Marie Louise (December 12, 1791 - December 17, 1847) was the second wife of Napoléon Bonaparte and Empress of The French. She was also sovereign Duchess of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla.
Her Imperial and Royal Highness Maria Luisa Leopoldine Franziska Theresia Josepha Lucia, Princess Imperial and Archduchess of Austria, Princess Royal of Hungary and Bohemia, Princess of Tuscany, Duchess of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla was born in Vienna, the daughter of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor and his second wife, Maria Theresa of the Two Sicilies .
On March 11, 1810, Marie Louise was married to Napoléon (by proxy). The marriage intended to link the Austrian Empire of her father to the First French Empire of her new husband. On March 20, 1811, the Empress had a son, Napoléon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte, styled King of Rome and later Duke of Reichstadt .
After Napoleon's abdication Marie Louise and her son fled Paris to Blois then to Vienna where she remained until the Treaty of Paris of April 30, 1814 gave her the duchies of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla, with her son as heir. However, in 1815, the Treaty of Vienna revised that and made her Duchess of Parma for her life only, with the details of who would become Duke of Parma after her death unspecified. In 1817, a treaty was signed which would leave the duchies to the Bourbons. However, in 1844 it was said that Guastalla would go to the Dukes of Modena.
In 1821, four months after Napoleon's death, she married, morganatically, her lover, Adam-Adalbert, Count and Lord of Neipperg (1775-1829). The couple had two children out of wedlock:
- Albertine, Countess of Montenuovo (1817-1867, married Luigi, Count di Fontanellato)
- Wilhelm Albrecht, Count of Montenuovo, later created Prince of Montenuovo (1819-1895, married Countess Juliana Batthyány von Némét-Ujvár).
Marie-Louise and Neipperg also had a second daughter, Mathilde, Countess of Montenuovo, in 1822.
In 1834 Marie-Louise married, morganatically, her grand chamberlain , Charles-René, Count of Bombelles (1785-1856).
Marie Louise, former Empress of The French, died on December 17, 1847 in Parma. Her status as Duchess of Parma and Piacenza passed to Prince Charles of Parma, the grandson of the last reigning Duke of Parma, but the duchy of Guastalla passed to Duke Francis V of Modena.
{
| width="30%" align="center"|Preceded by:
Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès
(titular, actually part of France)
| width="40%" align="center"|Duchess of Parma
1814-1847
| width="30%" align="center" rowspan="2"|Succeeded by:
Charles II Louis
|-
| width="30%" align="center"|Preceded by:
Charles François Lebrun
(titular, actually part of France)
| width="40%" align="center"|Duchess of Piacenza
1814-1847
|-
| width="30%" align="center"|Preceded by:
Part of France
| width="40%" align="center"|Duchess of Guastalla
1814-1847
| width="30%" align="center"|Succeeded by:
Ceded to Modena