Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies
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Maria Amalia Teresa of the Two Sicilies (26 April 1782-24 March 1866) was the wife of Louis-Philippe, King of the French.
She was born at Caserta, the daughter of Fernando I, King of the Two Sicilies (1751-1825) and his wife, Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria (1752-1814), who was the favorite sister of Queen Marie Antoinette of France.
She received a careful education which developed the naturally pious and honorable disposition that earned for her in the family circle the nickname of La Santa. Driven from Naples in 1798, the Neapolitan royal family fled to Palermo, and the years from 1800 to 1802 were spent by Marie Amélie with her mother at the Austrian court. In 1806 they were again in flight before the armies of Massna, and it was during the second residence of her father's court at Palermo that she met the exiled Louis-Philippe, then duke of Orleans, eldest son of the duc d'Orléans. On 25 November 1809 she married Louis-Philippe, at Palermo in Italy.
Returning to France in 1814, the duke and duchess of Orleans had barely established themselves in the Palais Royal in Paris when the Hundred Days drove them into exile. Marie Amélie took refuge with her four children in England, where she spent two years at Orleans House, Twickenham. Again in France in 1817, her life at Neuilly until 1828 was the happiest period of her existence. Neither then nor at any other time did she take any active share in politics; but she was not without indirect influence on affairs, because her strong royalist and legitimist traditions prevented the court from including her in the suspicion with which her husband's liberal views were regarded. Her attention was absorbed by the care and education of her numerous family, even after the revolution of 1830 had made her queen of the French. During her second exile, from 1848 to the end of her life, she lived at Claremont, where her charity and piety endeared her to the many English friends of the Orleans family. Marie Amélie died in exile, at Claremont in Surrey in England.
Her children included:
- Prince Ferdinand-Philippe of France, Duke of Orléans (3 September 1810-1842) married Helene Louise Elizabeth of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (b.1814-d.1858)
- Louise Marie of Orléans (3 April 1812-1850) later Queen consort of Léopold I of Belgium.
- Marie of Orléans (12 April 1813-1839) married Duke Alexander of Württemberg (b.1804-d.1881).
- Louis Charles Philippe Raphael, duc de Nemours (25 October 1814-1896) married Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Kohary.
- Francisca of Orléans (28 March 1816-1818)
- Princess Clémentine of Orléans (3 June 1817-1907) married August of Saxe-Coburg-Kohary.
- François d'Orléans, Prince de Joinville (14 August 1818-1900) married Princess Francisca of Brazil.
- Prince Charles, Duke of Penthièvre (1 January 1820-1828)
- Prince Henri, Duke of Aumale (16 June 1822-1897) married Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (b.1822-d.1869), daughter of Leopoldo, Prince of Salerno.
- Prince Antoine, Duke of Montpensier (31 July 1824-1890) became a prince of Spain after marrying Luisa Fernanda (b.1832-d.1897), daughter of Ferdinand VII of Spain and sister of Isabel II of Spain.
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Queen Marie Amélie of The French |
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| Preceded by: Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma (Empress of the French) |
Queen of the French August 9, 1830-February 24, 1848 |
Succeeded by:Eugénie de Montijo (Empress of the French) |
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
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