The Washington herald., 1916-05-12
YOUR WEDDING DAY
And the Famous Men and Women
Who Have Shared 1t.
May 12-Ferdinand Nv and Maria
Carolina of Naples.
BY MARY MARSHALL.


HE is very ugly, but one gets used to
that: and as to his character. it is all
much better than was told. What irri-
tates me most is that he thinks he is
handsome and clever and he is neither
the one nor the other. / must tell you
and confess that I don't love him except
from duty, but I do all 1 can to make
him think have a passion for him. He
says that he loves me very much, but
he will not do anything that I want"
1t was in these candid words that the
siXteen-year-old Maria Carolina, daugh-
ter of Maria Theresa of Austria and sis
ter OF the ill-starred Marie Antoinette
OF France, wrote to her goyerness a few
weeks after her marriage to Ferdinand
", king of Naples.
At the time of Maria Cardinals mar
rage, l4S years ago today, no one but a
true prophet could have predicted any
thing but unhappiness for the little
princess. She had been brought up al
most like nun, under the strictest su-
pervision Of her mother, the" great Aus
trian empress, Maria Theresa. She was
deVotedly attached to her sisters; she
loved Austria and she had no desire to
leave the scenes of her childhood. Then
suddenly all this changed. She was sent,
unaccompanied by any OF her immediate
family, down to the licentious southern
NONAN VI Naples, 10 DtCOIl6 Ine Wlle OF
an unframed prince who, rumor said,
was a person of low and vulgar. If not
absolutely vicious, tastes and habits. or
course, the little princess shed oceans of
tears. and of course the mothers heart
was pierced with regret. But it was all
part OF the game of royalty. The al
lance was of great value to the royal
family and to the court, and so the six
teen-year-old Maria Carolina was sent.
lngs. She knew that Of all her daugh-
tiers Maria Carolina was most devoted
to the Fatherland. She knew that the
girl loved the gray skies and the green
meadows and the deep woods of Ger
many. She knew that she was impetuous,
impatient, and she knew. too, that she
had not had sufficient training in the
difficult art Of being queen So the EN-
press gave her some good advice which
Is preserved in an interesting letter writ
ten little while before the wedding:
DO not always be talking about our
country or drawing comparisons between
our customs and theirs. There is good
and bad to be found in every country.
In your heart and in the uprightness Of
your mind, be a German. In all that is
unimportant. though IN nothing that is
tan"
So the little princess was married by
proxy in Austria and set out on her long
journey to the land of strangers to, be
the wife of the man whom she had
learned to hate even before she had seen
him
Maria Carolina had expected to find
him ugly and she was not disappointed.
She wrote back to her sister. Marie
Antonettc, after the first few DAYS, that
she had been so unhappy that were she
able TO go through the ordeal again she
would wish first to be dead And the king
was not apparently very much in love
at first sight either: early in the morn
ing OF the very day after their mar
rtaGe he started out on one Of his usual
hunting trips and quite forgot all about
tn" little bride at home
But he did not forget her for long.
| Less beautiful, perhaps, though more
Voluptuous than her sister Marie An
toinette, the young queen possess a
charm and a COquetry that no man could
long resist. Child though she was. she
was setting out to make the king believe
that she was passionately in love with
| him. And in the end the uncouth kind
| hearted, simplc-soUled king fell deeply and
irrevocably in love with his wife.
Copyright l9l6D