Princess Caroline of Naples and Sicily

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(1798-11-05) Caserta Palace, Caserta, Italy
Died	17 April 1870(1870-04-17) (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.

Life

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.

Issue

Children with Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry:^[1]

• Princess Louise Élisabeth of France (13 July 1817 – 14 July 1817)
• Prince Louis of France (born and died 13 September 1818)
• Louise Marie Thérèse d'Artois (21 September 1819 – 1 February 1864)
• Henri d'Artois, Duke of Bordeaux and Count of Chambord (29 September 1820 – 24 August 1883)

Children with Ettore Carlo Lucchesi-Palli, 8th Duke della Grazia:^[1]

• Anna Maria Rosalia Lucchesi-Palli (10 May 1833 – October 1833)^[5]
• Clementina Lucchesi-Palli (19 November 1835 – 22 March 1925)
• Francesca di Paola Lucchesi-Palli (12 October 1836 – 10 May 1923; her son Camillo Massimo, Principe di Arsoli was the father-in-law of Princess Adelaide of Savoy, daughter of Prince Thomas, Duke of Genoa and his wife Princess Isabella of Bavaria; her other son Fabrizio Massimo, Principe di Roviano married Beatriz of Spain, daughter of Carlos, Duke of Madrid and his first wife Princess Margherita of Parma)
• Maria Isabella Lucchesi-Palli (18 March 1838 – 1 April 1873)
• Adinolfo Lucchesi-Palli, 9th Duke della Grazia (10 March 1840 – 4 February 1911; his son Pietro Lucchesi-Palli married Beatrice Colomba Maria di Borbone Principessa di Parma, the daughter of Robert I, Duke of Parma and his first wife Princess Maria Pia of the Two Sicilies).

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

• 5 November 1798 – 24 April 1816 Her Royal Highness Princess Carolina of Naples and Sicily
• 24 April 1816 – 14 February 1820 Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Berry
• 14 February 1820 – 17 April 1870 Her Royal Highness The Dowager Duchess of Berry

Ancestors

References

• This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.

Further reading

• Cronin, Vincent. Four Women in Pursuit of an Ideal. London: Collins, 1965; also published as The Romantic Way. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966.

External links

Media related to Princess Caroline of Naples and Sicily at Wikimedia Commons

v · d · ePrincesses of France by marriage 1st generation None 2nd generation Marie de Bourbon  · Princess Marguerite of Lorraine 3rd generation Princess Henrietta of England  · Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate 4th generation Duchess Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria  · Françoise Marie de Bourbon, Légitimée de France 5th generation Princess Marie Adélaïde of Savoy  · Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans 6th generation None 7th generation Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain  · Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony 8th generation Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria  · Princess Maria Giuseppina of Savoy · Princess Maria Teresa of Savoy 9th generation Princess Marie Thérèse of France*  · Princess Caroline of Naples and Sicily 10th generation Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este *also a princess of France in her own right