Maria Christina of Austria (1858–1929)

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Maria Christina (1891)

Archduchess Maria Christina Désirée Henriette Felicitas Rainiera of Habsburg-Lothringen VA ( Spanish: María Cristina de Habsburgo-Lorena , born  July 21,  1858 in Groß Seelowitz in South Moravia ; † February 6, 1929 in the Royal Palace of Madrid ), Imperial and Royal Princess, Archduchess of Austria, was the second wife of King Alfonso XII. of Spain, mother of King Alfonso XIII. and regent of Spain from 1885 to 1902.

Origin and youth

Maria Christina, called Christa by her family, was born in Židlochovice Castle as the daughter of Archduke Karl Ferdinand , the second son of Archduke Charles , and his wife Elisabeth Franziska Maria of Austria . This made her a great-granddaughter of Emperor Leopold II. Her three brothers Friedrich , Karl Stephan and Eugen were important Austrian generals during the First World War . Two other siblings died shortly after birth.

Maria Christina spent her youth in Vienna at the court of Emperor Franz Joseph I and received a Catholic education. She was very educated and acquired a great deal of knowledge in languages, literature and history, for example.

The later Alfonso XII. was the son of Queen Isabella II of Spain , had to go into exile with his parents in 1868 as a ten-year-old child because of a revolution in Paris and later came to Vienna, where he attended an elite high school, the Theresianum . As a teenager in Vienna he met Maria Christina, who was almost a year younger and with whom he would later marry - albeit only in his second marriage. After the re-establishment of the monarchy in Spain, the Bourbone ascended the throne in December 1874 and married his cousin Maria de las Mercedes d'Orléans-Montpensier in January 1878 in a real love marriage .

Through this marriage of Alfonso XII. Maria Christina saw her hopes disappointed and on October 10, 1878, took over the honorable office of abbess of the noble women's monastery of St. Theresa on the Hradschin in Prague , founded by Maria Theresa in 1755 , without, however, being consecrated.

Royal monogram of Queen Maria Christina

Marriage to Alfonso XII.

Since the first wife of Alfonso XII. died after only six months of marriage, the Spanish king had to quickly remarry despite his grief to secure the line of succession. The conservative statesman Antonio Cánovas del Castillo was looking for a new wife for him and decided on Maria Christina. In the summer of 1879, Maria Isabel de Borbón arranged a meeting with her brother Alfonso XII. with his chosen bride near Bordeaux . The king carried his arm in a sling because of an accident with a carriage and was still mourning his wife and now his sister Maria de Pilar, who had recently died. He did not fall in love with the bride he had chosen and found her mother, who had come with him, much more attractive. Bowing to the raison d'être, he nevertheless took the 21-year-old Maria Christina as his second wife, who had received a dowry from Emperor Franz Joseph I. The wedding took place on November 29, 1879 in the Palacio Real in Madrid.

The labor movement in Spain at that time was only just beginning had anarchist features. In 1878 a young worker carried out a failed assassination attempt on Alfonso XII. In 1879 the king and Maria Christina were shot at by a Galician anarchist, but this attack also failed.

Maria Christina kept herself from politics during Alfonso XII's lifetime. largely distant. She loved her husband very much and gave him three children (see below), but suffered from his frequent infidelity. With a lot of self-control, she curbed her jealousy. Once, however, her hand slipped when a servant wanted to introduce his master to a beautiful young singer.

Among other things, Alfonso XII entertained. a love affair with the Italian opera singer Adela Borghi , but especially a liaison with the Spanish opera singer Elena Sanz , with whom he had two children, Alfonso (* 1880) and Fernando (1881–1925). Maria Christina was finally able to get Elena Sanz to go into exile in Paris .

progeny

Maria Christina was the mother of the only three legitimate children of Alfonso XII .:

Regent for Alfonso XIII.

Queen Maria Christina swears by the Spanish Constitution (1885)

On November 25, 1885, tuberculosis caused the death of Alfonso XII, who was only 27 years old. He had only been married to Maria Christina for six years and left her, pregnant for the third time, as a widow. According to the constitution, the young ruler first took over the reign for her eldest daughter Maria de las Mercedes, whose exercise was initially sought by other members of the Spanish royal family, until Maria Christina was generally accepted as regent. She was faced with the difficult task of continuing the stabilization of the domestic political situation in Spain, which had begun after her husband's accession to the throne, but was by no means assured, despite her situation, which was made difficult by pregnancy, political inexperience and position as a foreigner. In cooperation with the leading statesmen, she nevertheless mastered this delicate situation with ease, so that she was soon respected and popular in the country. The birth of her son on May 17, 1886 ensured the continued existence of the monarchy. He was immediately proclaimed king as Alfonso (XIII) and his mother remained regent for another 16 years. During this time, it was able to achieve essentially internal consolidation in Spain, but not prevent its foreign policy decline.

Despite her political responsibilities, Maria Christina fulfilled her motherly duties in an exemplary manner, spent a lot of time bringing up her children and was able to strengthen the unstable health of her son, who was hereditary from his father, through a lot of care. She also tried to get used to Spanish culture and even mimicked an interest in bullfighting.

Domestic politics

Maria Christina of Austria, Queen of Spain, with her son

Maria Christina wisely and tactfully used the significant powers that Maria Christina possessed under the 1876 Constitution, and acquired great authority. It had the right to exercise the legislature together with the Cortes and to convene and dissolve this meeting of the estates. Laws could only come into force with their consent. She also had executive power. She did not interfere in daily politics, tried as the impartial regent possible to maintain law and order within the framework of the constitution, and worked with liberals and conservatives, who represented the two most influential parties in Spain. Its chairmen were on the side of the conservative Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, on that of the liberal Práxedes Mateo Sagasta . These statesmen had met shortly before the death of Alfonso XII. met on his deathbed in the castle of Pardo and made a pact that stipulated a mutually agreed change of government between the two parties. Maria Christina appointed the two party leaders alternately as prime ministers, who initially held the office of Sagasta from 1885 to 1890, after Cánovas one day after the death of Alfonso XII. had resigned. Soon the regent preferred Sagasta, and the two were always on friendly terms with one another. Nevertheless, Maria Christina did not offend Cánovas either. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) was founded as a further political grouping in 1879 , but it was not yet able to gain any major influence in parliament.

The agreement between the two largest parties and with the regent prevented coup attempts by republican supporters, and at the end of the 1880s Maria Christina also reached an agreement with the Carlist pretender to the throne Don Carlos (VII) .

In order to catch up with the standards of other European countries through the modernization of Spain, Sagasta endeavored since 1886, supported by Maria Christina, to implement a liberal reform program, after mainly conservative governments had been active for ten years. Administration and the judiciary were centralized, jury courts reintroduced, and the right of association and assembly, and thus the basis for legal unions, were created. The Civil Code of 1889 harmonized legal provisions. Finally, in 1890, all Spanish men over 25 were given the right to vote. Catalans and Basques , who lived in more industrialized areas, opposed some reforms. There were radical, separatist movements.

Anarchism was very popular , especially in Catalonia . An assassin from this scene murdered Prime Minister Cánovas on August 8, 1897. Francisco Silvela became the new leader of the Conservatives . In order to remove the ground from anarchism, Maria Christina sought, together with the parliamentary governments, to raise the social standard and to promote the educational system, which, however, did not prosper very far due to a lack of funds. The cultural life of Spain experienced a new bloom.

The loss of the last overseas colonies after the lost war against the United States (1898; see below) was viewed as a catastrophe in Spain, but did not endanger the continued existence of the already established monarchy. Don Carlos (VII.) Had tried to stir up a rebellion, but then did not lead the new Carlist War, which then quickly failed. It was then that the “Generation of 98” movement, which was striving for reform of politics and society, began to form. The election of Carlos Maria de Bourbon as the husband of Maria Christina's eldest daughter Maria de las Mercedes sparked new unrest because the groom's father, Alfons Maria of Naples-Sicily , Count of Caserta, had once served as the Carlist general. Since their renewed rebellion had only recently been put down, many Spaniards did not understand the planned marriage of the son of a leading Carlist into the royal family. The regent insisted on her decision and had the palace cordoned off on the wedding day (February 14, 1901), so that the resistance to the marriage was in vain.

Foreign policy

In general, the regent pursued a cautious, defensive and neutral foreign policy, since Spain was no longer a great power. A dispute with the German Empire over the possession of the Micronesian archipelago of the Carolines was in 1885 shortly before Maria Christina's takeover of the reign by the arbitration ruling of Pope Leo XIII. been solved. The Carolines remained with Spain, but important trading rights were granted to the German side. In 1886 military operations began in the coastal region of North West Africa, the expansion of which into expensive and bloody wars drew Maria Christina borders.

Maria Christina with her children María de las Mercedes, Alfons XIII. and Maria Teresa (1897)

The United States helped the Cuban nationalists in their struggle for independence against Spain, which after its defeat in the Spanish-American War in 1898 not only lost Cuba, but also had to cede Puerto Rico , Guam and the Philippines to the United States in the Peace of Paris . The German Empire took advantage of Spain's defeat against the USA in 1899 to enforce the German-Spanish Treaty , through which it came into the possession of the Carolines and Marianas in return for payment of 17 million marks . So Spain finally lost its great power position, for which some Spaniards blamed Maria Christina.

Personal daring

Maria Christina was considered an agile, and for the time, downright daring woman. When royal engineers were experimenting with military balloons in a park near Madrid in July 1889, the Queen suddenly appeared and expressed a desire to go on an aviation trip. The Chief Chamberlain was - so it is reported - very afraid to take part in the aviation; the Queen alone, with an adjutant and several engineers, climbed the balloon, which, held by two ropes, rose 350 meters to the thunderous shouts of the officers and soldiers. The airy vehicle was then given the name "Maria Christina von Habsburg".

Later years and death

Coat of arms of Maria Christina of Austria
Coat of Arms of Maria Christina of Austria, Queen Consort of Spain.svg Coat of Arms of Maria Christina of Austria as Queen Dowager of Spain.svg
1879-1885 1885-1929

In May 1902, Maria Christina handed over the government to her son, who was now of 16 years of age. She was mainly engaged in charitable activities and kept her promise not to intervene directly in politics in the future. As an experienced advisor to her son, she was nevertheless involved in many of his decisions. Alfonso XIII married Victoria Eugénie von Battenberg, called Ena , in 1906 . Via the couple's fourth son, Juan , Maria Christina became the great-great-grandmother of the current Spanish King Felipe VI.

Maria Christina witnessed how Spain fell into a deep crisis under the government of her son. She helped keep the country neutral during the First World War . When the Habsburg Empire came to an end after its end in 1918, she supported her disempowered relatives and took in the exiled Empress Zita and her children in Spain. In contrast to her son, she rejected the military dictatorship established by Miguel Primo de Rivera in 1923 after a bloodless coup .

Maria Christina suddenly died of angina pectoris on February 6, 1929 at the age of 71 , after she had been looking forward to receiving the Danish King Christian X and his wife Alexandrine the next morning with Queen Ena . She was buried in the Pantheon of the Kings of the El Escorial Monastery. Two years after the death of his mother, Alfonso XIII left. without formal abdication Spain. The Second Spanish Republic followed , but the country sank into civil war as early as 1936 .

The Puente de María Cristina , built in San Sebastian in 1905, bears her name.

literature

Web links

Commons : Maria Christina von Österreich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. An archduchess as abbess. In:  Die Presse , Local-Anzeiger, September 30, 1876, p. 9 (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / maintenance / apr- The article tells the story of the Prague women's monastery .
  2. Brigitte Hamann (ed.), Die Habsburger , p. 316; Susana Sueiro Seoane: Alfons XII. In: Walther L. Bernecker et al. (Ed.): The Spanish Kings . CH Beck, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-406-42782-0 , p. 264.
  3. Susana Sueiro Seoane, The Spanish Kings , p. 266; Sanz, Elena . In: Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . 4th edition, Vol. 6, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-598-11598-9 , p. 4133.
predecessor Office Successor
Maria de las Mercedes d'Orléans-Montpensier Queen of Spain
1879–1885
regent
1885–1902
Victoria Eugénie von Battenberg