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Ihr vollständiger Name lautete Maria Beatrix Eleonore Anne Margherita Isabella d'Este. In älteren Büchern wird sie daher häufig "Maria Beatrix (oder Beatrice)" genannt. Sie wurde am 5. Oktober 1658 geboren und starb am 7. Mai 1718. Ihre Mutter war Laura Martinozzi (1637-1687), und sie hatte zwei Brüder: Francesco (1657-1658) und Francesco II. d'Este (1660-1694), Herzog von Reggio und Modena, der keine Kinder hinterließ.
"Her father, Alphonso d’Esté, Duke of Modena, was a martyr to the gout, of which he died after a short but promising reign of four years. On his demise he left to his duchess, Laura Martinozzi, the regency of Modena and the guardianship of their offsprings, Francis the Second, his successor, and Maria Beatrix, known as Mary Beatrice … The Duchess of Modena herself superintended the education of the orphan son and daughter, and although a fond parent, treated them with censurable severity. To Maria she strictly forbad cakes and sweetmeats, forced her greatly against her will to eat soupe maigre at her meals; one day smartly boxed her ears, because in repeating the Benedicite she had forgotten one of the verses; and another time, when she was frightened at the sweeps who had come to cleanse the chimney of her nursery, seized her by the hand, and to convince her that her fears were groundless, caused the men of soot to draw near and speak to her, which, as she stated in after-life, nearly terrified her into fits. To finish her education, she was sent to a convent of Carmelite nuns; and the life she led there, so imbued her mind with spiritual romance, that she was preparing to take the veil, when, to her discomfiture, James, Duke of York, afterwards James the Second, sued and obtained her reluctant hand in marriage." (in: Francis Lancelott: The Queens of England and their Times, Volume II, id., p. 743).
Henry Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough, der für Jakob II. (VII.) Stuart die zweite Gemahlin suchen sollte, beschrieb Maria von Modena, als er sie zum ersten Mal auf einem Porträt sah, folgendermaßen: "The Princess Mary of Este [Maria von Modena] appear'd to be at this time about fourteen years of age; she was tall, and admirably shaped, her complexion was of the last fairness, her hair black as jet, so were her eyebrows and her eyes; but the latter so full of light and sweetness so they did dazzle and charm too. There seemed given unto them from nature, sovereign power; power to kill and power to save; and in the whole turn of her face, which was of the most graceful oval could be framed, there was all the features, all the beauty, and all that could be great and charming in any humane creature." (in: Maureen Waller: Ungrateful Daughters – The Stuart Princesses who stole their father’s crown, London 2002, pp. 15-16).
Maria von Modena wollte nicht heiraten. Sie wollte Nonne werden. Der Papst, Klemens X., musste sie ermahnen, den Herzog von York zu ehelichen: "... We therefore earnestly exhort you ... to reflect upon the great advantage which would accrue to the Catholic faith in the aforementioned Kingdom [England und Schottland] through your marriage, and trust that, inflamed with zeal for the good which may result, you will open to yourself a field of merit wider than that of the virginal cloister." (in: Maureen Waller: Ungrateful Daughters – The Stuart Princesses who stole their father’s crown, id., p. 16).
Maria fügte sich dem päpstlichen Befehl und heiratete am 19. oder 30. September 1673 per procurationem in ihrem väterlichen Schloss den Herzog von York. Als Stellvertreter für den abwesenden Bräutigam diente Henry Mordaunt, der Graf von Peterborough. "... when the time for her departure for England was named, she cried bitterly for two whole days and nights, and would not be pacified till her mother consented to accompany her … Maria left Modena about a fortnight after the solemnization of her marriage, accompanied by her mother, her brother, the young Duke of Modena, her uncle, Prince Rinaldo D’Esté, and a princely train of nobles. … but on reaching the border of France, her brother and most of the nobles who had attended her out of respect to the house of Esté, returned. At Paris, Louis the Fourteenth and the most exalted and illustrious personages in France entertained her with regal magnificence, and treated her with all conceivable honour and distinction. These princely favours she returned with becoming grace and dignity, and was about to set out for England, when a violent attack of fever laid her up and forced her to keep her bed for a fortnight." (in: Francis Lancelott: The Queens of England and their Times, Volume II, id., p. 745).
Mit ihrer Mutter Laura Martinozzi war Maria also an ihrem 15. Geburtstag, am 5. Oktober 1673, nach England aufgebrochen. Einen Zwischenstopp hatte man in Frankreich eingelegt: "In France Louis XIV, who had done much to promote the marriage, gave her a splendid reception and took her on a tour of his new palace at Versailles. One of the reasons that the marriage was so unpopular with the English Parliament was that it was deemed to be part of the hated French alliance, and, indeed, Louis XIV was providing a proportion of the dowry. While Parliament was raging against the marriage in England, the bride was delayed in France owing to a bout of dysentery. Eventually, on 21 November, she sailed to Dover on the yacht Catherine. James, with a small party of attendants, stood on the shore [in Dover] to meet her. As the young Duchess, tired and shaken by the rough crossing, stepped out of the boat, James came forward to greet her. She promptly burst into tears. To the fifteen-year-old girl, her forty-year-old bridegroom must have looked impossibly old. James was tall and fair like his grandmother Anne of Denmark, but his once handsome face betrayed years of debauchery and there was a sneer, a cruel curl to his lip." (in: Maureen Waller: Ungrateful Daughters – The Stuart Princesses who stole their father’s crown, id., p. 18). " ... at the same night the marriage was lawfully consummated." (in: Francis Lancelott: The Queens of England and their Times, Volume II, id., p. 746).
Mary Beatrice [Maria von Modena] became particularly fond of the Lady Mary [ihre ältere Stieftochter], who was closer to her age. Mary was charming, affectionate and intelligent, and the two became friends. Tall and graceful like herself, Mary loved to dance. Mary Beatrice might have found it harder to warm to the younger girl, who was less open and more suspicious than her sister. Lady Anne [ihre jüngere Stieftochter] had a slight cast in her eye, so that she appeared to be looking at a person askance, which was rather disconcerting. Subjected to her mother's strict discipline, Mary Beatrice had received a far superior education to that given these Stuart Princesses. Besides Italian, she was fluent in French and Latin and soon spoke and wrote the English language better than they did." (in: Maureen Waller: Ungrateful Daughters – The Stuart Princesses who stole their father’s crown, id., pp. 22-23).
Nachdem ihre Mutter am 30. Dezember 1673 England verlassen und sich nach Modena zurückbegeben hatte, entdeckte Maria die Liebe zu ihrem "alten" Gatten: "Once Mary Beatrice was left alone with her husband, something curious happened. She started to fall in love with him. 'After her [mother's] departure,' she recalled many years later, 'I became very fond of my husband, and my affection for him increased with every year that we lived together. It was sinful for any one to love an earthly creature as I loved him.' She recognised that he was 'a very good man, and wishes me well and would do anything to prove it to me.' She drew consolation from the fact that he was a good Catholic, 'so firm and steady in our holy religion'. She was not to be consoled for long. Mary Beatrice had been in England for four months when she was incensed to discover that she was not the only object of the Duke's affections. She learned that James had a mistress, Arabella Churchill, and that she had just given birth to their fourth child." (in: Maureen Waller: Ungrateful Daughters – The Stuart Princesses who stole their father’s crown, id., pp. 24-25).
"On the tenth of January, 1675, exactly twenty-five minutes after four in the afternoon, Maria gave birth to her first child, a daughter, at St. James’s Palace. Katherine Laura … was a delicate child, and, to the great grief of her parents, died of a convulsion fit, in the tenth month of her age, and was buried on the fifth of October, 1675, in the vault of Mary, Queen of Scots, in Westminster Abbey. ... On the eighteenth of August, 1676, at five minutes past eight in the morning, Maria’s second child – a daughter – entered the world. The infant was christened Isabella … the Duchess was safely delivered of a prince [am 7. November 1677], to the great joy of the whole court … The child is but little, but sprightly, and likely to live. The evening after his birth, he was christened with great pomp … by the name of Charles, after the King, who stood godfather, and created him Duke of Cambridge. … The infant Charles, although a healthy babe, was short-lived; four days after his birth the smallpox broke out at St. James’s, he caught the infection … and on the eleventh of December he died in a convulsion fit." (in: Francis Lancelott: The Queens of England and their Times, Volume II, id., p. 748).
Maria erlitt mindestens eine Fehlgeburt im Jahr 1674 und fünf Totgeburten. Sie brachte ihrem Gatten folgende Kinder zur Welt:
Maria verlor viele ihrer Kinder, als sie noch sehr jung waren. Sie scheint zudem viele Frühgeburten gehabt zu haben. Daher hatten ihre Kinder kaum eine Chance alt zu werden. An eine Nonne in ihrem Kloster in Modena schrieb sie gegen Ende des Jahres 1682: "But I console myself with the thought that I have more angels to pray for me, and I ought to esteem myself honoured that, while other women give their children to the world, I have given all mine to God, in whose mercy I still hope that He may some day comfort me by giving me a male child who shall live, and yet in the end gain Heaven." (in: Maureen Waller: Ungrateful Daughters – The Stuart Princesses who stole their father’s crown, id., p. 36).
Im Oktober 1678 besuchte Maria von Modena in Begleitung ihrer jüngeren Stieftochter Anne und der Herzoginnen von Monmouth und Buckingham, der Gräfinnen von Richmond und Peterborough und der Lady Henrietta Hyde inkognito ihre ältere Stieftochter Mary in den Niederlanden. An ihren Bruder Francesco II. d'Este schrieb sie: "I also am going a journey to Holland to see the Princess of Orange [Mary II. Stuart] who is with child and has been ill, she is better now and very anxious to see me and her sister; we have a great wish to see her, for certainly I love her as if she were my own daughter, and also I have a wish to see that country. My lord Duke is pleased that I should visit his daughter and divert myself, and the King [Karl II. Stuart] has given me permission." (in: Maureen Waller: Ungrateful Daughters – The Stuart Princesses who stole their father’s crown, id., p. 29).
Die allgemein bekannte Konversion des Herzogs von York zum Katholizismus sorgte für große politische Unruhe im Land. Der Anführer der Tories, Danby, empfahl dem König Karl II. Stuart, seinen Bruder Jakob II. (VII.) erst einmal außer Landes zu schaffen, bis sich die Gemüter im Königreich beruhigt hätten. Letzterer hatte sich daher im März 1679 mit seiner jungen Gattin Maria nach Brüssel zu begeben. Seine Töchter Anne und Isabella durfte er nicht mitnehmen. Mitte April 1679 besuchte Maria von Modena von dort aus erneut ihre ältere Stieftochter Mary in den Niederlanden. Ihrem Bruder schrieb sie: "Tomorrow I leave for Holland to see the Princess who is ill with fever and pains, but with no further hope of a child ... which is very displeasing to us all. I shall stay with her several days, until she recovers, she having as great a desire to see me as I have to see her, and then we shall return here until it pleases the King and Parliament to let us go home again. You can imagine how passionately I desire our return." (in: Maureen Waller: Ungrateful Daughters – The Stuart Princesses who stole their father’s crown, id., p. 33).
"She [Maria von Modena] was destined to be disappointed. The King made their chief enemy, the Whig leader Lord Shaftesbury, President of the Council, perhaps in an attempt to rein him in. In May the Whigs brought in the Bill for the exclusion of the Duke of York from the English throne, adding that if he ever returned from foreign parts he was to stand accused of high treason. On 1 June the Bill passed the Commons by 207 votes to 128 and Charles moved swiftly to prorogue Parliament. To add insult to injury, James received a letter from the Pope, warning him against excess of zeal. It could only do the Catholic cause harm, he warned. ... The Yorks' residence in a Catholic country gave the Duchess of Modena an opportunity to visit her daughter, whereas her presence was never welcome in London. The two had not seen each other for five years and she found Mary Beatrice grown into a beautiful woman. 'She is very tall,' she told Prince Rinaldo, 'but rather thin, full of goodness and grace. The Duke adores her, and thanked me again for having bestowed her upon him.' James and Mary Beatrice had been separated from their daughters for five months and in August petitioned successfully to have them with them during the parliamentary recess. The Duchess of Modena was able to see her granddaughter, Isabella, who was now three years old. Soon after the arrival of the Princesses, James was called to England urgently. The King had fallen gravely ill at Windsor. He arrived to find Charles recovering from a chill. Charles was pleased to see him, but it was judged too soon for his exile to be revoked. The blow was softened when the place of exile was changed from Brussels to Edinburgh." (in: Maureen Waller: Ungrateful Daughters – The Stuart Princesses who stole their father’s crown, id, pp. 33-34).
Maria von Modena "loved to ride, and she looked especially dashing in the fashionable feathered hat and long male riding coat worn over the trailing skirt that the ladies of the court had adopted. She had a serious accident in Scotland when her horse threw her, her long skirt became entangled, and she was dragged for some distance. She lost consciousness and was badly bruised. The accident was the more serious since she was pregnant again, as she confided to Lady Bellasys in the spring of 1682." (in: Maureen Waller: Ungrateful Daughters – The Stuart Princesses who stole their father’s crown, id., p. 36). Ob letztendlich der Sturz die Folge war, wissen wir nicht. Aber: "Maria giving birth to a Princess several weeks sooner than was expected. The infant entered the world on the fifteenth of August, 1682, was christened Charlotte Maria … and eight weeks afterwards died in a convulsion fit." (in: Francis Lancelott: The Queens of England and their Times, Volume II, id., p. 756).
Maria von Modena galt als sehr arrogant und hochnäsig. Als sie mit ihrem Gatten Jakob II. (VII.) in den Jahren 1679 bis 1682 in Schottland leben musste, machte sie sich dort sehr unbeliebt. "One night, for instance, when James had asked the famous General Dalziel to dine with them, the Duchess refused to sit down at table with a private gentleman. Dalziel is said to have remarked with considerable warmth, 'Madam, I have dined at a table where your father stood behind my back.' By this he alluded to the time when he had dined with the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Duke of Modena as a vassal of his Imperial master was serving at the table." (in: Marie Ruan Hopkinson: Anne of England – The Biography of a great Queen, id., pp. 83-84).
Auch mit ihrer Stieftochter Anne Stuart verstand sie sich nicht gut: "It is clearly shown by later letters that Anne and her stepmother were never on very affectionate terms. Probably the Duchess also looked upon her stepdaughter, whose mother had been a commoner, rather contemptuously." (in: Marie Ruan Hopkinson: Anne of England – The Biography of a great Queen, id., p. 84).
Seit Mai 1682 lebte Maria von Modena mit ihrem Gatten wieder in England. Am 6. Februar 1685 starb schließlich ihr Schwager, der englisch-schottische König Karl II. Stuart, und da er keine legitimen Kinder hinterließ, wurde sein Bruder, Marias Gatte, der nächste König von England und Schottland. Maria "was grief-stricken at the sudden death of King Charles II on 6 February 1685, confessing to the nuns at Chaillot many years later that she had loved him from the start, long before she had come to love her husband. His death and the surprisingly smooth succession of James to the throne meant that England had one of the most beautiful queens in its history. There was some concern that Mary Beatrice's health [= Maria von Modena] was too frail for her to undergo the rigorous coronation ceremony, but in the event she carried the day very well. Three crowns [eine für England, eine für Schottland und eine für Irland] had been made especially for her." (in: Maureen Waller: Ungrateful Daughters – The Stuart Princesses who stole their father’s crown, id., p. 37). "As the crown jewels had been plundered by the Roundheads during the Civil War, the Queen’s crown and other regal ornaments were made expressly for her, and that at a most extravagant cost; her imperial diadem, set with diamonds, rubies, and other precious stones, was of itself valued by the goldsmith who made it, at £111,900." (in: Francis Lancelott: The Queens of England and their Times, Volume II, id., pp. 757-758).
"Without the restraining influence of Charles II, who had insisted his brother and his wife worship in private, James and Maria Beatrice [Jakob II. (VII.) und Maria von Modena] now practised the Catholic religion flagrantly. They went publicly to mass, leaving the door open. John Evelyn went along to view the splendour of the new Catholic chapel at Whitehall and to enjoy the singing of the Italian tenor, Cifaccio. He was scandalised by the sight of a Catholic bishop and the Jesuit priests in their rich vestments, the elaborate ceremony and gilded ornaments, the swinging censer and the waft of incense. 'I could not have believed I should ever have seen such things in the King of England's palace,' he wrote, 'after it had pleased God to enlighten this nation.'" (in: Maureen Waller: Ungrateful Daughters – The Stuart Princesses who stole their father’s crown, id., p. 40).
"The Queen [Maria von Modena] never meddled in politics, but she undoubtedly exercised a strong influence over James and she was blamed for his excess. Princess Anne [Stuart] certainly held her responsible, as she told her sister [Mary II. Stuart]: 'One thing I must say of the Queen, which is that she is the most hated woman in the world of all sorts of people; for everybody believes that she pressed the King to be more violent than he would be of himself; which is not unlikely, for she is a very great bigot in her way, and one may see by her that she hates all Protestants.'" (in: Maureen Waller: Ungrateful Daughters – The Stuart Princesses who stole their father’s crown, id., p. 42).
Als Maria im November 1687 wusste, dass sie erneut schwanger war und sich nun sehnlich einen Sohn wünschte, hatte sie sich mit ihrem Gatten im englisch-schottischen Königreich bereits so unbeliebt gemacht, dass man ihr dort die Schwangerschaft nicht mehr abnahm. Man redete davon, dass Jakob II. (VII.) Stuart und Maria ihnen ein fremdes Kind als ihren Sohn unterschieben wollten, um zu verhindern, dass Jakobs protestantische Töchter Mary und Anne seine Nachfolger werden konnten. Als daher bei Maria - wie üblich - die Wehen einen Monat zu früh einsetzten, wollte sie wegen des böswilligen Gerüchtes Zeugen bei der Geburt haben: "About eight the next morning [am 10. Juni] … she requested the King to summon immediately every one he intended to witness the birth of their offspring. Margaret Dawson was the first to obey the summons; she found the Queen alone, depressed in spirits, chilly and trembling; by her orders the bed was made and warmed with a warming-pan full of hot cinders, before the Queen entered it. ... [schließlich] the lying-in-chamber was crowded with sixty-seven persons. Amongst those who attended as witnesses, were the Queen-dowager [Katharina von Braganza], the Countess of Sunderland, and many ladies of rank, besides eighteen members of the privy council. … At ten o’clock the child [Jakob III.] was born, and instantly shown to three of the Protestant ladies present. … A few hours after his birth, the careless nurse gave the Prince too strong a dose of medicine; it rendered him fractious, and the dose was repeated, till at last he became so ill that at three in the morning, he was thought to be dying … [jetzt wurden endlich die Ärzte gerufen] ... But the King’s enemies turned the event to their own account, by circulating a report that the Prince had died; and to personate him, another and a spurious child had been substituted." (in: Francis Lancelott: The Queens of England and their Times, Volume II, id., pp. 762-763).
Der glückliche Vater des kleinen Prinzen, Jakob II. (VII.) Stuart, schrieb wenige Tage nach der Geburt des Stammhalters an seinen Schwiegersohn Wilhelm III. von Oranien und seine Tochter Mary Folgendes: "The Queen was, God be thanked, safely delivered of a son, on Sunday morning, a little before ten. She has been very ill ever since; and the child was somewhat ill this last night, of the wind; but is now, blessed be God, very well again, and like to have no return of it, and is a very strong boy." (in: Francis Lancelott: The Queens of England and their Times, Volume II, id., p. 763). "The public thanksgiving for the birth of the Prince of Wales took place on the seventeenth of June, and shortly afterwards, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London kissed the Prince’s hand, and presented him with a purse of gold." (in: Francis Lancelott: The Queens of England and their Times, Volume II, id., p. 763). Maria von Modena schrieb ihrer Stieftochter Mary: "... that she had come a month sooner than she had expected, and if the child had not been bigger and stronger than any she had ever had, she should have thought he had come before his time." (in: Francis Lancelott: The Queens of England and their Times, Volume II, id., p. 765).
"The birth of the Prince [Jakob III.] was then verified by the Queen Dowager [Katharina von Braganza] and seventeen Catholic and twenty-three Protestant nobles and ladies, besides the Queen’s midwife, nurses and physicians." (in: Francis Lancelott: The Queens of England and their Times, Volume II, id., p. 769).
Marias Tod: Maria von Modena litt sein September 1703 an Brustkrebs: "In September, 1703, she wrote to the abbess of Chaillot, that her breast had been lanced, and the operation, although painful, had eased the pangs of the cancer, and effected a marked improvement of her general health. … [aber der medizinische Eingriff hatte den Krebs nicht beseitigt] ... in a letter to the abbess of Chailott, dated August, 1705, she says, 'I suffer from pangs in my breast almost constantly, and I seldom have any rest at night.' .... her deadly disease was arrested by the skill of her surgeon, DeBeaulieu, who in the subsequent September performed another operation on her breast, when, to the surprise of herself and her friends, she again became convalescent." (in: Francis Lancelott: The Queens of England and their Times, Volume II, id., p. 783). Letztendlich starb Maria von Modena am 7. Mai 1718 doch an den Folgen des Brustkrebses.
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