Marie de Bourbon was the wife of Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano, and thus a princess of Savoy by marriage. At the death of her brother in 1641, she became Countess of Soissons in her own right, passing the title down three generations of the House of Savoy.

Thomas Francis of Savoy, 1st Prince of Carignano was an Italian military commander and the founder of the Carignano branch of the House of Savoy, which reigned as kings of Piedmont-Sardinia from 1831 to 1861, and as kings of Italy from 1861 until the dynasty's deposition in 1946.