of Carrara from 1731 until her death in 1790. She was the eldest child of Alderano I Duke of Massa and Carrara, and his wife Ricciarda Gonzaga, daughter of Camillo, Count of Novellara. She was the wife of Ercole III d'Este, Duke of Modena.Biography
Maria Teresa was born in the town of Novellara (in what is now the province of Reggio Emilia. As the eldest child, she was her father's primary heiress. Her father died on 18 August 1731 when she was just six years old.
She was married by proxy on 10 November 1734 to Eugenio Giovanni Francesco of Savoy, a grandson of Prince Louis Thomas of Savoy-Carignan. However, as Louis Thomas died only thirteen days later, the couple never met and the marriage was annulled on the grounds of it never having been consummated.
In 1741, she married Ercole Rinaldo d'Este, heir to the duchy of Modena and Reggio. The duchy of Massa and the principality of Carrara were then annexed to the Duchy of Modena and Reggio.
The Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa arranged for Maria Beatrice, Duchess Maria Theresa's daughter and only surviving child, to marry the empress' fourth son Archduke Ferdinand of Austria in Milan on 15 October 1771. From this marriage, the House of Austria-Este was created, a cadet branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, which ruled Modena between 1814 and 1859.
Maria Teresa died in 1790 in Modena. Her non-sovereign titles, Duchess di Ajello and Baroness di Paduli, as well as that of Sovereign Lady of Moneta, also went to her daughter.Family
Maria Teresa and Ercole III had 2 children:
