Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies
Maria Antonia in the early 1840s, painted by Carlo Morelli
Grand Duchess consort of Tuscany
Tenure7 June 1833 – 21 July 1859
Born(1814-12-19)19 December 1814
Royal Palace of Palermo, Kingdom of Sicily, Italy
Died7 November 1898(1898-11-07) (aged 83)
Gmunden, Austria
Burial
Imperial Crypt
SpouseLeopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany
(m. 1833 – 1870; his death)
IssueMaria Isabella, Countess of Trapani
Ferdinand IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany
Archduke Karl Salvator
Maria Luisa, Princess of Isenburg-Büdingen
Archduke Ludwig Salvator
Archduke John Salvator
Names
German: Maria Antonia Josepha Anna
Italian: Maria Antonietta Giuseppa Anna
HouseBourbon-Two Sicilies
FatherFrancis I of the Two Sicilies
MotherMaría Isabella of Spain
ReligionRoman Catholicism

Princess Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies (Italian: Maria Antonia delle Due Sicilie) (19 December 1814 – 7 November 1898) was the Grand Duchess of Tuscany from 1833 to 1859 as the consort of Leopold II. In her signature, she used Maria Antonietta.[1]

Biography

Maria Antonia was born at the Royal Palace of Palermo on 19 December 1814, the daughter of Francis I of the Two Sicilies and his wife Maria Isabella of Spain. The girl was given the baptismal name Maria Antonia in honor of her great-aunt Marie Antoinette, the deceased sister of her paternal grandmother, Maria Carolina of Austria.

When she was born, the Neapolitan court had already moved to Sicily because Napoleonic troops had invaded the continental part of the realm. After a few months, the royal family returned to Naples, thanks to the Congress of Vienna. Maria Antonia was particularly close to her brother, the future Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, who affectionately dubbed her Totò. [2]

Marriage and issue

In 1833, when she was eighteen, Maria Antonia married her first cousin Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who was seventeen years older than her. Maria Antonia and Leopold had ten children, only six of whom lived to adulthood:

Tributes

The Piazza Maria Antonia – today Piazza dell'Indipendeza, the railway line Maria Antonia and the Maria Antonia train station, now called Firenze Santa Maria Novella, were named in her honour.

Revolution

On 27 April 1859, before the Franco-Austrian War, Leopold II proclaimed neutrality. On the afternoon of 27 April, Leopold II chose to leave Florence with his family in four carriages heading toward Bologna, rather than provoke any violence against what appeared to be a well orchestrated coup directed by the Piedmontese government. Shortly beforehand, Leopold II had refused to abdicate in favour of his son, Ferdinand IV, who then became the nominal Grand Duke of Tuscany after his father was forced to abdicate by the Austrian emperor Francis Joseph in July of the same year.

Later life

The grand ducal family then settled in Austria. In 1860, Leopold II bought the Bohemian chamber rule of Brandeis. After the political situation in Italy had calmed down to some extent, Leopold II and his wife traveled to Rome in November 1869, where he died in her arms on the night of 29 January 1870. After the death of her husband, Maria Antonia withdrew to Lake Traun and mostly stayed in Gmunden. Once a year, she went to the Eternal City, where she prayed at the place where her husband died and paid her respects to the Pope. As a widow, she by no means led a lonely life, and the sprightly lady went to visit her son Ludwig Salvator, who lived on Mallorca, when she was very old. The fact that her favorite son Johann Orth had been missing since 1890 shocked her and overshadowed her twilight years.

Maria Antonia died on 7 November 1898, at the age of 83, at Ort Castle in Gmunden. She was buried in the Capuchin Crypt in Vienna.

Honours

Ancestry

References

  1. ^ Achille Gennarelli (1863). Epistolario politico toscano ed Atti diversi: da servire di illustrazione e di complemento alla Storia della Restaurazione Granducale e al volume delle Sventure italiane durante il Pontificato di Pio Nono (in Italian). Firenze: G. Mariani. pp. 29–36.
  2. ^ Regolo, La reginella santa - Tutto il racconto della vita di Maria Cristina di Savoia sovrana delle Due Sicilie, p. 349
  3. ^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Kaiserthumes Österreich (1868), p. 110, Sternkreuz-Orden
  4. ^ a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Francis I. of the Two Sicilies" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  5. ^ a b Navarrete Martínez, Esperanza Navarrete Martínez. "María de la O Isabel de Borbón". Diccionario biográfico España (in Spanish). Real Academia de la Historia. Archived from the original on 2 August 2020. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  6. ^ a b c d Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans [Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. 1768. p. 9.
  7. ^ a b Genealogie ascendate, p. 1
  8. ^ a b Genealogie ascendate, p. 96

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Princess Maria Antonia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.
Princess Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies House of Bourbon-Two SiciliesCadet branch of the House of BourbonBorn: 19 December 1814 Died: 3 January 1865 Italian royalty VacantTitle last held byMaria Anna of Saxony Grand Duchess consort of Tuscany 7 June 1833 – 21 July 1859 Monarchy abolished Titles in pretence Loss of titleRepublic declared — TITULAR — Grand Duchess consort of Tuscany 21 July 1859 – 3 January 1865 VacantTitle next held byAlice of Parma
Princesses of the Two Sicilies by birth
Grand Duchesses of Tuscany
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