Duchess of Parma
Maria Amalia left Austria on 1 July 1769, accompanied by her brother, Joseph II, and married Ferdinand on 19 July, at the Ducal Palace of Colorno. She was instructed by her mother to be submissive, obedient, adapt to local customs, and never interfere with politics.
The Duchy of Parma was ruled more or less as a French puppet state by Minister Guillaume du Tillot. Du Tillot kept Ferdinand out of politics, and was favored by his maternal grandfather, Louis XV of France. A letter of Louis XV to his grandson from May 1769 attests to this, counseling his grandson not to despise the minister who served his parents well, as there was no one to replace him. Maria Amalia's marriage had been arranged by Austria and Spain to end the pro-French policy in Parma and replace it with an Austrian and Spanish one. Upon her arrival, Maria Amalia was expected to submit to the wishes of du Tillot, who regarded her with suspicion, immediately causing conflict.
In 1771, two years after her arrival in Parma, Maria Amalia secured the dismissal of du Tillot and replaced him with the Spaniard Jose del Llano, was highly recommended by the paternal uncle of Ferdinand, Charles III of Spain. In 1772, Maria Amalia fired del Llano and replaced him with an Italian prime minister and a cabinet of native Parmesans loyal to her rather than to a foreign ruler. This way, she secured that Parma would not become a Spanish puppet state. Duke Ferdinand, happy to spend his life with religious observance and raising his children, left the affairs of state entirely to his wife. After the cabinet change, Maria Amalia was therefore the de facto ruler of Parma.
In 1773, her mother Empress Maria Theresa tasked Count Franz Xaver Wolfgang of Orsini-Rosenberg (1723–1796), her ambassador to Parma, to act as Maria Amalia's adviser. Maria Amalia, however, told Rosenberg that she no longer wished to receive letters from Vienna or from Madrid. After this, the diplomatic ties with Austria and Spain were cut.
As the ruler of Parma, Maria Amalia was referred to by the public as La Mata or La Signora, 'The Lady'. She defended the independence of the Duchy of Parma, strengthened its sense of nationality, supported art, culture, and literature, working efficiently with her ministerial cabinet. Ferdinand did not have political influence, and she openly changed and contradicted his orders and had him sign state documents for her, including her name in his orders as if they were co-rulers.
From the beginning, Maria Amalia caused a scandal with her personal lifestyle. She made no effort to conceal her displeasure with her husband or her new circumstances. She used the funds from her mother for her wardrobe, a grand court and parties; she replaced most of her ladies-in-waiting with an entourage of handsome men from the royal guards; she cross-dressed as male, spent her nights unaccompanied and incognito on the streets, gambled in the officers' club and, while Ferdinand took mistresses from the peasantry, she enjoyed affairs with members of his guard. All of this became a worry for her mother, who feared that Maria Amalia would stain the reputation of her sisters, especially that of the youngest, Maria Antonia, whom Maria Theresa wanted to marry to the dauphin of France.
Maria Amalia never established a good relationship with her husband, but they were both described as loving parents. She was greatly disliked by the Parmesan nobility, who described her as a shameful Messalina and blamed her for living a life of imperial luxury in such a small state. In turn, she considered them mostly useless and not beneficial to the interests of Parma. She was, however, popular among the public for her generosity toward the poor; at her famous gala parties in Colorno, she had tables set up for both noble and poor guests who enjoyed the same meals.
Maria Amalia would remain largely estranged from her mother, except for a brief reconciliation in 1773 when her first son was born, despite her mother's repeated efforts at reconciliation. The duchess resisted her mother's efforts to control her from afar. When her sister Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen, and her husband, Albert of Saxony, Duke of Teschen, visited her in Parma in 1776, after several years of not seeing each other, Prince Albert wrote in his journal the following about Maria Amalia: "The Infanta was so changed that I did not recognize her. No trace remained of that glamour, that beauty that was once admired in her; her beautiful waist had disappeared, and her dress and gait contributed even more to disfiguring her." Maria Amalia was in touch with her younger sisters Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, and Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples and Sicily, for most of their married lives. The three sisters exchanged letters, portraits and gifts; one of Marie Antoinette's last letters during her imprisonment was written to Maria Amalia. However, her conflicts with their mother put a strain on her relationship with her siblings.
In 1778, her eldest son, Prince Louis, injured himself by banging his head into a marble table while playing with his sister. He recovered from a serious concussion, but after this, he suffered from epileptic seizures and was often confused. This crisis contributed to an improvement in the relationship between Maria Amalia and Ferdinand. During the 1780s, Ferdinand was also more interested in state affairs, and the welfare of Parma became another common interest which made their relationship more cordial.
