Robert I, Duke of Parma
Template:Short description Template:Infobox royalty
Robert I (Italian: Roberto Carlo Luigi Maria) (French: Robert Charles Louis Marie); 9 July 1848 – 16 November 1907) was the last sovereign Duke of Parma and Piacenza from 1854 until 1859, when the duchy was annexed to Sardinia-Piedmont during the Risorgimento. He was a member of the House of Bourbon-Parma and descended from Philip, Duke of Parma, the third son of King Philip V of Spain and Queen Elisabeth Farnese.
Biography
Early life
Born in Florence, Robert was the elder son of Charles III, Duke of Parma and Louise Marie Thérèse d'Artois, daughter of Charles Ferdinand, duc de Berry and granddaughter of King Charles X of France. He succeeded his father to the ducal throne in 1854 upon the latter's assassination, when he was only six, while his mother stood as regent. The duchess initially dismissed some of her unpopular husband's most reactionary advisers, but was surprised by the Mazzini uprisings in July 1854 and then reverted to a harshly repressive policy that continued until the Second Italian War of Independence.
When Robert was eleven years old, he was deposed, as Piedmontese troops annexed other Italian states, ultimately to form the Kingdom of Italy. Despite losing his throne, Robert and his family enjoyed considerable wealth, traveling in a private train of more than a dozen cars from his castles at Schwarzau am Steinfeld near Vienna, to Villa Pianore in northwest Italy, and the magnificent Château de Chambord in France.
Death and legacy
Less than four months after Robert's death in November 1907, the Grand Marshal of the Austrian court declared six of the children of his first marriage legally incompetent (they had severe intellectual disabilities), at the behest of his widow, Maria Antonia. Nonetheless, Robert's primary heir was his son Elias, the youngest son of his first marriage and the only one of his sons by that marriage to beget children of his own. Elias also became the legal guardian of his six elder siblings. While Elias had eight children, seven of whom lived to advanced age, only one of them ever married; she had three children.
The two eldest sons of Robert's second marriage, Sixte and Xavier, eventually sued their older half-brother Elias for trying to obtain a greater share of the ducal fortune. They lost in the French courts, leaving the children of Robert's second marriage with very modest wealth, and the need to earn a living; some of his younger sons served in the Austrian armed forces. Nevertheless, two of the children born of the second marriage made extraordinary marriages: Felix married the grand-duchess of Luxembourg shortly after her accession and is the grandfather of the present duke. Zita married the last Emperor of Austria; the present claimant is her grandson.[1]
Marriages and issue
On 5 April 1869, while in exile in Rome, he married Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1849–1882), daughter of King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies. She was his half first cousin once removed, as her father (Ferdinand II) and Robert's maternal grandmother (Princess Caroline Ferdinande of Bourbon-Two Sicilies) were half-siblings, both being children of Francis I of the Two Sicilies from his two different wives.
Maria Pia belonged to the deposed royal family of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies and was thus a Bourbon, like her husband. She gave birth to 12 children, many of whom had intellectual disabilities, before dying in childbirth:
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Princess Maria Luisa | 17 January 1870 | Template:Death date and age | Married Ferdinand I, Prince of Bulgaria (later Tsar) and had issue. | |
| Ferdinando, Prince of Piacenza | 5 March 1871 | Template:Death date and age | Heir of Parma in 1871. Died in infancy. | |
| Princess Luisa Maria | 24 March 1872 | Template:Death date and age | ||
| Henry, Duke of Parma | 13 June 1873 | Template:Death date and age | Titular pretender of Parma 1907-1939. From 1907 (his father's death), his brother Elias took up the role as head of the family, although Henry continued to be considered the nominal pretender to the ducal throne. He held the title until his death. | |
| Princess Maria Immacolata | 21 July 1874 | Template:Death date and age | ||
| Joseph, Duke of Parma | 30 June 1875 | Template:Death date and age | Titular pretender of Parma 1939-1950. His brother Elias continued the role as head of the family as he had done with their brother Henry. | |
| Princess Maria Teresa | 15 October 1876 | Template:Death date and age | ||
| Princess Maria Pia | 9 October 1877 | Template:Death date and age | ||
| Princess Beatrice | 9 January 1879 | Template:Death date and age | Married Count Pietro Lucchesi-Palli (grandson of Princess Caroline of Naples and Sicily and her second husband) and had issue. | |
| Elias, Duke of Parma | 23 July 1880 | Template:Death date and age | Titular pretender of Parma 1950–1959. Married Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria and had issue. Last surviving child of his father's first marriage. | |
| Princess Maria Anastasia | 25 August 1881 | Template:Death date and age | Died in infancy. | |
| Prince Augusto | 22 September 1882 | Template:Death date and age | (stillborn). Maria Pia died giving birth to this child.[2][3] |
After his first wife's death in childbirth, he remarried on 15 October 1884 to Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal, daughter of the deposed King Miguel I of Portugal and Adelaide of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg. Maria Antonia was his second cousin once removed as her paternal grandmother (Charlotte of Spain) and Robert's great-grandmother (Maria Luisa of Spain) were siblings, both being daughters of Charles IV of Spain and Maria Luisa of Parma. She had another 12 children:
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Honours
- Template:Country data Duchy of Parma: Grand Prefect of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George[4]
- Template:Country data Spain: Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, 19 January 1854[5]
- Template:Flagicon image Duchy of Modena and Reggio: Grand Cross of the Order of the Eagle of Este, 1856[6]
- Template:Country data Kingdom of Bavaria: Knight of the Order of St. Hubert, 1897[7]
- Template:Country data Grand Duchy of Hesse: Grand Cross of the Ludwig Order, 9 November 1899[8]
- Template:Country data Kingdom of France: Knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit, unknown date.[9]
Ancestry
Patrilineal descent
Template:Chart top Robert's patriline is the line from which he is descended father to son.
Patrilineal descent is the principle behind membership in royal houses, as it can be traced back through the generations - which means that if Duke Robert were to choose an historically accurate house name it would be Robert, as all his male-line ancestors have been of that house.
Robert is a member of the House of Bourbon-Parma, a sub-branch of the House of Bourbon-Spain, itself originally a branch of the House of Bourbon, and thus of the Capetian dynasty and of the Robertians.
Robert's patriline is the line from which he is descended father to son. It follows the Dukes of Parma as well as the Kings of Spain, France, and Navarre. The line can be traced back more than 1,200 years from Robert of Hesbaye to the present day, through Kings of France & Navarre, Spain and Two-Sicilies, Dukes of Parma and Grand-Dukes of Luxembourg, Princes of Orléans and Emperors of Brazil. It is one of the oldest in Europe.
- Robert II of Worms and Rheingau (Robert of Hesbaye), 770 - 807
- Robert III of Worms and Rheingau, 808 - 834
- Robert IV the Strong, 820 - 866
- Robert I of France, 866 - 923
- Hugh the Great, 895 - 956
- Hugh Capet, 941 - 996
- Robert II of France, 972 - 1031
- Henry I of France, 1008–1060
- Philip I of France, 1053–1108
- Louis VI of France, 1081–1137
- Louis VII of France, 1120–1180
- Philip II of France, 1165–1223
- Louis VIII of France, 1187–1226
- Louis IX of France, 1215–1270
- Robert, Count of Clermont, 1256–1317
- Louis I, Duke of Bourbon, 1279–1342
- James I, Count of La Marche, 1319–1362
- John I, Count of La Marche, 1344–1393
- Louis, Count of Vendôme, 1376–1446
- Jean VIII, Count of Vendôme, 1428–1478
- François, Count of Vendôme, 1470–1495
- Charles de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, 1489–1537
- Antoine, King of Navarre, Duke of Vendôme, 1518–1562
- Henry IV, King of France and of Navarre, 1553–1610
- Louis XIII, King of France and Navarre, 1601–1643
- Louis XIV, King of France and Navarre, 1638–1715
- Louis, Grand Dauphin of France, 1661–1711
- Philip V of Spain, 1683–1746
- Philip, Duke of Parma, 1720–1765
- Ferdinand, Duke of Parma, 1751–1802
- Louis of Etruria, 1773–1803
- Charles II, Duke of Parma, 1799–1883
- Charles III, Duke of Parma, 1823–1854
- Robert I, Duke of Parma, 1848–1907
See also
References
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- ↑ Willis, Daniel, The Descendants of Louis XIII, Clearfield Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, 1999, Template:ISBN, p. 342.
- ↑ Beate Hammond: "Maria Theresia, Elisabeth, Zita; Jugendjahre großer Kaiserinnen", Ueberreuter 2002
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- ↑ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreich Bayern (1906), "Königliche Orden" p. 8
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- Pages with script errors
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- 1848 births
- 1907 deaths
- 19th-century dukes of Parma
- Pretenders to the throne of Parma
- Princes of Parma and Piacenza
- Princes of Bourbon-Parma
- Exiled royalty
- House of Bourbon-Parma
- Tuscan nobility
- Spanish infantes
- Knights of the Golden Fleece of Spain
- Child pretenders
- Monarchs deposed as children