[Illustration: _MARIA SOPHIA
Queen of Naples_]
_Life Stories for Young People_
QUEEN MARIA SOPHIA
OF NAPLES
A FORGOTTEN HEROINE
_Translated from the German of
Carl Küchler_
BY
GEORGE P. UPTON
_Author of “Musical Memories,” “Standard Operas,” etc.
Translator of “Memories,” “Immensee,” etc._
WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS
[Illustration: A·C·M^cCLURG]
CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1910
Copyright
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1910
Published September 24, 1910
THE · PLIMPTON · PRESS
[W·D·O]
NORWOOD·MASS·U·S·A
Translator’s Preface
The story of the exiled Queen of Naples, Maria Sophia, as the title-page
of this little volume sets forth, is the story of a “forgotten heroine.”
In many respects it recalls the story of her sister, Elizabeth of
Hungary, though her fate was not so tragic. She was saved from the fury
of the assassin; but she revealed many of her sister’s attributes—the
same courage, the same beauty, the same gayety of disposition, clouded
in much the same manner, the same love of nature and of animals, the
same love of the people, the same domestic misfortunes. Her
comparatively brief sovereignty included a thrilling period of the
struggle for Italian unity. Her marriage was a brilliant one, her
honeymoon most strange, and her after life most lonely. She was a strong
woman united to a weak man, not of her choice and not honored by her
love. She had many faults, but of her heroism the siege of Gaeta will
always bear witness. The other figures in the story, the fascinating
Lola Montez, Count Cavour, the great statesman, King Victor Emanuel,
King “Bomba,” and the red-shirted Garibaldi, add to its picturesqueness,
and the manners and customs of the court of Bavaria as well as the
sketches of the Wittelsbachs are not without historic interest.
G. P. U.
Chicago, _July, 1910_.
Contents
Chapter Page
I The House of Wittelsbach 11
II Life at Munich and Possenhofen 17
III Political Disturbances in Bavaria 24
IV The Wittelsbach Sisters 31
V The Neapolitan Royal Family 37
VI Maria Sophia’s Arrival 44
VII A Strange Honeymoon 50
VIII Accession of Francis II and Maria Sophia 57
IX Garibaldi 63
X The Flight from Naples 70
XI Siege of Gaeta 81
XII Capitulation 90
XIII After the Fall of Gaeta 98
XIV Royalty in Exile 105
XV Conclusion 112
Appendix 121
Illustrations
Maria Sophia, Queen of Naples _Frontispiece_
Maria Sophia at the Time of Accession 48
Francis the Second, King of Naples 58
Francis the Second, in his Sixtieth Year 114
Queen Maria Sophia of Naples
Chapter I
The House of Wittelsbach
The house of Wittelsbach, one of the most ancient of the royal families
of Europe, was divided, toward the end of the eighteenth century, into
three branches. The old Elector, Karl Theodore, who died in 1799, was
without issue, and his successor, Maximilian of the Pfalz-Zweibrücken
line, became the founder of a new dynasty. Being the third son, there
had seemed little prospect of succeeding to the throne in his earlier
years, most of which were spent in the strictest seclusion at Mannheim
and Zweibrücken. Later, he entered the French army and until the
outbreak of the French Revolution was stationed as colonel at
Strassburg, where the jovial warrior made himself most popular, not only
in military but in social circles.
In 1785 he was married to Princess Augusta of Hesse-Darmstadt, by whom
he had two sons, Ludwig (his successor) and Karl, and three daughters,
one of whom died in childhood. Augusta, the second, married Eugene
Beauharnais, while Charlotte, the youngest, became the fourth wife of
Emperor Francis the First of Austria. Maximilian’s first wife died
early, and in 1796 he formed a second and equally happy alliance with
the Princess Caroline of Baden, who presented him with six daughters, of
whom three became queens of Saxony and Prussia, and the two youngest,
the mothers of Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria and the Empress
Elizabeth, respectively.
The branch of the Wittelsbachs to which Maximilian belonged was divided
into two lines, both descending from the Count Palatine, Christian the
First. A cousin, the Count Palatine Wilhelm of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld,
had hopes of securing the Electoral seat at Munich for himself,
especially as ancient tradition required that a portion of the domain
should fall to the share of the younger branch of the family. As Wilhelm
had but one child, however, a son who was feeble-minded and under
constant guardianship, an agreement was made between the cousins that in
future there should be no division of the Wittelsbach possessions.
Maximilian was to succeed to the Electorship of Bavaria undisturbed, in
return for which the reigning sovereign was to treat the descendants of
Count Wilhelm as his own. The younger branch was to rank equally with
the older and to receive a large share of the ancestral possessions,
with a handsome yearly income and the title of “Dukes in Bavaria.”
In accordance with this agreement, Maximilian became Elector of Bavaria,
which was raised by Napoleon to the dignity of a kingdom in 1806, and in
1818 granted a constitution by its sovereign. Maximilian was much
beloved by his subjects and so simple and patriarchal in his dealings
with them that he was generally known as the “Citizen King.” On his
birthday, October 12, 1825, he was present at a ball given in his honor
by the Russian ambassador, full of life and vigor as usual, and the next
morning was found dead in his severely simple bedchamber at Schloss
Nymphenburg.
Duke Wilhelm of Birkenfeld long survived him, and it now devolved upon
the new King, Ludwig the First, to carry out the family compact.
Meanwhile Wilhelm’s son, Duke Pius, had also died, leaving one son, Duke
Max. Almost from the birth of this prince it had been decided that he
should marry King Maximilian’s youngest daughter Ludovica, who was born
the same year, and on the ninth of September, 1828, the marriage was
duly celebrated, three months before the bridegroom had reached his
twentieth year. Although dictated by family reasons, this marriage
proved a remarkably happy one. The two young people had grown up
together, knowing that they were to be united for life, and were
sincerely attached to each other. Their honeymoon was spent in the
Bavarian Alps with Ludovica’s mother, the widowed Queen Caroline, at her
Summer home at Tegernsee. At the time of the King’s death, two of the
daughters were still unmarried and the constant companions of their
mother, to whom they were devoted, and Ludovica’s marriage made no
change in their life except that a son-in-law was added to the family
circle.
Duke Max at that time was called the handsomest prince in Europe. He was
slender and well built, with a distinguished ease of manner and a
graciousness that won the hearts of all with whom he came in contact,
regardless of class or station. Naturally gay and light-hearted, fond of
pleasure and society, an accomplished musician and composer, with a
passion for nature and out-of-door life, it is small wonder that he was
universally adored. Even his mother-in-law, to whose age and habits his
lack of seriousness did not at first especially appeal, was completely
won by his devotion to her and her daughter, and his constant efforts to
divert and entertain them. When the famous violinist, Paganini, came to
Munich, Max invited him to visit the castle at Tegernsee and sent one of
the royal carriages to meet him. He often arranged amateur concerts, to
which all the neighboring families were invited, and whiled away the
long Autumn evenings playing and singing with his friend Petzmacher, the
zither-player.
Ludovica was very different from her husband. She disliked meeting
people, cared nothing for social life or gayety, and had an abhorrence
for noise or confusion of any kind. Max was a great admirer of the fair
sex and made no concealment of the fact. He had the true artist nature,
sanguine, impulsive, and susceptible, and must have caused the Duchess
many unhappy hours, innocent as most of the love affairs attributed to
him seem to have been. Whatever her feelings were, however, she
carefully concealed them from the eyes of the world. To all appearances
the relations between her and her husband were most harmonious. In many
ways, too, their opposite temperaments were of mutual advantage. His
cheerfulness and careless gayety often banished the fits of melancholy
to which she was subject, while her firmness and good sense proved a
balance to his volatile nature, and they were united in their love of
nature and country life.
The first three years of their marriage were childless, but in 1831 the
Duchess presented her husband with an heir, who was named Ludwig, for
the King. As time went on the family circle increased. The oldest
daughter, Hélène, was born in 1834. On Christmas Eve of 1837, Elizabeth
came into the world, followed, in the Summer of 1839, by a second son,
Karl Theodore. On the fourth of October, 1841, at Possenhofen, the
Duchess gave birth to her third daughter, Maria Sophia Amalia, the
future Queen of Naples. Two years later, Mathilde Ludovica was born. On
the twenty-second of February, 1847, the youngest daughter of the ducal
pair, Sophie Charlotte Augusta, made her appearance at Munich, and on
the seventh of December, 1849, their youngest son, Maximilian Emanuel
was born, also in Munich.
Nearly all these children were destined to bring sorrow or anxiety to
their parents. The Duke’s mercurial nature helped him to bear and rise
above these troubles, but they sank deep into Ludovica’s heart. But she
was sustained by her religion and a firm faith in Providence, whose
decrees she bore with dignity and patience. Little as she spoke of it,
devotion to her children was the ruling passion of her life. She never
was diverted, by any consideration, from what she felt to be her duty
toward them; and while her methods of training did not bear equal fruit
with all, they loved her devotedly in return and always regarded her
with the deepest respect and confidence.