Author Topic: Maria Pia of Savoy, Queen of Portugal  (Read 66285 times)

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YaBB_Jose

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Maria Pia of Savoy, Queen of Portugal
« on: December 24, 2005, 12:09:11 PM »
 D. Maria Pia of Savoy (1847-1911)
Her remains will be transferred to Portugal on 2006.
She is the only queen still buried abroad (apart of Auguste Victoria).
After the republican revolution (1910) she left to exile with her younger son D. Afonso, duke of Oporto, in her home country where she was well received by her sister in law Queen Margarita.
Her mind had suffered a lot after the murder of her son King D. Carlos and grandson D. Luis Felipe in 1908.
The death of her sister Clotilde Pss. Napoléon, to whom she was very attached too, only made things worst and she just let herself go.
At the moment of her death she is quoted to have said to her maids/pages to turn her bed in the direction of Portugal.
She was buried in Superga at the Savoy's pantheon.

José

YaBB_Jose

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Re: Maria Pia of Savoy, Queen of Portugal
« Reply #1 on: December 24, 2005, 12:18:25 PM »
There is a photo of the 3 ladies in the Saboya princesses thread but I don't know how to post it here  :-[.
May be someone will do it  ::) .

José

Eric_Lowe

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Re: Maria Pia of Savoy, Queen of Portugal
« Reply #2 on: December 24, 2005, 01:35:50 PM »
That would be nice. I heard the Aduya Palace in Lisbon contain ed a lot of momentoes of this fasinating and extravagent queen, whose jewel collection was large.

Grand_Duke

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Re: Maria Pia of Savoy, Queen of Portugal
« Reply #3 on: December 25, 2005, 11:46:26 AM »
Quote
That would be nice. I heard the Aduya Palace in Lisbon contain a lot of momentoes of this fasinating and extravagent queen, whose jewel collection was large.


Sorry Eric, but it writes "Ajuda Palace" which was the Royal residence of Queen Maria Pia and her husband King Luís I of Portugal. She got the Palace full of paintings, photos and statues of their parents, husband and sons. It is a wonderful palace!

Grand_Duke

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Re: Maria Pia of Savoy, Queen of Portugal
« Reply #4 on: December 25, 2005, 11:50:11 AM »


D. Maria Pia (1847-1911)

Daughter of the archduchess Maria Adelaide of Austria and Victor Emanuel of Piemonte, king of Sicily (1849) and Italy after the unification in 1869.
She was born in Turim on the 16th of October 1847 and died in exile, in the castle of Stupinigi (Piemonte) on the 5th of July 1911.
She married at the age of 15, in 1862, to King D. Luis I, and they had 2 sons: D. Carlos, the future king and D. Afonso.
She was a woman of temper and some heroic acts were attributed to her.

Grand_Duke

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Re: Maria Pia of Savoy, Queen of Portugal
« Reply #5 on: December 25, 2005, 12:31:31 PM »


Queen Maria Pia of Portugal
1880
Carolus-Duran, French portrait painter/teacher
Palácio Nacional da Ajuda, Lisbon, Portugal *
Oil on canvas
23.6 x 15.4 cm

* this painting hangs in the "Queen's Portrait Room" at Ajuda Palace.

Grand_Duke

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Re: Maria Pia of Savoy, Queen of Portugal
« Reply #6 on: December 26, 2005, 06:45:50 AM »
The Ajuda Palace is still used today by the President of Republica of Portugal in reception parties for foreign Heads of State.
 
It is also used when a new Prime-Minister and his Government is elected and take power.
« Last Edit: September 30, 2010, 10:26:09 PM by trentk80 »

Grand_Duke

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Re: Maria Pia of Savoy, Queen of Portugal
« Reply #7 on: December 26, 2005, 06:57:20 AM »
Quote
this fascinating and extravagent queen, whose jewel collection was large.


Yes, Maria Pia was very extravagant. She used a new dress everyday and would never repeat it. The next day she would use another new dress and the yesterday's one was sended to the National Theatre.

So, she always had big debts even when she died. Her jewel collection was sold to pay her debts.

Michael_II

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Re: Maria Pia of Savoy, Queen of Portugal
« Reply #8 on: December 26, 2005, 07:57:26 AM »
There is an interesting story about how she once held up a te deum at the catheral so that when she entered to sun would shine through just right to reflect off the tiara she was wearing :D

Grand_Duke

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Re: Maria Pia of Savoy, Queen of Portugal
« Reply #9 on: December 26, 2005, 08:13:36 AM »
Quote
She was a woman of temper and some heroic acts were attributed to her.

She was a woman of temper with great courage.

During one revolution against the government, on 19th May 1870, the rebels went to Ajuda Palace asking the King to dismiss the Prime-Minister.
The head of the rebels was an army marshal and he wanted to be the next Prime-Minister.
Queen Maria Pia, who considered this revolution as high treason and very disturbed to have her house surrounded by rebels, said to the marshal: "If I was the King, I would order you to be shot."

In 1873, she was walking with her 2 sons in the beach of Cascais (near Lisbon) when a great wave took the children. Without hesitation she throw herself into the sea to save her sons. All 3 almost died but they were saved by a man who worked in the beach lighthouse. Maria Pia and the man were awarded with a medal by the King. The man also received a lifelong-pension.


(there are other episodes that I will write soon)

Grand_Duke

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Re: Maria Pia of Savoy, Queen of Portugal
« Reply #10 on: December 26, 2005, 03:39:28 PM »
My dear Queen Maria Pia


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Re: Maria Pia of Savoy, Queen of Portugal
« Reply #11 on: December 28, 2005, 07:12:32 PM »
Maria Pia of Savoy received her name, Pia, in honour of her godfather, Pope Pius IX. She was considered beautiful, very communicative, very generous and loved by everyone. She was a woman of fearsome temperament who, thirty years before on the afternoon of one of Portugal's many military coups, had dared confront the terrible Duke of Saldanha with the words: 'Marshal, if I were a man, I should have you shot'. She was now sixty, still full of energy, and when turmoil was brewing in Lisbon, she had no qualms about walking the streets with no escort other than that required by protocol.

She had no concept of the value of money and was the despair of the royal treasury. For some time in her later yeaers, she showed signs of mental instability, but she continued to charm all those who come near her.
They also serve who only stand and wait--John Milton
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Eric_Lowe

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Re: Maria Pia of Savoy, Queen of Portugal
« Reply #12 on: December 28, 2005, 08:19:35 PM »
I read somewhere that Maria Pia did not get along with her daughter-in-law, Queen Amalie. It was not until the double tragedy that unite the two women in grief. Is that true ?  ???

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Re: Maria Pia of Savoy, Queen of Portugal
« Reply #13 on: December 28, 2005, 08:51:11 PM »
I've read that their personalities and interests were very dissimilar and this led to friction.
They also serve who only stand and wait--John Milton
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Callasboy

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Re: Maria Pia of Savoy, Queen of Portugal
« Reply #14 on: January 18, 2006, 04:40:43 AM »
What a pleasant surprise it was to run into this groups discussion. I would like to thank you for the wonderful pictures of our marvellous Queen, one of the most powerful, controversial, and dramatic figures to ever grace the pages of the history of Portugal within the last 150 years.

D. Maria Pia's contradictory nature was probably the fruit of early loss and disappointment. Having been forced to marry a man she didn't love at such an early age, and move from the splendour of the Italian Court, home to everything she knew, and everyone she loved, to the provincial Portuguese court still recovering from a violent civil war, decades of foreign occupation, and the horrors of the earthquake of 1775, must have had the necessary impact to generate a  personality that could be equally loved and hated in equal measures.

Savagely criticised for her reckless spending, Maria Pia would rise to the occasion by confronting her critics saying 'If they want a Queen, they will have to pay for it", or " Let them talk until they explode". This type of behaviour, no doubt rooted in the need to compensate for the loneliness and rejection she felt, could easily be counterbalanced by selfless and profoundly generous acts. To the Court and Government she might have been a proud and capricious Queen. To the people she was a pious one with the ability of generate love and fidelity among her lowly subjects. To this day she is known for her generosity, and constant work to help the poor.

The differences of personality between herself and her daughter in law are well documented. It is important to mention however that HM always behaved with the utmost courtesy towards D. Amelia. It was Amelia, with her somewhat "bourgeois" principles that constantly criticized her mother in law. This is very clear in her memoirs. There is however one point that I must make. While D Maria Pia was deeply loved by the people, D. Amelia was regarded with suspicion. This wonderful character that represented in every way the regal splendour that can only be incarnated by the person of the Queen was no doubt doing something right.