Queen Maria Sophia of Naples, a Forgotten Heroine

MARIA SOPHIA Queen of Naples
Life Stories for Young People
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 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 .
The house of Wittelsbach, one of the most ancient of the royal families of Europe, was divided, toward the end of the eighteenth century, into three branches. The old Elector, Karl Theodore, who died in 1799, was without issue, and his successor, Maximilian of the Pfalz-Zweibrücken line, became the founder of a new dynasty. Being the third son, there had seemed little prospect of succeeding to the throne in his earlier years, most of which were spent in the strictest seclusion at Mannheim and Zweibrücken. Later, he entered the French army and until the outbreak of the French Revolution was stationed as colonel at Strassburg, where the jovial warrior made himself most popular, not only in military but in social circles.