| Caroline | |
|---|---|
| Duchess of Berry Duchess della Grazia |
|
| Caroline in 1825 by Thomas Lawrence | |
| Spouse | Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry Ettore Carlo Lucchesi-Palli |
| Issue | |
| Louise Marie Thérèse, Duchess of Parma Henri, Count of Chambord Anna Maria Rosalia Lucchesi-Palli Clementina Lucchesi-Palli Francesca di Paola Lucchesi-Palli Maria Isabella Lucchesi-Palli Adinolfo Lucchesi-Palli, 9th Duke della Grazia |
|
| Full name | |
| Italian: Maria Carolina Ferdinanda Luisa French: Marie Caroline Ferdinande Louise |
|
| House | House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies House of Bourbon |
| Father | Francis I of the Two Sicilies |
| Mother | Archduchess Maria Clementina of Austria |
| Born | 5 November 1798 Caserta Palace, Caserta, Italy |
| Died | 17 April 1870 (aged 71) Brünsee, Styria, Austria-Hungary |
| Burial | Mureck Cemetery, Mureck |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Caroline of Naples and Sicily[1] (Maria Carolina Ferdinanda Luise; 5 November 1798 – 17 April 1870) was the daughter of the future King Francis I of the Two Sicilies and his first wife, Maria Clementina of Austria.
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Caroline was born at the Caserta Palace as the eldest child of Prince Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Naples and Sicily. Her mother was an Archduchess of Austria herself the tenth child and third daughter of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Luisa of Spain. Her parents were double first cousins.
Caroline was baptised with the names of her paternal grand parents, Maria Carolina of Austria and King Ferdinand of Naples.
She spent her youth in Palermo and in Naples. Her mother died in 1801 having given birth a son the previous year with a difficult birth. She died aged 24; her father married again in 1802 to the Infanta Maria Isabella of Spain, another first cousin. The couple would have a further twelve children.
Caroline married King Louis XVIII of France's nephew, Charles Ferdinand d'Artois on 24 April 1816 in Naples, following negotiations with the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily[2] by the French ambassador Pierre Louis Jean Casimir de Blacas, thus becoming the duchesse de Berry otherwise known as Madame de Berry in France.
Even though it was an arranged marriage, it was a happy marriage Caroline living at the Élysée Palace in Paris which was given to her.
She became an important figure during the Bourbon Restoration after the assassination of her husband in 1820. Caroline's son, Henri, Count of Chambord, was named the "miracle child" because he was born after his father's death and continued the direct Bourbon line of King Louis XIV of France. (The Duke of Berry saw only one child born by Caroline, Louise).
In 1824, King Louis XVIII died and was succeeded by Caroline's father-in-law, King Charles X.
In 1830, she was forced to flee France when Charles X was overthrown during the July Revolution. She lived in Bath and Regent Terrace, Edinburgh for a time.[3]
In 1831 she returned to her family in Naples via the Netherlands, Prussia and Austria.[3] Later, however, with the help of Emmanuel Louis Marie de Guignard, vicomte de Saint Priest, she unsuccessfully attempted to restore the Legitimist Bourbon dynasty during the reign of the Orléanist monarch, King Louis Philippe of the French (1830–1848).
Her failed rebellion in the Vendée in 1832 was followed by her arrest and imprisonment in November, 1832. She was released in June, 1833 after giving birth to a daughter and revealing her secret marriage to an Italian nobleman, Ettore Carlo Lucchesi-Palli, 8th Duke della Grazia. In 1844, she and her husband purchased the beautiful palazzo Ca' Vendramin Calergi on the Grand Canal in Venice from the last member of the Vendramin family line. In the turmoil of the Risorgimento, she was forced to sell the palazzo to her grandson, Prince Henry, Count of Bardi, and many of its fine works of art were auctioned in Paris.[4]
She returned to Sicily, ignored by other members of the House of Bourbon, and died near Graz (Austria-Hungary) in 1870.
French novelist Alexandre Dumas, père wrote two stories about her and her plotting.
Children with Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry:[1]
Children with Ettore Carlo Lucchesi-Palli, 8th Duke della Grazia:[1]
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Princess_Caroline_of_Naples_and_Sicily Princess Caroline of Naples and Sicily] at Wikimedia Commons
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