She is credited for her charitable nature setting up various religious orders in her adopted Baden-Baden where she was known as Maria Viktoria.

Her mother was Maria Lodovica Francesca Pignatelli, Duchess of Bisaccia (1696-1766), a grand-daughter of Ottone Enrico del Carretto, who was an Imperial Army commander, like her own father.

She was one of six children, her only surviving brother being Charles Marie Raymond, Duke of Arenberg, another distinguished member of the imperial army.

She was a cousin of Maria Henriette de La Tour d'Auvergne, wife of Count Palatine John Christian and mother of the last Wittelsbach Elector of Bavaria.

At the death of her brother in law Louis George in 1761, her husband succeeded as margrave making Marie Victoire, known as Maria Viktoria in Germany, the most important female at the court of Baden-Baden displacing Louis Georges widow Maria Anna Josepha of Bavaria, sister of Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria.