Anna Canalis di Cumiana

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Anna Canalis di Cumiana

Anna Carlotta Teresa Canalis di Cumiana (born April 23, 1680 in Turin , † April 11, 1769 in Pinerolo ) was the second, morganatic wife of King Viktor Amadeus II of Sicily and Sardinia .

Contemporaries assumed that she pushed her husband to return to power after his abdication , but researchers now believe that her influence on Viktor Emmanuel's plans in this regard was only marginal.

Life

Anna was born in 1680 as the daughter of the former Savoyard Prime Minister Francesco Maurizio Canalis di Cumiana and his wife Monica Francesca San Martino d'Aglié di San Germano in their parents' city ​​palace on the corner of Via Bogino and Via Principe Amedeo in Turin. Her godparents were Carlo Ludovigo d'Aglié and Anna Cumiana, who was probably the paternal grandmother. Up to the age of 13, Anna was brought up in the Convent of the Turin Salesians and then commuted back and forth with her parents between Turin and Canalis Castle in Cumiana. Because of her good looks, the Savoyard ducal court noticed her, and in 1695 she received the post of maid of honor in the household of the then Duchess Maria Johanna Baptista of Savoy . There, her beauty drew the attention of Duke Viktor Amadeus II, and he fell in love with the then 16-year-old, which was not particularly surprising for contemporaries, as the duke generally enjoyed the reputation of a womanizer. According to rumors that go back to a pamphlet published by Alberto Radicati di Passerano , Anna is said to have been impregnated by him, but this claim is unfounded and still persists to this day.

On April 21, 1703, Anna, described as lively and graceful, married the first stable master Maria Johanna Baptistas of Savoy, the Count of San Sebastiano, Ignazio Francesco Maria Novarina. Witnesses of the marriage were Giovanni Battista Tana, Margrave of Entraque, Tommaso Pallavicino, father-in-law of Anna's brother Ludovico, and the Count of Pertengo, Antonio Maurizio Turinetti. Her husband was 20 years older than her. Eight children emerged from the connection:

  • Paola (* 1708)
  • Paolo Federico (* 1710)
  • Carlo (* 1711)
  • Giacinta (* 1712)
  • Chiara (* 1714)
  • Pietro (* 1715)
  • Luigi (* 1718)
  • Biagio (* 1722)

Ignazio Francesco's death on September 25, 1724 left the countess with eight children, seven of whom were not yet of legal age. In order to secure her a livelihood, Anna was appointed lady-in-waiting of Polyxena von Hessen-Rotenburg , the second wife of Prince Karl Emmanuel , in the same year . In their household she later held the post of chambermaid . Although she did not live in the palace, but in a house on Via Santa, she was again permanently present at court, and many men courted the still very attractive widow, such as Jean de Montjeau , Marshal of France . Even with the widowed Viktor Amadeus II, who became King of Sardinia in 1720 and whose wife Anne Marie d'Orléans died in 1728, the old passion for Anna was rekindled. Initially, she did not want to enter into a love affair with him, but finally gave in to the urge. Even more, the two married secretly on August 2, 1730 in the chapel of the Turin Royal Palace. State Secretary Lanfranchi and the servant barber acted as witnesses to the marriage. Before that, Pope Benedict XIII. a dispensation was granted because the statutes of the knightly order of Saints Mauritius and Lazarus , of which Viktor Amadeus II was a member, excluded a marriage between a widower and a widow.

When her husband officially abdicated in favor of his son in the Castello di Rivoli on September 3, Anna Cannalis the Cumiana was just as surprised as the other members of the royal court. Even she hadn't informed Viktor Amadeus of his plans. Together with her husband and a small entourage, Anna retired to Chambéry in September 1730 . Her brother accompanied her on the trip. As a belated wedding present, Viktor Amadeus bought her the Margraviate of Spigno, which had previously belonged to his illegitimate brother Carlo, and made Anna Marquise of Spigno on January 18, 1731. Despite this gift, Anna felt deceived by her husband and cheated of her due position as Queen of Sardinia.

Contrary to what was expected, Viktor Amadeus II did not withdraw completely from politics. Increasingly dissatisfied with the decisions his son made in Turin, he decided to once again actively intervene in the political life of his country. On the grounds that the abdication had never become final and that he had never released his companies from their oath of allegiance, Viktor Amadeus even wanted to declare his abdication null and void. Anna and her husband went from Chambéry across the Alps back to Piedmont to the castle of Moncalieri in August 1731 . There she and her husband were at the behest of their stepson and reigning King Charles Emmanuel III. Arrested on the night of September 28-29 by a detachment of grenadiers commanded by Louis Picon de la Péourse. While the ex-king was imprisoned in the castle of Rivoli , Anna was brought to the fortress of Ceva ; an extremely humiliating act for them, because the fortress was used as a reformatory for prostitutes at the time. Viktor Emmanuel had to justify the arrest of his 65-year-old father to France and Spain. However, he could not bring increasing senile dementia or an impairment of the mental state of Viktor Emmanuel into the field, since this could draw conclusions about the mental state of the grandchildren of Louis XV. and the Spanish Prince Ferdinand . Viktor Emmanuel's Grand Chancellor and Minister of State Carlo Francesco Vincenzo Ferrero, Margrave of Ormea, therefore officially announced that Anna, guided by excessive ambition, had instigated a conspiracy against the king with her relatives in order to become queen again. Some of her relatives were actually arrested in the wake of this announcement, but were then released because it quickly became apparent that the rumors of the coup were not true.

On December 11th, Anna finally received permission to leave Ceva and go to her husband in Rivoli. Because Karl Emmanuel wanted to use Rivoli Castle himself again, the couple had it moved to Moncalieri Castle on April 12, 1732, where Viktor Amadeus II died on October 31. Immediately after the death of her husband Anna was sent to the monastery of St. Joseph in Carignano , she was not even allowed to attend his funeral. A short time later, at her own request, she moved to the monastery of St. Maria von Pinerolo , a convent of the Salesians. There she led a withdrawn life for the next 36 years, but without becoming a nun herself . One of the few surviving portraits of hers hangs in this monastery. She died there at the age of almost 89 in April 1769. She was buried in the crypt of the monastery church. According to her express wish, her grave has no grave slab.

literature

  • Angiolo Biancotti: La regina di un re. Il romanzo della marchesa di Spigno . Società subalpina editrice, Turin 1940.
  • Michele Grosso: Anna Carlotta Teresa di Cumiana, contessa di San Sebastiano, marchesa di Spigno . In: Michele Grossa, Maria Franca Mellano: Spunti e profili nella storia del Piemonte nei sec. XVII et XVIII . Ramondini, Turin 1961.
  • Anna Riccardi Candiani: Anna Carlotta Canalis di Cumiana: Cortigiana o donna di potere? In: Viva . Vol. 5, No. 31, May 1999, Vivant Associazione per la Valorizzazione delle Tradizioni Storico Nobiliari, pp. 1-3 ( PDF ; 38.4 kB).
  • Giuseppe Ricuperati:  Canalis, Anna Carlotta Teresa. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 17:  Calvart-Canefri. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1974, pp. 708-710.

Web links

Commons : Anna Canalis di Cumiana  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d G. Ricuperati:  Canalis, Anna Carlotta Teresa. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 17:  Calvart-Canefri. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1974, pp. 708-710.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f A. Riccardi Candiani: Anna Carlotta Canalis di Cumiana: Cortigiana o donna di potere? , P. 2.
  3. ^ Amy Augusta Frederica Annabella (Cochrane-Baillie) Marchesa Nobili-Vitelleschi: The Romance of Savoy. Victor Amadeus II. And his Stuart Bride . Volume 2. Hutchinson & Co., London 1905, p. 500 ( online )
  4. ↑ Susan Richter: Renunciation of the Throne: The Abdication in Monarchies from the Middle Ages to Modern Times . Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar 2010, ISBN 9783412205355 , p. 309 ( online ).
  5. ^ Amy Augusta Frederica Annabella (Cochrane-Baillie) Marchesa Nobili-Vitelleschi: The Romance of Savoy. Victor Amadeus II. And his Stuart Bride . Volume 2. Hutchinson & Co., London 1905, p. 519 ( online )
  6. ^ Amy Augusta Frederica Annabella (Cochrane-Baillie) Marchesa Nobili-Vitelleschi: The Romance of Savoy. Victor Amadeus II. And his Stuart Bride . Volume 2. Hutchinson & Co., London 1905, p. 515 ( online )
  7. ↑ a b c A. Riccardi Candiani: Anna Carlotta Canalis di Cumiana: Cortigiana o donna di potere? , P. 3.
  8. ^ Amy Augusta Frederica Annabella (Cochrane-Baillie) Marchesa Nobili-Vitelleschi: The Romance of Savoy. Victor Amadeus II. And his Stuart Bride . Volume 2. Hutchinson & Co., London 1905, p. 523 ( online )
  9. ↑ Susan Richter: Renunciation of the Throne: The Abdication in Monarchies from the Middle Ages to Modern Times . Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar 2010, ISBN 9783412205355 , p. 313 ( online ).
  10. ↑ Susan Richter: Renunciation of the Throne: The Abdication in Monarchies from the Middle Ages to Modern Times . Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar 2010, ISBN 9783412205355 , pp. 313-314 ( online ).
  11. ↑ Susan Richter: Renunciation of the Throne: The Abdication in Monarchies from the Middle Ages to Modern Times . Böhlau, Köln / Weimar 2010, ISBN 9783412205355 , p. 315 ( online ).
personal data
SURNAME Canalis di Cumiana, Anna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marchese of Spigno
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wife of King Viktor Amadeus I of Sicily and Sardinia
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1680
PLACE OF BIRTH Turin
DATE OF DEATH April 11, 1769
Place of death Pinerolo