Maria Sophie of Bavaria
Maria Sophie | |
---|---|
Possenhofen, Kingdom of Bavaria | |
Died | 19 January 1925 Munich, Bavaria, Weimar Republic | (aged 83)
Burial | |
Spouse | |
Issue | Princess Maria Cristina Pia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies Mathilde Marie Sophie Henriette Elisabeth Louise de Lavaÿsse (illeg.) |
House | Wittelsbach |
Father | Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria |
Mother | Princess Ludovika of Bavaria |
Maria Sophie Amalie, Duchess in Bavaria (4 October 1841,
Early life
Maria Sophie was born on October 4, 1841, at the Possenhofen Castle in Possenhofen, the Kingdom of Bavaria. Her parents were Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria and Princess Ludovika of Bavaria. She was the sixth of ten children and one of the eight that survived to adulthood. She and her siblings enjoyed an unrestricted childhood, shared between Possenhofen Castle in the summers and the Herzog-Max-Palais in Munich.
In the winter of 1857, at the age of 16, Marie Sophie's hand was sought by
Marie Sophie had not experienced menarche, and underwent treatments to induce menses.[1] She also had to learn Italian. She was married by proxy. In January 1859 she traveled to Vienna to spend time with her sister before they went to Trieste to formally enter her new kingdom, and say farewell to her family on the Neapolitan royal yacht Fulminante. She set sail for Bari and on 3 February 1859 was married there.[2]
Reign
Within the year, with the death of the king, her husband ascended to the throne as
In September 1860, as the Garibaldine troops were moving towards
During the
On 13 February 1861, the fortress capitulated, and thus the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ceased to exist, effectively deposing Francis II and Maria Sophie.
Life in Rome
With the fall of Gaeta and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Marie Sophie and her husband went into exile in Rome, the capital of what for 1,000 years had been the sizeable Papal States, a large piece of central Italy but which, by 1860, had been reduced to the city of Rome, itself, as the armies of Victor Emanuel II came down from the north to join up with Garibaldi, the conqueror of the south. King Francis set up a government in exile in Rome that enjoyed diplomatic recognition by most European states for a few years as still the legitimate government of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Her wealth and privilege were, to a certain extent, overshadowed by personal tragedies. Her marriage was not consummated for many years, as her husband suffered from
Countess Marie Larisch von Moennich, niece of Marie Sophie, had spread the story that the child's father was a Belgian officer of the papal guard named Count Armand de Lavaÿss. Although Countess Larisch's biographer Brigitte Sokop refuted this assertion[4] and speculated that a possible father of the child would be the Spanish diplomat Salvador Bermúdez de Castro (later Duke of Ripalda and Santa Lucía),[5] who was often to be seen in the company of the Neapolitan royal couple and who was also said to have had an affair (and also an illegitimate daughter) with Marie Sophie's sister Mathilde, Countess of Trani,[6] Lorraine Kaltenbach established that the father of Maria Sophie's illegitimate daughter was indeed Félix-Emmanuel de Lavaÿsse, a pontifical zouave,[7][8] who officially recognized Daisy as his daughter on 16 May 1867[9][10] shortly before his death on 18 April 1868, aged 32.[7]
A year later, on the advice of her family, Marie Sophie decided to confess the affair to her husband. Afterwards, the relationship between the two improved for a time. Francis submitted to an operation which allowed him to consummate the marriage, and Marie Sophie became pregnant a second time, this time by her husband. Both were overjoyed at the turn of events and full of hope. On 24 December 1869, after ten years of marriage, Marie Sophie gave birth to a daughter, Maria Cristina Pia, who was born on the birthday of her aunt, Empress Elisabeth, who became her godmother. Unfortunately, the baby lived only three months and died on 28 March 1870. Marie Sophie and her husband never had another child.
Later life
In 1870, Rome fell to the forces of Italy and the King and Queen fled to Bavaria. The king died in 1894. Marie Sophie spent time in
During
During her life, she generated an almost cult-like air of admiration even among her political enemies.
Maria Sophie died in Munich in 1925. Since 1984 her remains now rest with those of her husband and their daughter in the
Issue
Ancestors
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Notes and citations
This item originated as an abridged and edited version of an article that appears in an online encyclopedia of Naples and has been inserted here by the author and copyright holder of that article.
- ^ Hamann 1986, p. 80.
- ^ Hamann 1986, p. 82.
- ^ Kaltenbach 2021.
- ^ Sokop 1985.
- ^ Sokop 1985, pp. 25–26.
- ^ Sokop 1985, pp. 479–480.
- ^ a b Kaltenbach 2021, p. 153.
- ^ Kaltenbach 2021, p. 191.
- ^ Kaltenbach 2021, p. 165.
- ^ Kaltenbach 2021, p. 243.
- ^ Hamann 1986, p. 129.
Bibliography
- Alio, Jacqueline (2018). Queens of Sicily 1061–1266. Sicilian Medieval Studies. New York: Trinacria. ISBN 978-1-943-63914-4.
- ISBN 0-394-53717-3.
- Küchler, Carl (1910). Queen Maria Sophia of Naples, A Forgotten Heroine (Hardback). Life Stories for Young People. Translated by Upton, George P. Chicago: A. C. McClurg.
- Kaltenbach, Lorraine (2021). Le secret de la reine soldat: L'extraordinaire soeur de Sissi (in French). Monaco: Éditions du Rocher. ISBN 978-2268104829.
- Sokop, Brigitte (1985). Jene Gräfin Larisch: Marie Louise Gräfin Larisch-Wallersee, Vertraute der Kaiserin – Verfemte nach Mayerling (4th ed.). Vienna: Böhlau. ISBN 3-205-07231-6.
- OCLC 838411.
- ISBN 978-1798944387.
External links
- Media related to Maria Sophia of Bavaria at Wikimedia Commons
- Original source for article
- Family Tree: Duchess Maria Sophie in Bavaria, Queen consort of the Two Sicilies
- Renato Schumacher. The Swiss and the Royal House of Naples-Sicily 1735–1861. A Preview on the 150th Anniversary of the Surrender at Gaeta