Her maternal cousins included Victor Amadeus I, Prince of Carignano and his younger sister the future princesse de Lamballe, both of whom were born at the court of Savoy.

Like her older sister, Eleonora, Maria Luisa was a proposed bride for Louis, Dauphin of France.

[2] The marriage between linking the rulers of France and Savoy never materialised, Louis marrying an Infanta of Spain who died in childbirth and then a Princess of Saxony.

Like all her sisters, Maria Luisa would remain unmarried, dying at the age of 38 in Turin.

Her father died in 1773 and her oldest brother Victor Amadeus of Savoy succeeded as King.