Page "Leopold Mozart" Paragraph 24

Wolfgang left home permanently in 1781 ( see below ), and from this time until 1784, Leopold lived in Salzburg with just Nannerl ( now in her early thirties ) and their servants.

Nannerl had a number of suitors, of whom the most important was Franz Armand d ' Ippold, with whom she was evidently in love.

In the end she did not marry him, and the reason for this is unknown.

One possibility, frequently entertained by biographers, is that the marriage was blocked by Leopold, who liked having Nannerl at home as the lady of the house.

However, Halliwell observes that no written evidence on this point survives and insists that we simply do not know why Nannerl married so late.

Nannerl finally did marry in August 1784, at age 33.

She moved to the home of her new husband, Johann Baptist Franz von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg, in the small rural town of St. Gilgen, roughly six hours journey east of Salzburg.