Princess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Princess Maria Antonia of Naples | |
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| Princess of Asturias (more...) | |
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| Spouse | Ferdinand, Prince of Asturias |
| Titles and styles | |
| HRH The Princess of Asturias HRH Princess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily |
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| Royal house | House of Bourbon House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies |
| Father | Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies |
| Mother | Maria Carolina of Austria |
| Born | December 14, 1784 Caserta Palace, Caserta, Italy |
| Died | May 21, 1806 (aged 21) Aranjuez Palace, Aranjuez, Spain |
Princess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily, also called Princess Marie Antoinette of Naples and Sicily (14 December 1784, Caserta Palace, Caserta, Italy - 21 May 1806, Aranjuez Palace, Aranjuez, Spain), Princess of Asturias, the youngest daughter of King Ferdinand IV of Naples and Sicily and Marie Caroline of Austria. She was named after her mother's favorite sister, Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. Maria Antonia was a sweet, delicate and intelligent girl, having by the age of seventeen learned several languages. One witness described her with the following words: "The Princess of Asturias is a worthy granddaughter of Maria Theresa of Austria, and seems to inherit her character as well as her virtues."
In a series of dynastic alliances, Maria Antonia became engaged to Ferdinand, Prince of Asturias (who later became King Ferdinand VII of Spain), while her eldest brother, Francis, became engaged to Ferdinand's sister Infanta Maria Isabella of Spain. On 4 October 1802, Maria Antonia married Ferdinand in Barcelona, Spain. However, her letters to her mother showed her deep disillusionment with her husband, who was ugly and bad-mannered. Her mother, Queen Marie Caroline, wrote the following lines on the subject to one of her friends:
The Prince of Asturias has an ugly face, a tubby figure, round knees and legs, a piping delicate voice, and is utterly stupid. Though he is physically amorous, they are not yet husband and wife after sleeping together a week. He is disagreeable, dull, as lazy as his sister, and he never leaves his wife a single moment. He has no education, an unpleasant continuous giggle; and their existence is cramped, without comforts or amenities, and subjected to scandalous espionage. Poor Antoinette sends letters that make me weep. She writes: "Mother, you have been deceived. For you are too good a mother to have sacrificed me like this if you had known." She says again: "I shall not live, but I wish to behave well and deserve eternal life."
In addition, the princess failed to provide the expected heir to the throne: her two pregnancies, in 1804 and 1805, ended in miscarriages. Maria Antonia's mother-in-law, the infamous Queen Maria Luisa, who hated her as well as her mother Marie Caroline, frequently wrote slanderous letters to her favorite, Manuel Godoy, who was the Spanish prime minister at the time, where she described Maria Antonia as "the spittle of her mother, a venomous viper, an animal filled with gall and poison instead of blood, a half-dead frog and a diabolical snake." To top it all, Queen Maria Luisa began to subject Maria Antonia's books and clothes to scrutiny and once, in order to frighten the young princess, she took her down to the dark royal vault in El Escorial so she could contemplate the place where she would be laid to rest one day.
In spite of all of this, the brave Maria Antonia managed to gain ascendancy over her dull husband and created an opposition party against Queen Maria Luisa and her favorite Manuel Godoy. The Duchess of Abrantes, a French lady, wrote in her memoirs that Maria Antonia and Ferdinand were very close and that:
the attachment of these unfortunate young people was the only alleviation they found in a life of constant trouble and vexations. Always when they are together the Prince follows with his eyes those of the Princess that he may be guided in what he is to do.
But it didn't last for too long, since the frail princess' health was undermined by tuberculosis and she died on 21 May 1806. There were rumours saying that Maria Antonia had been poisoned by Maria Luisa and Godoy, and Queen Marie Caroline of Naples, who was devastated, truly believed this. Maria Antonia's father, King Ferdinand IV, consolidated Naples and Sicily into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies a decade after her death.
