Duchess Marie Sophie in Bavaria

Maria Sophie Amalie, Duchess in Bavaria (4 October 1841, Possenhofen Castle – 19 January 1925, Munich) was the last Queen consort of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. She was one of the ten children of Maximilian Joseph, Duke in Bavaria and Princess Ludovika of Bavaria. She was born as Duchess Maria Sophia in Bavaria. She was the younger sister of the better-known Elisabeth of Bavaria ("Sisi") who married Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. Early life Maria Sophie was born on October 4, 1841, at the Possenhofen Castle in Possenhofen, the Kingdom of Bavaria. Her parents were Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria and Princess Ludovika of Bavaria. She was the sixth of ten children and one of the eight that survived to adulthood. She and her siblings enjoyed an unrestricted childhood, shared between Possenhofen Castle in the summers and the Herzog-Max-Palais in Munich. In the winter of 1857, at the age of 16, Marie Sophie's hand was sought by Francis II of the Two Sicilies, the eldest son of King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies. The marriage was political, since Ferdinand wished to ally himself with the Emperor of Austria, Franz Josef I, a powerful fellow absolutist. At that time the kingdom was already threatened by revolutionary forces.