Maria Karolina of Austria
Archduchess Maria Karolina of Austria (born August 13, 1752 in Vienna , † September 8, 1814 at Hetzendorf Castle near Vienna) was the wife of Ferdinand I of Naples-Sicily, Queen of Naples-Sicily . She achieved fame through her political activities and her fight against Napoleon .
Childhood as the daughter of Maria Theresa
Maria Karolina (Caroline) Luise Josepha Johanna Antonia , Archduchess of Austria and Princess of Bohemia, Hungary and Tuscany, was the thirteenth child and tenth daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria and her husband Emperor Franz I Stephan in Vienna on August 13, 1752 born.
Maria Karolina of Austria grew up at the imperial court in Vienna. As with her siblings, the Archduchesses and Archduchesses, upbringing was based on a strict training program that Empress Maria Theresia of Austria had developed especially for her children. The schedule included dance lessons , drama , history , painting , spelling , political science , a little math, and foreign language learning. The girls were also instructed in needlework and conversation theory.
Maria Karolina, who was very similar to her mother in many ways, rebelled against her governess, Countess Judith von Brandis, and got her mother to replace her with Countess Maria Walburga von Lerchenfeld, who was much more responsive to the spirited girl understood to enter into and promoted this in every way. Maria Karolina warned her mother, who wrote numerous rules of conduct for each of her children:
“I cannot forget your naughtiness and I will never forgive you. Your voice and language are uncomfortable enough anyway. You must never raise your voice. You have to keep your mind occupied because that will keep you from making inappropriate comments. "
Maria Theresa and her minister Kaunitz pursued the goal of improving Austria's political relations with other states and Austria's position in Europe, also through family ties. That is why Maria Theresia developed marriage plans for her 13 surviving children at an early age. Maria Karolina and her siblings had to subordinate their own will to the good of the state and marry people whom their mother had chosen for them. The male descendants found their way surprisingly well in the roles assigned to them. However, the daughters Marie Antoinette , Queen of France , Maria Amalia , Duchess of Parma, and Maria Karolina often did not behave as they were expected at foreign royal courts.
Archduchesses Johanna Gabriela of Austria and her sister Archduchess Maria Josepha were initially planned for a further family connection to the Bourbons then ruling in France , Spain , Naples-Sicily and Parma , namely for a marriage to King Ferdinand I of Naples-Sicily . Both died of smallpox in 1762 and 1767, respectively , so that Archduchess Maria Karolina took her place as Ferdinand's bride.
In Naples and Sicily great expectations were placed on the new queen. An Austrian diplomat wrote the following before the planned wedding:
“The Neapolitan party desires nothing more than that Her Majesty, the future Queen, accepts the government, since the King's Majesty lacks the will and the ability, and consequently the complete underpinning of these in such miserable circumstances Countries want to advance. "
Life at the Neapolitan court
The rulership of Naples-Sicily was made up of the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily . The two kingdoms were ruled in personal union. Ferdinand I of Naples-Sicily was consequently King Ferdinand IV of Bourbon-Naples and at the same time Ferdinand III. of Bourbon Sicily. Only on December 8, 1816 did he unite the separate kingdoms to form the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and, after the monarchies merged, he called himself Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies.
The marriage by procurationem between Archduchess Maria Karolina of Austria and King Ferdinand I of Naples-Sicily took place on April 7, 1768 in the Augustinian Church in Vienna , with her brother Ferdinand taking the place of the bridegroom. Shortly before leaving for Italy, Maria Theresa gave her daughter the following advice:
“A mother other than me would encourage you to seek participation in business; but I know their burden and the associated danger too well to want to draw you there. Even if the king wants you to participate in his government, initiate you into the business and consult you, you must never show it to the outside world. Give him the honor in front of the whole world and be satisfied with his trust. "
After stays in Trento , Rovereto , Venice , Modena , Bologna , Florence and Rome , the young queen reached her husband's territory on May 11, 1768 and had to part with her Austrian court. On May 12, 1768, the couple's wedding finally took place in the Palace of Caserta .
During the honeymoon the first serious differences arose between the spouses, which were to deepen over the years. In contrast to his wife, who had been carefully prepared for her role as future queen and mother of numerous children, Ferdinand had never received a comprehensive education and enjoyed hunting, pranking, and excessive eating. The initially unhappy relationship meant that the marriage remained childless for four years and the first child was not born until 1772. Maria Karolina and Ferdinand never had a love affair, but over time they learned to accept their common fate and to build a trusting relationship with each other that was beneficial for both partners. Maria Karolina finally gave birth to 18 children between 1772 and 1793.
Maria Karolina as a politician
Influence on the government of Naples-Sicily
Although Maria Karolina found it difficult to get used to married life and the situation at the Neapolitan court, she soon began to ask why the country was so backward. The people of Naples-Sicily suffered from poverty and the domination of the nobility and clergy . King Ferdinand I of Naples-Sicily was too weak to divorce himself from the political influence of his father, King Charles III. of Spain, and to take over the reign of Naples-Sicily independently. So the country was exploited more and more in favor of Spain.
Maria Karolina tried to promote the independence of Naples-Sicily and to reduce its dependence on Spain by taking more and more influence on Ferdinand I of Naples-Sicily and his government. After the birth of her son Francesco I Gennaro , the future king, Maria Karolina's influence on her husband became so strong that in 1776 she was able to oust the First Minister Bernardo Tanucci from office. The Queen took his place in the Privy Council. In her political activities, Maria Karolina showed two qualities that she had inherited from her mother Maria Theresa: high intelligence and ambition. She promoted the Secretary of the Navy John Acton , who was appointed First Minister in 1784 thanks to her advocacy. Maria Karolina continued the reform policy initiated by Tanucci, restricted the prerogatives of the nobility and clergy (without completely abolishing them), strived for a fairer distribution of the tax burden and tried to alleviate rural poverty. With these measures - and simply through the sheer “inappropriateness” of her influence in politics - she not only made friends, but aroused the suspicion of Spain, France and later also of England. Napoleon once called her "the most dangerous woman in Europe".
Fight against the French Revolution and Napoleon
Effects of the French Revolution
When the French Revolution broke out, Maria Karolina feared a revolution in her own country due to the great poverty of the people. The sympathies she had for the Jacobins during the Revolution turned after the murder of her sister Marie Antoinette and her brother-in-law Louis XVI. of France in 1793 in hatred and dislike of the new regime in France. For this reason, she joined the first coalition against France in 1793 , which also included England, Austria, Prussia, the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Sardinia and Portugal. In a letter to her nephew (and then also her son-in-law), Emperor Franz I of Austria , she wrote that she would never suffer the fate of Marie Antoinette:
“Then in the worst case I would be determined to throw my seven children into the sea and rush after them. I do not want to become the prey of these scoundrels, nor beg anyone for pity. "
The French Revolution did not trigger a popular uprising in the Kingdom of Naples-Sicily, but it did promote the formation of republican communities and fueled the anti-royalist mood among the bourgeoisie, while the conservative peasant population mostly remained loyal to the king. The situation in Europe seemed to ease when the driving force of the revolution, Robespierre , was overthrown and executed in July 1794. After the first horrors of the French Revolution, Maria Karolina was confronted with a new threat posed by General Napoleon. In 1795 Bonaparte had received supreme command of the French troops in Italy as a reward for suppressing a royalist uprising in Paris . After the annexation of Nice and Savoy and the expulsion of the royal families from Lombardy and Tuscany , his troops approached the southern tip of Italy. Maria Karolina was aware of the consequences of a war between the poorly organized Neapolitan army and the well-equipped French armed forces and finally agreed to a separate peace with France on October 10, 1797.
First flight and formation of the Parthenopean Republic
Napoleon turned his eyes to Naples-Sicily as he saw the dominion in the Mediterranean Sea as an advantageous strategic position. In 1798, the royal couple of Naples and Sicily decided as a precaution to join the second coalition against France. In November of the same year a Neapolitan army advanced as far as Rome ; she was crushed by the French. In the meantime Napoleon's fleet had been decisively defeated by the English admiral Horatio Nelson in the sea battle at Abukir (August 1, 1798) off the Egyptian coast . On the other hand, the French won on land. General Jean-Étienne Championnet occupied Naples in January 1799. The royal family had fled to Sicily at the end of December 1798. In exile in Sicily, Maria Karolina followed the political developments in Naples.
On January 24, 1799, the Parthenopean Republic was proclaimed in Naples by the French troops under the leadership of General Championnet. Parthenope was an old name for Naples and was meant to express the regained freedom of the Neapolitan people. During the republican period, a government was installed, Ercole D'Agnese was elected president, freedom of the press proclaimed and future reforms prepared. The young republic was increasingly harassed by the royal army, largely recruited from rural volunteers, the "Armata cristiana e reale" (Christian and Royal Army), also called "Esercito cristiano della Santa Fede" (Christian Army of the Holy Faith), the Sanfedisti , under the leadership of Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo . After just under five months, the Parthenopean Republic ended on June 13, 1799 after the royal army marched into Naples. The collapse of the republic was also due to the English fleet, which had supplied arms to the royal army. Again Admiral Nelson had helped to free Naples-Sicily from the French and to secure the throne for the royal couple. Admiral Nelson became an important advisor to the royal couple in the years that followed, and Maria Karolina found a close friend in Emma Hamilton , Nelson's lover.
In June 1800 Maria Karolina traveled with her three unmarried daughters, her younger son Leopold and accompanied by Nelsons and the dismissed diplomatic couple Emma and William Hamilton via Livorno, Florence, Trieste and Laibach to Vienna, where she arrived two months later. In the course of marriage negotiations, Maria Karolina stayed in Vienna for two years and tried to marry off her numerous children on an advantageous basis. In the family circle, she spent most of the time with her favorite granddaughter, Marie Louise of Austria , who later became the wife of her arch-enemy Napoleon.
Second escape and life in exile
After her stay in Vienna, she returned to Naples on August 17, 1802. The European states followed Napoleon's increase in power, which culminated on May 18, 1804, when Napoleon was appointed French emperor, with concern. In 1805 Napoleon turned back to Italy; he crowned himself with a crown with the inscription Rex totius Italiae (King of all Italy) . In the Third Coalition War he conquered Naples and first put his brother Joseph Bonaparte and four years later his brother-in-law Joachim Murat on the throne of Naples. The royal family was forced to flee to Sicily in February 1806. Under pressure from the British government, Ferdinand I of Naples-Sicily abdicated in 1812 in favor of his son Francesco I Gennaro . The queen was asked to leave Sicily and return to her family in Vienna.
While she was still on the journey, she received notification of Napoleon's defeat in the Battle of Leipzig on October 19, 1813. After a long journey via Constantinople , Odessa , Lemberg and Budapest , Maria Karolina finally reached Vienna in January 1814, where she met Prince Metternich and her nephew Franz I of Austria for the regaining of the Neapolitan throne.
death
Maria Karolina died on September 8, 1814 at Schloss Hetzendorf from the effects of a stroke. She did not live to see Napoleon's final exile on the island of Saint Helena and the return of the throne to her son Francesco I during the Congress of Vienna . Her maid found the queen lying dead on the floor in the midst of a sea of letters. She is buried in the Capuchin Crypt. Her heart is in the heart of the Habsburgs , her entrails were buried in the ducal tomb . Maria Karolina is one of those 41 people who received a " separate burial " with the body being divided between all three traditional Viennese burial sites of the Habsburgs (imperial crypt, heart crypt, ducal crypt).
progeny
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The following children came from his marriage to Ferdinand I of Naples-Sicily , King of both Sicilies :
- Maria Theresa (6 June 1772 - 13 April 1807) ⚭ Emperor Franz II.
- Maria Luisa (* July 27, 1773; † September 19, 1802) ⚭ Grand Duke Ferdinand III. of Tuscany
- Carlos Tito (January 4, 1775 - December 17, 1778), Duke of Calabria
- Maria Anna (born November 23, 1775 - † February 22, 1780)
- Francesco I. Gennaro (born August 19, 1777 - † November 8, 1830), King of Sicily
- Maria Cristina Amalia (* January 17, 1779 - March 12, 1849) ⚭ King Karl Felix I of Sardinia-Piedmont
- Maria Christina Theresa (January 17, 1779 - February 26, 1783)
- Carlo Antonio (April 12, 1780 - January 1, 1789)
- Giuseppe Felix (June 18, 1781 - February 19, 1783)
- Maria Amalia (born April 26, 1782 - † March 24, 1866) ⚭ Ludwig Philipp of France
- Maria Carolina (* / † July 19, 1783)
- Maria Antonia (December 14, 1784 - May 21, 1806) ⚭ King Ferdinand VII of Spain
- Maria Clothilda (February 18, 1786 - September 10, 1792)
- Maria Henrietta (born July 31, 1787 - † September 20, 1792)
- Carlo Gennaro (born August 26, 1788; † February 1, 1789)
- Leopoldo Giovanni (July 2, 1790 - March 10, 1851), Duke of Salerno
- Alberto Maria (May 2, 1792 - December 26, 1798)
- Isabella Maria (December 2, 1793 - April 23, 1801)
ancestors
| Pedigree of Maria Karolina of Austria | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great-great-grandparents |
Nikolaus Franz von Vaudémont (1609–1670) |
Emperor |
King |
Elector |
Emperor |
Elector |
Prince |
Albrecht Ernst I. zu Oettingen (1642–1683) |
| Great grandparents |
Duke Karl V. Leopold (1643–1690) |
Philip I of Bourbon (1640–1701) |
Emperor Leopold I (1640–1705) |
Duke Ludwig Rudolf of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1671–1735) |
||||
| Grandparents |
Duke Leopold Joseph of Lorraine (1679–1729) |
Emperor Charles VI. (1685–1740) |
||||||
| parents |
Emperor Franz I Stephan (1708–1765) |
|||||||
|
Maria Karolina of Austria |
||||||||
literature
- Egon Caesar Conte Corti : I, a daughter of Maria Theresa. A picture of the life of Queen Marie Karoline of Naples. Bruckmann, Munich 1950.
- Brigitte Hamann : The Habsburgs - A biographical lexicon , Ueberreuter, Vienna 1988.
- Brigitte Hamann: Maria Karolina. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 201 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Friederike Hausmann: ruler in the devil's paradise. Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-66695-7 .
- Thea Leitner : Alone against Napoleon. Marie Karoline 1752-1814 . In: Habsburgs Daughters Sold . Piper, Munich and Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-492-11827-5 , pp. 187-228
- Richard Reifenscheid: The Habsburgs in Life Pictures - From Rudolf I to Karl I , Verlag Styria, Graz 1982.
- Ursula Tamussino: The devil's grandmother. A biography of Queen Maria Carolina of Naples and Sicily. Deuticke, Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-216-07638-5 .
- Friedrich Weissensteiner : The daughters of Maria Theresa. Kremayer & Scheriau, Vienna 1991.
- Constantin von Wurzbach : Habsburg, Karolina Maria . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 6th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1860, pp. 398–400 ( digitized version ).
Web links
- Christiane Kopka: 08/13/1752 - The birthday of Queen Maria Karolina of Naples-Sicily WDR ZeitZeichen (podcast).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Thea Leitner: Habsburgs Sold Daughters. Ueberreuter, Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-80003-248-1 , p. 192.
- ↑ Eberhard Weis : The breakthrough of the bourgeoisie, 1776-1847. (= Propylaea History of Europe, Volume 4). Propylaen-Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-549-05484-X . P. 33.
- ^ Rudolf Lill : History of Italy from the 16th century to the beginnings of fascism . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1980. ISBN 3-534-06746-0 . P. 37.
- ^ Otto Frass (Ed.): Source book on Austrian history. From the beginning of modern times until Maria Theresa's death. Volume 2, Birken-Verlag, 1959, p. 326.
- ^ Rudolf Lill: History of Italy from the 16th century to the beginnings of fascism . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1980. p. 51.
- ^ Rudolf Lill: History of Italy from the 16th century to the beginnings of fascism . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1980. p. 64.
- ^ Rudolf Lill: History of Italy from the 16th century to the beginnings of fascism . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1980. p. 52.
- ^ Rudolf Lill: History of Italy from the 16th century to the beginnings of fascism . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1980. p. 67.
- ^ Thea Leitner: Habsburgs sold daughters. Ueberreuter, Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-80003-248-1 , p. 211.
- ↑ Angelika Gernet, Michael Groblewski: From the Italian States to the first Regno d'Italia. Italian history between the Renaissance and the Risorgimento (1559-1814) . In: Wolfgang Altgeld, Rudolf Lill (Ed.): Little Italian History . Reclam, Stuttgart 2002. ISBN 3-15-017036-2 . Pp. 185–256, here p. 252.
- ^ Rudolf Lill: History of Italy from the 16th century to the beginnings of fascism . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1980. P. 73.
- ^ Rudolf Lill: History of Italy from the 16th century to the beginnings of fascism . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1980. p. 76.
- ^ Rudolf Lill: History of Italy from the 16th century to the beginnings of fascism . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1980. p. 80.
| predecessor | Office | Successor |
|---|---|---|
| Maria Amalia of Saxony (1724–1760) | Queen of Naples and Sicily 1768–1814 |
Maria Isabel of Spain |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Maria Karolina of Austria |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Queen of Naples and Sicily |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 13, 1752 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Vienna |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 8, 1814 |
| Place of death | Hetzendorf , Vienna |