 Maria Francesca Elisabetta Carlotta Giuseppina was born in Paris to Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Carignano (1770–1800), and Maria Cristina of Saxony (1770–1851).She had an elder brother, Charles Albert, future King of Sardinia.On 28 May 1820 she was married in Prague to Archduke Rainer of Austria, Viceroy of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia.