Maria Carolina of Austria

Maria Carolina of Austria
Queen consort of Naples and Sicily (more...)
Consort	12 May 1768 - 8 September 1814
Consort to	Ferdinand I
More Issue
Maria Teresa, Empress of Austria Maria Luisa, Grand Duchess of Tuscany Francis I Maria Christina, Queen of Sardinia Maria Amalia, Queen of the French Princess Maria Antonia Leopold, Prince of Salerno
Royal house	House of Bourbon House of Habsburg-Lorraine
Father	Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother	Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria
Born	13 August 1752 Vienna
Died	8 September 1814 Austria

Maria Carolina of Austria (German: Maria Karolina von Österreich; Italian: Maria Carolina d'Austria; 13 August 1752 – 8 September 1814), born Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria (German: Erzherzogin Maria Karolina von Österreich), and later becoming Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples and Sicily (Italian: Maria Carolina, Regina di Napoli e di Sicilia) was queen consort and de facto ruler of Naples from 1768 to 1799 and from 1799 to 1806, and of Sicily from 1768 until her death in 1814, though she had lost the de facto power in 1812. She was born an Austrian Archduchess and was a sister of Queen Marie Antoinette of France.

Life

Childhood

Maria Carolina, as a young girl in Austria

Archduchess Maria Carolina Ludovika Josepha Johanna Antonia of Austria, Princess Royal of Hungary and Bohemia, Princess of Tuscany was born in 1752, the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor.

Maria Carolina, also called Charlotte in the Viennese court, was the 13th child in the family. She and Marie-Antoinette were the two youngest girls and were therefore raised together. They were extremely close to each other and shared the same governess until 1767. They were both lively girls. While Marie Antoinette neglected her studies, Maria Carolina was a diligent student. Her mother encouraged her talents in drawing, language, history, geography and writing, among others. Their governess Countess Brandeis was kindly but not very strict which caused the studious Maria Carolina to request from her mother the governess who was in-charge of her sister, Maria Josepha.

Her mother described Maria Carolina as the daughter who resembled her most, not only in looks but also in character and intelligence. In a letter to her then 15-year old daughter, Maria Theresa mother advised Carolina to work diligently at her studies in order to make the most of the gifts God has given her, not to be idle and seek unsuitable amusements, and encouraged her to be more gentle with her ladies-in-waiting and show a more mature and kindly attitude. Shortly after this letter, Maria Carolina and Marie Antoinette were separated and Maria Carolina was placed under the governess of her choice. This separation was directed by the Empress herself because of the perceived negative influence the two sisters had on each other.

The older Carolina was told to be firm with the separation and to ignore the "little one" (as the Empress would sometimes refer to Marie Antoinette) when she made attempts to continue their old ways. She was also instructed to attach herself to her sister Marie Amalie instead in order to help her develop a more mature behavior and outlook. Despite their separation, Maria Carolina and Marie Antoinette would retain their great affection and concern for each other throughout their lives. Decades later, after the death of Marie Antoinette, the latter's daughter Marie-Therese-Charlotte, wrote to her aunt that her mother spoke often of Marie Carolina and that she had said she had been the sister Marie Antoinette loved most.

Engagement

Maria Carolina, as Archduchess of Austria

When her older sister Maria Josepha died in 1767, Maria Carolina took her place as the designated bride for the heir to the throne of Naples and Sicily. Maria Carolina did not want to marry him, a total stranger who was also reported to be uneducated, with common tastes and boorish manners, in addition to being childish and lazy. Despite her tears and remonstrations her mother was determined to cement an alliance with King Charles III of Spain and to further Austrian interests in the Italian Peninsula, so Maria Carolina had no choice in the matter.

Her departure for Naples caused her and her family great distress. At the last minute, Carolina had sprung out her carriage to give her beloved Antoinette a series of hugs. Later in a letter, she pleaded with her former governess to write her about her sister. Carolina was said to be extremely upset by the journey, especially upon crossing the borders of her mother's dominions into Italy. It was an immense relief to her that her favourite brother Leopold, who was living in Tuscany at that time, offered to accompany her on the last part of her journey to Naples.

Marriage

Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies

On 12 May 1768, she married the young Ferdinand IV of Naples who was also Ferdinand III of Sicily. Ferdinand was intelligent but very indolent, and Maria Carolina took advantage of that to assume control of the affairs of the kingdom. Her first few months in Naples were extremely distressing to her and she wrote her mother that she would prefer to die than relive her first few weeks there and that she would have taken her life if not for her faith in and love for God. She would also write to her mother that marriage is hard enough with her husband but to pretend to be content with it (as advised by her mother) was an even greater burden.

Her mother encouraged her daughter to make the most of the marriage, saying that marriage is the most important thing in life. Her mother also advised her that, "Above all, she must try to understand her ill-educated but well-meaning husband". In time, Maria Carolina resigned herself to her marriage and was very good mother to her children and very kind to other family members, in addition to carefully supervising her children's education. Her youngest daughter Maria Antonia wrote to her in despair from Spain, "Mother, you have been deceived. For you are too good a mother to have sacrificed me like this if you had known." in reference to her marriage and the treatment of her mother in-law, Maria Luisa of Parma, who was Queen of Spain at that time. Queen Maria Carolina and Queen Maria Luisa were bitter enemies yet she loved her daughter-in-law Maria Isabella of Spain very much despite the fact that Maria Isabella was the daughter of her enemy (and was rumored to be fathered not by King Charles IV but by the Prime Minister Godoy) - a clear contrast of the treatment by Maria Luisa to Maria Antonia. She was very much embittered by the French revolution and hated Napoleon I, yet she was fond of her great grandson, Napoleon II, despite her horror that her granddaughter Archduchess Marie Louise was to marry Napoleon I.

Birth of an Heir

On 14 August 1777, when she gave birth to a male heir, Francis, she became a Counsellor of State, and she took advantage of this position of political influence. She inherited much of her mother's intelligence, but was also ambitious and cruel, wanting to raise the kingdom to a position of power. She was effective, ruthless and strongwilled and was seen as a foreigner who tried to reform the kingdom with strange methods. She became very unpopular with the young liberals and the conservative nobles alike. She did all she had been brought up to do, but failed in one essential way: she neglected her role as mother of the nation.

Like her sister, Marie Antoinette, her daughter, Maria Amalia became queen consort of France. Another of her daughters, Maria Teresa, became the wife of the Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor. Later, the eldest daughter of Maria Teresa, Marie Louise, became the second wife of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French.

Ferdinand and Maria Caroline's children were:

Issue

Politics

The First Coalition

During the French Revolution, the queen actually sympathized with the French rebels until the French monarchy was abolished on 21 September 1792. She further turned against the rebels with the execution of first her brother-in-law Louis XVI of France (21 January 1793) and then her own younger sister Marie Antoinette (16 October, 1793).

The Queen and her husband were horrified, and Maria Carolina used her uxorious husband to bring the Neopolitan and Sicilian armies into the First Coalition against France. Peace was made in 1796.

Maria Carolina and Ferdinand I, King of the two Siciles, with their children(painting by Angélica Kauffmann)

The Parthenopaean Republic

Early in 1799, Naples had its own (albeit short-lived) revolution, which replaced the Kingdom of Naples with the Parthenopaean Republic. In June, restoration forces commanded by Cardinal Ruffo destroyed the republic, returning the royal family to control. Before entry of the British fleet, allied to the court and commanded by Lord Nelson into the Bay of Naples, a capitulation treaty had been signed by Ruffo giving many republicans safe-passage to France.

The king and queen, intent on crushing the republican spirit and showing no mercy to the rebels, worked through Lady Hamilton, wife of the British Ambassador and mistress of Lord Nelson - who was at the time the Queen's close friend and confidant - to dupe the republicans into putting themselves into a position in which they could be captured. Several thousand of them were summarily judged but only a handfull actually hanged,among them scions of the oldest noble families of Napoli.

Later Years

In 1806, her husband was deposed as King of Naples (thus deposing her as de facto ruler) by Napoleon Bonaparte. However, Maria Carolina retained her status and power in Sicily until 1812, when her husband essentially (but not officially) abdicated, appointing his son Francis regent, which deprived the queen of her influence, and Maria Carolina was exiled to her homeland Austria, where she died in 1814. After her death, her husband became subservient to the will of Austria with his top advisor Maria Carolina gone.

Ancestry

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