[2] Maria Clotilde was the eldest of eight children born to Victor Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia by his first wife and cousin, Archduchess Adelaide of Austria.

[3] Their marriage was often compared to that of an elephant and a gazelle; the bridegroom had strong Napoleonic features (broad, bulky, and ponderous) while the bride appeared frail, short, fair-haired, and with the characteristic nose of the House of Savoy.

"[4] During a discussion of the proper way of dressing, Maria Clotilde pointed out to Empress Eugénie de Montijo that she should not forget that she was born and raised in a royal court.

Their official reception into Paris on 4 February was greeted very coldly by Parisians, not out of disrespect for a daughter of the king of Sardinia, but out of dislike for her new husband.

[3] Indeed, all her life, public sympathy tended to lean in her favour; she was fondly regarded as retiring, charitable, pious, and trapped in an unhappy marriage.

After the fall of the Second French Empire in 1870, Maria Clotilde had initially refused to leave Paris when the revolution broke out, because of her sense of what was suitable for a princess from the House of Savoy, which was to stay on her post.

They were forced to flee, however, and their family enjoyed a beautiful estate in the town of Prangins near Lake Geneva that they resided in.

During this period, their daughter (Maria Letizia) mostly resided with her mother in the Castle of Moncalieri, but her two sons stayed mainly with their father.