Tea at Trianon: Servant of God Francesco II

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, January 5, 2024

Servant of God Francesco II

A Bourbon prince of the House of Naples and the last King of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. His Queen was a sister of Elisabeth, Empress of Austria. From The Missive:

There is little doubt that Blessed Karol and his devotees would find a kindred spirit in Servant of God Francesco II¹ of the House of Bourbon, the last King of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. He ruled over a kingdom which encompassed the southern part of the Italian peninsula and the island of Sicily. This territory was first organized as a kingdom in A.D. 1130 with the crowning of the first King of Sicily, the Norman Roger II. Yet the foundation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Il Regno, are rooted deep in history, going back from the time of Roger II to the various, prior districts governed by the Lombards, Normans, Byzantines, and Muslims, to the former provinces of the Roman Empire, and finally back to the original Greek colonies of Magna Græcia and the settlements of the Phoenicians.
For his part, Francesco d’Assisi Maria Leopoldo was born on 16 January 1836 to King Ferdinando II and Queen Maria Cristina of Savoy, (herself a Blessed whose “religious devotion was legendary”²). The Queen died “in 1836 from complications giving birth to her only child.”³ Having lost his mother so soon after his birth, Francesco turned to the Blessed Virgin Mary and developed a strong, filial devotion to her. His education was overseen by the priests and members of the court. “Like his mother, Francesco was very devout, thought by many to be more seminarian than soldier.”⁴

After his father’s death, Francesco II ascended the throne of Il Regno on 22 May 1859 at 23 years of age. The first year of his reign was one of great activity – projects, improvements, and reforms – undertaken for the sake of his citizens and the good of the Kingdom. But, the French Revolution still casting its long shadow, his benevolent and industrious reign was fated to be short. In May 1860, colluding with and aided by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia (located in its insular namesake and the north of the Italian peninsula) and with the assistance of the British, Giuseppe Garibaldi’s Expedition of the Thousand landed in western Sicily. In August of the same year, Garibaldi’s troops crossed over to the mainland, bribing officials to treason along the way. Out of love for his people and their patrimony, in early September, Francesco withdrew from Naples, the capital city, to the fortress of Gaeta, located on the western coast midway between Naples and Rome, where he and his wife, Queen Maria Sophia of Bavaria, having left behind their personal wealth and belongings, took refuge with 20,000 troops. Francesco himself fought on the walls with his men while his wife served as a nurse. After several months of siege and bombardment, on 13 February 1861, faced with impossible odds, the fortress surrendered. On 14 February 1861, the King and Queen left the fortress among the tears of their troops, who remained loyal until the end, with a military farewell. They were received aboard a ship waiting in the harbor, and the flag of Il Regno was struck.
Francesco II lived the rest of his life in exile, first in Rome and then, after Rome itself was taken by Piedmontese forces, in Paris and Vienna, with his latter days in Arco. During his exile, he was well-known for his generosity to those in need – no one went away without some assistance. He spent his last days simply in Arco, his royal personage concealed. In the mornings he would attend daily Mass and, in the evenings, return to the church to pray the rosary in common. “Francesco died in Arco, in Trent, then part of Austria”⁵ on 27 December 1894, the Feast of St. John the Apostle. It is fitting that one who adopted the Blessed Virgin as his mother die on the feast of him to whom Our Lord entrusted His mother while hanging on the cross. (Read more.)