by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2021

The Duchy of Parma was in today’s northwest Italy and came into existence in 1545 when Pope Paul III made his illegitimate son Pier Luigi Farnese the Duke of Parma and Piacenza, territories that previously were a part of the Papal States. The House of Farnese reigned until 1731 when the male line went extinct. The duchy passed to Felipe V, King of Spain from the Spanish House of Bourbon whose second wife Elizabeth Farnese was the Farnese heiress. Felipe V made Carlos, his only son with Elizabeth Farnese, the Duke of Parma. However, in 1738, Felipe V traded the Duchy of Parma to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine for the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily and Carlos became King of Naples and Sicily.

In 1748, the Duchy of Parma was ceded back to the Bourbons. Infante Felipe of Spain became Duke of Parma and was the founder of the House of Bourbon-Parma, a cadet branch of the Spanish House of Bourbon.  In 1796, the Duchy of Parma was occupied by French troops under Napoleon Bonaparte. It remained in French hands until the defeat of Napoleon in 1814 when the duchy was given to Napoleon’s second wife, Marie-Louise of Habsburg-Lorraine. She reigned until her death in 1847 when the Duchy of Parma was restored to the House of Bourbon-Parma. In 1859, the Duchy of Parma was abolished during the Italian unification movement. It was merged with the Kingdom of Sardinia as part of the unification of Italy. In 1861, Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia was proclaimed the first King of the new, united Kingdom of Italy.

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Maria Pia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Pia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies was the first wife of Roberto I, Duke of Parma from 1854 – 1859 and titular Duke of Parma from 1859 until his death in 1907. As a not quite six-year-old, Roberto succeeded his father who was assassinated and then lost his throne five years later due to the Italian unification movement. Maria Pia della Grazia was born in Gaeta, Italy on August 2, 1849. She was the eighth of the twelve children and the third of the four daughters of Ferdinando II, King of the Two Sicilies and his second wife Maria Theresa of Austria. Maria Pia’s paternal grandparents were Francesco I, King of the Two Sicilies and his second wife Maria Isabella of Spain. Her maternal grandparents were Archduke Karl of Austria, Duke of Teschen and Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg.

Maria Pia’s family, circa 1860, Maria Pia is standing on the left in the first row; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Pia had eleven siblings:

• Luigi of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Count of Trani (1838 – 1886), married Mathilde Ludovika in Bavaria, had one daughter
• Alberto of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Count of Castrogiovanni (1839 – 1844), died in childhood
• Alfonso of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Count of Caserta (1841 – 1934), married his first cousin Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies, had twelve children, the Heads of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies descend from Alfonso
• Princess Maria Annunciata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1843 – 1871), married Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria, had four children including Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary whose assassination in 1914 sparked the start of World War I
• Princess Maria Immaculata Clementina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1844 – 1899), married Archduke Karl Salvator of Austria, had ten children
• Gaetano of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Count of Girgenti (1846 – 1871), married Infanta Isabel of Spain, no children, suffered from epilepsy and poor health, died by suicide
• Giuseppe of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Count of Lucera (1848 – 1851), died in childhood
• Vincenzo of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Count of Melazzo (1851 – 1854), died in childhood
• Pasquale of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Count of Bari (1852 – 1904), morganatically married to Blanche Marconnay, no issue
• Princess Maria Luisa of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1855 – 1874), married Prince Enrico of Bourbon-Parma, Count of Bardi, no children, died one year after her marriage
• Gennaro of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Count of Caltagirone (1857 – 1867), died in childhood from cholera

Maria Pia had one half-brother from her father’s first marriage to Maria Cristina of Savoy. Sadly, Maria Cristina died from childbirth complications five days after giving birth to her only child.

• Francesco II, King of the Two Sicilies (1836 -1894), married Maria Sophie in Bavaria; had one daughter

Maria Pia’s father Ferdinando II had hesitated for months to have surgery for a strangulated hernia. His hesitancy probably caused his death on May 22, 1859, at the age of 49. During Ferdinando II’s reign, the Italian unification movement led by Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia, later Vittorio Emanuele I, King of Italy, began. Shortly before Ferdinando II’s death, the Second War of Italian Independence started. During the reign of Francesco II, Ferdinando II’s son from his first marriage, the 1860-1861 invasion called the Expedition of the Thousand led to the fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which then was annexed to the new Kingdom of Italy in 1861. Maria Pia’s mother Maria Theresa, along with her children, was among the first to leave Naples. She eventually made her way to Rome which was part of the Papal States and not the new Kingdom of Italy. Pope Pius IX placed the Quirinal Palace in Rome at her disposal.

Maria Pia and Roberto on their wedding day; Credit – Wikipedia

While in exile in Rome, negotiations began for the marriage of Maria Pia. After the failed attempts to marry her to an Austrian archduke like her elder sisters Maria Annunziata and Maria Immacolata, Maria Pia was betrothed to her half-first cousin once removed Roberto I, titular Duke of Parma, the son of the assassinated Carlo III, Duke of Parma and Louise Marie Thérèse of France (granddaughter of King Charles X of France). Despite losing his throne and living in exile, Roberto was quite a catch. He had considerable wealth and traveled in a private train of more than a dozen cars. Roberto had several residences including  Schloss Schwarzau  (link in German) in Schwarzau am Steinfeld, Austria, Villa Borbone delle Pianore (link in Italian) in Capezzano Pianore, Italy, and Château de Chambord in Chambord, Centre-Val de Loire, France which he inherited from his maternal uncle Prince Henri, Duke of Bordeaux, Count of Chambord. Maria Pia and Roberto were married in Rome, Italy on April 5, 1869.

Maria Pia and her son Elias in 1881; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Pia and Roberto had twelve children. Six of the children were mentally disabled, two died in infancy, and one was stillborn.

• Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma (1870 – 1899), married Ferdinand I, Prince of Bulgaria (later Tsar), had four children including Tsar Boris I of Bulgaria,
• Ferdinando, Prince of Piacenza (born and died 1871 ), died in infancy
• Princess Luisa Maria of Bourbon-Parma (1872 – 1943), unmarried, mentally disabled
• Enrico, Titular Duke of Parma (1873 – 1939), unmarried, mentally disabled, his brother Elias took up the role as regent and Head of the House of Bourbon-Parma
• Princess Maria Immacolata of Bourbon-Parma (1874 – 1914), unmarried, mentally disabled
• Giuseppe, Titular Duke of Parma (1875 – 1950), unmarried, mentally disabled, his brother Elias continued his role as regent and Head of the House of Bourbon-Parma
• Princess Maria Teresa of Bourbon-Parma (1876 – 1959), unmarried, mentally disabled
• Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Parma (1877 – 1915), unmarried, mentally disabled
• Princess Beatrice of Bourbon-Parma (1879 – 1946), married Count Pietro Lucchesi-Palli, had four children
• Elias, Titular Duke of Parma (1880 – 1959), married Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria, had eight children, from 1907 to 1950, he served as regent for the claims of his two older disabled brothers, Head of the House of Bourbon-Parma
• Princess Maria Anastasia of Bourbon-Parma (born and died 1881), died in infancy
• Prince Augusto of Bourbon-Parma (stillborn 1882)

Chapel of the Villa Borbone in Viareggio, Italy, where Maria Pia is buried; Credit – Di I, Sailko, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27517360

The dangerous practice of close pregnancies and births – twelve children in thirteen years of marriage – made Maria Pia weak and sickly. At the age of 33, Maria Pia died of puerperal fever (childbed fever) on September 29, 1882, in Biarritz, France, a week after giving birth to her last child, a stillborn son. She was buried in the chapel at the Villa Borbone (link in Italian) in Viareggio, Italy. Two years after Maria Pia’s death, Roberto married Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal, the daughter of the deposed Miguel I, King of Portugal and Adelaide of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg. Roberto and Maria Antonia also had twelve children but Maria Antonia lived a long life, dying at the age of 96.

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Works Cited

• Almanachdegotha.org. 2021. Duchy of Parma – House of Bourbon-Parma. [online] Available at: <http://www.almanachdegotha.org/id29.html> [Accessed 11 October 2021].
• En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1849–1882) – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Maria_Pia_of_Bourbon-Two_Sicilies_(1849%E2%80%931882)> [Accessed 18 October 2021].
• Flantzer, Susan, 2021. Ferdinando II, King of the Two Sicilies. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/ferdinando-ii-king-of-the-two-sicilies/> [Accessed 19 October 2021].
• Flantzer, Susan, 2021. Roberto I, Duke of Parma. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/roberto-i-duke-of-parma/> [Accessed 19 October 2021].
• It.wikipedia.org. 2021. Maria Pia di Borbone-Due Sicilie – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Pia_di_Borbone-Due_Sicilie> [Accessed 19 October 2021].
• Louda, Jiri and MacLagan, Michael, 2002. Lines of Succession. New York: Barnes and Noble.