Category Archives: Spanish Royals

Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain, King of Naples

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Joseph Bonaparte; Credit – Wikipedia

Joseph Bonaparte, the older brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, was King of Naples from 1806 – 1808 and King of Spain from 1808 – 1813. Born Guiseppe Buonaparte, later Frenchified to Joseph Bonaparte, on January 7, 1768, in Corte on the island of Corsica, now in France, Joseph was the third of the twelve children and the eldest of the five sons of Carlo Buonaparte, a lawyer and diplomat, and Maria Letizia Ramolino. In the year of Joseph’s birth, the island of Corsica was invaded by France and conquered the following year. Joseph’s father was originally a follower of the Corsican patriots but became a supporter of the French.

Joseph had eleven siblings and eight survived childhood. Notice the titles of the siblings, given to them by their brother Napoleon I, Emperor of the French.

Maison Bonaparte, where Joseph grew up; Credit – By Jean-Pol GRANDMONT – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4400916

Joseph spent his childhood at the Bonaparte family home Maison Bonaparte on the Rue Saint-Charles in Ajaccio, Corsica. Maison Bonaparte was continuously owned by members of the Bonaparte family from 1682 to 1923. As part of the 1768 Treaty of Versailles, the Republic of Genoa ceded the island of Corsica to France to repay its debts. Joseph and his brother Napoleon attended the College of Oratorians, a secondary school, in Autun, France through a royal grant for impoverished French nobles. Joseph was originally going to be a priest but instead studied law at the University of Pisa where his father had also studied law.

After graduating from the University of Pisa in 1788, Joseph returned to Ajaccio in Corsica and worked as a lawyer. Starting in 1789, the French Revolution brought major changes to France. The French First Republic was declared in September 1792, and Joseph was elected chairman of the district council of Ajaccio. His brother Napoleon joined the French army and quickly advanced. During the latter part of the French Revolution, Napoleon rose to prominence and in 1799, at the age of 30 was the First Consul of France. Eventually, Napoleon was created First Consul for life. Joseph’s fortunes rose along with his brother’s.

On August 1, 1794, Joseph married Julie Clary, the daughter of François Clary, a wealthy merchant. Julie’s sister Désirée Clary, once engaged to Joseph’s brother Napoleon, married Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, a noted French general and a Marshal of France. In 1810, Désirée’s husband was elected Crown Prince of Sweden, and Jean Baptiste Bernadotte eventually became King Carl XIV Johan of Sweden. Their descendants have reigned in Sweden ever since as the House of Bernadotte.

Julie with her daughters Zénaïde and Charlotte; Credit – Wikipedia

Joseph and Julie had three daughters:

Joseph as King of Naples; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1804, when Joseph’s brother Napoleon declared himself Emperor of the French, Joseph and his siblings became Imperial Princes and Princesses. Napoleon sent Joseph to Naples in 1806 to expel the Bourbons ruling there because they had sided against him in the War of the Third Coalition. After a successful French invasion, Napoleon proclaimed Joseph as King of Naples. However, Napoleon became increasingly dissatisfied with his brother, and in 1808, he was replaced as King of Naples by Joachim Murat, the husband of Caroline Bonaparte, Joseph and Napoleon’s sister.

While Joseph was King of Naples, he had a son and a daughter from his affair with Maria Giulia Colonna, daughter of Andrea Colonna, 3rd Prince of Stigliano and wife of Giangirolamo Acquaviva d’Aragona, 11th Duke of Nardò:

  • Giulio Acquaviva d’Aragona y Colonna (1806 – 1838)
  • Maria Teresa Acquaviva d’Aragona Colonna (born and died 1808)

Joseph as in his coronation robes as King of Spain; Credit – Wikipedia

Meanwhile in Spain, after riots and a revolt, King Carlos IV of Spain was forced to abdicate in favor of his son King Fernando VII on March 19, 1808. Napoleon saw the weaknesses in the Spanish monarchy and decided to make a move. Carlos IV and his son Fernando VII were summoned to a meeting with Napoleon on May 7, 1808, at the Castle of Marracq in Bayonne, France. Napoleon forced them both to abdicate, then he declared the Bourbon dynasty of Spain deposed and installed his brother Joseph as King of Spain. Immediately after Joseph was proclaimed King of Spain, uprisings broke out and resistance against him spread, leading to a guerrilla war that overshadowed Joseph’s entire reign. The resistance against Joseph made it nearly impossible for him to reign. In addition, Portugal and the United Kingdom came to the aid of the Spanish guerrilla forces in the Peninsular War. Due to the defeats in the Peninsular War, Napoleon was forced to reinstate Ferdinand VII as King of Spain and to make peace via the 1813 Treaty of Valençay.

Napoleon’s quest for power led to wars throughout a large part of Europe. In 1814, Paris was captured by the coalition fighting against Napoleon and his marshals decided to mutiny. Napoleon had no choice but to abdicate. The 1814 Treaty of Fontainebleau exiled Napoleon to the Mediterranean island of Elba, 12 miles/20 km off the coast of Tuscany, Italy. Napoleon escaped from Elba on February 26, 1815, and arrived in France two days later. He attempted to regain power during the Reign of the Hundred Days, but he was ultimately defeated at the Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815, by a coalition of forces from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hanover, Nassau, Brunswick, and Prussia. Napoléon was exiled to the island of Saint Helena, a British possession, in the Atlantic Ocean, 1162 miles/1,870 km from the west coast of Africa, where he died in 1821.

After the first fall of Napoleon, Joseph went into exile at Prangins Castle in Switzerland, which his wife Julie had purchased. During the Reign of the Hundred Days, Joseph went to Paris where he conducted government affairs for his brother Napoleon. After Napoleon’s final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, Joseph emigrated to the United States. His wife Julie did not accompany him. Instead, she settled with her two daughters in the Free City of Frankfurt (now in Germany), Brussels, Belgium, and then Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, now in Italy. Joseph first lived in New York City and then in Philadelphia. He then purchased an estate, Point Breeze, in Bordentown, New Jersey, on the Delaware River. Joseph’s homes became meeting places for other Napoleonic exiles. At Point Breeze, Joseph entertained many of the leading American intellectuals and politicians of the time.

Point Breeze, the estate of Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte in Bordentown, New Jersey; Credit – Wikipedia

Joseph had two American daughters born at Point Breeze, his estate in Bordentown, New Jersey, by his mistress Annette Savage:

  • Pauline Anne Savage, died young
  • Catherine Charlotte Savage (1822 – 1890), married Colonel Zebulon Howell Benton of Jefferson County, New York, had four daughters and three sons

Joseph at Point Breeze, painted during a visit to Point Breeze in New Jersey; Credit – Wikipedia

Joseph stayed in the United States for seventeen years before returning to Europe in 1832, when he lived in London, England. He occasionally returned to his estate in the United States. In 1840, Joseph joined his wife Julie in Florence. Julie accepted him back despite his adultery. On July 28, 1844, Joseph died in Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, now in Italy, at the age of seventy-six. Julie survived him by eight months dying in Florence on April 7, 1845, aged seventy-three. They were buried next to each other at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence.

Tomb of Julie Clary Bonaparte; Credit – By Dennis Jarvis from Halifax, Canada – Italy-1089 – Marie Julie Bonaparte, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64847474

In 1864, Joseph’s remains were brought back to France by his nephew Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, and interred in Les Invalides in Paris, France where his brother Napoleon I was interred. The remains of Joseph’s wife Julie are still at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy beside the remains of her daughter Charlotte, who died in 1839, aged 36, giving birth to a stillborn child.

Tomb of Joseph Bonaparte; Credit – By Jean-Pol GRANDMONT – Own work, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91124533

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Carlo Buonaparte (2023) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Buonaparte (Accessed: January 27, 2023).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2016) Napoléon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/napoleon-bonaparte-emperor-of-the-french/ (Accessed: January 27, 2023).
  • Joseph Bonaparte (2023) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bonaparte (Accessed: January 27, 2023).
  • Joseph Bonaparte (2022) Wikipedia (French). Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bonaparte (Accessed: January 27, 2023).
  • Joseph Bonaparte (2022) Wikipedia (German). Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bonaparte (Accessed: January 27, 2023).
  • Joseph I Bonaparte, King of Spain and Naples (2022) geni_family_tree. Available at: https://www.geni.com/people/Joseph-I-Bonaparte-king-of-Spain-and-Naples/6000000006187372389 (Accessed: January 27, 2023).
  • Julie Clary (2023) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Clary (Accessed: January 27, 2023).

Maria Luisa of Parma, Queen of Spain

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Maria Luisa of Parma, Queen of Spain; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Luisa of Parma, the wife of King Carlos IV of Spain, was born on December 9, 1751, in Parma, Duchy of Parma, now in Italy. She was the youngest of the three children and the second of the two daughters of Felipe, Infante of Spain, Duke of Parma (founder of the House of Bourbon-Parma) and Louise Élisabeth of France. Maria Luisa’s paternal grandparents were King Felipe V of Spain and his second wife Elisabeth Farnese of Parma. King Felipe V, the founder of the Spanish House of Bourbon, was born a French prince, Philippe, Duke of Anjou, the second son of Louis, Le Grand Dauphin, who was the son and heir apparent of King Louis XIV of France. Her maternal grandparents were King Louis XV of France and Maria Leszczyńska. Maria Luisa was given the names Luisa Maria Teresa Anna for her maternal grandparents and her mother’s twin sister Anne Henriette of France. Called Luisa by her family, she is known in history as Maria Luisa.

Left to Right: Maria Luisa’s brother Ferdinando, Maria Luisa, her mother Louise Élisabeth of France, her father Felipe, Duke of Parma, her older sister Isabella of Parma, and the children’s governess Marie Catherine de Bassecourt, Marchioness of Borghetto (on the right); Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Luisa had two older siblings:

Maria Luisa of Parma, circa 1765; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Luisa’s French mother wanted to arrange a betrothal between Maria Luisa and her first cousin Louis Joseph, Duke of Burgundy. Louis Joseph was the same age as Maria Luisa, was also a grandchild of King Louis XV of France, and was second in the line of the French succession after his father Louis, Dauphin of France. However, neither of them became King of France. Ten-year-old Louis Joseph died from tuberculosis in 1761 and four years later, his father Louis, Dauphin of France also died from tuberculosis.

Maria Luisa’s husband, the future King Carlos IV of Spain, circa 1765; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1762, Maria Luisa was betrothed to her first cousin, the future King Carlos IV of Spain, the son of King Carlos III of Spain and Maria Amalia of Saxony. The marriage was intended to strengthen the relationships between the Bourbons ruling in Spain and Parma. When Maria Luisa’s older sister Isabella died in 1763 from smallpox, it was suggested that Maria Luisa should marry her sister’s widower, the future Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II. However, the match was eventually rejected and the betrothal of Maria Luisa and Carlos was confirmed. The not-quite-seventeen-year-old Carlos and the not-quite fourteen-year-old Maria Luisa were married on September 4, 1765, at the La Granja Palace in San Ildefonso, Spain.

The Family of Carlos IV by Francisco de Goya, circa 1800. L to R: Infante Carlos, Count of Molina; the artist Francisco de Goya at the easel; the future King Fernando VII, Infanta Maria Josepha (sister of Carlos IV); a young woman whose face cannot be seen who is representing the future wife of King Fernando VII; Infanta Maria Isabel; Maria Luisa of Parma, Queen of Portugal; Infante Francisco de Paula; King Carlos IV; Infante Antonio Pascual (brother of Carlos IV); Carlota Joaquina or her sister Infanta Maria Amalia; Carlo Ludovico of Parma (husband of Maria Luisa); Infanta Maria Luisa; child in the arms of Maria Luisa, her son, the future Carlo II Ludovico, Duke of Parma; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Luisa had twenty-three pregnancies. Thirteen of the pregnancies resulted in live births, including a set of twins. The other ten pregnancies ended in miscarriages. Of the fourteen children who were born alive, only seven survived childhood:

Upon her arrival at the Spanish court, Maria Luisa immediately became the first lady of the court. Maria Amalia of Saxony, Queen of Spain, the mother of her husband, had died from tuberculosis in 1760, and Maria Luisa’s father-in-law King Carlos III never remarried. It was obvious that Maria Luisa was intelligent and ambitious, and had a dominant personality, and her father-in-law attempted to control her and limit her personal freedom, but with little success. Maria Luisa was strong and intellectual and she completely controlled her husband. During the reign of her father-in-law King Carlos III, Maria Luisa led her husband into all sorts of court intrigues.

Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy who ran the Spanish government with Queen Maria Luisa; Credit – Wikipedia

On December 14, 1788, King Carlos III of Spain died and was succeeded by his son as King Carlos IV of Spain. Carlos IV would rather hunt than deal with government affairs and the running of the government was left mostly to Queen Maria Luisa and Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy. It is probable that de Godoy had a long-term relationship with Maria Luisa and that he was the father of her youngest son Francisco de Paula.

King Carlos IV and Queen Maria Luisa, circa 1802; Credit – Wikipedia

The view of the Spanish monarchy among the Spanish people took a rapid decline due to economic troubles, rumors about a relationship between Queen Maria Luisa and de Godoy, and King Carlos IV’s incompetence. Carlos IV’s eldest son and heir Fernando, Prince of Asturias
was anxious to take over from his father and jealous of Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy. He unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow his father in 1807. After riots and a revolt, King Carlos IV was forced to abdicate in favor of his son King Fernando VII on March 19, 1808. However, less than two months later, Carlos IV and his son Fernando VII were summoned to a meeting with Napoleon I, Emperor of the French on May 7, 1808, at the Castle of Marracq in Bayonne, France, where he forced them both to abdicate, declared the Bourbon dynasty of Spain deposed, and installed his brother Joseph Bonaparte as King of Spain.

Carlos IV’s eldest son and heir Fernando as Prince of Asturias, later King Fernando VII of Spain by Francisco de Goya, 1800; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Luisa, her husband the former King Carlos IV, some of their children, and former Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy were held captive first in France, at Compiègne and Fontainebleau, and then in Marseilles and Nice, and finally in Rome, then in the Papal States, now in Italy. Napoleon kept Carlos and Maria Luisa’s son Fernando VII under guard in France for more than five years at the Château de Valençay in France until the Treaty of Valençay on December 11, 1813, provided for the restoration of Fernando VII as King of Spain.

Even after the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815, King Fernando VII refused to allow his parents to return to Spain. Maria Luisa and Carlos IV settled in Rome at the Palazzo Barberini. On January 2, 1819, at the age of sixty-seven, Maria Luisa died from pneumonia. Her husband Carlos IV died just eighteen days later, on January 20, 1819, aged seventy. Their son King Fernando VII allowed them to return to Spain in death. They were both interred in the Pantheon of Kings in the Royal Crypt of the Monastery of El Escorial in El Escorial, Spain.

Tomb of Maria Luisa of Parka, Queen of Spain; Credit – www.findagrave.com

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2023) Carlos IV, King of Spain. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/carlos-iv-king-of-spain/ (Accessed: January 27, 2023).
  • Maria Luisa of Parma (2023) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Luisa_of_Parma (Accessed: January 27, 2023).
  • María Luisa de Parma (2023) Wikipedia (Spanish). Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_Luisa_de_Parma (Accessed: January 27, 2023).
  • Philip, Duke of Parma (2022) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip,_Duke_of_Parma (Accessed: January 27, 2023).

Carlos IV, King of Spain

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

King Carlos IV of Spain by Francisco de Goya, 1789; Credit – Wikipedia

Carlos Antonio Pascual Francisco Javier Juan Nepomuceno José Januario Serafín Diego was born on November 11, 1748, at the Royal Palace of Portici in Portici, Kingdom of Naples, now in Italy. He was the seventh of the thirteen children and the second of the six sons of King Carlo VII of Naples, also King Carlo V of Sicily, later King Carlos III of Spain, and Maria Amalia of Saxony. Carlos IV’s paternal grandparents were Felipe V, the first Bourbon King of Spain and his second wife ​Elisabeth Farnese of Parma. His maternal grandparents were Augustus III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony and Maria Josepha of Austria.

Carlos IV on the right with his brother Francisco Javier and sister Maria Luisa; Credit – Wikipedia

Carlos IV had thirteen siblings but only seven survived childhood. His siblings who were born before their father became King of Spain were Princes and Princesses of Naples and Sicily. Their children who survived until their father became King of Spain or were born afterward were Infantes and Infantas of Spain.

Carlos IV’s siblings:

In 1759, Fernando VI, King of Spain, the elder half-brother of Carlos’ father died. However, Fernando VI’s marriage to Barbara of Portugal produced no children, and so upon his death in 1759, Carlos’ father succeeded him as King Carlos III of Spain. With great sadness, by both Carlos’ father and the people of Naples and Sicily, he abdicated the thrones of Naples and Sicily in favor of his eight-year-old third son Ferdinando with a regency council ruling until his sixteenth birthday. Carlos’ eldest brother Infante Felipe of Spain, Duke of Calabria was excluded from both the Spanish and the Naples and Sicily succession due to learning disabilities and epilepsy. Eleven-year-old Carlos as the second son became the heir to the Spanish throne and received the title Prince of Asturias.

Carlos’ wife Maria Luisa of Parma, circa 1765; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1762, Carlos was betrothed to his first cousin Maria Luisa of Parma, the daughter of his paternal uncle Felipe, Infante of Spain, Duke of Parma, the founder of the House of Bourbon-Parma, and Louise Élisabeth of France, the daughter of King Louis XV of France. The marriage was intended to strengthen the relationships between the Bourbons ruling in Spain and Parma. The not-quite-seventeen-year-old Carlos and the not-quite fourteen-year-old Maria Luisa were married on September 4, 1765, at the La Granja Palace in San Ildefonso, Spain.

The Family of Carlos IV by Francisco de Goya, circa 1800. L to R: Infante Carlos, Count of Molina; the artist Francisco de Goya at the easel; the future King Fernando VII, Infanta Maria Josepha (sister of Carlos IV); a young woman whose face cannot be seen who is representing the future wife of King Fernando VII; Infanta Maria Isabel; Maria Luisa of Parma, Queen of Portugal; Infante Francisco de Paula; King Carlos IV; Infante Antonio Pascual (brother of Carlos IV); Carlota Joaquina or her sister Infanta Maria Amalia; Carlo Ludovico of Parma (husband of Maria Luisa); Infanta Maria Luisa; child in the arms of Maria Luisa, her son, the future Carlo II Ludovico, Duke of Parma; Credit – Wikipedia

Carlos IV and Maria Luisa of Parma had fourteen children but only seven survived childhood:

Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy who ran the Spanish government with Queen Maria Luisa; Credit – Wikipedia

Unlike Carlos, his wife Queen Maria Luisa was a strong, intellectual woman who completely controlled her husband. During the reign of his father King Carlos III of Spain, Carlos was led into all sorts of court intrigues by his wife. On December 14, 1788, King Carlos III of Spain died and was succeeded by his son as King Carlos IV of Spain. Carlos IV would rather hunt than deal with government affairs and the running of the government was left mostly to his wife Maria Luisa and Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy. It is probable that de Godoy had a long-term relationship with Maria Luisa and that he was the father of her youngest son Francisco de Paula.

Carlos IV’s eldest son and heir Fernando as Prince of Asturias, later King Fernando VII of Spain by Francisco de Goya, 1800; Credit – Wikipedia

The view of the Spanish monarchy among the Spanish people took a rapid decline due to economic troubles, rumors about a relationship between Queen Maria Luisa and de Godoy, and King Carlos IV’s incompetence. Carlos IV’s eldest son and heir Fernando, Prince of Asturias
was anxious to take over from his father and jealous of Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy. He
unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow his father in 1807. After riots and a revolt, King Carlos IV was forced to abdicate in favor of his son King Fernando VII on March 19, 1808. However, less than two months later, Carlos IV and his son Fernando VII were summoned to a meeting with Napoleon I, Emperor of the French on May 7, 1808, at the Castle of Marracq in Bayonne, France, where he forced them both to abdicate, declared the Bourbon dynasty of Spain deposed, and installed his brother Joseph Bonaparte as King of Spain.

Carlos IV, his wife Maria Luisa, some of their children, and former Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy were held captive first in France, at Compiègne and Fontainebleau, and then in Marseilles and Nice, and finally in Rome, then in the Papal States, now in Italy. Napoleon kept Carlos and Maria Luisa’s son Fernando VII under guard in France for more than five years at the Château de Valençay in France until the Treaty of Valençay on December 11, 1813, provided for the restoration of Fernando VII as King of Spain.

The former King Carlos IV in 1818; Credit – Wikipedia

Even after Napoleon’s final defeat in 1815, King Fernando VII refused to allow his parents to return to Spain. Carlos IV and Maria Luisa settled in Rome at the Palazzo Barberini. On January 2, 1819, at the age of sixty-seven, Maria Luisa died from pneumonia. Her husband Carlos IV died just eighteen days later, on January 20, 1819, aged seventy. Their son King Fernando VII allowed them to return to Spain in death. They were both interred in the Pantheon of Kings in the Royal Crypt of the Monastery of El Escorial in El Escorial, Spain.

Tomb of King Carlos IV of Spain; Credit – www.findagrave.com

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Carlos IV de España (2023) Wikipedia (Spanish). Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_IV_de_Espa%C3%B1a (Accessed: January 11, 2023).
  • Charles IV of Spain (2023) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_IV_of_Spain (Accessed: January 11, 2023).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2023) Carlos III, King of Spain, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, King of Naples, King of Sicily, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/carlos-iii-king-of-spain-duke-of-parma-and-piacenza-king-of-naples-king-of-sicily/ (Accessed: January 11, 2023).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2015) King Ferdinand VII of Spain, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-ferdinand-vii-of-spain/ (Accessed: January 11, 2023).
  • Maria Luisa of Parma (2023) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Luisa_of_Parma (Accessed: January 11, 2023).

Maria Amalia of Saxony, Queen of Spain, Queen of Naples and Sicily

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Maria Amalia of Saxony, Queen of Spain, Queen of Naples & Sicily; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Amalia of Saxony was the wife of King Carlos III of Spain who also was King Carlo VII of Naples from 1735 – 1759 and King Carlo V of Sicily from 1734 – 1759. Born on November 24, 1724, at Dresden Castle, in Dresden, Electorate of Saxony, now in the German state of Saxony, Maria Amalia Christina Franziska Xaveria Flora Walburga was a Princess of Poland and a Princess of Saxony. She was the fourth of the fourteen children and the eldest of the seven daughters of Augustus III, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, who was also Friedrich August II, Elector of Saxony, and Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria. Maria Amalia’s paternal grandparents were Augustus II, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, who was also Friedrich August I, Elector of Saxony, and Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. Her maternal grandparents were Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I and Wilhelmine Amalie of Brunswick -Lüneburg.

Maria Amalia had thirteen siblings:

Dresden Castle where Maria Amalia was born and raised; Credit – By X-Weinzar – Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7530258

Maria Amalia was raised at her father’s court at Dresden Castle in Dresden, Electorate of Saxony, now in the German state of Saxony. She received instruction in foreign languages, mathematics, foreign cultures, theater, and dancing. Maria Amalia was also an excellent musician and sang and played the piano from an early age.

Maria Amalia’s husband Carlos as King of Naples and Sicily; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1738, a marriage was arranged for fourteen-year-old Maria Amalia and twenty-two-year-old Carlos of Spain, then sovereign of two Italian kingdoms as King Carlo VII of Naples and King Carlo V of Sicily. Carlos was the eldest son of Felipe V, the first Bourbon King of Spain and his second wife ​Elisabeth Farnese of Parma, who had arranged the marriage. Carlos was not expected to become King of Spain because he had two elder surviving brothers from his father’s first marriage to Maria Luisa of Savoy.

On May 8, 1738, a proxy marriage was held in Dresden, Electorate of Saxony, now in Germany with the bride’s brother Friedrich Christian of Saxony standing in for Carlos. Shortly afterward, Maria Amalia traveled to the Kingdom of Naples, and on June 19, 1738, at Portella, a village on the border of the Kingdom of Naples, Carlos and Maria Amalia met for the first time and were married.

Three children of Maria Amalia and Carlos: Francisco Javier, Maria Luisa, and Carlos III’s successor, the future King Carlos IV; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Amalia and Carlos had thirteen children but only seven survived childhood. Their children who were born before Carlos became King of Spain were Princes and Princesses of Naples and Sicily. Their children who survived until Carlos became King of Spain were then Infantes and Infantas of Spain.

Royal Palace of Caserta in Caserta, Italy; Credit – By Carlo Pelagalli, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52612424

As Queen of Naples and Sicily, Maria Amalia had great influence and actively participated in state affairs. After the birth of her first son in 1747, she was given a seat on the council of state. Maria Amalia ended the careers of several politicians she disliked. She played an important role in the planning and construction of the Royal Palace of Caserta.

Maria Amalia’s in-laws: King Felipe V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese of Parma, Queen of Spain in 1739

Carlos’ father Felipe V, King of Spain died of a stroke at the age of 62 on July 9, 1746, and Carlos’ only surviving elder half-brother Fernando succeeded to the Spanish throne as Fernando VI, King of Spain, and reigned for thirteen years. However, Fernando’s marriage to Barbara of Portugal produced no children, and so upon his death in 1759, his elder surviving half-brother, Maria Amalia’s husband Carlos, succeeded him as King Carlos III of Spain. With great sadness, by both Carlos and the people of Naples and Sicily, Carlos abdicated the thrones of Naples and Sicily in favor of his eight-year-old third son Ferdinando with a regency council ruling until his sixteenth birthday.

Maria Amalia, her husband, and their surviving children moved from Naples to Madrid, Spain in the autumn of 1759. Besides leaving their third son Ferdinando who was now King of Naples and Sicily, they left their eldest son Felipe who was excluded from the succession due to learning disabilities and epilepsy. Felipe lived hidden away at the Palace of Portici in the Kingdom of Naples, occasionally being visited by his brother King Ferdinando. Felipe died, aged 30, in 1777, from smallpox.

Maria Amalia had lived in her husband’s Italian kingdoms for twenty-one years and did not like Spain. She complained about the food, the language, which she refused to learn, the climate, the Spaniards, whom she regarded as passive, and the Spanish courtiers, whom she regarded as ignorant and uneducated. She planned reforms for the Spanish court but did not have time to complete them.

A posthumous portrait of Maria Amalia, circa 1761; Credit – Wikipedia

On September 27, 1760, a year after arriving in Spain, 35-year-old Maria Amalia died from tuberculosis at the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid, Spain. She was buried in the Pantheon of Kings in the Royal Crypt of the Monastery of El Escorial. Upon Maria Amalia’s death, her husband Carlos said, “In twenty-two years of marriage, this is the first serious upset that Amalia has given me.” After Maria Amalia’s death, Carlos remained unmarried. He survived his wife by twenty-eight years, dying, aged 72, on December 14, 1788, at the Royal Palace of Madrid in Spain. He was buried in the Pantheon of Kings in the Royal Crypt of the Monastery of El Escorial.

Tomb of Maria Amalia of Saxony, Queen of Spain; Credit – www.findagrave.com

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Augustus III of Poland (2022) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus_III_of_Poland (Accessed: January 2, 2023).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2023) Carlos III, King of Spain, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, King of Naples, King of Sicily, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/carlos-iii-king-of-spain-duke-of-parma-and-piacenza-king-of-naples-king-of-sicily/ (Accessed: January 2, 2023).
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  • Maria Amalia of Saxony (2022) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Amalia_of_Saxony (Accessed: January 2, 2023).
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Carlos III, King of Spain, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, King of Naples, King of Sicily

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Carlos III, King of Spain; Credit – Wikipedia

Born Carlos Sebastián, on January 20, 1716, at the Royal Alcazar of Madrid in Spain, Carlos III, King of Spain was also Duke of Parma and Piacenza, as Carlo I (1731 – 1735), King of Naples, as Carlo VII (1735 – 1759), and King of Sicily, as Carlo V (1734 – 1759). Carlos III was the eldest of the six children and the eldest of the three sons of Felipe V, the first Bourbon King of Spain and his second wife ​Elisabeth Farnese of Parma. His paternal grandparents were Louis, Le Grand Dauphin, the heir apparent to the throne of France, and Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria. Carlos’ maternal grandparents were Odoardo Farnese, Hereditary Prince of Parma and Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg.

Carlos’ father had been born a French prince, Philippe, Duke of Anjou, the second son of Louis, Le Grand Dauphin, who was the son and heir apparent of King Louis XIV of France. In 1700, King Carlos II of Spain, from the House of Habsburg, died childless with no immediate Habsburg heir. Louis, Le Grand Dauphin had the strongest genealogical claim to the Spanish throne because his mother Maria Theresa, Infanta of Spain had been the half-sister of Carlos II. However, neither Louis, Le Grand Dauphin nor his elder son Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Le Petit Dauphin could be displaced from their place in the succession to the French throne. Therefore, King Carlos II of Spain, in his will, named the second son of Louis, Le Grand Dauphin, 16-year-old Philippe, Duke of Anjou, as his successor. He reigned as Felipe V, King of Spain, the first Bourbon monarch of Spain.

Felipe V of Spain with his second wife Elisabeth and some of his children from his first and second marriages – from left to right: the future Fernando VI, King Felipe V, the future Luis I; Felipe, the future Duke of Parma, Queen Elisabeth, a portrait of the Infanta Mariana Victoria, and the future Carlos III: Credit – Wikipedia

Carlos had five younger siblings:

From his father’s first marriage to Maria Luisa of Savoy, Carlos had four half-siblings:

Carlos’ parents Felipe V and Elisabeth Farnese in 1739; Credit – Wikipedia

Carlos’ mother Elisabeth Farnese of Parma never showed affection toward her two stepsons Luis and Fernando. She considered her stepsons to be obstacles to achieving her main objective: to provide her sons with realms to rule. On January 14, 1724, Felipe V abdicated the Spanish throne to Luis, his seventeen-year-old eldest son from his first marriage, for reasons that are still unclear. Perhaps it was because Felipe V suffered from mental instability and did not wish to reign due to his increasing mental decline. Another theory is that Felipe V was concerned about the succession to the French throne due to several deaths. Although the treaty that ended the War of the Spanish Succession forbade a union of the French and Spanish crowns, perhaps Felipe V hoped that by abdicating the Spanish throne, he could succeed to the French throne if necessary. However, seven months later, Felipe V was forced to once again ascend to the Spanish throne because his son King Luis I died of smallpox and Felipe V’s younger son from his first marriage, the future King Fernando VI, was not yet of legal age.

In 1731, the male line of the House of Farnese ruling in the Duchy of Parma went extinct. The duchy passed to Felipe V, King of Spain whose second wife Elisabeth Farnese was the Farnese heiress. Felipe V made Carlos, his eldest son with Elizabeth Farnese, the Duke of Parma. However, Felipe V traded the Duchy of Parma to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine for the Kingdom of Naples in 1734 and the Kingdom of Sicily in 1735, and Carlos became King of Naples and Sicily. During his reign in Naples and Sicily as Carlo VII or Carlo di Borbone, which the people called him, he tried to reform and modernize the kingdoms, winning the affection of the citizens.

Carlos’ wife Maria Amalia of Saxony; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1738, Carlos’ mother Elisabeth Farnese arranged a marriage for him to fourteen-year-old Maria Amalia of Saxony, daughter of Augustus III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony and Maria Josepha of Austria. On May 8, 1738, a proxy marriage was held in Dresden, Electorate of Saxony, now in Germany with the bride’s brother Friedrich Christian of Saxony standing in for Carlos. Shortly afterward, Maria Amalia traveled to the Kingdom of Naples, and on June 19, 1738, at Portella, a village on the border of the Kingdom of Naples, Carlos and Maria Amalia met for the first time and were married.

Three children of Carlos III and Maria Amalia: Francisco Javier, Maria Luisa, and Carlos III’s successor, the future King Carlos IV; Credit – Wikipedia

Carlos III and Maria Amalia had thirteen children but only seven survived childhood. Their children who were born before Carlos became King of Spain were Princes and Princesses of Naples and Sicily. Their children who survived until Carlos became King of Spain were Infantes and Infantas of Spain.

As Carlos’ father King Felipe V grew older, his mental issues worsened. He experienced episodes of manic depression. During several periods, Felipe V was unable to handle government affairs and Carlos’ mother Elisabeth became the de facto ruler of Spain. Felipe V, King of Spain died of a stroke at the age of 62 on July 9, 1746, and Carlos’ elder half-brother Fernando succeeded to the Spanish throne as Fernando VI, King of Spain, and reigned for thirteen years. However, his marriage to Barbara of Portugal produced no children, and so upon his death in 1759, his elder surviving half-brother succeeded him as King Carlos III of Spain.

Carlos abdicating the thrones of Naples and Sicily in favor of his eight-year-old son Ferdinando; Credit – Wikipedia

With great sadness, by both Carlos and the people of Naples and Sicily, Carlos abdicated the thrones of Naples and Sicily in favor of his eight-year-old third son Ferdinando with a regency council ruling until his sixteenth birthday. Ferdinando was deposed twice from the throne of Naples: once by the revolutionary Parthenopean Republic for six months in 1799 and again by Napoleon in 1805, before being restored in 1816 after the defeat of Napoleon. After the 1816 restoration, the two kingdoms were united into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and he reigned as King Ferdinando I of the Two Sicilies.

On September 27, 1760, a year after arriving in Spain, Carlos’ 35-year-old wife Maria Amalia suddenly died and was buried in the Pantheon of Kings in the Royal Crypt of the Monastery of El Escorial. Upon Maria Amalia’s death, Carlos said, “In twenty-two years of marriage, this is the first serious upset that Amalia has given me.” After Maria Amalia’s death, Carlos remained unmarried.

When Carlos became King of Spain, he was 43 years old and had ruled Naples and Sicily for twenty-five years, so he had far more experience than his predecessors. King Carlos III challenged the conservative Spanish government with his enlightened reform ideas and faced some opposition. The Spanish court was more rigid and somber than the cosmopolitan court of Naples and Sicily. Carlos III ruled as an enlightened despot, an absolute monarch who incorporated ideas of the Enlightenment. He promoted education, pushed back the influence of the Roman Catholic Church by expelling the Jesuits from the Spanish Empire, and strengthened the Spanish army and navy. Carlos III was responsible for some Spain’s national symbols. In 1770, he declared the Marcha Granadera to be used during official ceremonies. Since that time, it has been Spain’s national anthem except under the Second Republic ( 1931 – 1939 ). Carlos III also chose the colors and design of the Spanish flag as we see it today.

Tomb of Carlos III, King of Spain; Credit – www.findagrave.com

Carlos III, King of Spain, survived his wife by twenty-eight years, dying, aged 72, on December 14, 1788, at the Royal Palace of Madrid in Spain. He was buried in the Pantheon of Kings in the Royal Crypt of the Monastery of El Escorial.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Carlos III de España (2022) Wikipedia (Spanish). Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_III_de_Espa%C3%B1a (Accessed: December 24, 2022).
  • Charles III of Spain (2022) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_III_of_Spain (Accessed: December 24, 2022).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2019) Felipe V, King of Spain, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/felipe-v-first-bourbon-king-of-spain/ (Accessed: December 24, 2022).
  • Maria Amalia of Saxony (2022) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Amalia_of_Saxony (Accessed: December 24, 2022).

Barbara of Portugal, Queen of Spain

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Barbara of Portugal, Queen of Spain; Credit – Wikipedia

Infanta Barbara of Portugal was the wife of King Fernando VI of Spain. Born December 4, 1711, at Ribeira Palace in Lisbon, Portugal, Barbara was the eldest of the six children and the only daughter of João V, King of Portugal and Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria. Barbara’s parents remained childless for the first three years of their marriage. Her father promised God that he would build a great convent as a sign of gratitude if an heir to the throne was born. King João V fulfilled his promise and built the Palace-Convent of Mafra located in Mafra, Portugal, a short distance from Lisbon.

The facade of the Palace-Convent of Mafra; Credit – By Pedro S Bello – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=124113359

At birth, Barbara was styled Princess of Brazil as the heir presumptive and given the names Maria Madalena Bárbara Xavier Leonor Teresa Antónia Josefa, honoring several saints and relatives. She was called Barbara, a name that had never been used in the Portuguese royal family, after Saint Barbara whose feast day was on her birthday. Barbara’s paternal grandparents were Pedro II, King of Portugal and his second wife Maria Sophia of Neuburg. Her maternal grandparents were  Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor and his third wife Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg. Barbara’s grandmothers were sisters and so her parents were first cousins.

The two eldest children in the family, Barbara with her brother Pedro who died at the age of two; Credit – Wikipedia

Barbara had five younger brothers. Two of her brothers died in childhood and one died in his teens. The surviving two brothers were both Kings of Portugal. After the birth of her brother Pedro, Barbara was no longer the heir presumptive. Pedro died when he was two but by that time Barbara had another brother, the future King José I of Portugal.

Barbara in 1725 Credit – Wikipedia

Barbara received an excellent education. She spoke Portuguese, French, German, and Italian fluently, and would later learn Spanish after her marriage. Like her father she loved music. When Barbara was eight years old, her father hired the great Italian harpsichordist and composer Domenico Scarlatti as her music master and music director of the Royal Chapel. Barbara became a talented keyboard player and when she married in 1729, Scarlatti followed her to Spain and composed hundreds of harpsichord sonatas for her. Scarlatti remained Barbara’s music master until he died in 1757, a year before Barbara died.

Barbara in 1729, the year of her marriage; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1725, Barbara was on a list of 99 princesses who were potential brides for King Louis XV of France. However, because of concerns about her health and her young age, she was removed from the list. To strengthen an alliance with Spain, a double marriage between Portugal and Spain was arranged between Barbara and the future Fernando VI, King of Spain, the son and heir of Felipe V, King of Spain, and Barbara’s brother the future José I, King of Portugal, her father’s heir, and Fernando’s half-sister Mariana Victoria of Spain.

A contemporary engraving depicting the Exchange of the Princesses over the Caia River on the Portugal-Spain border; Credit – Wikipedia

In a complex and protocol-filled arrangement called the Exchange of Princesses, on January 19, 1729, the two sets of princes and princesses were escorted to the Portugal-Spain border by the two royal courts, and the princesses were exchanged in a richly decorated wooden pavilion built on a bridge over the Caia River that linked the towns of Elvas, Portugal and Badajoz, Spain. Then, both couples were married in richly decorated pavilions on the same day on the grooms’ sides of the Caia River. Fernando and Barbara had no children except a stillborn son in 1733.

Barbara’s husband Fernando; Credit – Wikipedia

Barbara’s father-in-law King Felipe V suffered from mental instability and as he grew older, his mental issues worsened, and his second wife Elisabeth Farnese of Parma became the de facto ruler of Spain. Queen Elisabeth never showed affection toward her stepson Fernando. She considered him an obstacle to achieving her main objective: to provide her sons with King Felipe V of Spain with a realm to rule. Fernando and Barbara continually had to deal with the animosity of Queen Elisabeth who wanted to keep her stepson away from court. From 1733 until 1737, they were kept more or less under house arrest in their apartments, prevented from appearing in public, and watched by the spies of Queen Elisabeth, until Barbara’s father King João V of Portugal intervened.

Felipe V, King of Spain died of a stroke at the age of 62 on July 9, 1746, and Fernando succeeded to the Spanish throne. Fernando VI, King of Spain reigned for thirteen years. Benevolent but weak, Fernando VI left the government mostly to others. He allowed his troublesome stepmother Elisabeth to remain in Spain but banned her from court. As Queen Consort of Spain, Barbara did not have as much political ambition as Fernando’s stepmother Elisabeth. Instead, Barbara was focused mainly on a friendly relationship between Spain and Portugal. However, Barbara was the conduit through which the government ministers worked with King Fernando VI. She was presented with all documents of state before they were given to King Fernando VI because only she knew what should be said or hidden from him.

Barbara shortly before her death; Credit – Wikipedia

Barbara suffered from severe asthma for most of her life and became obese in the years before her death. On August 27, 1758, at the age of 46, Barbara died at the Royal Palace of Aranjuez, on the outskirts of Madrid, Spain. She was buried in the Church of Saint Barbara at the Convent of the Salesas Reales in Madrid, Spain which she had founded in 1748 as a school and home for young noblewomen. Barbara’s death broke Fernando’s heart. During the last year of his reign, probably at least partially caused by his wife’s death, Fernando VI rapidly lost his mental capacity. He lived at the Castle of Villaviciosa de Odón, near Madrid, where he died less than a year after Barbara’s death, on August 10, 1759, as the age of 45. Fernando was buried with his wife Barbara in the Church of Saint Barbara at the Convent of the Salesas Reales in Madrid.

Tomb of Barbara of Portugal; Queen of Spain; Credit – www.findagrave.com

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Bárbara de Braganza (2022) Wikipedia (Portuguese). Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A1rbara_de_Braganza (Accessed: November 28, 2022).
  • Bárbara de Braganza (2022) Wikipedia (Spanish). Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A1rbara_de_Braganza (Accessed: November 28, 2022).
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Fernando VI, King of Spain

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Fernando VI, King of Spain; Credit – Wikipedia

Born on September 23, 1713, at the Royal Alcazar of Madrid in Madrid, Spain, Fernando VI was not expected to become King of Spain. He was the youngest of the four sons of Felipe V, King of Spain and his first wife Maria Luisa of Savoy. Fernando’s paternal grandparents were Louis, Le Grand Dauphin, the heir apparent to the throne of France, and Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria. His maternal grandparents were  Vittorio Amedeo II, King of Sardinia and Anne Marie of Orléans.

Fernando’s father King Felipe V of Spain, born a Prince of France; Credit – Wikipedia

Fernando’s father had been born a French prince, Philippe, Duke of Anjou, the second son of Louis, Le Grand Dauphin, the son and heir apparent of King Louis XIV of France. In 1700, King Carlos II of Spain, from the House of Habsburg, died childless with no immediate Habsburg heir. Louis, Le Grand Dauphin had the strongest genealogical claim to the Spanish throne because his mother Maria Theresa, Infanta of Spain had been the half-sister of Carlos II. However, neither Louis, Le Grand Dauphin nor his elder son Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Le Petit Dauphin could be displaced from their place in the succession to the French throne. Therefore, King Carlos II of Spain, in his will, named the second son of Louis, Le Grand Dauphin, 16-year-old Philippe, Duke of Anjou, as his successor. He reigned as Felipe V, King of Spain, the first Bourbon monarch of Spain.

Fernando had three older brothers but only his eldest brother Luis I, King of Spain, survived to his teenage years. Luis I died from smallpox at age seventeen.

Fernando’s stepmother Elisabeth Farnese of Parma; Credit – Wikipedia

Five months after his birth, Fernando’s mother Maria Luisa died from tuberculosis at the age of 25 on February 14, 1714. On December 24, 1714, ten months after the death of his mother, Fernando’s father married again to Elisabeth Farnese of Parma, the only surviving child of Odoardo Farnese, Hereditary Prince of Parma and Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg.

Felipe V of Spain with his second wife Elisabeth and some of his children from his first and second marriages – from left to right: the future Fernando VI, King Felipe V, the future Luis I; Felipe, the future Duke of Parma, Queen Elisabeth, a portrait of the Infanta Mariana Victoria, and the future Carlos III: Credit – Wikipedia

Fernando had six half-siblings from his father’s second marriage:

Fernando at the age of ten; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1721, 8-year-old Fernando was given his own household supervised by Agustín Fernández de Velasco y Bracamonte, Count de Salazar, who was given the title of Governor and was responsible for Fernando’s upbringing and education. Felipe V’s second wife Elisabeth Farnese of Parma never showed affection toward her two stepsons. She considered her stepsons to be obstacles to achieving her main objective: to provide her sons with a realm to rule. Fernando had a lonely childhood, far from court, accompanied only by his older brother Luis.

Fernando’s brother King Luis I of Spain; Credit – Wikipedia

On January 14, 1724, Fernando’s father King Felipe V abdicated the Spanish throne in favor of his eldest son Luis for reasons that are still unclear. Perhaps it was because Felipe V suffered from mental instability and did not wish to reign due to his increasing mental decline. Another theory is that Felipe was concerned about the succession to the French throne due to several deaths. Although the treaty that ended the War of the Spanish Succession forbade a union of the French and Spanish crowns, perhaps Felipe hoped that by abdicating the Spanish throne, he could succeed to the French throne if necessary. However, the reign of Luis I, King of Spain lasted only until August 31, 1724, when Luis died from smallpox. Fernando’s father Felipe V was forced to once again ascend to the Spanish throne because 10-year-old Fernando was not yet of legal age. Fernando’s stepmother Elisabeth kept him away from inner court circles even after the death of his brother Luis. Although Fernando was heir to the throne and held the heir’s title Prince of Asturias, he was not allowed to participate in the Spanish Council of State and was not able to gain any experience in government work that would have prepared him for taking the throne.

Fernando’s wife Barbara of Portugal in 1729, the year of their marriage; Credit – Wikipedia

To strengthen an alliance with Portugal, a double marriage between Spain and Portugal was arranged between Fernando and Barbara of Portugal, daughter of João V, King of Portugal, and Fernando’s half-sister Mariana Victoria and the future José I, King of Portugal, King João V’s heir. In a complex and protocol-filled arrangement called the Exchange of Princesses, on January 19, 1729, the two sets of princes and princesses were escorted to the Portugal-Spain border by the two royal courts, and the princesses were exchanged in a richly decorated wooden pavilion built on a bridge over the Caia River that linked the towns of Elvas, Portugal and Badajoz, Spain. Then, both couples were married in richly decorated pavilions on the same day on the grooms’ sides of the Caia River. Fernando and Barbara had no children except a stillborn son in 1733.

A contemporary engraving depicting the Exchange of the Princesses over the Caia River on the Portugal-Spain border; Credit – Wikipedia

As Fernando’s father King Felipe V grew older, his mental issues worsened and his second wife Queen Elisabeth became the de facto ruler of Spain. Fernando and Barbara continually had to deal with Elisabeth’s animosity who wanted to keep her stepson away from court. From 1733 until 1737, they were kept more or less under house arrest in their apartments, prevented from appearing in public, and watched by the spies of Queen Elisabeth, until Barbara’s father King João V of Portugal intervened.

Felipe V, King of Spain died of a stroke at the age of 62 on July 9, 1746, and Fernando succeeded to the Spanish throne. Fernando VI, King of Spain reigned for thirteen years. Benevolent but weak, Fernando VI left the government mostly to others. After Fernando became king, he allowed his stepmother Elisabeth to stay in Spain. However, she had to move out of the Royal Palace of Buen Retiro in Madrid and into the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, known as La Granja. Those responsible for the government under Fernando VI set out to restore state finances and reform the country. Fernando VI, in contrast to his father and stepmother, pursued no personal or family interests in foreign policy. His reign was peaceful because he avoided involving Spain in any European conflicts.

Allegory of Fernando VI as a peaceful king by Antonio González Ruiz, 1754; Credit – Wikipedia

Fernando VI’s wife Barbara suffered from severe asthma for most of her life and became obese in the years before her death. On August 27, 1758, at the age of 46, Barbara died at the Royal Palace of Aranjuez, on the outskirts of Madrid, Spain. She was buried in the Church of Saint Barbara at the Convent of the Salesas Reales in Madrid, Spain which she had founded in 1748 as a school and home for young noblewomen.

Barbara of Portugal, Queen of Spain shortly before her death; Credit – Wikipedia

Barbara’s death broke Fernando’s heart. During the last year of his reign, probably at least partially caused by his wife’s death, Fernando VI rapidly lost his mental capacity and was held at the Castle of Villaviciosa de Odón, near Madrid, where he died less than a year after Barbara’s death, on August 10, 1759, as the age of 45. He was buried with his wife Barbara in the Church of Saint Barbara at the Convent of the Salesas Reales in Madrid.

Tomb of King Fernando VI of Spain; Credit – Wikipedia

Fernando VI’s marriage to Barbara of Portugal was childless and when he died, the elder surviving son of father King Felipe V of Spain and his stepmother Elisabeth Farnese of Parma succeeded his half-brother as King Carlos III of Spain. Elisabeth’s younger son Felipe had become sovereign Duke of Parma and founder of the House of Bourbon-Parma, and so Elisabeth achieved her goal of providing her sons with a realm to rule. All subsequent monarchs of Spain from the House of Bourbon are descendants of King Carlos III of Spain. Therefore, Elisabeth is the ancestor of the House of Bourbon that still reigns in Spain. Although the House of Bourbon-Parma no longer reigns, the pretender to the throne of the Duchy of Parma is Elisabeth’s descendant.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Bárbara de Braganza (2022) Wikipedia (Spanish). Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A1rbara_de_Braganza (Accessed: November 26, 2022).
  • Fernando VI de España (2022) Wikipedia (Spanish). Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_VI_de_Espa%C3%B1a (Accessed: November 26, 2022).
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  • Flantzer, Susan. (2019) Felipe V, King of Spain, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/felipe-v-first-bourbon-king-of-spain/ (Accessed: November 26, 2022).
  • Maria Bárbara de Bragança, Rainha de Espanha (2022) Wikipedia (Portuguese). Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_B%C3%A1rbara_de_Bragan%C3%A7a,_Rainha_de_Espanha (Accessed: November 26, 2022).

Louise Élisabeth d’Orléans, Queen of Spain

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Louise Élisabeth d’Orléans, Queen of Spain; Credit – Wikipedia

The wife of the short-reigning King Luis I of Spain, Princess Louise Élisabeth d’Orléans was born on December 9, 1709, at the Palace of Versailles in France. She was the sixth of the eight children and the fifth of the seven daughters of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans and Françoise Marie de Bourbon, the legitimized daughter of King Louis XIV of France and his mistress Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart, Marquise de Montespan, who were Louise-Élisabeth’s maternal grandparents. Her paternal grandparents were Philippe I, Duke of Orléans (the only sibling of King Louis XIV of France) and his second wife Elizabeth Charlotte (Liselotte) of the Palatinate, a great-granddaughter of King James I of England/James VI, King of Scots.

Louise Élisabeth had seven siblings:

Because she was one of six surviving daughters, there was no real hope for a good marriage for Louise Élisabeth. Therefore, she was politically irrelevant, little attention was paid to her, and her upbringing and education were neglected. In her letters, her paternal grandmother Liselotte often wrote about Louise Élisabeth’s cheekiness and bad manners. There were vague plans to marry her to an obscure German or Italian prince.

On September 1, 1715, King Louis XIV died. Because both his son Louis, Le Grand Dauphin and his grandson Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Le Petite Dauphin predeceased him, King Louis XIV was succeeded by his five-year-old great-grandson King Louis XV, the son of Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Le Petite Dauphin. King Louis XIV had stipulated in his will that a Regency Council be established until his great-grandson reached his majority. The Regency Council was led by King Louis XIV’s nephew, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, the father of Louise Élisabeth, who served as Regent of France.

In 1718, the War of the Quadruple Alliance broke out between France and Spain. Two years later, in 1720, King Felipe V of Spain wanted to make a peace agreement. King Felipe V of Spain was born a French prince, Philippe, Duke of Anjou, the second son of Louis, Le Grand Dauphin, the son and heir apparent of King Louis XIV of France. In 1700, King Carlos II of Spain, from the House of Habsburg, died childless with no immediate Habsburg heir. Louis, Le Grand Dauphin had the strongest genealogical claim to the Spanish throne because his mother Maria Theresa, Infanta of Spain was the half-sister of Carlos II. However, neither Louis, Le Grand Dauphin nor his elder son Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Le Petit Dauphin could be displaced from their place in the succession to the French throne. Therefore, King Carlos II of Spain, in his will, named the second son of Louis, Le Grand Dauphin, 16-year-old Philippe, Duke of Anjou, as his successor. He reigned as Felipe V, King of Spain, the first Bourbon monarch of Spain.

King Felipe V of Spain and Louise Élisabeth’s father Philippe II, Duke of Orléans were first cousins once removed. In the 1720 peace agreement between France and Spain, King Felipe V proposed double marriages: his two-year-old daughter Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain was betrothed to marry ten-year-old King Louis XV of France. King Felipe V’s thirteen-year-old son and heir Luis, Prince of Asturias would marry one of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans’ daughters.

Louise Élisabeth’s husband King Luis I of Spain; Credit – Wikipedia

Princess Louise Élisabeth of Orléans was chosen as the bride for the future King Luis I of Spain who was her second cousin once removed. In November 1721, fourteen-year-old Luis and eleven-year-old Louise Élisabeth were married by proxy, in Paris, France. On January 9, 1722, on the Isle of Pheasants in the Bidassoa River, on the border of France and Spain, the French Louise Élisabeth was exchanged for the Spanish Mariana Victoria. On January 20, 1722, Luis and Louise Élisabeth were married in person at the Ducal Palace of Lerma in Lerma, Burgos, Spain.

The marriage was not successful and resulted in no children due to the young age of Louise Élisabeth and because she became increasingly known for her erratic and impulsive behavior. She appeared in public dirty and unkempt, refused to use undergarments, and tried to provoke courtiers by showing her intimate parts in public. At meals, Louise Élisabeth would not eat but would hide the food and compulsively eat it later. She would suddenly undress in public to clean the windows and tiles with her clothes. Modern mental health professionals think she had borderline personality disorder. Her husband Luis wrote to his father, “I see no other solution but to lock her down as soon as possible, for her troubles keep increasing.” Luis had his wife confined to a convent. Louise Élisabeth cried and sent her husband letters asking for forgiveness. He later felt sorry for her and released her.

On January 14, 1724, Luis’s father King Felipe V abdicated the Spanish throne in favor of his son Luis for reasons that are still unclear. Perhaps it was because Felipe suffered from mental instability and did not wish to reign due to his increasing mental decline. Another theory is that Felipe was concerned about the succession to the French throne due to several deaths. Although the treaty that ended the War of the Spanish Succession forbade a union of the French and Spanish crowns, perhaps Felipe hoped that by abdicating the Spanish throne, he could succeed to the French throne if necessary. The problems with his wife Louise Élisabeth dominated Luis’s short reign.

Louise Élisabeth d’Orléans, Queen of Spain in 1724; Credit – Wikipedia

Luis became ill with smallpox in July 1724. Louise Élisabeth was his only company because his parents, fearful of the illness, left the Palacio del Buen Retiro in Madrid, Spain. Luis’s smallpox was complicated by pneumonia. Fourteen-year-old Louise Élisabeth cared for and remained with her seventeen-year-old husband until his death, on August 31, 1724. She also contracted smallpox but recovered from the illness. Luis’s father Felipe V was again forced to ascend to the Spanish throne because his younger son, the future King Fernando VI, was not yet of legal age. Louise Élisabeth, a widow at the age of fourteen, now of no use to the Spanish court and royal family, lost all support and became totally isolated.

In 1725, when Mariana Victoria of Spain was seven-years-old, it was decided to send her back to Spain. French Prime Minister Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon wanted his sister to be King Louis XV’s bride so he would have more influence. Because the marriage of Luis I and Louise Élisabeth had not been consummated, Louise Élisabeth was sent back to France. Mariana Victoria left Versailles on April 5, 1725, and traveled to the Spanish border where she and Louise Élisabeth were once again exchanged. Five months later, 15-year-old Louis XV, King of France married but his bride was 22-year-old Marie Leszczyńska, daughter of Stanislaus I, the deposed King of Poland, not the sister of Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon.

The Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris where Louise-Élisabeth was buried; Credit – By Zairon – File:Paris Saint-Sulpice Fassade 4.jpgFile:Paris Saint-Sulpice Fassade 5.jpg, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=95975368

Sixteen-year-old Louise-Élisabeth discreetly returned to Paris, arriving on May 23, 1725. She lived at the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris, away from the court of King Louis XV, her first cousin once removed. Lonely and forgotten, Louise Élisabeth died seventeen years later, on June 16, 1742. She was buried in the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris but her tomb was desecrated and destroyed during the French Revolution.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2019) Felipe V, King of Spain, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/felipe-v-first-bourbon-king-of-spain/ (Accessed: November 24, 2022).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2022) Luis I, King of Spain, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/luis-i-king-of-spain/ (Accessed: November 24, 2022).
  • Louise Elisabeth d’Orléans (2022) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_%C3%89lisabeth_d%27Orl%C3%A9ans (Accessed: November 24, 2022).
  • Louise-Elisabeth d’Orléans (2022) Wikipedia (French). Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise-%C3%89lisabeth_d%27Orl%C3%A9ans (Accessed: November 24, 2022).
  • Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (2022) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_II,_Duke_of_Orl%C3%A9ans (Accessed: November 24, 2022).

Luis I, King of Spain

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2022

Luis I, King of Spain; Credit – Wikipedia

After the abdication of his father, Luis I, King of Spain had a very short reign, from January 14, 1724 to August 31, 1724. Luis Felipe was born on August 25, 1707, at the Palacio del Buen Retiro in Madrid, Spain. He was the eldest of the four sons of Felipe V, King of Spain and his first wife Maria Luisa of Savoy. Luis’s paternal grandparents were Louis, Le Grand Dauphin, the heir apparent to the throne of France, and Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria. His maternal grandparents were  Vittorio Amedeo II, King of Sardinia and Anne Marie of Orléans.

Luis’s father King Felipe V of Spain;  Credit – Wikipedia

Luis’ father had been born a French prince, Philippe, Duke of Anjou, the second son of Louis, Le Grand Dauphin, the son and heir apparent of King Louis XIV of France. In 1700, King Carlos II of Spain, from the House of Habsburg, died childless with no immediate Habsburg heir. Louis, Le Grand Dauphin had the strongest genealogical claim to the Spanish throne because his mother Maria Theresa, Infanta of Spain had been the half-sister of Carlos II. However, neither Louis, Le Grand Dauphin nor his elder son Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Le Petit Dauphin could be displaced from their place in the succession to the French throne. Therefore, King Carlos II of Spain, in his will, named the second son of Louis, Le Grand Dauphin, 16-year-old Philippe, Duke of Anjou, as his successor. He reigned as Felipe V, King of Spain, the first Bourbon monarch of Spain.

Luis had three younger brothers but only one survived childhood:

Luis at age ten; Credit – Wikipedia

Luis was the heir apparent to the Spanish throne at birth but was not given the traditional title of Prince of Asturias until April 1709. When Luis was six-years-old, his mother Maria Luisa died from tuberculosis at the age of 25 on February 14, 1714. On December 24, 1714, ten months after the death of his mother, Luis’s father married again to Elisabeth Farnese of Parma, the only surviving child of Odoardo Farnese, Hereditary Prince of Parma and Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg.

Felipe V of Spain with his second wife Elisabeth and some of his children from his first and second marriages – from left to right: the future Fernando VI, King Felipe V, the future Luis I; Felipe, the future Duke of Parma, Queen Elisabeth, a portrait of the Infanta Mariana Victoria, and the future Carlos III: Credit – Wikipedia

Luis had six half-siblings from his father’s second marriage but only the eldest three were born before Luis died.

Luis was educated and prepared to be King of Spain by Baltasar Hurtado de Amézaga y Unzaga, Marqués del Riscal de Alegre, an intelligent and capable Spanish general. Because Luis was the heir to a new Spanish dynasty, the House of Bourbon, it was decided that he should marry as soon as possible.

In 1718, the War of the Quadruple Alliance broke out between France and Spain. Two years later, in 1720, King Felipe V wanted to make a peace agreement with his first cousin once removed Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, the Regent for the child King of France, Louis XV. In the 1720 peace agreement between France and Spain, King Felipe V proposed double marriages: his two-year-old daughter Infanta Mariana Victoria would marry ten-year-old King Louis XV of France. King Felipe V’s thirteen-year-old son and heir Luis, Prince of Asturias would marry one of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans’ daughters.

Luis’s wife Louise Élisabeth of Orléans, Queen of Spain; Credit – Wikipedia

Princess Louise Élisabeth of Orléans, daughter of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans and Françoise Marie de Bourbon, was chosen as his bride. Louise Élisabeth and Luis were second cousins once removed. She was a granddaughter of King Louis XIV of France through one of his illegitimate children and also a granddaughter of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, the only sibling of King Louis XIV of France. In November 1721, fourteen-year-old Luis and eleven-year-old Louise Élisabeth were married by proxy, in Paris, France. On January 9, 1722, on the Isle of Pheasants in the Bidassoa River, on the border of France and Spain, the French Louise Élisabeth was exchanged for the Spanish Mariana Victoria. On January 20, 1722, Luis and Louise Élisabeth were married in person at the Ducal Palace of Lerma in Lerma, Burgos, Spain.

The marriage was unsuccessful and resulted in no children due to the young age of Louise Élisabeth, known for her erratic and impulsive behavior. She appeared in public dirty and unkempt, refused to use undergarments, and tried to provoke courtiers by showing her intimate parts in public. At meals, Louise Élisabeth would not eat but would hide the food and compulsively eat it later. She would suddenly undress in public to clean the windows and tiles with her clothes. Modern mental health professionals think she had borderline personality disorder. Her husband Luis wrote to his father, “I see no other solution but to lock her down as soon as possible, for her troubles keep increasing.” Luis had his wife confined to a convent. Louise Élisabeth cried and sent her husband letters asking for forgiveness. He later felt sorry for her and released her.

On January 14, 1724, Luis’s father King Felipe V abdicated the Spanish throne in favor of Luis for reasons that are still unclear. Perhaps it was because Felipe suffered from mental instability and did not wish to reign due to his increasing mental decline. Another theory is that Felipe was concerned about the succession to the French throne due to several deaths. Although the treaty that ended the War of the Spanish Succession forbade a union of the French and Spanish crowns, perhaps Felipe hoped that by abdicating the Spanish throne, he could succeed to the French throne if necessary. The problems with his wife dominated Luis’s short reign. His father kept tabs on him but to counter his father’s influence, Luis surrounded himself with advisers who had not served his father. Luis planned to focus more on the Spanish colonies in the New World rather than the lost Italian territories.

Luis’s tomb at the Royal Basilica of San Lorenzo de El Escorial; Credit – Wikipedia

King Luis I contracted smallpox in July 1724. His wife Louise Élisabeth was his only company because his parents, fearful of the illness, left the Palacio del Buen Retiro in Madrid, Spain. Luis’s smallpox was complicated by pneumonia. Fourteen-year-old Louise Élisabeth cared for and remained with her seventeen-year-old husband until his death, on August 31, 1724. She also contracted smallpox but recovered from the illness. Luis I, King of Spain was interred in the Pantheon of Kings at the Royal Basilica of San Lorenzo de El Escorial.

Luis’s father Felipe V was forced to once again ascend to the Spanish throne because his younger son, the future King Fernando VI, was not yet of legal age. Louise Élisabeth, a widow at the age of fourteen, now of no use to the Spanish court and royal family, lost all support and became totally isolated. In 1725, when France decided to send seven-year-old Mariana Victoria back to Spain so King Louis XV could marry someone else, it was also decided to send Louise Élisabeth back to France. She lived at the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris, away from the court of King Louis XV, her first cousin once removed. Louise Élisabeth died seventeen years later, lonely and forgotten.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2019) Felipe V, King of Spain, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/felipe-v-first-bourbon-king-of-spain/ (Accessed: November 23, 2022).
  • Lluís i d’espanya (2022) Wikipedia (Catalan). Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llu%C3%ADs_I_d%27Espanya (Accessed: November 23, 2022).
  • Louis I of Spain (2022) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_I_of_Spain (Accessed: November 23, 2022).
  • Louise Elisabeth d’Orléans (2022) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_%C3%89lisabeth_d%27Orl%C3%A9ans (Accessed: November 23, 2022).
  • Luis I de España (2022) Wikipedia (Spanish). Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_I_de_Espa%C3%B1a (Accessed: November 23, 2022).

Elisabeth Farnese of Parma, Queen of Spain

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2022

Elisabeth Farnese, Queen of Spain; Credit – Wikipedia

Elisabeth Farnese of Parma, the second wife of Felipe V, King of Spain, was born on October 25, 1692, at the Palazzo della Pilotta in Duchy of Parma, now in Parma, Italy. She was the second but the only surviving of the two children and the only daughter of Odoardo Farnese, Hereditary Prince of Parma and Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg. Elisabeth’s paternal grandparents were Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza and Isabella d’Este. Her maternal grandparents were Philipp Wilhelm of Neuburg, Elector Palatine and Elisabeth Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Elisabeth had one older brother who died in early childhood:

  • Alessandro Ignazio Farnese (1691- 1693)

Elisabeth’s father died in 1693, only a month after the death of her brother. In 1696, Elisabeth’s mother Dorothea married her father’s half-brother, Francesco Farnese, who had become Duke of Parma when his father died in 1694. Francesco married his half-brother’s widow because he did not want to give up Dorothea’s dowry should she marry someone else. Their marriage was childless. Because of the lack of male heirs of Elisabeth’s father, her uncle-stepfather, and her youngest uncle, both succeeded one another as Duke of Parma. Changes were legally made for the succession of the Duchy of Parma in the female line through Elisabeth. Eventually, her second son Felipe, Infant of Spain became the Duke of Parma and founded the House of Bourbon-Parma.

Elisabeth as a teenager, circa 1706; Credit – Wikipedia

Elisabeth had a good relationship with her uncle and stepfather Francesco Farnese, Duke of Parma. After her marriage, Elisabeth maintained a correspondence with Francesco until he died in 1727. However, Elisabeth had a distant relationship with her mother who treated her very severely. Although Elisabeth had a mediocre intelligence and was not interested in intellectual pursuits, she spoke German, French, Latin, and Spanish in addition to her native Italian, and studied history, geography, philosophy, and religion.

In 1714, Maria Luisa of Savoy, the wife of Felipe V, King of Spain, died from tuberculosis at the age of twenty-five. Thirty-one-year-old Felipe V almost immediately sought a new wife and there was no shortage of possibilities. At this time, the key powerbroker at the Spanish court was Marie-Anne de la Trémoille, Princesse des Ursins, a French courtier and royal favorite known for her political influence. She had dominated Felipe V and his first wife Maria Luisa. The Princesse des Ursins worked with Cardinal Giulio Alberoni, the chief adviser of Felipe V, and they arranged for Felipe V to marry Elisabeth.

Elisabeth’s husband Felipe V, King of Spain; Credit – Wikipedia

Felipe V, King of Spain had been born Philippe of France, Duke of Anjou. He was the second of the three sons of Louis, Le Grand Dauphin, the only surviving child of King Louis XIV of France, and the heir apparent to the throne of France. In 1700, Carlos II, King of Spain died childless with no immediate Habsburg heir. Philippe’s father Louis, Le Grand Dauphin had the strongest genealogical claim to the throne of Spain because his mother Maria Teresa, Infanta of Spain had been the half-sister of Carlos II, King of Spain. However, neither Philippe’s father nor his elder brother, Louis, Duke of Burgundy, could be displaced from their place in the succession to the French throne. Therefore, Carlos II, King of Spain named 16-year-old Philippe of Anjou, Duke of Anjou as his successor. Felipe V was the first Spanish monarch from the House of Bourbon, which is still the ruling house of Spain.

On September 16, 1714, Elisabeth and Felipe V were married by proxy in the Duchy of Parma. Elisabeth left Parma in September and traveled to Spain by land. On her way to Spain, she was the guest of Antonio I, Prince of Monaco, and she visited her maternal aunt Maria Anna of Neuburg, Dowager Queen of Spain who had settled in Bayonne, France after King Felipe V had exiled her from Spain. On December 24, 1714, ten months after the death of Felipe V’s first wife, Elisabeth and Felipe V were married in Guadalajara, Spain. Felipe V was enthusiastic about his new wife, and Elisabeth soon dominated her weak-willed and indecisive husband. She spent a great deal of time with him, often accompanying him on hunts, where she displayed her excellent riding and shooting skills.

Felipe V of Spain with his wife Elisabeth and some of his children from his first and second marriages – from left to right: the future Fernando VI, King Felipe V, the future Luis I; Felipe, the future Duke of Parma, Queen Elisabeth, a portrait of the Infanta Mariana Victoria, and the future Carlos III: Credit – Wikipedia

Elisabeth and Felipe V had six children:

Upon her marriage, Elisabeth became the stepmother of Felipe V’s children from his first marriage. By 1719, only two of the four children had survived. Elisabeth never showed affection toward her stepsons. She considered her stepsons to be obstacles to achieving her main objective: to provide her sons with a realm to rule.

Elisabeth’s stepsons:

King Felipe V of Spain experienced episodes of manic depression. During several periods (1717, 1722, 1728, 1731, 1732–33, and 1737), Felipe V was unable to handle government affairs and Elisabeth became the de facto ruler. Elisabeth was not interested in domestic policy and preferred foreign policy, where her goal was to enforce the Spanish presence in the Italian states, combined with her ambition for her own sons, who were initially not expected to succeed in Spain because her stepsons were ahead of them in the line of succession.

On January 14, 1724, Felipe V abdicated the Spanish throne to Luis, his seventeen-year-old eldest son from his first marriage, for reasons that are still unclear. Perhaps it was because Felipe suffered from mental instability and did not wish to reign due to his increasing mental decline. Another theory is that Felipe was concerned about the succession to the French throne due to several deaths. Although the treaty that ended the War of the Spanish Succession forbade a union of the French and Spanish crowns, perhaps Felipe hoped that by abdicating the Spanish throne, he could succeed to the French throne if necessary. However, seven months later, Felipe was forced to once again become King of Spain because King Luis I died of smallpox and Felipe’s younger son from his first marriage, the future King Fernando VI, was not yet of legal age.

Felipe V and Elisabeth in 1739; Credit – Wikipedia

As he grew older, Felipe V’s mental issues worsened and Elisabeth became the permanent de facto ruler of Spain. Only the singing of the Italian castrato opera singer Farinelli (born Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi) brought any peace to Felipe. Farinelli would sing eight or nine arias for Felipe and Elisabeth every night, usually with a trio of musicians.

On July 9, 1746, 62-year-old Felipe V had a stroke and died a few hours later in Elisabeth’s arms. Just thirteen days later, Elisabeth’s 20-year-old daughter Maria Theresa Rafaela died three days after giving birth to a daughter who died two years later. Elisabeth had long feared that when her husband died, she would lose power, especially since the heir to the throne, the future King Fernando VI, was not her own son, but Felipe V’s last surviving son from his first marriage. Elisabeth was unpopular with the Spanish people, had ill-treated Fernando, and excluded him from government affairs. After Fernando became king, he allowed Elisabeth to stay in Spain. However, she had to move out of the Royal Palace in Buen Retiro and into the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, known as La Granja.

Elisabeth’s stepson Fernando VI, King of Spain reigned for thirteen years. During the last year of his reign, Fernando VI rapidly lost his mental capacity and was held at the Castle of Villaviciosa de Odón, near Madrid, until his death on August 10, 1759. Fernando VI’s marriage to Barbara of Portugal was childless and so upon his death, Elisabeth’s elder surviving son succeeded his half-brother as King Carlos III of Spain.

All subsequent monarchs of Spain from the House of Bourbon are descendants of King Carlos III of Spain. Therefore, Elisabeth is the ancestor of the House of Bourbon that still reigns in Spain. And so Elisabeth achieved the goal she set so long ago. Her elder son became King of Spain and her younger son Felipe became sovereign Duke of Parma and founder of the House of Bourbon-Parma. Although the House of Bourbon-Parma no longer reigns, the pretender to the throne of the Duchy of Parma is Elisabeth’s descendant.

Tomb of Elisabeth and Felipe V, King of Spain; Credit – Wikipedia

Elisabeth spent the last years of her life at the Royal Palace of Aranjuez and the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso. On July 11, 1766, aged 73, Elisabeth died at the Royal Palace of Aranjuez in Aranjuez, Spain. When Elisabeth’s husband King Felipe V of Spain, born a Prince of France, died, he requested not to be buried at the traditional burial site, the Pantheon of Kings in the Royal Crypt of the Royal Basilica of San Lorenzo de El Escorial in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain. Instead, Felipe V requested to be buried in the Collegiate Church of the Holy Trinity at the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, known as La Granja, in the province of Segovia in central Spain. The architecture of La Granja reminded him of the longed-for French court of his childhood. Elisabeth was buried at his side.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Elisabeth Farnese (2022) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_Farnese (Accessed: November 23, 2022).
  • Isabel Farnesio (2022) Wikipedia (Spanish). Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_Farnesio (Accessed: November 23, 2022).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2019) Felipe V, King of Spain, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/felipe-v-first-bourbon-king-of-spain/ (Accessed: November 23, 2022).
  • Odoardo Farnese, Hereditary Prince of Parma (2022) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odoardo_Farnese,_Hereditary_Prince_of_Parma (Accessed: November 23, 2022).