Maria Antonia Branconi
Maria Antonia von Branconi (27 October 1746 in Genoa – 7 July 1793 in Abano) was the royal mistress of Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, from 1766 to 1777.
Born to German-Italian parents and raised in Naples, she married at age twelve to Francesco de Pessina Branconi (d. 1766). They had a daughter and a son. In November 1766 she met the heir to Brunswick and followed him to Brunswick, becoming his official favorite. Their son Karl Anton Ferdinand was born in 1767, and she lived in her own palace on Wilhelmstrasse.
In 1774 she was ennobled by Emperor Joseph II as von Branconi. The relationship ended in 1777 when he began an affair with Baroness Luise Henriette von Hertefeld, and he appointed her secular convent lady of Steterburg.
Branconi traveled across Europe and lived in Paris from 1787 to 1791. She had a son, Jules Adolph Marie, in 1788 with a new partner. She was connected with scholars and writers of her time and was friends with Goethe.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 12:54 (CET).