Maria Vittoria Francesca di Savoia was the child of Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia and his maîtresse-en-titre, Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes.

Her father gave her husband an annual income of 400,000 livres, partly to assuage injury to the princely dignity of the Carignans for acquiescing to a marital alliance with a lady born out of wedlock.

[citation needed] As a result, Maria Vittoria's husband fled to France in July 1718 during the Regency of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, travelling as the Conte di Bosco.

The couple lived at the Hôtel de Soissons, which they claimed in right of the Savoy-Soissons inheritance which had been confiscated when Savoy became an enemy of France under Louis XIV during the War of the Spanish Succession.

[citation needed] Maria Vittoria and her husband led a scandalous life at the Hôtel de Soissons, turning it into one of the most dangerous for gambling in the capital.

Her husband's position and their connections at the French court were important to their circumstances, as Prince Victor Amadeus proceeded to incur massive debts in France, adding to those already contracted in Savoy.

[3] However, Maria Vittoria is alleged to have remained loyal to Fleury: When the Duke of Bourbon suggested, via an intermediary, that if she could mend the relationship between himself and the Cardinal her husband's huge debts in both France and Savoy would be settled and an income of half a million livres would be assured her, she is said to have indignantly refused.