Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici

Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici
Portrait by Jan Frans van Douven
Electress Palatine
Tenure	5 June 1691 – 8 June 1716
Born	(1667-08-11)11 August 1667 Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Died	18 February 1743(1743-02-18) (aged 75) Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Burial	Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence 43°46′30″N 11°15′13″E / 43.774991°N 11.253659°E / 43.774991; 11.253659
Spouse	Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine
House	Medici
Father	Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
Mother	Marguerite Louise d'Orléans

Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici (11 August 1667 – 18 February 1743) was an Italian noblewoman who was the last lineal descendant of the main branch of the House of Medici. A patron of the arts, she bequeathed the Medicis' large art collection, including the contents of the Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti and the Medici villas, which she inherited upon her brother Gian Gastone's death in 1737, and her Palatine treasures to the Tuscan state, on the condition that no part of it could be removed from "the Capital of the grand ducal State....[and from] the succession of His Serene Grand Duke."^[1][2]

Anna Maria Luisa was the only daughter of Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Marguerite Louise d'Orléans, a niece of Louis XIII of France. On her marriage to Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine, she became Electress of the Palatinate, and, by patronising musicians, she earned for the contemporary Palatine court the reputation of an important music centre. As Johann Wilhelm had syphilis the union produced no offspring, which, combined with her siblings' barrenness, meant that the Medici were on the verge of extinction.

In 1713 Cosimo III altered the Tuscan laws of succession to allow the accession of his daughter, and spent his final years canvassing the European powers to agree to recognise this statute. However, in 1735, as part of a territorial arrangement, the European powers appointed Duke Francis Stephen of Lorraine as heir, and he duly ascended the Tuscan throne in her stead. After the death of Johann Wilhelm, Anna Maria Luisa returned to Florence, where she enjoyed the rank of first lady until the accession of her brother Gian Gastone, who banished her to the Villa La Quiete. When Gian Gastone died in 1737, Francis Stephen's envoy offered Anna Maria Luisa the position of nominal regent of Tuscany, but she declined. Her death, in 1743, brought the grand ducal House of Medici to an end. Her remains were interred in the Medicean necropolis, Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence, which she helped complete.