, On 2 August 1634 she privately married Ferdinando, while the official public marriage was celebrated on 6 April 1637. Vittoria was crowned on the next 5 July. Her inheritance was included in her
dowry which was offered to the Medici. These rich art collections of the family, now in the
Uffizi and
Palazzo Pitti, thus became the property of the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Brought up in the convent of Crocetta, Vittoria's education was a deeply religious one administered by the Dowager Grand Duchesses who had aligned
Tuscany with the
Papal States. The marriage was consummated six years after the marriage ceremony and Vittoria gave birth to a son who died at the age of two days. Another son followed in 1640 but died at birth. Finally in 1642 the couple had another son named
Cosimo III de' Medici who was styled the
Grand Prince of Tuscany. Under the influence of their mother, her children also received a deeply
Roman Catholic education, and arguments between the Grand Ducal couple were sparked when there was a disagreement about the education of the Grand Prince. Shortly after the birth of Cosimo, the couple became estranged: Vittoria caught her husband and a page, Count Bruto della Molera, in bed together. The incident initially caused Vittoria to refuse to speak to her husband. When she decided to try to come to terms with him, however, he declined to be reconciled, and it was almost twenty years before their quarrel was properly made up. They briefly reconciled in 1659, which resulted in the birth of their last child,
Prince Francesco Maria, in 1660. The estranged couple had, at best, an unhappy marriage, and lived separately by mutual agreement for many years. Ferdinando II died in 1670 and was thus succeeded by the then Grand Prince as Cosimo III. He had been married to
Marguerite Louise d'Orléans, As a result, Vittoria was formally admitted into the Grand Duke's
Consulta, or "Privy Council", leaving an embittered Marguerite Louise to her own devices. The two Grand Duchesses frequently quarrelled over precedence and the
Consulta, but Cosimo III always took his mother's side, which only fuelled the ever-growing rages of Orléans. Orléans was left to the supervision of her son, the
Grand Prince Ferdinando. By early 1671, fighting between Marguerite Louise and Vittoria became so heated that a contemporary remarked that "the
Pitti Palace has become the devil's own abode, and from morn till midnight only the noise of wrangling and abuse could be heard". Vittoria employed
Caterina Angiola Pieroncini as a lady-in-waiting, sending her to Paris in 1664 for training in
needlework. ) Vittoria triumphed when news of her daughter-in-law's pending departure to France came in 1674. The younger grand duchess had lived in virtual imprisonment at the
Medici Villa in Poggio a Caiano outside Florence for sometime. Eventually, the Grand Ducal couple decided to separate on the condition that Orléans stay at the
Abbey Saint Pierre de Montmartre in
Paris. Orléans left Tuscany in 1675 never to return. As a result of the abandonment of her children, Vittoria della Rovere was made guardian of her grandchildren:
Grand Prince Ferdinando,
Princess Anna Maria Luisa and
Prince Gian Gastone. Retiring from politics, in her old age, she made long stays in the convent of the
Montalve, known as
Villa La Quiete, as well as in the
Villa del Poggio Imperiale, to which she transferred some of the art collection she had inherited. Vittoria della Rovere, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, died in
Pisa in 1694 at the age of seventy-two. She was buried at the
Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence. At her death her son
Francesco Maria, Cardinal since 1686, inherited the Rovere duchies. The titles became extinct with the extinction of the
House of Medici with the death of her grandson
Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1737. Her only granddaughter
Electress Palatine Anna Maria Luisa willed the contents of the
Medici properties to the Tuscan state in 1743. The so-called
Family Pact ensured that Medicean art and treasures spanning over nearly three centuries would remain in Florence along with what was once Vittoria's inheritance. ==Issue==