The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Albany, Louisa Maria Caroline

ALBANY, äl'bā-nî, Louisa Maria Caroline, or Aloysia, Countess of, a princess of the Stolberg-Gedern family: b. 1753; d. 29 Jan. 1824. She married in 1772 the English pretender, Charles Edward Stuart, after which event she bore the above title. Her marriage was unfruitful and unhappy. To escape from the barbarity of her husband she retired in 1780 to a cloister and afterward to the house of her brother-in-law at Rome where she met the poet, Alfieri, to whom, soon after the death of her husband, she was privately married. Alfieri attributed to her his poetic inspiration. (See Alfieri). She died at Florence, her usual place of residence, in her 72d year. Her ashes and those of Alfieri now repose under a common monument in the church of Santa Croce at Florence.