A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Caroline Maria
CAROLINE MARIA,
Wife of Ferdinand the First, King of the two Sicilies, daughter of the Emperor Francis the First, and of Maria Theresa, born August 13th., 1752; an ambitious and intelligent woman, but, unfortunately, without firmness of character. According to the terms of her marriage contract, the young queen, after the birth of a male heir, was to have a seat in the council of state; but her impatience to participate in the government would not allow her to wait for this event, previous to which she procured the removal of the old minister, Sanucci, who possessed the confidence of the king and of the nation, and raised a Frenchman, named Acton, to the post of prime minister, who ruined the finances of the state by his profusion, and excited the hatred of all ranks by the introduction of a political inquisition. The queen, too, drew upon herself the dislike of the oppressed nation by co-operating in the measures of the minister; and banishment and executions were found insufficient to repress the general excitement.
The declaration by Naples against France (1768) was intended to give another turn to popular feeling; but the sudden invasion of the French drove the reigning family to Sicily. The revolution of Cardinal Ruffo in Calabria, and the republican party in the capital, restored the former rulers in 1799. The famous Lady Hamilton now exerted the greatest influence on the unhappy queen, on her husband, on the English ambassador and Admiral Nelson, and sacrificed more victims than Acton and Vanini had formerly done. After the battle of Marengo, 12,000 Russians could not prevent the conquest of Naples by the French, and the formation of a kingdom out of the Neapolitan dominions for Joseph, (Bonaparte, who was afterwards succeeded in the same by Joachino, (Murat.) The queen was not satisfied with the efforts which the English made for the restitution of the old dynasty, and thereupon quarrelled with Lord Bentinck, the British General in Sicily, who wished to exclude her from all influence in the government. She died in 1814, without having seen the restoration of her family to the throne of Naples.