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Title: The secret history of the court of Spain during the last century
Language: English
Frontispiece
THE SECRET HISTORY OF
THE COURT OF SPAIN
DURING THE LAST CENTURY
BY
RACHEL CHALLICE
NEW YORK
D . A P P L E T O N & C O M PA N Y
MCMIX
AUTHOR’S NOTE
CHAPTER PAGE
Index 345
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Key
===
A = Antonio (son of Duke of Montpensier)
CB = Carlos de Bourbon
CG = Count of Girgenti
DCM = Don Carlos, Count of Montemolin
DP = De la Paz
FA = Francisco de Asis
FP = Francisco de Paula
LF = Luis Ferdinand of Bavaria
MCA = Maria Cristina of Austria
MCN = Maria Cristina of Naples
(sister of Luisa Carlota and of Princess of Beira)
Mcd = Mercedes (cousin to Alfonso XII.)
MF = Maria Francisca of Portugal
(sister of Isabel of Braganza)
MJA = Maria Josefa Amalia of Saxony
MLF = Maria Luisa Fernanda
MM = Maria de las Mercedes (Princess of Asturias)
MT = Maria Teresa
P = Pilar (Infanta)
PM = Princess of Modena
VE = Victoria Eugénie of Battenberg
1800–1804
And then the Queen once more poured into her friend’s ears her
doubts and fears as to her future and that of Charles IV.
From the time Maria Antonia of Naples married the eighteen-
year-old Prince of Asturias in 1802, she proved herself an active
partisan of her husband and his tutor Escoiquiz, and if she had lived
longer her clear-sightedness might have prevented the surrender of
Spain to Bonaparte.
In obedience to her mother, Queen Caroline of Naples, the
Princess of Asturias was unremitting in her efforts to contravert the
plans of her irreconcilable enemy Napoleon, which were
subsequently furthered by the short-sighted policy of Godoy and
Maria Luisa. Secret and almost daily were the letters which passed
between Princess Maria Antonia and Queen Caroline, and, as the
correspondence was conducted in cipher, it entered the Court of
Naples without attracting any attention, and thus many diplomatic
secrets from Madrid travelled thence to England. In the bitter warfare
of personal hatred and political intrigue no accusations were too bad
to be levelled by one part of the Spanish Royal Family against the
other.
The partisans of the Prince and Princess of Asturias declared that
Godoy and Maria Luisa filled the King’s mind with suspicions against
Ferdinand, even to the point of attributing parricidal thoughts to him,
so that the King might disinherit him and put Godoy in his place. And
the followers of Godoy declared that the Princess of Asturias not
only had designs against the Prince of the Peace, but against the
Sovereigns themselves.
The secret correspondence between Queen Caroline and her
daughter was found years afterwards in the house of the Duke of
Infantado, and it showed the hatred of the Prince and his wife
towards the Queen’s favourite, whilst speaking of the King as if he
already had one foot in the grave. One of these letters to Naples was
intercepted by Napoleon, and it fully convinced him of the part
played by Prince Ferdinand and his wife with regard to France.
The people’s discontent with Godoy was fostered by Ferdinand’s
followers, and, indeed, the government of the turbulent country
required a more expert hand than that of the favourite.
The clergy were also enraged when they heard that the Minister
had received a Bull from Rome for the reform of the monastic