A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Albani Louisa
ALBANI LOUISA,
Countess of, Albany, daughter of prince Stolberg-Gedern, in Germany, was born in 1753, and married in 1772, to Charles James Edward, the young Pretender, grandson of James the Second. They resided at Rome, and had a little court, by which they were addressed as king and queen. In 1780, Louisa left her husband, who was much older than herself, and with whom she did not agree, and retired to a convent. She afterwards went to France; but on her husband's death in 1788, she returned to Italy, and settled in Florence. She was then privately married to count Victor Ailieri, the Italian poet, who died at her house in 1803. She, however, still went by the name of countess of Albany, widow of the last of the Stuarts, up to the time of her death. She was fond of literature and the arts, and her house was the resort of ail distinguished persons in Florence. She died there January 29th. 1824, aged seventy-two.
Her name and her misfortunes have been transmitted to posterity in the works and the autobiography of Alfieri. This famous poet called her mia donna, and confessed that to her he owed his inspiration. Without the friendship of the countess of Albany, he has said that he never should have achieved anything excellent: "Senza laquella mon aurei mai fatta nulla di buono." The sketch of his first meeting with her is full of sentiment and genuine poetry. Their love for each other was true, delicate, and faithful; and their ashes now repose under a common monument, in the church of Santa Croce, at Florence, between the tombs of Machiavelli and Michael Angelo.