Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies
Encyclopedia
Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily sometimes known as Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies (Maria Amalia Teresa; 26 April 1782 – 24 March 1866) was a Princess
of Naples
and Sicily
and later the Queen of the French from 1830–1848, consort to Louis Philippe I
.
just outside of Naples
. Her father was King Ferdinand IV & III of Naples and Sicily
(later Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies
). Her mother was Ferdinand's wife Maria Carolina of Austria
, an Austrian
archduchess and daughter of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor
and Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Maria Carolina was one of the older sisters of the famous French queen Marie Antoinette
. Maria Amalia's parents had a total of nine children, of which Maria Amalia was the seventh. Maria Amalia's siblings were:
As a young Italian princess, she was educated in the Catholic tradition which she appears to have taken to heart. Her mother, Maria Carolina, like her famous mother before her, Empress Maria Theresa
, made an effort to be a part of her daughter's life, though she was cared for daily by her governess, Donna Vicenza Rizzi. As a child, Maria Amalia's mother and her aunt, Marie Antoinette, arranged for her to be engaged to Marie Antoinette's son, the future king of France, due to which, her mother encouraged her to remember that she would someday be his queen. Tragically, her young fiance died in 1789.
Maria Amelia faced chaos and upheaval from a young age. The death of her aunt Marie Antoinette
during the French Revolution
and her mother's subsequent dramatic actions emblazoned the event in the young girl's memory.
On the outbreak of the French Revolution
in 1789 the Neapolitan court was not hostile to the movement. When the French monarchy was abolished and her aunt
and uncle
were executed, her parents joined the First Coalition
against France in 1793.
Although peace was made with France in 1796, by 1798 conflict was again fierce. It was decided that the royal family flee to the Kingdom of Sicily. The family left Naples on 21 December 1798 on board the , a British Royal navy vessel which was in turn protected by two Neapolitan warships.
It was on board the warship that her younger brother Alberto
died of exhaustion on Christmas Day aged 6, 1798. He was buried in Palermo soon after the family arrived there; his funeral was the first official engagement his family attended in Sicliy.
She was forced to leave her home at the age of 18 and spent the next few years jumping from various royal dwellings to escape turbulent times in Italy.
While in flight, she encountered her future husband, Louis Philippe d'Orléans
, also forced from his home in France due to political complications of the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon. Louis-Philippe's father, the previous Duke of Orléans, had been guillotined during the French Revolution
, though he had advocated it in the early years.
The two were married in 1809, three years after they met in Italy whereupon Marie-Amelie became the Duchess of Orléans. Unfortunately for Marlie-Amelie, she went to France with her new husband in 1814, where she attempted to make a home with her growing family, but with Napoleon's brief return, she was forced to flee yet again. Prior to her husband's rise to power, Maria Amalia and her husband had to cope with a persistent money problem due to the fact that they had no income aside from that which they were given by the English crown. This must have been particularly difficult for Maria Amalia given her ideas about the superiority of royals and the ways in which they were to conduct themselves.
During the Orléans’ time in France prior to Louis-Philippe's coronation, the family lived in the Palais-Royal which had been the home of Louis Philippe's father, the previous Duke of Orléans
. Despite the monetary worries of the family, in total, the house was returned to its original splendor at cost to the couple of eleven million francs.
, Louis-Philippe became king of France, with Maria Amalia as his consort and queen of the July Monarchy
. Maria Amalia did not play an active role in politics and in fact made a concerted effort to remove herself from it. This seems to have been the result of her personality, training, and conception of the role of monarchy. She may also have been aware of the backlash in France against women asserting power over politics where, it was thought, they had undue influence. This became painfully clear with the example of her late aunt, Marie Antoinette. Though she was not a political woman, as a queen known to be a staunch supporter of monarchy in its traditional conception, Maria Amalia was able to escape the suspicion of many of the French who worried that her husband's ideology was not monarchical enough and tended toward middle class, bourgeois, values at the expense of the proper treatment and conduct of royalty.
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Princess
Princess is the feminine form of prince . Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or his daughters....
of Naples
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...
and Sicily
Kingdom of Sicily
The Kingdom of Sicily was a state that existed in the south of Italy from its founding by Roger II in 1130 until 1816. It was a successor state of the County of Sicily, which had been founded in 1071 during the Norman conquest of southern Italy...
and later the Queen of the French from 1830–1848, consort to Louis Philippe I
Louis-Philippe of France
Louis Philippe I was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the July Monarchy. His father was a duke who supported the French Revolution but was nevertheless guillotined. Louis Philippe fled France as a young man and spent 21 years in exile, including considerable time in the...
.
Early years
Maria Amalia was born on 26 April 1782 at the Caserta PalaceCaserta Palace
The Royal Palace of Caserta is a former royal residence in Caserta, southern Italy, constructed for the Bourbon kings of Naples. It was the largest palace and one of the largest buildings erected in Europe during the 18th century...
just outside of Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
. Her father was King Ferdinand IV & III of Naples and Sicily
Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies
Ferdinand I reigned variously over Naples, Sicily, and the Two Sicilies from 1759 until his death. He was the third son of King Charles III of Spain by his wife Maria Amalia of Saxony. On 10 August 1759, Charles succeeded his elder brother, Ferdinand VI, as King Charles III of Spain...
(later Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies
Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies
Ferdinand I reigned variously over Naples, Sicily, and the Two Sicilies from 1759 until his death. He was the third son of King Charles III of Spain by his wife Maria Amalia of Saxony. On 10 August 1759, Charles succeeded his elder brother, Ferdinand VI, as King Charles III of Spain...
). Her mother was Ferdinand's wife Maria Carolina of Austria
Maria Carolina of Austria
Maria Carolina of Austria was Queen of Naples and Sicily as the wife of King Ferdinand IV & III. As de facto ruler of her husband's kingdoms, Maria Carolina oversaw the promulgation of many reforms, including the revocation of the ban on Freemasonry, the enlargement of the navy under her...
, an Austrian
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
archduchess and daughter of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor
Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor
Francis I was Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany, though his wife effectively executed the real power of those positions. With his wife, Maria Theresa, he was the founder of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty...
and Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Maria Carolina was one of the older sisters of the famous French queen Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
. Maria Amalia's parents had a total of nine children, of which Maria Amalia was the seventh. Maria Amalia's siblings were:
- Princess Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily (6 June 1772 – 13 April 1807), second wife of Francis II, Holy Roman EmperorFrancis II, Holy Roman EmperorFrancis II was the last Holy Roman Emperor, ruling from 1792 until 6 August 1806, when he dissolved the Empire after the disastrous defeat of the Third Coalition by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz...
- Princess Luisa of Naples and SicilyPrincess Luisa of Naples and SicilyMaria Luisa of Naples and Sicily , was a Neapolitan and Sicilian princess and the wife of the third Habsburg Grand Duke of Tuscany.-Background:...
(27 July 1773 – 19 September 1802), wife of Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of TuscanyFerdinand III, Grand Duke of TuscanyFerdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1790 to 1801 and, after a period of disenfranchisement, again from 1814 to 1824. He was also the Prince-elector and Grand Duke of Salzburg and Grand Duke of Würzburg .-Biography:Ferdinand was born in Florence, Tuscany, into the... - Carlo, Duke of CalabriaCarlo, Duke of CalabriaCarlo of Naples and Sicily was a Prince of Naples and Sicily and Duke of Calabria. He died in infancy of smallpox.-Biography:Born at the Caserta Palace near Naples, he was created Duke of Calabria at birth as the heir apparent to his father's throne...
(4 January 1775 – 17 December 1778), died of smallpoxSmallpoxSmallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
at the age of three - Francis I of the Two SiciliesFrancis I of the Two Sicilies-Biography:Francis was born in Naples, the son of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and his wife Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria. He was also the nephew of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI the last King and Queen of France before the first French Republic....
(14 August 1777 – 8 November 1830) - Princess Maria Cristina of Naples and SicilyMaria Cristina of Naples and SicilyMaria Cristina of Naples and Sicily was a Princess of Naples and Sicily and later Queen of Sardinia as wife of Charles Felix of Sardinia.-Princess of Naples and Sicily:...
(6 April 1765 – 27 April 1831), wife of Charles Felix, King of Sardinia and Duke of SavoyCharles Felix of SardiniaCharles Felix was the Duke of Savoy, Piedmont, Aosta and King of Sardinia from 1821 to 1831.-Early life:... - Princess Maria Cristina Amelia of Naples and SicilyPrincess Maria Cristina Amelia of Naples and SicilyMaria Cristina Amelia of Naples and Sicily was a Princess of Naples and Sicily and twin sister of the future Queen of Sardinia. She died of Smallpox 1783.-Biography:...
(17 January 1779 – 26 February 1783), died of smallpoxSmallpoxSmallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
at the age of four - Princess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily (14 December 1784 – 21 May 1806), first wife of Ferdinand VII of Spain (later King Ferdinand VII of Spain)
- Leopold, Prince of SalernoLeopold, Prince of SalernoPrince Leopoldo Giovanni Giuseppe Michele of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Prince of Salerno was a member of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies and a Prince of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.-Biography:Born Leopoldo of Naples and Sicily, he was the sixth son of Ferdinand IV of Naples and wife Maria...
(2 July 1790 – 10 March 1851)
As a young Italian princess, she was educated in the Catholic tradition which she appears to have taken to heart. Her mother, Maria Carolina, like her famous mother before her, Empress Maria Theresa
Maria Theresa of Austria
Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma...
, made an effort to be a part of her daughter's life, though she was cared for daily by her governess, Donna Vicenza Rizzi. As a child, Maria Amalia's mother and her aunt, Marie Antoinette, arranged for her to be engaged to Marie Antoinette's son, the future king of France, due to which, her mother encouraged her to remember that she would someday be his queen. Tragically, her young fiance died in 1789.
Maria Amelia faced chaos and upheaval from a young age. The death of her aunt Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
during the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
and her mother's subsequent dramatic actions emblazoned the event in the young girl's memory.
On the outbreak of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
in 1789 the Neapolitan court was not hostile to the movement. When the French monarchy was abolished and her aunt
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
and uncle
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
were executed, her parents joined the First Coalition
First Coalition
The War of the First Coalition was the first major effort of multiple European monarchies to contain Revolutionary France. France declared war on the Habsburg monarchy of Austria on 20 April 1792, and the Kingdom of Prussia joined the Austrian side a few weeks later.These powers initiated a series...
against France in 1793.
Although peace was made with France in 1796, by 1798 conflict was again fierce. It was decided that the royal family flee to the Kingdom of Sicily. The family left Naples on 21 December 1798 on board the , a British Royal navy vessel which was in turn protected by two Neapolitan warships.
It was on board the warship that her younger brother Alberto
Prince Alberto of Naples and Sicily
Alberto of Naples and Sicliy was a Prince of Naples and Sicily. He died on board HMS Vanguard, a British Royal navy vessel.-Biography:...
died of exhaustion on Christmas Day aged 6, 1798. He was buried in Palermo soon after the family arrived there; his funeral was the first official engagement his family attended in Sicliy.
She was forced to leave her home at the age of 18 and spent the next few years jumping from various royal dwellings to escape turbulent times in Italy.
While in flight, she encountered her future husband, Louis Philippe d'Orléans
Louis-Philippe of France
Louis Philippe I was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the July Monarchy. His father was a duke who supported the French Revolution but was nevertheless guillotined. Louis Philippe fled France as a young man and spent 21 years in exile, including considerable time in the...
, also forced from his home in France due to political complications of the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon. Louis-Philippe's father, the previous Duke of Orléans, had been guillotined during the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, though he had advocated it in the early years.
The two were married in 1809, three years after they met in Italy whereupon Marie-Amelie became the Duchess of Orléans. Unfortunately for Marlie-Amelie, she went to France with her new husband in 1814, where she attempted to make a home with her growing family, but with Napoleon's brief return, she was forced to flee yet again. Prior to her husband's rise to power, Maria Amalia and her husband had to cope with a persistent money problem due to the fact that they had no income aside from that which they were given by the English crown. This must have been particularly difficult for Maria Amalia given her ideas about the superiority of royals and the ways in which they were to conduct themselves.
During the Orléans’ time in France prior to Louis-Philippe's coronation, the family lived in the Palais-Royal which had been the home of Louis Philippe's father, the previous Duke of Orléans
Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
Louis Philippe Joseph d'Orléans commonly known as Philippe, was a member of a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, the ruling dynasty of France. He actively supported the French Revolution and adopted the name Philippe Égalité, but was nonetheless guillotined during the Reign of Terror...
. Despite the monetary worries of the family, in total, the house was returned to its original splendor at cost to the couple of eleven million francs.
Tenure as Queen
In 1830, following what is known as the July RevolutionJuly Revolution
The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution or in French, saw the overthrow of King Charles X of France, the French Bourbon monarch, and the ascent of his cousin Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, who himself, after 18 precarious years on the throne, would in turn be overthrown...
, Louis-Philippe became king of France, with Maria Amalia as his consort and queen of the July Monarchy
July Monarchy
The July Monarchy , officially the Kingdom of France , was a period of liberal constitutional monarchy in France under King Louis-Philippe starting with the July Revolution of 1830 and ending with the Revolution of 1848...
. Maria Amalia did not play an active role in politics and in fact made a concerted effort to remove herself from it. This seems to have been the result of her personality, training, and conception of the role of monarchy. She may also have been aware of the backlash in France against women asserting power over politics where, it was thought, they had undue influence. This became painfully clear with the example of her late aunt, Marie Antoinette. Though she was not a political woman, as a queen known to be a staunch supporter of monarchy in its traditional conception, Maria Amalia was able to escape the suspicion of many of the French who worried that her husband's ideology was not monarchical enough and tended toward middle class, bourgeois, values at the expense of the proper treatment and conduct of royalty.
Exile and death
After her husband was forced from kingship in the extremely turbulent events of the Revolution of 1848, the royal family fled to England. Louis-Philippe died two years later. After the death of her husband, Maria Amalia continued to live in England where she attended daily Mass and was well known to Queen Victoria. Queen Maria Amalia died on 24 March 1866. After her death, the dress she had kept since 1848 when her husband had left France was put on her, according to her last wishes.Issue
| Name | Picture | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prince Ferdinand d'Orléans | 3 September 1810 | 13 July 1842 | Married Duchess Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, had issue. | |
| Louise d'Orléans Louise of Orléans Louise of Orléans was born a Princess of Orléans and was Queen consort of the Belgians as the wife of King Leopold I... |
3 April 1812 | 11 October 1850 | Married Leopold I of Belgium Leopold I of Belgium Leopold I was from 21 July 1831 the first King of the Belgians, following Belgium's independence from the Netherlands. He was the founder of the Belgian line of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha... , had issue. |
|
| Princess Marie d'Orléans |  |
12 April 1813 | 6 January 1839 | Married Duke Alexander of Württemberg, had issue. |
| Prince Louis d'Orléans |  |
25 October 1814 | 26 June 1896 | Married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, had issue. |
| Princess Françoise Louise Caroline d'Orléans | 26 March 1816 | 20 May 1818 | Died aged two. | |
| Princess Clémentine d'Orléans |  |
6 March 1817 | 16 February 1907 | Married Prince August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, had issue. |
| Prince François d'Orléans Prince François, Prince of Joinville François-Ferdinand-Philippe-Louis-Marie d'Orléans, prince de Joinville was the third son of Louis Philippe, duc d'Orléans, afterwards king of the French and his wife Marie Amalie of Bourbon-Sicilies. He was notable as an admiral of the French Navy.-Life:He was born at the Château de Neuilly, in... |
 |
14 August 1818 | 16 June 1900 | Married Princess Francisca of Brazil Princess Francisca of Brazil Francisca of Brazil was a princess of Brazil. She was a daughter of Pedro I of Brazil and IV of Portugal and his first wife Maria Leopoldina of Austria... , had issue. |
| Prince Charles d'Orléans Prince Charles, Duke of Penthièvre Charles d'Orléans was the eighth child of the Duke and Duchess of Orléans, future Louis Philippe I and la Reine Marie Amélie... |
1/16 January 1820 | 25 July 1828 | Died aged eight. | |
| Prince Henri d'Orléans | 16 January 1822 | 7 May 1897 | Married Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, had issue. | |
| Prince Antoine d'Orléans Antoine, Duke of Montpensier - Titles and styles:/*13 July 182421 September 1824: His Serene Highness Prince Antoine d'Orléans*21 September 18249 August 1830: His Royal Highness Prince Antoine d'Orléans... |
31 July 1824 | 4 February 1890 | Married Infanta Luisa Fernanda, Duchess of Montpensier Infanta Luisa Fernanda, Duchess of Montpensier Infanta María Luisa Fernanda of Spain was Infanta of Spain and Duchess of Montpensier. She was the youngest daughter of king Ferdinand VII of Spain and his fourth wife Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies, the queen-regent, who was also his niece.-Biography:-Heiress-presumptive:When her elder... , had issue. |
Ancestry
Titles and styles
- 26 April 1782 – 25 November 1809 Her Royal Highness Princess Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily
- 25 Nov 1809 – 9 August 1830 Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Orléans
- 9 August 1830 – 24 February 1848 Her Majesty the Queen of the French
- 24 February 1848 – 26 August 1850 Her Majesty the Queen of the French (preteder)
- 24 February 1848 – 26 August 1850 Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Orléans
- 26 August 1850 – 24 March 1866 Her Royal Highness the Dowager Duchess of Orléans
- 26 August 1850 – 24 March 1866 Her Majesty the Dowager Queen of the French
Further reading
- Howarth, T.E.B. Citizen-King, The Life of Louis-Philippe, King of the French. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1961.
- Margadant, Jo Burr. "The Duchesse de Berry and Royalist Political Culture in Postrevolutionary France. History Workshop Journal, No. 43, (Spring, 1997).
- Margadant, Jo Burr. "Gender, Vice, and the Political Imagery in Postrevolutionary France: Reinterpreting the Failure of the July Monarchy 1830–1848." American Historical Review 104.5, (1995).
- Paris, Isabelle comtesse de. La Reine Marie-Amelie, Grand-mere de l'Europe. Paris: Perrin, 1998.
External links
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