Maria Amalia Two Sicilies Queen consort Louis Philippe I king regal royal queenly princely imperial sovereign ruler monarch
Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily, sometimes known as Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies (Maria Amalia Teresa; 26 April 1782 – 24 March 1866) was a Princess of Naples and Sicily and later the Queen of the French from 1830–1848, consort to Louis Philippe I. In 1830, following what is known as the July Revolution, Louis-Philippe became king of France, with Maria Amalia as his consort and queen of the July Monarchy. Maria Amalia did not play an active role in politics and in fact made a concerted effort to remove herself from it. This seems to have been the result of her personality, training, and conception of the role of monarchy. She may also have been aware of the backlash in France against women asserting power over politics where, it was thought, they had undue influence. This became painfully clear with the example of her late aunt, Marie Antoinette. Though she was not a political woman, as a queen known to be a staunch supporter of monarchy in its traditional conception, Maria Amalia was able to escape the suspicion of many of the French who worried that her husband’s ideology was not monarchical enough and tended toward middle class, bourgeois, values at the expense of the proper treatment and conduct of royalty. After her husband was forced from kingship in the extremely turbulent events of the Revolution of 1848, the royal family fled to England. Louis-Philippe died two years later. After the death of her husband, Maria Amalia continued to live in England where she attended daily Mass and was well known to Queen Victoria. Queen Maria Amalia died on 24 March 1866. After her death, the dress she had kept since 1848 when her husband had left France was put on her, according to her last wishes.
Size: 2990px × 4037px
Photo credit: © SOTK2011 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -fashioned, 1800, 19th, 2d, academic, age, aged, amalia, ancient, antiquarian, antique, antiquity, art, artist, artistic, black, book, bw, bygone, century, charcoal, classical, consort, copy, crowned, cut, cut-, drawing, embossed, empire, empress, engrave, engraved, engraver, engraving, etching, expression, face, figure, fine, formal, front, frontispiece, graphic, hand, head, heritage, historic, historical, history, illustrated, illustration, image, imperial, ink, majesty, maria, master, monotone, mood, national, neoclassical, nineteenth, notable, obscure, obsolete, oils, olden, original, painting, paper, pastel, pen, pencil, period, person, personality, pictorial, picture, portrait, portraits, pose, potentate, pre, press, princess, print, printed, printing, profile, proof, publication, publicity, queen, rare, real, realism, realistic, reference, regal, relief, replica, represent, representation, repro, reproduce, reproduction, retro, romantic, sicilies, snapshot, social, standard, steel, studio, study, style, teach, time, title, tool, topic, topical, tract, unusual, victoria, victorian, view, vintage, watercolor, white
