Marie-Amélie of Bourbon, Princess of the Two Sicilies, Queen of the French
Artist: Louis Hersent (French, 1777–1860)
Date: 1836
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: Palace of Versailles, Paris, France
Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily
Marie-Amélie of Bourbon (1782–1866) was the Queen of the French as the wife of King Louis Philippe I. Born a Neapolitan princess, she spent much of her early life in exile. She unexpectedly became queen in 1830 and lived her final years in England.
Born Maria Amalia in Caserta, Italy, she was the daughter of King Ferdinand IV of Naples (later Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies) and Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria, making her a niece of Marie Antoinette. Her large family was forced into exile in Austria and Sicily during the Napoleonic Wars.
She went with him with her husband to France when Louis XVIII became king after Napoleon’s downfall, but she fled to England during the Hundred Days (1815) and returned to Paris in 1817.
When Louis-Philippe ascended the throne in 1830, she lived in fear of a new revolution and avoided public life. With the abdication of Louis-Philippe in February 1848, they went to England. She died on March 24, 1866.
