# Robert I, Duke of Parma

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.

## 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 | 31 January 1899(1899-01-31) (aged 29) | Married Ferdinand I, Prince of Bulgaria (later Tsar) and had issue. |
| Ferdinando, Prince of Piacenza | 5 March 1871 | 14 April 1871(1871-04-14) (aged 0) | Heir of Parma in 1871. Died in infancy. |
| Princess Luisa Maria | 24 March 1872 | 22 June 1943(1943-06-22) (aged 71) | |
| Henry, Duke of Parma | 13 June 1873 | 16 November 1939(1939-11-16) (aged 66) | 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 | 16 May 1914(1914-05-16) (aged 39) | |
| Joseph, Duke of Parma | 30 June 1875 | 7 January 1950(1950-01-07) (aged 74) | 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 | 25 January 1959(1959-01-25) (aged 82) | |
| Princess Maria Pia | 9 October 1877 | 29 January 1915(1915-01-29) (aged 37) | |
| Princess Beatrice | 9 January 1879 | 11 March 1946(1946-03-11) (aged 67) | 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 | 27 June 1959(1959-06-27) (aged 78) | 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 | 7 September 1881(1881-09-07) (aged 0) | Died in infancy. |
| Prince Augusto | 22 September 1882 | 22 September 1882(1882-09-22) (aged 0) | (stillborn). Maria Pia died giving birth to this child. |
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:
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
| Princess Maria Adelaide | 5 August 1885 | 6 February 1959(1959-02-06) (aged 73) | A Benedictine nun at St. Cecilia's Abbey, Solesmes. |
| Prince Sixtus | 1 August 1886 | 14 March 1934(1934-03-14) (aged 47) | Married Duchess Hedwige de La Rochefoucauld and had a daughter, Isabelle. |
| Xavier, Duke of Parma | 25 May 1889 | 7 May 1977(1977-05-07) (aged 87) | Titular pretender of Parma 1974–1977. Married Countess Madeleine de Bourbon-Busset and had issue. Carlist pretender to the throne of Spain. |
| Princess Francesca | 22 April 1890 | 7 October 1978(1978-10-07) (aged 88) | A Benedictine nun at St. Cecilia's Abbey, Solesmes. |
| Princess Zita | 9 May 1892 | 14 March 1989(1989-03-14) (aged 96) | Married Emperor Charles I of Austria. Last surviving child of her father's two marriages. |
| Prince Felix | 28 October 1893 | 8 April 1970(1970-04-08) (aged 76) | Married Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg, his first cousin (their mothers were sisters), and had issue, including Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg. |
| Prince René | 17 October 1894 | 30 July 1962(1962-07-30) (aged 67) | Married Princess Margaret of Denmark and had issue, including Queen Anne of Romania. |
| Princess Maria Antonia | 7 November 1895 | 19 October 1977(1977-10-19) (aged 81) | A Benedictine nun at St. Cecilia's Abbey, Solesmes. |
| Princess Isabella | 14 June 1898 | 28 July 1984(1984-07-28) (aged 86) | Died unmarried. |
| Prince Luigi | 5 December 1899 | 4 December 1967(1967-12-04) (aged 67) | Married Princess Maria Francesca of Savoy and had issue. |
| Princess Henrietta Anna | 8 March 1903 | 13 June 1987(1987-06-13) (aged 84) | Died unmarried. |
| Prince Gaetano | 11 June 1905 | 9 March 1958(1958-03-09) (aged 52) | Married Princess Margarete of Thurn and Taxis, daughter of Alessandro, 1st Duke of Castel Duino. They had a daughter, Diana (who married Prince Franz Joseph, son of Frederick, Prince of Hohenzollern) and later divorced. |

## Honours

* Duchy of Parma: Grand Prefect of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St. George
* Spain: Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, 19 January 1854
* Duchy of Modena and Reggio: Grand Cross of the Order of the Eagle of Este, 1856
* Kingdom of Bavaria: Knight of the Order of St. Hubert, 1897
* Grand Duchy of Hesse: Grand Cross of the Ludwig Order, 9 November 1899
* Kingdom of France: Knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit, unknown date.

## Ancestry

Ancestors of Robert I, Duke of Parma :