Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern - Later Life

Later Life

After Alfieri's death Louise's companion was the artist François Xavier Fabre; it seems unlikely that their relationship was a romantic one. Louise continued to live in Florence until in 1809 she was summoned to Paris by Napoleon who asked if she and Charles Edward had ever given birth to a child hoping they could then be used to try and stir up insurrection in Britain with which France was at war. When she replied "no", the meeting was abrubtly terminated. A year later she was allowed to return to Florence.

Louise is buried in the Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence (in the Castellani Chapel); Alfieri is also buried in the basilica (between the tombs of Machiavelli and Michelangelo).

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