January 4, 1775
I had my son.
Carlo Tito Francesco Giuseppe, Duke of Calabria, heir to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
A strong and healthy child, his wails pierced the night air, as if he, too, was celebrating our joint triumph. Holding him in my arms for the first time, I felt the weight of not just him but of all that I must now accomplish.
Once, Countess Lerchenfeld told me that it wasn’t just the Romans who had occupied Sicily. Great Arab dynasties ruled the land as far back as 832. They had universities filled with great mathematicians and scientists at the forefront of innovation. Irrigation systems were built that brought water to land that even the Romans had given up on. And silk, the finest silk in all of Europe, so rich that it rivaled that of the Orient, was brought to Sicily. Even after the arrival of the Normans, we were a bastion of science and progress, building castles as grand as anything you could find within the Holy Roman Empire.
Now, after centuries of changing monarchies and waves of plague, the country was in ruins and our treasures were ravaged. Naples and Sicily were nothing more than city-states at the mercy of Spain. Any requests made by King Carlos were fulfilled by Tanucci, regardless of the needs of our people.
As I sat up in bed, holding my son in my arms, I knew that I would finally have my opportunity to take over the country. With my influence, we wouldn’t be a reflection of Spain or Austria. “You, my darling boy, have made me a very happy woman,” I said, kissing my son’s forehead.
A week later, feeling my strength return, I made my way to the council chambers. Before Carlo was born, I would sneak into the long room when the council was not in session, my fingers trailing along the grain of the shiny lacquered table, imagining what it would be like to sit amongst the men, to be able to rule the Two Sicilies. At the far end of the room, behind the seat designated for the king, tiny particles of dust were dancing in the light that tumbled in from the open window. Slowly I moved to the head of the table, reveling in my long shadow as it stretched out before me. Sitting in the place meant for the king was…exhilarating. I could see in my mind’s eye all the nobility and heads of state looking to me for guidance.
Now, I would make Naples and Sicily a glorious country once more. As I walked through the door of the council chambers, proud of my achievement, I was greeted by looks of shock from men that sat around the table. At the head, where Ferdinand should have been sitting, was Tanucci. He had stopped midsentence, his jaw agape.
“La Sua Maestà, what brings you here today?” Tanucci stammered.
“I’m here to take my place on the council.”
The other men openly laughed. I could feel my heart pound and heat rise up my neck. I was not going to be laughed at, especially by the likes of them. Storming forward, I grabbed an empty chair from the corner and slammed it down in the one small opening between the two men closest to me. Looking around the table, I could see Signor Viventor, Signor Medici, and many other nobles, still looking surprised by my presence, but one person was missing. “Where is Ferdinand?” I asked.
Tanucci chuckled and wiped a small tear from the corner of his eye. “He doesn’t like to be bothered with matters of state. He is out hunting.”
“Oh, well,” I said, trying to regain my position, “I’m here now, so we can continue our meeting.”
“Mi scusi, we don’t mean to be disrespectful,” Tanucci began, “but wouldn’t you feel better planning court amusements with your ladies? Or planning the castle’s garden? You needn’t trouble yourself with such bothersome affairs as these.”
“Per the marriage contract that was negotiated between my mother and King Carlos, I am here to fulfill my duty as regent to the prince of the Two Sicilies.” I folded my hands on the table before me and stared into Tanucci’s soulless brown eyes at the opposite end, the place meant for the king. I gave a small smile of triumph when he was the first to break his stare.
“Surely, we don’t need a regent yet. The prince is but a babe,” Tanucci said.
“It is never too early to properly train a future king,” I countered.
“I don’t remember any discussion with King Carlos over this.”
“Maybe he didn’t confide in you as much as you thought. I read the marriage contract myself.”
“Then you must be mistaken,” he retorted.
“No. I don’t believe so. My mother and I discussed this; it was well planned out long before I arrived in Naples. Signor Tanucci, are you saying that the empress of the Holy Roman Empire is a liar?” I exaggerated the shock in my voice for effect as I reminded him and the rest of the council who my mother was. I knew her influence was the biggest card I could play in this argument, and I wasn’t afraid to use it.
The attention of the men sitting at the table volleyed between Tanucci and me. As their heads turned back to Tanucci, he began to sputter. “No, no, I would never make such an assertion.”
“Then you are willing to create an international incident,” I said.
“International incident?” Tanucci said, trying to catch up.
“You see, by not allowing me to sit here on the council, you’ll be in violation of the marriage contract.” I looked about the table. “Tell me, which one of you is the treasurer?”
A mouse of a man slowly raised his hand. “I-I am.” He sniffled a little as his eyes darted about the room.
“Would the treasury be able to refund my dowry to the Holy Roman Empire?”
“Refund your dowry?” Tanucci questioned, his voice rising to a pitch of a mezzo-soprano. “What is the meaning of this?”
“Mi scusi, signore, but I asked a question of your treasurer.” This is what my mother had trained me for. I gestured toward the treasurer. “Signor, please continue. Would the treasury be able to pay my dowry back in full?”
“No,” he said. He was so quiet that I almost didn’t hear him.
“So the money that was sent here from my mother has already been spent. Is it possible to get a full accounting of the funds?”
“The council does not have time for these games,” Tanucci roared.
“If you violate my marriage contract, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies will owe the Holy Roman Empire the entirety of my dowry. Also, because you cannot pay interest on the funds or pay them back, for that matter, my children, all three of them, would become property of the Holy Roman Empire.”
“The royal family cannot be given away,” Tanucci insisted.
“Oh, but they can. If you read the fine print of the contract, you will see that Maria Theresa and her coruler—Joseph, my brother—can take possession of me and my children. You can try to fight me on this, but I guarantee you my family’s armies far outweigh those of Naples and Sicily. That is not even considering the armies of my brothers in Tuscany and Milan or my brother-in-law’s men in Parma. May I also remind the council that my dear sister is the queen of France. I am sure their army would like an excuse to invade.”
“You would purposely ruin this country because you can’t get your way?” Tanucci said.
“Well, my mother must refer to Ferdinand and me as the Royal Brats for a reason.”
“La Sua Maestà,” one of the other men said, “if you did this, you would not only bankrupt the country but would never be allowed to remarry. You would spend the rest of your days in a convent.”
I shrugged. “The convents in Austria are quite lovely. I don’t need to remarry. My life will be very full raising the future king of Naples under the influence of Austria.”
These men were loyal to Spain, and Spain only. To them, the thought of the Habsburgs taking over would be tantamount to a bloodless invasion.
“I believe it would be prudent to let the queen stay here,” Medici began. “Tanucci, you can follow up on the contract terms before the next session.”
“Very well, she can remain here for now, as an observer,” Tanucci grumbled, and he restarted the meeting.
Medici made eye contact with me and gave me a little nod of approval before turning his attention back to matters of state.
Leaving the council chambers at the end of the meeting, I pulled the treasurer aside. “I meant what I said. I expect a full accounting of the country’s finances.”
The look of fear that crossed his face gave me immense joy for the rest of the day.
* * *
The following week, I arrived at the council chambers, my personal diary in hand, ready to take notes, when I nearly ran into Ferdinand sulking by the door. “What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Tanucci informed me that I must come to every council meeting from now on. Apparently I am supposed to act the part of king.” He fiddled with a coin in his hand. “Now you’re here, so this meeting won’t be dull.”
As we entered the room, Tanucci beckoned Ferdinand toward him. There were a few minutes of comical confusion about exactly where the men would sit. Tanucci and Ferdinand both went for the same seat at the head of the table and then tried to acquiesce to the other at the same time. Eventually Tanucci took the coveted seat, with Ferdinand to the right, his long legs stretching out before him as he slumped in the chair.
“We have received word that there is another uprising in Palermo,” Medici began. “Signor Viventor, can we send two thousand soldiers to the city to keep things under control?”
Signor Viventor’s body swayed as he made a gesture of dismissal with his hand; he was drunk again. “Uprising or Barbary raids, they are all the same. What can we do?” he said while unsuccessfully squelching a burp. “The people of Sicily are like children. They’ll tire out from their tantrum, and the world will go on. Sending troops would be a waste of time. I should know—I’m a doctor.”
“Who is the viceroy?” I asked. “Have we elicited an opinion from him on these matters?”
“Why would Giovanni Fogliani Sforza give us any opinions? He isn’t in Palermo,” one of the men said with a small chuckle, as if I should have known this already. Meanwhile, Ferdinand let out a large and obnoxious yawn.
“Well, where is he then?”
“I believe he is hunting,” one of the men said. “I’m not sure where, though.”
“Oh, Giovanni is always one of my favorite hunting companions,” Ferdinand said, cheering up. “Let’s see, it’s January so he is most likely at his estate outside of Salerno. Unless he has gone to his family’s home in Milan.”
“Does he ever go to Palermo?”
“Usually in September, but it can vary,” Ferdinand responded.
I choked on my shock. “If he is the viceroy for Sicily, shouldn’t he be living in Sicily? How can he govern?”
“Govern?” Tanucci said, scoffing. “We don’t expect him to govern. All the edicts for Sicily are sent there directly from Naples. Further, the Sicilian nobility like to have him out of the way. We need to keep them happy, after all.”
“No wonder our people are revolting. How can we effectively manage our people if there is not a proper government in place?” I said. “I make a motion that we remove Signor Fogliani immediately and replace him with someone in Sicily.”
The table around me erupted with counterarguments:
“Fogliani has been in his position for years. He bought his title with his family’s hard-earned money. How can we take it away?”
“You must understand we have a way of doing things here in Naples. You don’t understand because you are from Vienna.”
“How can it be too much to ask for a viceroy to be where he belongs?” I said. I thought about the way the Holy Roman Empire was organized. Yes, Vienna was the seat of the central government, but there were electors that acted as an intermediary for the empress.
The men looked at me as if I were daft before one of them spoke up. “By being within the Two Sicilies, he is still in Sicily, just not the Sicily that you imagine.”
“But why isn’t he on the island?”
“Who wants to be on the island of Sicily anyway?” someone said, and the men around me chuckled.
I was growing frustrated. Talking with these men made me feel like I was speaking in circles. But I had to be like my mother. Not once did she break to surrender when she was told no. If she had become agitated or openly cried, her enemies would have pounced. Slowing my breathing, I did my best to channel her, to imagine what my mother would have said if she were standing beside me. “The people need to see that they have a government that cares. That we are not some nameless entity ruling from a city that most of them will never visit. We need a clear and decisive presence.”
“La regina is being logical,” Medici said, cutting through the chatter. “We should install a viceroy from Sicily. Perhaps with his oversight, we could put an end to the Sicilian foolishness once and for all.”
Reluctantly, the others agreed with Medici’s logic. While the men voted for a new viceroy, I watched Medici. I couldn’t tell if he was friend or foe, but for now, I would accept him as an ally. I needed him and his influence if I was ever going to get Tanucci and his followers out of Naples.
“Well, I shall be on my way,” Ferdinand said, getting up from his chair.
“You’re leaving?” Tanucci said. “The meeting’s only just begun.”
Ferdinand shrugged. “Work with my wife,” he said. “She knows everything anyway.” And with that, he strode out of the room and the rest of the men turned to face me.
I smiled graciously. “Let’s move on to our next subject, shall we?”
December 20, 1777
Charlotte,
I need your most prudent and earnest advice. Joseph has asked for my assistance in getting the French government involved in his acquisition of southern Bavaria. I don’t have the mind for political games as you do, and your wisdom in these matters would be greatly appreciated. Joseph seeks to invade southern Bavaria, but he expects me to persuade France to help.
France has become close with those Americans—that is the name that the people of the American colonies have begun to call themselves. Their ambassador, a man named Benjamin Franklin, has created quite the stir. In lieu of wearing a wig, he wears a fur cap. The people are most enamored with him; his image appears on almost everything, from snuffboxes to hats. We couldn’t help but have him at Versailles so that he could explain to us his invention called electricity. He has charmed the nobility, which has worked to his advantage, since he has been asking for money from anyone who will listen, and he was able to convince our foreign minister, Charles Gravier, to recognize this United States of America as a legitimate country.
While these men argue over the Bavarian territory, the Americans are struggling for their freedom, and by supporting them, we could deal a fatal blow to our archenemy, England.
I can either side with our family in another pointless war, led by our brother, or side with the nobility, for once earning their respect. Please let me know your council as soon as you get this letter.
Yours,
Antoinette