Maria Louisa of Spain (Spanish: Maria Luisa) (6 July 1782, San Ildefonso –13 March 1824) Rome Duchess of Lucca was a daughter of Charles IV of Spain. She married Prince Louis of Parma and was Queen of Etruria and later Duchess of Lucca.
Maria Louisa of Spain, was the third surviving daughter of King Carlos IV of Spain (1748-1819) and his wife Maria Louisa of Parma (1751-1819). She was born in the Palace of La Granja, San Idelfonso near Segovia on July 6, 1782, and was given the names Maria Luisa Josefa Antonia. Her mother, after whom she was named, was also a Princess of the House of Bourbon, being the grand daughter of Louis XV of France. Maria Louisa’s childhood was a happy one, both of her parents, Charles IV and Maria Louisa of Parma were fond of all their children, except their eldest son, the Prince of Asturias. Maria Louisa who had been named after her mother, was the favorite daughter, being called in the family “ Luisetta”. In returned, she was attached to her family. She was six years old when at the death of her grandfather, Charles III, her father, Charles IV, inherited the Spanish throne.
Maria Louisa's destiny was decided in 1795 when her first cousin, Louis Hereditary Prince of Parma, came to the Spanish court to finish his education. He was the son of Ferdiand, Duke of Parma and Maria Amalia of Austria, daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor. It was understood between the two royal families that Louis will marry one of the daughters of Charles IV. Louis of Parma was tall, and good looking, with blue eyes and fair hair as his mother. He shared his father enthusiastic love of church music and . Louis, according to plan, was supposed to married infanta Maria Amalia, Charles IV eldest single daughter, who was fifteen year old at that time, but he was very shy and reserved, Maria Amalia was also very timid and with a melancholic character. He did not get along with her so well as with her younger sister, Maria Louisa, who was only thirteen, but brigther of character and better looking. All four daugherts of Charles IV were short and plain, but Maria Louisa was clever, lively and amusing. She had dark curly hair, brown eyes and a greek nose. Altough not beautiful, her face was full of expression and her character was animated. She was generous, kindhearted and devout. Both infantas were atracted to the Prince of Parma, but ultimately he chose the younger sister. The mother, Queen Maria Louisa, agree with the switch of brides.
Louis was created Infante of Spain and they got married on August 25, 1795 in La Granja, Saint Ildefonso. They were first cousins, he was a nephew of Maria Louisa's mother who was born a princess of Parma. At the same time, in a double wedding, Maria Amalia, the original intended bride, married her own uncle, infante Antonio of Spain.
The King and Queen of Spain were very fond of their nephew and son in law, although he was twenty-three years old; they called him with affection “el niño”. Maria Luisa was a child of only thirteen. The marriage will prove to be a happy one, they were complementary. He was tall, blonde and shy while, she was short, dark and energetic. The shadow in their married life was Louis health. He was frail, had chest problems and since a childhood accident, when he hit his head with a marble table, he suffered from fits of epilepsy. As the years went on his health, far from improve, got worse and he grew to be very dependent of his wife. The young couple remained in Spain the first years of their married life. Little did they know then, that these were going to be the happiest days of their lives. Being Maria Louisa just a child when she got married, she didn’t have children till four years into her marriage. Her first son, Charles Louis, was born in Madrid on December 22], 1799.
After their son was born, the couple wanted to go to Parma, the lands they were going to inherit; but Charles IV and his wife were reluctant to departure from their son and daughter, delaying the trip. They were still in Spain in 1800 when in the spring of that year while staying at the Palace in Aranjuez; they were portrait with all the member of the royal family on the famous painting: the family of Charles IV by Goya. Maria Louisa at her husband side and with her son in her arms appeared on the right of Goya’s masterpiece.
Maria Louisa’s life was deeply marked by Napoleon’s actions. In the summer of 1800 Napoleon sent his brother Lucien Bonaparte as an emissar to the Spanish court. He had plans for the young couple. By the threaty of Luneville, Parma was going to be anexed to France at the death of Duke Ferdinand, in compensation his son Louis, Maria Luisa’s husband, would receive Tuscany. Bonaparte, who had conquered Italy, wanted to compensate the House of Bourbon-Parma giving Louis and Maria Louisa , Etruria, a new kingdom he created from the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, while France would obtainLuoisiana from Spain. To make way for the Bourbons, the Habsburg Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand III, was ousted and given compensation from ecclesiastical territories in Germany. Etruria was greater, richer and more important than Parma, making it an enticing bargain. The Queen of Spain wanted her daughter to be also Queen and was pleased with the arrangement.
Maria Louisa’s husband, whose bad health has made him indolent and apathetic, accepted what had been decided in spite of his own father opposition. On her part, Maria Louisa was totally inexperienced, had never lived away from her own family and knew very little of political affairs. Nevertheless, she opposed the proposed plan. One of Napoleon’s conditions was that the young couple had to go to Paris and there receive from him the investiture of their new sovereignty, before taking possession of Etruria. Maria Louisa was reluctant to make an unnecessary trip to France, where only seven years earlier her relatives Louis XVI and Maria Antoinette had been executed. However pressed also by her family, she did as she was told.
On April 21, 1801 the new Kings of Etruria left Madrid, crossed the border in Bayonne and traveled incognito to France under the name of Counts of Livorno. Napoleon was interested in having Spain as an ally against England, and received the new Kings of Etruria with great attentions, at their arrival in Paris on May 24. At first, the young couple didn’t make a good impression. They were dressed with unfashionable clothes at the Spanish manner. The French found the new Queen of Etruira to be ugly, but clever and agreeable; her husband was described as good looking, good hearted, but a fool. The Duchess D’Abrantes wrote in her memoirs about Maria Louisa: a “mixture of shyness and haughtiness which at first gave restraint to her conversation and manners” but when she became better acquainted with the young Queen, she found her very pleasant. Napoleon was favorably impressed by Maria Louisa tenderness towards her son who she nursed herself. But the Spanish Infanta did not enjoy her visit to Paris. Unlike her mother, she hated horse riding and was not amused with the displays prepared for her. Maria Louisa was ill most of the time, she suffered from fever, often had to stay in bed and when she took part in the diversions she really did not want to do so. She was anxious about her husband health and he depended on her for everything. One day as Louis got out of the carriage at La Mailmaison, where they were going to dine, he suddenly felt to the ground in an epilepsy fit. The Duchess D’Abrantes, who was present, described the scene in her memoirs “The Queen appeared much distressed and tried to conceal her husband; … he was as pale as a death and his features completely altered…” After staying in Paris for three weeks, Maria Luisa and her husband, on June 30, headed south toward Parma. In Piacenza they were greeted by Louis’ parents, together they went to Parma and Maria Louisa met her husband’s two unmarried sisters. They found Louis already speaking Italian with a foreign accent while Maria Louisa’s Italian was often mixed with Spanish words. After three weeks in Parma they entered Etruria.
On August they arrived in their new capital, Florence. The French general, Murat, had been sent to Florence to prepare the Pitti Palace for them. But the Kings of Etruria did not have an auspicious start in their new life. Maria Louisa was pregnat and suffered a misscarriage, her husband health, always frail, had deteriorated further, having more frequents fits of epiplepsy.The Pitti Palace, the residence of the new kings of Etruria, was the former house of the Dukes of Medecis. The palace had been practically abandoned after the death of the last Medeci and the ousted Grand Duke of Toscany, Ferdinad III of Habsburg had stripped it of most of its values before leaving town. This was just the beginning of many troubles and difficulties they would have to face.
Maria Louisa and Luis were both full of good intentions but they were received with hostilty by the population and the novility that missed the popular ousted Grand Duke Ferdinad III and saw them as just mere tools in the hands of the French. Etruria finances were in deplorable state; the country was ruined by war, bad harvest and the cost to have to mantain the unpopular French troops stationed in Etruria, that only much later where replaced by the Spanish troops sent by Charles IV of Spain. Their life in Florence was cut short in the summer of 1802 : Maria Luisa and her husband were invited to go back to Spain in order to be present at the double wedding of her brother, the future Ferdinand VII, with Maria Antonia of Naples and the one of infanta Maria Isabel, Maria Louisa’s youngest sister, with Francis I of Naples. With so many problems to solve in Etruria, clearly it was not a good time to travel and Maria Louisa was reluctant to go to Spain. She was tormented by the bad situation; they were short of money; the economy was in disray; Louis was ill and Maria Luisa was in the advance stage of a new pregnancy. Nevertheless under the pressure of her father Charles IV and the French, they started to headed to her native country.
Louis felt very ill before boarding the ship sent by Maria Louisa’s father and they had to wait till he fully recovered, delaying their plans for weeks. Once at sea it was Maria Louisa who was very ill, before arriving to shore in Barcelona, still in open waters, Maria Louisa gave birth to her daughter: Maria Louisa Charlotte on [October 2], 1802. The birth at sea was a difficult one and at first It was tought that both mother and daughter were not going to survived. There was a sea strom that almost destroy the vessel. They arrived too late for the wedding that had taken place the previous month. Maria Louisa was still so sick that she waited three days on the ship to recover before be transported to shore in Barcelona where her parents were waiting for her. One week after they arrival they got news that Louis’s father, Ferdinad had died. Louis wanted to returned as soon as posible to his italian states, he was also ill and unhappy, but Charles IV and Maria Luisa insisted to take them to the court in Madrid. It was not until December when they were allowed to start the trip leaving Spain by sea in Cartagena.
Back in Etruria, the ilness of her husband was carefully concelead from the population and only Maria Louisa was seen in public funtions and entertainig at court. The secret backfired and she was acussed of overpowering her husband and being merry while he was seldom seen. In fact, Louis had little time to live after returning to Etruria, he died on May 27,1803 at the age of 30, as a consequence of an epileptic crisis.
Maria Louisa was grive stricken by her husband death and felt ill herself, from then on she started to suffer from a nervous illness. She had to act as a regent for her son Charles Louis. A widow of only twenty years old, soon there were plans to find her a new husband. France and Spain wanted to marry her to prince Pedro of Bourbon; he was nineteen years old and her first cousin, a son of Gabriel infante of Spain, younger brother of Charles IV. But the marriage never materialized. In 1803 Maria Louisa had smallpox making her father to commissioned to bring the vaccine to the Spanish colonies on state expenses. Maria Louisa restituted the absolutism and founded a School for the teaching of upper level sciences, the Museum of Physics and Natural History of Florence. To ingratiate herself with the Florentine people, she entertained lavishly at the Pitti Palace, holding splendid receptions for artists and writers as well as government officials. She gave a celebrated party in the loggia del Lonzi for 200 small boys and girls from working class families who were allowed to take home the plates, glasses, spoons and napkins after the banquet as the regent watched complacently from a platform erected at the Palazzo de la signorina. Maria Louisa was devoted to her children and liked Florence. But Napoleon had new plans for Italy and Spain. “I am afraid the Queen is too young and her minister too old to govern the Kingdom of Etruria” he said.
Maria Louisa’s lot had been decided behind her back. She was accused of not enforcing the English blocked in Etruria. The French minister waited upon her one day at the villa in which she was staying and ordered her to leave Florence on the spot. Napoleon, she was informed, had annexed the Kingdom of Etruria. With no other options, Maria Louisa and her children left Florence on December 10, 1807. Her prospects for the future were uncertain, deprived mother and son of both Parma and Piombino, his lawful inheritance and also of the more splendid Etrurian kingdom. Her father answered her pleads with discouragement: She had to agree to cede Etruria to France and haste to leave the kingdom that was not longer hers, returning to her family in Spain. Napoleon gave Etruria to her sister Elisa Bacciocci, former Grand Duchess of Lucca.
The exiled Queen of Etruria went to Milan where she had an interview with Napoleon. He promised her, as compensation for the lost of Etruira, the throne of the Kingdom of Northern Lusitania (in the North of Portugal) obtained out of the Franco-Spanish conquest of Portugal. This was part of the Treaty of Fontainebleau between France and Spain (October 1807) that also had incorporated Etruria to Napoleons’ domains. Napoleon had already ordered the invasion of Portugal but his secret aim was to ultimately depose the Spanish Royal family and have access to the money coming from the Spanish colonies in America. As part of the accord, Maria Louisa would have to marry Lucien Bonaparte, who would have to divorce his wife. But both refused the marriage plan. Lucien was attached to his wife and Maria Louisa considered those nuptials a misalliance, neither did she would allow herself to be put in Portugal in the place of her eldest sister Carlota Joaquina, Crown Princess of Portugal. Napoleon wanted Maria Louisa to go to Nice or Turin, but her intentions were to join her parents in Spain.
Spain was on the brink of disaster. Maria Luisa’s brother, the future Ferdinad VII, had plotted against Charles IV and his unpopular Minister Godoy, Ferdinand had been forgiven but the prestige of the family had been shaken, facilitating Napoleon's secret plan: the invasion of Spain. With the excuse of sending reinforcements to Lisbon, French troops entered Spain in December. Not completely blind to Napoleon’s real intentions, the Royal family had secretly planned to escape to Mexico. This was the state of the Spanish affairs when Maria Louisa arrived in Aranjuez on February 19, 1808. The court was deeply divided and the country in state of unrest. The Royal Family was not going to have a chance to flee to America. Supporters of Ferdinand spread the story that Godoy had sold out Spain to Napoleon. On March 18 a popular uprising known as the Mutiny of Aranjuez took place. Members of popular classes, soldiers and peasants assaulted Godoy's residence, captured him, and made king Charles destitute the Prime Minister. Two days later, the court forced Charles IV to abdicate and give the throne to his son and rival, Ferdinand VII. By then Maria Louisa had been in Spain for barely a month.
The abdication of Charles IV in favor of Ferdinand, was enthusiastically acclaimed by the people. Maria Louisa who had taken her father’s side against the party of her brother, Ferdinad VII of Spain, acted as intermediate between the deposed Charles IV and the French general Joachim Murat who on March 23 entered Madrid. Spain was virtually already in French hands. Napoleon found the rivaliry between father and son for the Spanish crown of great interest to his political plans and, under the false pretences of solving the problem, invited both Charles IV and Ferdinand VII to Bayonne, France. Both monarchs were afraid of the French ruler's power and thought it appropriate to accept the invitation and separetly left for France. Maria Louisa was just recovering from scarlett fever at the time of the Mutiny of Aranjuez, and was not fit to travel, her son was also sick and for this reason she was left behind with her children, her uncle Antonio and her little brother, Francisco de Paula. Napoleon did not want any relative of the king in Spain and he called to France all the mebers of the Royal family. When they left the capital on May 2, 1808, citizens of Madrid rose up in rebellion against the French occupation, but the revolt was crushed by Murat. Maria Louisa departure was not regreted, She had becocame unpopular. The Spanish intervention in etruria had benn very costly to Spain and Maria Louisa secret dealing with Murat had been seen as aginst the interest of her contry, she was considere as a foreign Princess whose gaols were to reagin a throne fro her son. Arriving in Bayonne joining the rest of her family, Maria Louisa was greeted by her father with the words “ My daughter, our family has forever ceased to reign”. She was told what had happend. After a violent scene with Napoleon in which parents and son had loaded each other with reproaches, Bonaparte forced both Charles IV and Ferdinad VII to renounce the throne of Spain and grant it to himself. In exchange for their renunciation of all claims to the Spanish crown, Napoleon promised them a large pension and residence in Compiegne and Chambord. Maria Louisa still tried in vain to convince Napoleon to returned her Tuscany or Parma. But not needing any agreement with the Spanish Bourbons anymore, Bonaparte promised her instead a large income, assuiring her that she would be much happier without the troubles of goverment. Maria Louisa did nottake the situation with the resignation assumed by her family. She openly protested against the confiscation of her son’s dominions. Her complaints made her a target, being considered as dangerous member of the Spanish Royal family.
After the interview in Bayonne, Napoleon gave Spain to his brother, Joseph and forced the deposed King and all his family into exile in France. Maria Louisa was compelled to follow her parents and go to Fontainebleau. She requested a separate residence and moved with her children to a house in Passy. Soon after, they were moved from Fontainebleau to Compiegne. Maria Louisa was frequently ill, had little money, her situation was so precarious that not owning any horses she was forced to walk wherever she needed to go. When at last, 12.000 francs were paid of the money she had been promised, the expenses of her trip to France were discounted. She wrote a letter saying that prisoners were never made to pay for their removal, but she was advice not to send it. Worse was soon to come. She was promised to retire to the Palace of Colorno in Parma with a substantial allowance, but once in Lyon, under the pretext of conducing her to her destination, she was escorted to Nice. Once in Nice she was under strict vigilance and hold in condition of semi imprisonment. Alarmed at her situation, she endeavored a secret plan to escape to England, where other European Royals have looked for refuge from Bonaparte. She sent two men of her service to Holland to find the means to procure her escape. But the plan was unveiled, her letters were intercepted, and her two accomplices were executed. Maria Louisa was arrested on July 26 and condemned to be imprisoned in a convent in Rome. She was separated from her nine-year-old son, who was sent to the care of his grandfather Charles IV. Maria Louisa pension was reduced to 2500 francs; all her jewels and valuables were taken away and with her daughter and a maid, imprisoned in the convent of Saint Dominick and Saint Sixto, near the Quirinal on August 14, 1811.
While in prison, Maria Louisa and her children were stripped of their rights of the Spanish Crown by the court of Cadiz, on 18 March 1812, because she was under Napoleon’s control, not until 1820 her rights were restored. Her pleads for clemency were unawsered. The former Queen of Etruria wrote on her Memoirs “ I was two years and a half in that monastery and one year wihout seeing or talking to anybody. I was not alow to write or receive news not even from my own son. I had been in the convent for eleven months already when my parents came with my son to Rome on June 16 of 1812. I was hoping to be release inmediatly after their arrival, but I was wrong, instead of diminishing the rigor of my imprisonment I was put under strictier orders ”. On june 19 1812 she was alowed to see her parents. The meeting was deeply felt, The king seeing her daughter said “ It’s Maria Louisa”. Maria Louisa threw herself into her mother’s arms, kissed her son with frenzy and her father hugged them all in a general embrace. Since her parents arrived in Rome on the summer of 1812, Maria Louisa was allowed to see them and her son once a month but no more than twenty minutes and under surveillance. Only the fall of Napoleon opened the gates of her prison. On January 14, 1814, after more than four years of captivity, she was freed when the Neapolitan troops of Murat entered Rome.
Maria Louisa moved with her parents to the Barberini Palace. There she waited for her son’s states to be returned to her. The congress of Vienna was going to decide the rearrangement of the European map and the lot of the monarch deposed by Napoleon. In order to put forward her cause, Maria Louisa hastily wrote and published her Memoirs. They were written in Italian with the name Memoirs of the Queen of Etruria, published in 1814, she had them translated to different languages. During the "Hundred Days" after Napoleon's return from exile at Elba, Maria Louisa and her parents fled Rome, moving from one city to another in Italy. The Countess de Boigne met her in Genoa during the 100 days and found her untidy and vulgar. They returned to Rome after Waterloo. The Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) gave her back neither Etruria nor the Duchy of Parma, of which her son was the rightful heir. She pleaded to her brother Ferdinand VII, the Pope and Zar Alejandro, but Metternich, the Austrian Minister, had decided to give Parma, instead, to Maria Louise of Austria, Napoleon's wife. Maria Louisa’s interests were represented by the Spanish emissary in the Congress, the Marques of Labrador (former Spanish minister in Etruria). He was an incompetent man and did not successfully advance his country diplomatic goals or Maria Louisa’s. Ultimately, the Congress of Vienna tried to compensate Maria Louisa and her son, Charles Louis, with the smaller Duchy of Lucca with the honors of a Queen as she had before in Etruria. But for more than two years, in which she lived with her children in a palace in Rome, Maria Louisa refused this compromise that she considered unfair. Her parents and her brother Ferdinand VII pressed her to marry her daughter Maria Louisa Carlota, then fourteen years old, to her uncle infante Francisco de Paula, Maria Louisa’ youngest brother, but she vehemently opposed it, considering her twenty two year old brother too reckless for her young daughter. She distanced herself from her parents. They wanted to marry her son to Maria Cristina of Naples, a daughter of her sister Maria Isabel, but once again she resisted. Her father was hurt and the family relations strained. Maria Louisa wanted to be independent from her family. The Treaty of Paris (1817) prescribed that on the death of Marie Louise of Austria; the duchy of Parma should revert to Charles Louis securing the succession of Parma to the House of Bourbon. On the basis that she was going to govern Lucca until the throne of Parma became vacant, Maria Louisa gladly accepted Lucca with the desire to be independent from her family. The Spanish minister in Turin took possession of the dukedom, waiting for Maria Louisa’s arrival. She made her entrance in her new duchy on December 7, in 1817.
Lucca had been a mini republic on the Genoese Venetian model until the Napoleonic conquest of Italy and later it had been given to Elisa Bonaparte Bacchiochi, who curiously enough had succeeded Maria Louisa in Etruria and preceded her in Lucca. She arrived with the firm intention of obliterating every trace of the goverment of Lucca former ruler Napoleon’s sister, Elisa Baciocchi who had cheated her of the throne of Tuscany in 1808. Maria Louisa became Duchess in her own right and was granted the rank and privileges of a Queen. Only upon her death, her son, Charles Luis would succeed her, meanwhile he was known as the Prince of Lucca. Lucca would be annexed to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany when the family regained possession of Parma. When Maria Louisa reached her new posesions, she was already thirty-five years old. After ten years of endless strugles, her youth was gone and was a lot of heavier. Nevertheless she set her aim in marring again. Perhaps with the idea of a project that would allow her to return to Florence as a sobereign, she wanted to marry Gran Duke Ferdinad III of Tuscany, who was a widower, and also her first cousin. But neither this nor a project of marriage to Archduke Ferdinad of Austria-Este, went really further. After the assesiantion of the duke of Berry, there were also plans to marry her to the Count of Artois.
Maria Louisa disregard the constitution imposed on her by the congress of Vienna and governed Lucca as an authoritarian ruler. She imposed a form of absolute government that was somewhat reactionary but not oppressive. When the liberals imposed a constituiton in Spain to her brother, Ferdinand VII, she was willing to do the same in Lucca, but the reestablishment of the absolute power in Spain in 1823, vanished her willingness to give a constitution. As duchess, she promoted public works and culture in the spirit of enlightenment. She spent lavishly obtaining some good results, during her government, sciences flourish. Between 1817 and 1820, she ordered the completely renewal of the inner decorations of the Ducal Palace, completely changing the internal decoration of the building into its present form, making the Palazzo in Lucca one of the finest in Italy. Maria Louisa, a religious woman, favored the clergy and in short time they reached great predominance. In her small dukedom, seventeen new convents where founded just under the six years of her reign (1817- 1824). Among the projects she accomplished were the building of a new aqueduct and the development of Viareggio, the port of the Dukedom. The Spanish court had wanted to marry Charles Louis, who was already twenty-two years old, to his cousin Maria Cristina of Naples, but Maria Louisa in 1820 arranged his wedding with Princess Maria Teresa of Savoy, one of the twin daughters of King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia. The relationship with her son had turned sour he would later say that his mother had “ruined him physically, morally and financially”. She used to pass the summers in Lucca and the winters in Rome. Already felling ill, Maria Louisa went to Rome on October 25, 1823 to her Palace in Venetian Square. On 22 February 1824 she signed her will, the following month; she died of cancer, on March 13, 1824 in Rome. Her body was taken to Spain at the Escorial, and a monument was erected to her memory in Lucca. Upon her death, her son Charles Louis succeeded her. She was survived by her two children :
- Charles Louis Ferdinand (Madrid, December 22, 1799 - Nice April 16,1883) married Maria Teresa of Savoia Princess of Sardinia and Savoia, daughter of King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia and of Maria Teresa Archduchess of Austria Este. - Marie Louise Charlotte ( Barcelona, October 2, 1802 - Rome, March 18, 1857) married to Pince Maximilian of Saxony, widower of her aunt Caroline, as his second wife and remained childless. She was stepmother of Maximilian and Caroline's children, such as kings Frederick August II of Saxony and John I of Saxony.