Anna Maria Franziska | |||||
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![]() Anna Marie Franziska, official portrait as Grand Duchess of Tuscany | |||||
Grand Duchess consort of Tuscany | |||||
Tenure | 31 October 1723 – 9 July 1737 | ||||
Born | Neuhaus upon Elbe, Lower Saxony, Holy Roman Empire (now Germany) | 13 June 1672||||
Died | 15 October 1741 Zákupy, Bohemia, Habsburg monarchy (now Czech Republic) | (aged 69)||||
Burial | Reichstadt | ||||
Spouse | |||||
Issue Detail | Maria Anna, Duchess Ferdinand of Bavaria | ||||
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House | Ascania | ||||
Father | Julius Francis of Saxe-Lauenburg | ||||
Mother | Hedwig of the Palatinate |
Anna Maria Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg (13 June 1672 – 15 October 1741) was the legal Duchess of Saxe-Lauenburg in the eyes of the Holy Roman Emperor, the overlord of Saxe-Lauenburg, from 1689 until 1728; however, because her distant cousin George William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, conquered the duchy by force in 1689, she exercised no control over the territory, instead living in her manors in Bohemia.
She was Grand Duchess of Tuscany as the wife of the last Medici Grand Duke, Gian Gastone.
Anna Maria Franziska was the elder surviving daughter of Julius Franz, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, and Maria Hedwig of the Palatinate-Sulzbach. She married Philipp Wilhelm August of the Palatinate in 1690, with whom she had her only child, Maria Anna, in 1691. She was widowed in 1693. Four years later, she married Gian Gastone de' Medici, a Prince of Tuscany. With her brother-in-law Ferdinando de' Medici's death in 1713, her husband became Tuscany's heir-apparent. She became Grand Duchess of Tuscany upon the incumbent ruler's death in 1723. She was Grand Duchess for fourteen years before being widowed again in 1737.[1]