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.