Engraven

COURT AND FASHIONABLE

MAGAZINE,

For MAY, 1807.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

OF

ILLUSTRIOUS LADIES.

The Seventeenth Number,

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN OF NAPLES AND THE SICILIES.

The Court of Maria Theresa was filled with Jesuits; she was a Romanist, in the most bitter sense of the term; and though, but for the assistance of many of the Protestant Princes and Communities of Ger many, she would never have been esta

MARIA CAROLINA, the present Queen of Naples, was born in the year 1753, at Vienna. She is the daughter of the illustrious Maria Theresa, Empress of Germany, a Queen celebrated, at one period, in every quarter of the globe, for the heroic intrepidity with which she sup-blished in her hereditary dominions, she, ported a contested succession to her crown and paternal dominions, and at length triumphed over such of her own subjects as revolted, and reduced the most powerful states of Germany to sue for, and receive peace at her hands.

In the reign of Maria Theresa, a species of policy first received its birth in the Court of Vienna, of which the object was to embrace, in one grand family association, all the crowns and kingdoms of Europe; and, by superadding the obligations of marriage and the sanctity of blood to the treaties that were formed between them, to endeavour to establish a reciprocity of common interest, and the necessity of a permanent and mutual faith.

nevertheless, continued to look upon them all with an invincible dislike, and meditated a persecution against them, whenever she should possess the power.

It was with this view, principally, that she assiduously laboured to form alliances with the most powerful Catholic Princes of Europe, and the objects of her ambition were fully crowned with success.

She had lived to behold her daughter, Maria Antoinette, Queen of France.Her son became Grand Duke of Tuscany, and King of the Romans, elect, in her life time; and her daughter, Maria Carolina, was married to Ferdinand, King of Naples, in the year 1768, many years before the death of the Empress Theresa.

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had been originally betrothed to Ferdinand; but she died before the marriage took place. A singular incident, previous to her being contracted to the King of Naples, is related of this Princess, which is worth preserving.

The elder sister of the Queen of Naples || constant recollection that you are the daughter of Maria Theresa-consider what you owe to such a mother, and that the world will expect from you no less virtue than discretion."-After continuing some time longer in a style of similar exhortation, her Majesty closed the scene, and the procession marched back to the palace.

One night she was summoned by her mother, the Empress Maria Theresa, to attend her to the Royal Chapel contiguous to the palace. Ignorant of what was intended by this solemn appointment, the young Princess obeyed her mother's summons, and was conducted by her into the family vault of the Emperors of Germany. It had been splendidly illuminated on the occasion. The Queen was habited in deep mourning, and surrounded by a cluster of Jesuits. She took the young Princess by the hand, and leading her round the vault, pointed out to her the various coffins and tombs in which were interred the remains of her ancestors:-" You here, my child," exclaimed she, "behold the ashes of those illustrious Princes, who have supported by their courage, and the wisdom of their government, the fame and honour of the House of Austria. They were Princes who have kept up the succession of the Roman name and glory untainted and undiminished to the present period; and whilst the influence of their example shall remain, the star of the House of Austria will never set. They owed their reputation and success to their regard for our holy religion, and their pious cares of the priesthood."

The Jesuits here nodded assent, and, as the Empress was somewhat fatigued by her exertions, they took up the oration, which they continued much in the same strain.

The young Princess remained silent; her Majesty at length revived. She now turned to the various sepulchres and niches in the vault, in which were deposited the remains of the female branches of the Austrian House-" And here, my child," she continued," are the female ancestors of our family; emulate their virtue, their dignity, the unblemished chastity of their lives, and the prudence of their domestic conduct. As the example they left was not lost upon me, let it make the same impression upon you; and add to it, the

If this adventure of mock grandeur and solemnity had thus terminated, all would have been well. Maria Theresa had only acted her part, and the young Princess had received her lesson; but unfortunately a cold, caught from the dampness of the vault, threw the young lady into a violent fever, a few days before she purposed to commence her journey, in order to join her destined husband, the King of Naples. Her death was the result of this illness, and the alliance, for the present, was put an end to. The grand object of the Empress's ambition was not thus to be frustrated: she had another daughter; Ferdinand had seen neither; and was, of course, alike indifferent to both.Maria Carolina, therefore, stepped into the place of her deceased sister, and, though only in the fifteenth year of her age, was immediately contracted to the King of Naples. Ferdinand himself had scarcely exceeded his sixteenth year; of the Bourbon family, brother to the King of Spain, and cousin to the King of France, his descent was the most illustrious of any of the Princes of Europe. His education had been greatly neglected; but bis natural understanding was good, and his heart uncorrupted. In an age, therefore, when learning, by the example of a Frederick of Prussia, was abused to the worst of purposes, in sapping the foundations of religion and morals, and, under the affectation of philosophy, spreading a general unbelief in the doctrines of Christianity amongst the nations of Europe, it was perhaps better for this Prince, that he escaped the tutelage of those who would, doubtless, have replaced ignorance by infidelity.

When the contract of marriage was definitively settled between the two Courts, it seemed to follow next in course, that the parties should be brought together.Accordingly, in the spring of the year