| Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Princess of Asturias | |||||
 Posthumous portrait byVicente López Portaña, c. 1815 | |||||
| Born | (1784-12-14)14 December 1784 Caserta Palace,Caserta,Naples | ||||
| Died | 21 May 1806(1806-05-21) (aged 21) Royal Palace of Aranjuez,Aranjuez,Kingdom of Spain | ||||
| Burial | |||||
| Spouse | |||||
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| House | Bourbon-Two Sicilies | ||||
| Father | Ferdinand IV of Naples and III of Sicily | ||||
| Mother | Maria Carolina of Austria | ||||
Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily (14 December 1784 – 21 May 1806) was the youngest surviving daughter ofFerdinand, King of Naples and Sicily, andMaria Carolina of Austria. As the wife of the futureFerdinand VII of Spain, then heir apparent to the Spanish throne, she held the title ofPrincess of Asturias. It was rumoured that her mother-in-law,Maria Luisa of Parma, caused her death, but there is no evidence to prove this.[1]
Born at theCaserta Palace inCaserta,Italy, Maria Antonia was the youngest daughter ofKing Ferdinand IV/III of Naples and Sicily and his first wife,Maria Carolina of Austria. Named after her mother's favourite sister, her maternal auntQueen Marie Antoinette of France[citation needed], she was an intelligent girl, having learned several languages by the age of seventeen.
In a series of dynastic alliances, a double marriage took place. Maria Antonia became engaged to her first cousin,Infante Ferdinand,Prince of Asturias (who later became King Ferdinand VII of Spain), while her eldest brother,Francis, became engaged to Infante Ferdinand's younger sister,Infanta Maria Isabella of Spain. On 4 October 1802, 13-year-old Maria Isabella married Francis, who was 25 years old, and two days later, on 6 October, Maria Antonia married Infante Ferdinand inBarcelona,Spain. Both of them were seventeen, with Ferdinand only being two months older than Maria Antonia, and the marriage took place the week before his eighteenth birthday. Their fathers were brothers.
The princess failed to provide the expected heir to the throne: her two pregnancies, in 1804 and 1805, ended inmiscarriages. Her mother, Maria Carolina, was highly anti-French after the execution of hersister andbrother-in-law during theFrench Revolution. She was also strongly opposed to the military expansion of the French Republic. As Spain became more easily dominated byNapoleon Bonaparte, there were rumours that Maria Carolina wanted her daughter to poison the Queen of Spain andManuel Godoy, Spain's prime minister. However, as with most poison rumours of the period, it is unlikely to be true, not least because both women were devout Roman Catholics and secondly because the Spanish court's ties to France were in no way greater or lesser than most in Europe after Napoleon’s early victories. Maria Antonia's mother-in-law,Queen Maria Luisa, disliked her daughter-in-law and she encouraged rumours of a Habsburg poisoning plot, even subjecting her books and clothes to scrutiny in order to discredit her daughter-in-law further. In spite of all of this campaign of character assassination, Maria Antonia managed to gain considerable influence over her husband and created an opposition party againstQueen Maria Luisa and Godoy.[citation needed]
Maria Antonia died oftuberculosis on 21 May 1806 at theRoyal Palace of Aranjuez inAranjuez,Spain, at the age of 21. It was rumoured that Maria Antonia had been poisoned byQueen Maria Luisa andManuel Godoy but there is no evidence to support this claim.[1] However,Queen Maria Carolina, who was devastated, truly believed this. Maria Antonia's father,King Ferdinand, consolidatedNaples andSicily into theKingdom of the Two Sicilies a decade after her death.
The Neapolitan princess was buried atEl Escorial in Spain. Her husband was to marry three more times: –
| Ancestors of Princess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily[2] |
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Report also attributed this death to the machinations of the Queen and her favourite, albeit it was known that she died from an attack of phthisis.
Media related toPrincess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily at Wikimedia Commons
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