Chapter I: Front Matter

_Life Stories for Young People_

QUEEN MARIA SOPHIA
OF NAPLES
A FORGOTTEN HEROINE

_Translated from the German of
Carl Küchler_

BY
GEORGE P. UPTON
_Author of “Musical Memories,” “Standard Operas,” etc.
Translator of “Memories,” “Immensee,” etc._

WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS

CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1910

Copyright
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1910
Published September 24, 1910

THE · PLIMPTON · PRESS
[W·D·O]
NORWOOD·MASS·U·S·A

Translator’s Preface

The story of the exiled Queen of Naples, Maria Sophia, as the title-page of this little volume sets forth, is the story of a “forgotten heroine.” In many respects it recalls the story of her sister, Elizabeth of Hungary, though her fate was not so tragic. She was saved from the fury of the assassin; but she revealed many of her sister’s attributes—the same courage, the same beauty, the same gayety of disposition, clouded in much the same manner, the same love of nature and of animals, the same love of the people, the same domestic misfortunes. Her comparatively brief sovereignty included a thrilling period of the struggle for Italian unity. Her marriage was a brilliant one, her honeymoon most strange, and her after life most lonely. She was a strong woman united to a weak man, not of her choice and not honored by her love. She had many faults, but of her heroism the siege of Gaeta will always bear witness. The other figures in the story, the fascinating Lola Montez, Count Cavour, the great statesman, King Victor Emanuel, King “Bomba,” and the red-shirted Garibaldi, add to its picturesqueness, and the manners and customs of the court of Bavaria as well as the sketches of the Wittelsbachs are not without historic interest.

G. P. U.

Chicago, _July, 1910_.

Contents

Chapter Page
I The House of Wittelsbach 11
II Life at Munich and Possenhofen 17
III Political Disturbances in Bavaria 24
IV The Wittelsbach Sisters 31
V The Neapolitan Royal Family 37
VI Maria Sophia’s Arrival 44
VII A Strange Honeymoon 50
VIII Accession of Francis II and Maria Sophia 57
IX Garibaldi 63
X The Flight from Naples 70
XI Siege of Gaeta 81
XII Capitulation 90
XIII After the Fall of Gaeta 98
XIV Royalty in Exile 105
XV Conclusion 112
Appendix 121

Illustrations

Maria Sophia, Queen of Naples _Frontispiece_
Maria Sophia at the Time of Accession 48
Francis the Second, King of Naples 58
Francis the Second, in his Sixtieth Year 114

Queen Maria Sophia of Naples