step 3 |
|
(No difference)
|
Revision as of 19:48, 10 March 2007
Maria Louisa of Spain (Spanish: Maria Luisa) (6 July 1782, San Ildefonso –13 March 1824, Rome) was a daughter of Charles IV of Spain. She married Prince Louis of Parma and was Queen of Etruria and later Duchess of Lucca.
Infanta of Spain
Maria Louisa of Spain, was the third surviving daughter of King Carlos IV of Spain (1748-1819) and his wife Maria Louisa of Parma (1751-1819), a granddaughter of Louis XV of France.
She was born in the Palace of La Granja, San Idelfonso near Segovia on July 6, 1782, and was given the names Maria Luisa Josefa Antonia, after her mother. Maria Louisa spent a happy childhoos as the favourite daughter of her parents, being called in the family "Luisetta".
In 1795 Maria Louisa's her first cousin, Louis, Hereditary Prince of Parma, came to the Spanish court to finish his education. There was an understanding between the two royal families that Louis would marry one of the daughters of Charles IV. It was anticipated that he would marry the infanta Maria Amalia, Charles IV's eldest unmarried daughter. She was fifteen years old at the time and of a timid and melancholy nature. Louis, who was equally shy and reserved, preferred her younger sister, Maria Louisa, who although only thirteen, was of a more cheerful disposition and somewhat better looking. All four daughters of Charles IV were short and plain, but Maria Louisa was clever, lively and amusing. She had dark curly hair, brown eyes and a grecian nose. Although not beautiful, her face was expressive and her character lively. She was generous, kindhearted and devout. Both infantas were favourably impressed by the Prince of Parma, a tall and handsome young man, and when he ultimately chose the younger sister, the mother, Queen Maria Louisa, readily agreed to the change of bride.
Louis was created Infante of Spain and married Maria Louisa on August 25, 1795 in La Granja, Saint Ildefonso. In a double wedding, Maria Amalia, the original intended bride, married her uncle, Infante Antonio of Spain. The King and Queen of Spain were very fond of their nephew and new son-in-law, affectionately calling him "el niño".
The marriage between the two different personalities turned out to be happy, though it was clouded by Louis' ill health: He was frail, suffering chest problems, and since a childhood accident when he hit his head on a marble table, suffered epileptic fits. As the years went on his health deteriorated and he grew to be increasingly dependent on his wife. The young couple remained in Spain during the early years of their marriage, which were to be the happiest period of their lives.
Because Maria Louisa was only thirteen when she married, her first child was not born for another four years. Her first son, Charles Louis, was born in Madrid on December 22, 1799.
Afterwards, the couple wanted to go to Parma, the lands they were going to inherit, but Charles IV and his wife were reluctant to allow their departure. They were still in Spain in the spring of 1800 and staying at the Palace in Aranjuez when they were portrayed with all the royal family in Goya's masterpiece The family of Charles IV. Maria Louisa is beside her husband with her son in her arms on the right hand side of the painting.
Queen of Etruria
Maria Louisa's life was deeply marked by Napoleon Bonaparte's actions. Interested in having Spain as an ally against England, Napoleon in the summer of 1800 sent his brother Lucien to the Spanish court with the proposal that would result in the the Treaty of Aranjuez.
Napoleon, who had conquered Italy, proposed to compensate the House of Bourbon for their loss of the Duchy of Parma by creating the new Kingdom of Etruria for Louis, heir of Parma. The new Kingdom was created out of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. To make way for the Bourbons, the Habsburg Grand Duke was ousted and compensated with Salzburg.
Tuscany was greater, richer and more important than Parma, making it an enticing bargain. Maria Louisa's mother also was pleased with her daughter becoming a Queen. Maria Louisa's husband, whose bad health has made him indolent and apathetic, accepted what had been decided in spite of his own father opposition.
Maria Louisa, who had never lived away from her own family and was totally inexperienced in political affairs, opposed the plan. One of Napoleon's conditions was that the young couple had to go to Paris and there receive from him the investiture of their new sovereignity, before taking possession of Etruria. Maria Louisa was reluctant to make an trip to France, where only seven years earlier her relatives Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette had been executed. However pressed also by her family, she did as she was told.
On April 21, 1801 the new Kings of Etruria left Madrid, crossed the border in Bayonne and traveled incognito to France under the name of Count of Livorno. Napoleon received the new Kings of Etruria with great attentions, at their arrival in Paris on May 24. At first, the young couple didn’t make a good impression. They were dressed with unfashionable clothes at the Spanish manner. The French found the new Queen of Etruria to be ugly, but clever and agreeable; her husband was described as good looking, good hearted, but a fool. The Duchess D’Abrantes wrote in her memoirs about Maria Louisa: a "mixture of shyness and haughtiness which at first gave restraint to her conversation and manners" but when she became better acquainted with the young Queen, she found her very pleasant. Napoleon was favorably impressed by the tenderness Maria Louisa showed towards her son, whom she nursed herself.
However, the Spanish Infanta did not enjoy her visit to Paris. Unlike her mother, she hated horse riding and was not amused with the displays prepared for her. Maria Louisa was ill most of the time, she suffered from fever, often had to stay in bed and when she took part in the diversions she really did not want to do so. She was anxious about her husband health and he depended on her for everything. One day as Louis got out of the carriage at La Mailmaison, where they were going to dine, he suddenly felt to the ground in an epilepsy fit. The Duchess D’Abrantes, who was present, described the scene in her memoirs "The Queen appeared much distressed and tried to conceal her husband; ... he was as pale as a death and his features completely altered ..." After staying in Paris for three weeks, Maria Luisa and her husband, on June 30, headed south toward Parma. In Piacenza they were greeted by Louis' parents, together they went to Parma and Maria Louisa met her husband’s two unmarried sisters. They found Louis already speaking Italian with a foreign accent while Maria Louisa's Italian was often mixed with Spanish words. After three weeks in Parma they entered Etruria.
On August they arrived in their new capital, Florence. The French general Murat had been sent to Florence to prepare the Pitti Palace for them. But the Kings of Etruria did not have an auspicious start in their new life. Maria Louisa was pregnant and suffered a miscarriage, her husband health, always frail, had deteriorated further, having more frequents fits of epiplepsy. The Pitti Palace, the residence of the new kings of Etruria, was the former house of the Dukes of Medici. The palace had been practically abandoned after the death of the last Medici and the ousted Grand Duke Ferdinand had taken most of its values with him.
Maria Louisa and Louis were both full of good intentions but they were received with hostility by the population and the nobililty that missed the popular Grand Duke and saw them as just mere tools in the hands of the French. Etruria finances were in deplorable state; the country was ruined by war, bad harvest and the cost to have to maintain the unpopular French troops stationed in Etruria, that only much later where replaced by the Spanish troops sent by Charles IV of Spain.
In the summer of 1802, Maria Luisa and her husband were invited to Spain to attend the double wedding of her brother Ferdinand with Maria Antonia of Naples, and of her youngest sister Maria Isabel with Francis I of Naples. With Etruria's financial and economic difficulties, Louis' health failing and Maria Louisa in an early state of pregnancy, going abroad was clearly not expedient and therefore Maria Louisa was reluctant to go, but under the pressure of her father and the French, they started to headed to her native country.
Louis felt very ill before boarding the ship and waitiong for his full recovery delayed their plans for weeks. Once at sea, it was Maria Louisa who was feeling ill. On October 2, 1802, before arriving at Barcelona, still in open waters, Maria Louisa under difficulties gave birth to her daughter Maria Louisa Charlotte. At first, doctors thought that both mother and daughter would not survive. The couple also found out, that they were too late for the wedding. Maria Louisa, still very ill, waited three days on the ship to recover before she went ashore in Barcelona where her parents were waiting for her.
One week after they arrival they got news that Louis's father, Ferdinand had died. Louis wanted to returned as soon as possible to his Italian states, he was also ill and unhappy, but Charles IV and Maria Luisa insisted to take them to the court in Madrid. It was not until December when they were allowed to start the trip leaving Spain by sea in Cartagena.
Back in Etruria, the illness of her husband was carefully concealed from the population, as Maria Louisa alone was seen in public functions and entertaining at court. For this she was accused of overpowering her husband and being merry in his absence. Louis died on May 27, 1803 at the age of 30, as a consequence of an epileptic crisis.
Regent of Etruria
Grief stricken by her husband's death, Maria Louisa started to suffer from a nervous illness. She had to act as a regent for her son Charles Louis, the new King of Etruria.
A widow of only twenty years old, plans for a new wedding were considered: France and Spain wanted to marry her to her first cousin Pedro of Bourbon, the nineteen year old son of Gabriel infante of Spain, a younger of Charles IV, but the marriage never materialized.
Maria Louisa founded a School for the teaching of upper level sciences, the Museum of Physics and Natural History of Florence. To ingratiate herself with the Florentine people, she entertained lavishly at the Pitti Palace, holding splendid receptions for artists and writers, as well as government officials. She gave a celebrated party in the loggia del Lonzi for 200 small boys and girls from working class families. They were allowed to take home the plates, glasses, spoons and napkins, after the banquet, as the regent watched from a platform erected at the Palazzo de la signorina.
Exile
Though Maria Louisa by now had become fond of Florence, Napoleon had other plans for Italy and Spain: "I am afraid the Queen is too young and her minister too old to govern the Kingdom of Etruria" he said.
Maria Louisa was accused of not enforcing the English blockade in Etruria. The French minister waited upon her one day at the villa in which she was staying and ordered her to leave Florence on the spot. Her father answered her pleas with discouragement: She had to yield to Napoleon's decision and haste to leave the kingdom, returning to her family in Spain. Maria Louisa and her children left Florence on December 10, 1807, their future being uncertain. Napoleon gave Tuscany to his sister Elisa.
The exiled Queen went to Milan where she had an interview with Napoleon. He promised her, as compensation for the loss of Etruira, the throne of a Kingdom of Northern Lusitania (in the North of Portugal), he intended to create after the Franco-Spanish conquest of Portugal. This was part of the Treaty of Fontainebleau between France and Spain (October 1807) that also had incorporated Etruria to Napoleons’ domains. Napoleon had already ordered the invasion of Portugal but his secret aim was to ultimately depose the Spanish Royal family and have access to the money coming from the Spanish colonies in America. As part of the accord, Maria Louisa was going to marry Lucien Bonaparte, who would have to divorce his wife, but both refused: Lucien was attached to his wife and Maria Louisa considered those nuptials a misalliance, neither did she would allow herself to be put in Portugal in the place of her eldest sister Carlota Joaquina, Crown Princess of Portugal. Napoleon wanted Maria Louisa to go to Nice or Turin, but her intentions were to join her parents in Spain.
Maria Louis arrived at a court deeply divided and a country in unrest: her brother, the infante Ferdinand, had plotted against his father, King Charles IV and his unpopular prime minister Godoy. Ferdinand had been pardoned but with the family's prestige shaken, but Napoleon had taken this opportunity to invade Spain. With the excuse of sending reinforcements to Lisbon, French troops had entered Spain in December. Not completely blind to Napoleon's real intentions, the Royal family had secretly planned their escape to Mexico, but these plans were cut short. At this point Maria Louisa arrived in Aranjuez on February 19, 1808.
Supporters of Ferdinand spread the story that prime minister Godoy had betrayed Spain to Napoleon. On March 18 a popular uprising known as the Mutiny of Aranjuez took place. Members of popular classes, soldiers and peasants assaulted Godoy's residence, captured him, and made king Charles depose the prime minister. Two days later, the court forced Charles IV to abdicate and yield the throne to his son, now Ferdinand VII. The abdication of Charles IV in favor of Ferdinand, was enthusiastically acclaimed by the people.
Maria Louisa, who at the time had been in Spain for barely a month, had taken her father's side against the party of her brother, acted as intermediate between the deposed Charles IV and the French general Murat, who on March 23 entered Madrid.
Napoleon, capitalizing on the rivalry between father and son, invited both to Bayonne, France, ostensibly to act as a mediator. Both kings, afraid of the French power, thought it appropriate to accept the invitation and separately left for France. Maria Louisa was just recovering from scarlet fever at the time of the Mutiny of Aranjuez, and was not fit to travel. Her son was also sick and stayed behind with her children, her uncle Antonio and her little brother Francisco de Paula. However, Napoleon insisted on all relatives of the King to leave Spain and called them to France. At their departure on May 2, 1808, citizens of Madrid rose up in rebellion against the French occupation, but the revolt was crushed by Murat.
At that time, Maria Louisa had become unpopular. The intervention in Etruria had been very costly to Spain and Maria Louisa secret dealing with Murat had been seen as against the interest of her country, she was considered a foreign Princess aiming at gaining a throne for her son.
Arriving at Bayonne, Maria Louisa was greeted by her father with the words "My daughter, our family has forever ceased to reign". Napoleon had forced both Charles IV and Ferdinand VII to renounce the throne of Spain. In exchange for their renunciation of all claims, the two were promised a large pension and residence in Compiegne and Chambord. Maria Louisa, who in vain tried to convince Napoleon to restore her to Tuscany or Parma, was offered a large income, assuming her that she would be much happier without the troubles of government, but Maria Louisa openly protested against the confiscation of her son's dominions.
Imprisonment
After this, Napoleon gave Spain to his brother Joseph and forced the Royal family into exile in Fontainebleau. Maria Louisa requested a separate residence and moved with her children to a house in Passy, but was soon moved to Compiegne. She was plagued by frequent sickness and shortage of money and, not owning any horses, was was forced to walk wherever she needed to go. When at last Napoleon sent 12.000 Francs as the promised compensation, the expenses of her trip to France were discounted. She wrote a letter of protest, saying that prisoners were never made to pay for their removal, but she was adviced not to send it out. She was promised to retire to the Palace of Colorno in Parma with a substantial allowance, but once in Lyon, under the pretext of conducing her to her destination, she was escorted to Nice, where she was kept under strict vigilance. She planned to escape to England, but her letters were intercepted and her two accomplices executed. Maria Louisa was arrested on July 26 and condemned to be imprisoned in a convent in Rome, while her nine-year-old son was to remain in the care of his grandfather Charles IV. Maria Louisa pension was reduced to 2500 francs; all her jewels and valuables were taken away and with her daughter and a maid and on August 14, 1811 she was imprisoned in the convent of Saint Dominic and Saint Sixtus, near the Quirinal. Her pleas for clemency were unanswered.
During her imprisonment, Maria Louisa and her children were stripped of their rights to the Spanish crown by the Cádiz Cortes, on 18 March 1812, because she was under Napoleon's control. Her right were not restored not until 1820.
The former Queen of Etruria wrote on her Memoirs:
- "I was two years and a half in that monastery and one year wihout seeing or talking to anybody. I was not allowed to write or receive news not even from my own son. I had been in the convent for eleven months already when my parents came with my son to Rome on June 16 of 1812. I was hoping to be released immediatly after their arrival, but I was wrong, instead of diminishing the rigor of my imprisonment I was put under strictier orders."
On June 19, 1812 she was allowed to see her family. In a emotional meeting, Maria Louisa threw herself into her mother's arms, kissed her son with frenzy and her father hugged them all in a general embrace. After this, Maria Louisa was allowed to see her parents and her son once a month but only for twenty minutes and under surveillance. Only the fall of Napoleon opened the gates of her prison. On January 14, 1814, after more than four years of captivity, she was freed, when the troops of Murat entered Rome.
The Congress of Vienna
Maria Louisa moved with her children and her parents to the Barberini Palace. She hoped for the restorations of her son's states and as the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) assembled to reorder the European map, she quickly wrote and published the Memoirs of the Queen of Etruria, originally written in Italian but translated to different languages, to put forward her cause.
When Napoleon returned from his exile at Elba, Maria Louisa and her parents fled Rome, moving from one city to another in Italy. The Countess de Boigne met her in Genoa and found her untidy and vulgar. When Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, they returned to to Rome.
At the Congress of Vienna, Maria Louisa’s interests were represented by the Spanish emissary Marquis of Labrador, an incompetent man, who did not successfully advance his country's or Maria Louisa's diplomatic goals. The Austrian Minister Metternich had decided not to restore Parma to the House of Bourbon, but to give it Napoleon's wife Maria Louise of Austria. Maria Louisa pleaded her cause to her brother Ferdinand VII of Spain, the Pope and Tsar Alexander I of Russia
Ultimately, the Congress decided to compensate the Maria Louisa and her son with the smaller Duchy of Lucca, which was carved out of Tuscany. She was to retain the honors of a Queen as she had before in Etruria.
However, Maria Louis refused this compromise for more than two years, in which she lived with her children in a palace in Rome. During this time, the relationship to her family was strained: her parents and her brother Ferdinand VII wanted her Maria Louisa Carlota, then fourteen years old, to her uncle infante Francisco de Paula, Maria Louisa’ youngest brother. Maria Louisa vehemently opposed this plan, considering her twenty two year old brother too reckless for her young daughter. She also resisted the plan of her son marrying Maria Cristina of Naples, a daughter of her sister Maria Isabel.
Seeking independence from her family, Maria Louisa accepted the solution offered by the Treaty of Paris in 1817: upon the death of Marie Louise of Austria, the duchy of Parma should revert to Charles Louis and the House of Bourbon. Maria Louisa was to govern Lucca until until the throne of Parma became vacant. Upon this, the Spanish minister in Turin, took possession of Lucca until Maria Louisa arrived on December 7, 1817.
Duchess of Lucca
Lucca had been a mini republic on the Genoese Venetian model until the Napoleonic conquest of Italy and later it had been given to Elisa Bonaparte Bacchiochi, who curiously enough had succeeded Maria Louisa in Etruria and preceded her in Lucca. She arrived with the firm intention of obliterating every trace of the government of Lucca former ruler Napoleon’s sister, Elisa Baciocchi who had cheated her of the throne of Tuscany in 1808. Maria Louisa became Duchess in her own right and was granted the rank and privileges of a Queen. Only upon her death, her son, Charles Luis would succeed her, meanwhile he was known as the Prince of Lucca. Lucca would be annexed to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany when the family regained possession of Parma. When Maria Louisa reached her new posesions, she was already thirty-five years old. After ten years of endless struggles, her youth was gone and was a lot of heavier. Nevertheless she set her aim in marring again. Perhaps with the idea of a project that would allow her to return to Florence as a sobereign, she wanted to marry Gran Duke Ferdinand III of Tuscany, who was a widower, and also her first cousin. But neither this nor a project of marriage to Archduke Ferdinad of Austria-Este, went really further. After the assesiantion of the duke of Berry, there were also plans to marry her to the Count of Artois.
Maria Louisa disregard the constitution imposed on her by the congress of Vienna and governed Lucca as an authoritarian ruler. She imposed a form of absolute government that was somewhat reactionary but not oppressive. When the liberals imposed a constituiton in Spain to her brother, Ferdinand VII, she was willing to do the same in Lucca, but the reestablishment of the absolute power in Spain in 1823, vanished her willingness to give a constitution. As duchess, she promoted public works and culture in the spirit of enlightenment. She spent lavishly obtaining some good results, during her government, sciences flourished. Between 1817 and 1820, she ordered the complete renewal of the inner decorations of the Ducal Palace, completely changing the internal decoration of the building into its present form, making the Palazzo in Lucca one of the finest in Italy. Maria Louisa, a religious woman, favoured the clergy and in a short time they reached great predominance. In her small dukedom, seventeen new convents where founded just under the six years of her reign (1817- 1824). Among the projects she accomplished were the building of a new aqueduct and the development of Viareggio, the port of the Dukedom. The Spanish court had wanted to marry Charles Louis, who was already twenty-two years old, to his cousin Maria Cristina of Naples, but Maria Louisa in 1820 arranged his wedding with Princess Maria Teresa of Savoy, one of the twin daughters of King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia. The relationship with her son had turned sour he would later say that his mother had “ruined him physically, morally and financially”. She used to pass the summers in Lucca and the winters in Rome. Already felling ill, Maria Louisa went to Rome on October 25, 1823 to her Palace in Venetian Square. On 22 February 1824 she signed her will, the following month; she died of cancer, on March 13, 1824 in Rome. Her body was taken to Spain at the Escorial, and a monument was erected to her memory in Lucca. Upon her death, her son Charles Louis succeeded her.
Children
Maria Louisa was survived by her two children:
- Charles Louis Ferdinand (Madrid, December 22, 1799 - Nice, April 16, 1883) married Maria Teresa of Savoia Princess of Sardinia and Savoia, daughter of King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia and of Maria Teresa Archduchess of Austria Este.
- Marie Louise Charlotte (Barcelona, October 2, 1802 - Rome, March 18, 1857) married Prince Maximilian of Saxony, widower of her aunt Caroline, as his second wife. Although the marriage was childless she was stepmother to Maximilian and Caroline's children, including the future kings Frederick Augustus II of Saxony and John I of Saxony.
References
- Balanso, Juan. La Familia Rival. Barcelona: Planeta, 1994.
- Balanso, Juan. Las perlas de la Corona. Barcelona: Plaza & Janés, 1999.
- Bearne Charlton, Catherine. A Royal Quartette. London: T. F. Unwin, 1908.
- Memoir of the Queen of Etruria, written by herself. London: printed for John Murray, 1814.
- Sixte, Prince of Bourbon-Parma. La Reine d'Étrurie. Paris: Calmann-Levy, 1928.
- Smerdou Altoaguirre, Luis. Carlos IV en el Exilio. Pamplona: Ediciones Universidad de Navarra, 2000.
- Villa-Urrutia, W. R Marques de. La Reina de Etruria, doña Maria Luisa de Borbón, infanta de España. Madrid: Francisco Beltrán, 1923.