The Battle of Dijon: Italian Victory Over Prussia

A battle that is not often remembered in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 was the Battle of Dijon, actually a series of three battles fought from October 29, 1870 to January 23, 1871. The Kingdom of Italy, still in its formative years, did not take sides in the conflict officially and public sentiment regarding the two sides changed dramatically over the course of the short conflict. Initially, most Italians were more supportive of Prussia which had most recently been an ally. The French Empire of Napoleon III had aided the Italians in driving Austria from Lombardy but had stopped short and then made peace which many in Italy viewed as almost a betrayal. The Prussians, in their previous war, had allied with Italy against Austria which resulted in Venice being restored to the Italian homeland. Napoleon had also garrisoned Rome with French troops and the Italian government was adamant that it wanted an end to the presence of any foreign soldiers on Italian soil. Toward this end, King Victor Emmanuel II had entertained the idea of assisting France in return for the withdrawal of French troops from Rome but Napoleon would not agree to this and so, despite a great deal of talk, Italy remained on the sidelines.

Many Italians hoped for a Prussian victory. However, that view changed completely with the downfall of Napoleon and the birth of the Third French Republic when Prussia  demanded the territory of Alsace from France. What had first been portrayed as a war of self-defense, then appeared to be a war of conquest and Italian opinion in many quarters shifted dramatically from favoring Prussia to favoring France. The Kingdom of Italy would still not participate in the conflict on an official level but many Italians would fight in the war on an unofficial level. The most famous Italian figure of the period, Giuseppe Garibaldi, offered his services. The French were reluctant to have him, remembering how he had fought them in front of Rome in the past but their situation was so desperate that they could hardly afford to refuse such an offer. Garibaldi arrived and was first given command of a small group of Italian volunteers but this was later expanded into the “Army of the Vosges” consisting variously from 5 to 15,000 men. It was a motley force of volunteers of diverse origins including Italians, French, Spanish, English, Irish and American fighters. They were organized into four brigades commanded by General Joseph Bossack (a Pole), Colonel Delpeck and Garibaldi’s sons Menotti Garibaldi and Ricciotti Garibaldi with General Bordone as Garibaldi’s chief of staff.

Garibaldi's General Staff

The military situation was dire. After the defeat of Napoleon at Sedan, the Prussians and their allies from the minor German states besieged Paris while also moving to consolidate their position and secure their flanks and supply lines. This included an advance on Dijon led by the Prussian General August von Werder, an experienced officer with a record of success. The Army of the Vosges had also tasted success when, on 14 November 1870, Ricciotti Garibaldi led 400 men in attacking and defeating about 1,000 Germans at Chatillon, taking 167 prisoners, capturing a great of weapons and ammunition and suffering only 6 killed and 12 wounded in the process. When word arrived that Dijon was being attacked by the Prussians, Garibaldi responded and moved to assist. However, before he arrived, the French had surrendered and the first battle of Dijon was over. Garibaldi knew he would be outmatched but that was a circumstance he had grown accustomed to in his career and so he was considering a night attack when the opportunity presented itself to surprise a portion of the Prussian army outside of town.

Garibaldi deployed his men and ambushed the Prussians who put up a fight but were caught in a withering fire and soon retreated. Garibaldi seized the opportunity and ordered his men to pursue, chasing the Prussians all the way back to Dijon. Not wishing to let up, Garibaldi pushed on and attacked Dijon the same evening his forces arrived, even though he had only 5,000 men. His men were aggressive and enthusiastic but had little training and experience, particularly compared to the magnificently drilled and disciplined Prussians. The fighting for the town went on all through the night but the Prussians held their ground and Garibaldi was finally forced to withdraw and fall back to Autun. This time it was the Prussians that pursued him. The Prussians applied fierce Teutonic pressure to Garibaldi and his men at Autun but the build-up of French forces near Dijon worried General Werder and so he cancelled the attack to concentrate all of his strength on Dijon, inadvertently saving Garibaldi from what appeared to be certain doom. In the end, Werder decided he would not defend Dijon anyway and evacuated his forces.

Garibaldi on the march to Dijon

Garibaldi and his men planned to move to Dijon, occupy the town themselves and fight a defensive battle against the Prussians. After a rest and careful planning, his men began the grueling winter march to Dijon. The town was occupied, defenses were manned and Garibaldi and his troops waited for the inevitable Prussian attack. That attack came, from the west, on January 21, 1871 and lasted for four days. The fighting was fierce and surged back and forth between both sides with attacks and counter-attacks. Eventually, the Prussians were defeated and forced to retreat. For Garibaldi, the crowning achievement of his forces was the capture of the flag of the 61st Pomeranian Regiment. It was the only regimental flag that the Prussian forces lost in the entire war and is part of why the battle for Dijon is a page of military history that the Germans would rather forget about. Eventually of course, as France did lose the war, the Prussians came back and kept up the pressure until Garibaldi withdrew his exhausted soldiers. France agreed to hand over Alsace-Lorraine to the newly united Germany and to pay heavy war reparations. The French, however, seemed almost as embarrassed by Garibaldi’s victory as the Prussians. He had succeeded where they had failed and the only one to claim a German flag as a trophy was an elderly Italian rather than the professional French army. The locals, of course, were appreciative and elected Garibaldi to represent them in the National Assembly (to Garibaldi’s surprise) but as he was Italian and not French he was not allowed to take up his seat.

The Latter Day Gallic War

Against the advice of almost everyone, Mussolini declared war on England and France on June 10, 1940 in the hope firmly establishing a new Roman empire across the Mediterranean and North Africa. Air Marshal Italo Balbo and Marshal of Italy Pietro Badoglio warned the Duce that Italy was not ready to fight a world war. Military units were under-manned, equipment was outdated and Italy had been worn down by the successful but still draining series of military operations since World War I. There was the pacification of Libya, the conquest of Abyssinia, the Spanish Civil War and lastly the occupation of Albania. Italy had known scarcely little peace since 1915 and although the military had won many victories, it was badly in need of updating. However, Mussolini was convinced that the war was almost over, that France was on the verge of defeat, Britain would come to terms soon after and his aims could be achieved as long as he got in on the conflict before the last shots were fired. Mussolini reasoned that, after some minor clashes, Italy could win all it wanted at the negotiating table and, truth be told, Mussolini’s goals were actually very modest. From the French, the goal was Nice and Corsica and from England, for the consolidation of the empire, Malta, British Somaliland and a land corridor across the Sudan to link Libya and Italian East Africa.

Prince Umberto at a staging area

Ultimately, it made little difference as Hitler and Mussolini met in the Principality of Monaco and Hitler found Mussolini’s demands to be too much and would not even permit an Italian representative at the French surrender. However, that surrender was still in the future when Mussolini ordered Italian troops to invade France. The troops which would be asked to carry out this task were those of Army Group West (for the Western Alps) under the command of His Royal Highness Prince Umberto of Piedmont, heir to the throne, with General Emilio Battisti as his Chief of Staff. On paper, the Italian forces seemed quite formidable, consisting of the First Army led by General Pietro Pintor and the Fourth Army led by General Alfredo Guzzoni, however, in actuality it amounted to 32 divisions that were below strength, ill-equipped and poorly supplied. They were sent into extremely difficult terrain which greatly favored the defending French forces, many of which were highly trained specialists who showed much more tenacity than the rest of the French army that faced the Germans and who, though fewer in number, seemed to have more of everything than the Italians had. Marshal Badoglio had said that the army needed an additional 25 days to be fully prepared for offensive operations. This was after he had reported that the army was ready to go whenever Mussolini gave the order and a furious Duce ordered that the army begin the invasion of France immediately no matter how unprepared they were.

Italian Alpine forces advance

Only 19 of the assembled 32 divisions were able to move forward and it still took eleven days longer to begin the offensive. The Italian attack really began on June 21, 1940 at 0530 hours with the bombardment of La Turra. It was a bad omen of things to come as the artillery available for the attack were outdated guns left over from the First World War which were not powerful enough to do any serious damage to the French fort. The Italian shells simply bounced off and they could have bombarded La Turra for months and had no more effect. At Briancon the Italian artillery proved just as inadequate to the task and the Italian fortified positions at Chamberton were hard hit by returning fire from French artillery with more modern 280mm howitzers. In frustration, the Regia Aeronautica was called in to bomb the French from the air. However, the planes had little effect as they lacked the dive bombers needed for such precision bombing.

tankettes covered in snow

Everyone has probably heard about how badly supplied the Italian forces were, the most often repeated evidence of this being a lack of pots and pans to cook with. However, despite great courage and tenacity, the Italian forces were also thwarted by simple bad luck that no one could see coming. About a dozen Italian battalions moved against the Bourg-Saint-Maurice, Mon, Petit Saint-Bernard and Seigne passes which were lightly defended by only about four French battalions with forty heavy guns. However, just as the Italians were attacking, the area was hit by a massive, freak snowstorm that brought everything to a grinding halt. Italian tankettes became stuck in the snow, planes could not fly, supplies and machinery froze up and more than 2,000 Italian troops were afflicted with frost bite in the miserable conditions. The terrain made things no easier and many were reminded of the famous Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz who said that attacking France by way of the Alps would be like trying to pick up a musket by holding the tip of the bayonet. It is remarkable that, in spite of these conditions, Italian forces were still able to work their way around and encircle the French outpost at the Petit Saint-Bernard pass though they could not actually seize it.

frozen troops trudge forward

On the line of the passes at Bellecombe, Clapier, Mont-Cenis and Solliers the Italian troops stormed Modane but could not take the passes. When a French reconnaissance unit was detected, they were flanked by two battalions of Italian troops and forced to fall back, first to La Tuille dam and then La Planey. Elsewhere, Italian troops encircled the fortified village of Abries but all other attacks along the French defensive line were repulsed the first day of the offensive. The Alpine front was a frozen, snow-covered stalemate that was not about to broken any time soon, the only possibility for success was on the coast. On June 22 the Italian troops opened the way to the coastal village of Menton but elsewhere there was little success. Even with the arrival of reinforcements, no superiority in numbers could break the Alpine line. Menton was taken but no other gains were made and at 2100 hours on June 24 the word came down that France had agreed to an armistice with Germany. The most significant success of the brief campaign had been carried out by the Regia Aeronautica which had destroyed dozens of French aircraft on the ground at Provence as well as airfield supplies and facilities.

the Franco-Italian armistice

The Kingdom of Italy had to make its own peace with France and that was no easy task, despite asking for little to start with. There was also no shortage of respect for the bravery of the French troops opposing them. At La Turra, Mussolini saw the French flag still flying and when told of the resistance they had offered, he ordered the defenders to be freed and given special military honors in recognition of their courage and tenacity. Still, the French government at first refused to make any real concessions at all, somewhat oblivious to the fact that, regardless of how well they had done in the south, they had still been defeated. Mussolini threatened to resume offensive operations and begin air attacks before the French agreed to negotiate. France and Italy signed an armistice on June 25 in which Mussolini gave up almost all of his earlier territorial demands and Italy received only a 50 kilometer demilitarized zone along the French side of the frontier.

The conquest of Caesar it certainly was not.

Queen Caterina de' Medici

The popular image of Catherine de Medici is one of the quintessential ‘wicked woman’. At a time when the French monarchy was in grave danger and France itself was violently divided between opposing religious forces, Queen Catherine is one figure both sides today seem to be mostly in agreement on with Protestants viewing her as the very embodiment of evil itself while most Catholics disavow her completely and even believe her to have been a witch and a Satanist. Those unfamiliar with her story and how history has treated her may be shocked by what is written about her. Her defenders are, unsurprisingly, few and most of those who do speak up on her behalf do so very guardedly and only up to a certain point, arguing that she may have had good intentions for doing terrible things or was being forced by events beyond her control to make difficult choices, though hardly anyway would deny that those choices included the unspeakably cruel. There is also no denying that she had little to no choice in the general direction that her life would take. The course of her life was set at a fairly young age by the political maneuverings of two powers.

Caterina Maria Romula di Lorenzo de’ Medici was born on April 13, 1519 in Florence, Italy to Lorenzo II who had been made Duke of Urbino by HH Pope Leo X (his uncle) and his wife Madeleine de La Tour d’Auvergne who was from a well placed French noble family. She was adored by her parents but within weeks her mother died of puerperal fever and a few days later Lorenzo II died of syphilis. Pope Leo X had arranged the match of her parents to secure a Franco-Italian alliance against the Hapsburg Emperor Maximilian I and intended little Catherine to marry within the Medici family, when the time came, to secure the family hold on Florence (in those days, stability was a precious commodity). Catherine was raised by her grandmother and later by an aunt. The family fortunes struggled a bit when Pope Leo X died but rose again with the election of another Medici to the Throne of St Peter; Pope Clement VII. She learned the rough world of Italian politics at a very young age when she was taken hostage by a rival family bent on ending Medici rule over Florence. It says a great deal that Catherine, held in a convent, found this the most calm, peaceful and happy period of her life. After Italy was invaded and Rome itself devastated by imperial troops, Pope Clement VII was obliged to formally crown the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to enlist his help in securing Florence for the House of Medici as well as the liberty of young Catherine.

During the siege Catherine was under the greatest threat imaginable but survived unhurt to be delivered to Pope Clement VII in Rome who wept with joy upon seeing her, so great was his relief that she had been safely rescued. Immediately, the Pope determined to arrange a lofty marriage for the girl and, as usual, there were political considerations to be made as well. To counter the German domination in Italy of Emperor Charles V, the Pope turned to his erstwhile ally King Francis I of France who was also looking to shore up his position on the Italian peninsula. A marriage agreement was soon made between Catherine de Medici and the younger son of King Francis; Henri, Duke of Orleans. Both were only 14-years old and were married at Marseille on October 28, 1533. At first everything went well. Catherine was well treated at court, said to be bright and friendly but it all came crashing down when Pope Clement VII died and was succeeded by Pope Paul III who immediately broke off the French alliance in favor of closer ties with the Germans and refused to pay the dowry for Catherine agreed to by his predecessor. For Catherine, her warm welcome quickly turned to a cold shoulder. Prince Henri gave her little notice and enjoyed a string of mistresses while the childless Catherine was shamed for not producing a son for the House of France (which really required the cooperation of Henri).

Things became more intense when her brother-in-law Francis, Dauphin of France, died in 1536 making her husband Henri heir to the throne. As Dauphine of France, the pressure was greater than ever for Catherine to have a son. Nothing seemed to work and many advised the King to have his son divorce Catherine and find another wife. This drove Catherine to desperate measures, everything from prayers, fasting and pilgrimages to some truly disgusting home remedies said to increase fertility. For quite a while, nothing seemed to work but then, it all changed. Most attribute this to the inexplicable ways of nature, others to the advice of her doctor who told her and the Dauphin how to ’do things’ properly but still others say that Catherine turned to witchcraft and became a Devil-worshiper and it was after that point that she finally became pregnant in 1544 and had roughly a child every year thereafter. Be it the doc or the devil, Catherine was finally a mother, her position was secured and the means by which she would frequently be the effective ruler of France established. In 1547 she was crowned Queen consort alongside her husband who became King Henri II. However, he still lived mostly apart from her and generally treated his favorite mistress better than Queen Catherine.

Queen Catherine had a less than happy time as consort. The King rarely paid any attention to her other than to father more children and even this ended in disaster when the Queen suffered a terribly traumatic incident giving birth to twin girls. Catherine nearly died, one of the babies died in the womb and the other died short afterward and the Queen was never able to have children again. The only high point was finally ending the Italian Wars with the Holy Roman Empire when one of Catherine’s daughters was married to King Philip II of Spain. However, during the festivities, which included jousting, King Henri II was mortally wounded and died on July 10, 1559 nursed to the end by the wife he had always neglected. Catherine’s 15-year old son then became King Francis II of France but there was immediately a coup of sorts which saw real power go to the House of Guise. France was quickly becoming divided during this time by a 3-way struggle for power between the Protestants (led by the Bourbon family) on one side, the Catholics (led by the Guise family) on the other and the royal court in between. The Guise faction were quick to move against the Protestants but Queen Catherine (and many in the Catholic Church) promoted tolerance and reconciliation. King Francis II, however, did not live long enough to ever become a force of his own and Queen Catherine struck a deal with the Protestants to ensure that she would hold power in the name of her younger son who became King Charles IX in 1560 at age nine.

The Queen first tried to bring the Protestant and Catholic leaders together to work out a peace but was unsuccessful and soon the infamous Wars of Religion were raging across France. The Queen tried to appease the Protestants by enacting religious toleration and ‘toning down’ Catholic practices they found most objectionable (with the approval of the Pope) but it was not enough to stop each side from attacking the other. She also pressed the Church for more money to keep the Protestants in check and even tried to make a deal with the Ottoman Sultan to relocate French and German Protestants to Eastern Europe but the Sultan declined the offer. More powers became engulfed in the conflict. When the Protestant brought in German mercenaries to continue the fight, Queen Catherine brought in the Swiss but no side seemed strong enough to totally defeat the other two. Queen Catherine was, officially, on the Catholic side but stuck to trying to make peace and even allowed Protestants to hold high places at court and marry into the Royal Family. Gaspard de Coligny, a Protestant, soon became the top advisor to King Charles IX and he wanted to invade The Netherlands to fight the Spanish. The Catholics, naturally, opposed this and Catherine saw Coligny replacing her as the primary influence on the King. Coligny had to go. An assassination plot was arranged but Coligny survived and the Protestants were infuriated.

The King was outraged at the near murder of his friend and believed that the Guise family were responsible. But, the Queen assured him that if the Protestants took Paris it would not be only the Guise men who died but the Royal Family and the King himself as well. It was then that the plot was hatched to strike first and suddenly by killing Coligny themselves, a terrible blow to the Protestant leadership. When she threatened to leave France for the safety of Italy the King finally gave in and agreed but, in a parting comment, said that if Coligny was to die they would have to kill every other Protestant as well for if any were left alive they would surely want their revenge on him. So, on August 23, 1572, St Bartholomew’s Day, the massacre of Protestants began. For a week in Paris and other areas across France Protestants were killed though the actual number of victims in unknown, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands. Queen Catherine was undoubtedly involved as she made sure that those Protestants she favored were spared. It was not the only massacre of the religious wars of course, and there had been Protestant massacres of Catholics, but it was the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre that would become the most infamous episode of the Wars of Religion in France and the blackest mark against Catherine.

Prior to this, some Protestants had viewed Catherine de Medici as the reasonable member of the Royal Family, the voice of peace and moderation. After St Bartholomew’s Day she was portrayed by the Protestants as the “wicked Italian Queen” who conducted her affairs in the style of Machiavelli, callous, cruel and unprincipled. Less than two years later King Charles IX died and his brother became King Henri III (a rather odd fellow if ever there was one) with the Queen mother Catherine again named as regent. This was only because he was, at the time, serving as King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth but he was soon back in France. Henri was Catherine’s favorite son but he did little right in her eyes. Still, he followed her course of reconciliation and made numerous concessions to the Protestants but the wars continued. This is what is sometimes known as the war of the three Henrys; King Henri III, Henri of Guise for the Catholics and Henri Navarre of the Protestants. King Henri III had Hanri of Guise killed and Queen Catherine was horrified and died on January 5, 1589 sorrowful and asking for prayers for her misguided son. She could not have a traditional royal burial as Paris was in the hands of her enemies and later, during the French Revolution, her remains were tossed in a mass grave with other royals. She had been called the most powerful woman in the world of her time and her time in power has been called the ‘Age of Catherine de’ Medici’ yet few, then or now, have a kind word for her.

Epilogue

This was a rather difficult profile to do. No matter the subject, I generally try to find something positive to say about the person in question, partly out of habit and partly because there is no shortage of those quick to condemn any royal figure, good or bad, and that library of work does not need added to. However, in the case of Catherine de’ Medici, this was a difficult task and, perhaps surprisingly, Catholic sources tended to be more critical of her than Protestant ones. The Protestant historians were no less condemnatory, castigating her as the author of their misfortunes and the butcher of St Bartholomew’s Day but it was the Catholic sources which accused her of extorting protection money from the Church and being a devil worshiper -not an everyday accusation. Her entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia, for example, describes her as, “Dictatorial, unscrupulous, calculating, and crafty” as well as being superstitious, egotistical and who even when serving the interests of the Church and malicious motives, putting the survival of the Crown before the cause of the Catholic forces. However, if she truly was as terrible as virtually everyone says she was, Catherine certainly paid considerably for her misdeeds even before what awaited her in the afterlife.

Forced into a loveless marriage she did not want, she was constantly being ridiculed, pushed aside and truly treated as nothing more than a ‘baby machine’ and not a terribly reliable one at that. She was faced with a divided country and a 3-way division which is the worst kind as no faction is hardly ever strong enough to defeat the other two. She also grew up in a time and place where political survival was a cut-throat business. Her earliest years were spent in a ‘kill or be killed’ environment where you got the other guy before the other guy got you. She had a husband who never loved her, traumatic pregnancies and children which were a constant source of sorrow and seemed all to have been ill-fated. Francis was dead at 16, Isabel (consort to Philip II of Spain) died in her early 20’s, Claude who was born crippled and died at 27, Louis, Jean and Victor all dead within a year of their birth, Charles, mentally unwell and dead at 24, Hercule who was deformed at died at 30, Marguerite who was said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world but who lived a rather immoral life and was never able to have children and finally Henri who caused such grief who was assassinated at age 38.

Certainly then, Catherine endured a great deal of anguish herself. There is no doubt, based on the evidence of her own hand, that she was capable of dealing mercilessly with any enemies, real or perceived. Yet, she was also thrust into a situation not of her own making, at least initially, and few doubt that without her, the House of Valois would have come to an earlier end. Especially today it seems odd to find so many who are critical of a queen whose overriding policy was always one of negotiating a peace, yet it is hard to dispute that those efforts prolonged the conflict by granting concessions in return for bad behavior and never hesitating to resort to underhanded measures when negotiating proved fruitless. Given her patronage of the arts, to glorify the monarchy and solidify the shaky House of Valois, she may have had good intentions and there should be no doubt that she was obsessed with securing the position and future success of her children, even if they often disappointed her. However, if she was only self-serving and utterly malicious through and through, it seems that God saw to her punishment and her children with her. Usually I feel almost compelled to sympathize with anyone who is disliked by everyone else, but in this case …

Louise of Savoy, Duchess of Anjou

Princess Louise of Savoy was one of the most formidable royal women in France who never held the position of Queen-consort. She was born on September 11, 1476 at Pont-d’Ain to Duke Philip II of Savoy and Princess Margaret of Bourbon. From early in life she learned how cruel the world could be and that she would have to be made of tough stuff to make her way in it. At the tender age of seven she lost her mother and was sent to Anne de Beaujeau to be raised. Anne, at that time, was ruling France as regent for her brother King Charles VIII. For Princess Louise, her life was mapped out for her almost as soon as she could be aware of it. Only a few years later, at the age of eleven, she was married to Charles of Orleans, Count of Angouleme on February 16, 1488. This was not uncommon at the time and the two did not live together as man and wife until Louise was fifteen years old. Although he was not a faithful husband, Charles and Louise had a mostly happy marriage, both had a love of learning and deep-seated attachment to each other even if “true love” was not to be found. In 1492 Louise gave birth to their first child, Marguerite d’Angouleme and in 1494 to a son, the future King of France, Francois d’Angouleme. Charles also had two illegitimate daughters; Jeanne and Madeleine, who were raised alongside his own children by Princess Louise.

Despite his infidelities, Princess Louise was truly distraught when Charles fell ill and died in 1495, having caught a chill while out riding. She had faithfully nursed him in his final days and when he died Louise was left a widow at only nineteen years old. For others, this might have been the end of the story, but Princess Louise had a much sharper mind than most supposed and she was determined to do the best she could for her children. After King Louis XII came to the throne, she took her children and relocated to the court and made sure that her children received the very best education, benefiting from the latest flowering of the Italian Renaissance. She was herself very interested in the latest discoveries and took care to keep herself well informed about politics, the diplomatic situation and all the events at court. She was aided in this by her confessor, an Italian Franciscan named Christopher Numar of Forli, who would go on to great fame himself in the Catholic Church, being raised to the Sacred College (against his protests) by Pope Leo X. As her son grew to adulthood, Louise made sure that he remained close to the King. Francis became such a favorite of the King that he arranged the marriage of the boy to his daughter Claude in 1514. It all worked out as had been hoped and King Louis XII chose Francis to be his heir with his wife and Princess Louise as regents.

The following year King Louis XII died and King Francis I came to the throne but, for the moment, it was Princess Louise, mother of the king, who held the most power. Eventually she was given the titles of Duchess of Angouleme and later Duchess of Anjou but one of her first legal battles was over the inheritance of the Duchy of Bourbon which she claimed as did Duke Charles III of Bourbon. In an effort to settle the dispute she offered to marry the Duke who disparagingly refused her. The old saying that, “Hell hath no fury…” was never more true as Louise of Savoy turned her wrath against the Duke, using every bit of influence she had to destroy him and she effectively did. He was exiled, punished for rebellion against the King, lost his lands and titles and was never able to recover them while Louise of Savoy gained all she had claimed. The Duchess of Anjou displayed a great talent in political affairs, an astute understanding of the diplomatic situation and in general a great talent in all areas save the person of her son, King Francis, concerning whom she had a noticeable ‘blind spot’ which should not be considered surprising. She ruled as regent while he son was off leading his armies and it was Louise of Savoy who arranged the magnificent display for the visiting King of England at the “Field of the Cloth of Gold”. It was also Louise of Savoy who managed to scrape up the money for her son to stand for election for Holy Roman Emperor, even though (wisely as it turned out) she thought the effort was a waste.

As, effectively, the most powerful woman in France, Princess Louise tried to secure strong allies for the kingdom. Her attempt to make peace with England in 1524 was not immediately successful but she had more success in reaching out to the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. She asked for Turkish assistance in freeing her son (King Francis had been defeated by the Hapsburg Emperor Charles V and was being held prisoner in Spain) and for the Turks to launch an attack on the Hapsburg empire in the east to take pressure off of France. In 1529 she succeeded in making peace between France and the Holy Roman Empire as the primary French negotiator of the Treaty of Cambrai (aka the Ladies’ Peace) opposite her sister-in-law Margaret of Austria acting for the Empire. Not long after, the formidable mother of the King died on September 22, 1531. Still sharp and active to the very end she had been studying a comet when she caught cold and eventually passed away. Her valuable properties were left to the French Crown, which would be valuable future assets. Louise of Savoy may not be one of the best known royal figures in French history but she was one of the most astute and formidable women ever to hold a leading position in the Kingdom of France.

Servant of God Princess Maria Clotilde of Savoy

Princess Maria Clotilde of Savoy may not be one of the best known royal figures of history but she certainly deserves to be. I cannot help but think she would be better known and more widely celebrated if not for the fact that those most would expect to did not often hold a considerable grudge against many of her relatives and in-laws. She was born HRH Princess Ludovica Teresa Maria Clotilde on March 2, 1843 in Turin to HM King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont-Sardinia (who would go on to become the first King of Italy) and his first wife Queen Adelaide of Austria. She was the first of eight children and, as such, had to take on more responsibility as a girl than her younger siblings. As befitting a princess she had quite an illustrious heritage behind her. Her paternal grandparents were King Carlo Alberto of Piedmont-Sardinia and Queen Maria Theresa of Tuscany and her maternal grandparents were Archduke Rainer of Austria (son of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II) and Archduchess Elisabeth of Savoy.

From the time she was quite young Princess Maria Clotilde was known for her modesty, piety and good nature. Her mother was a very devout Catholic woman and impressed upon her the importance of religion, the Church and good moral character, lessons she learned well. However, the Princess did not have much time for childhood. As was the fate of princesses everywhere her marriage was soon the subject of political considerations. At this time, the French Second Empire was the largely dominant power on the continent and King Victor Emmanuel II had it impressed upon him constantly that the goal of a united Italy required the good will of the French Emperor Napoleon III. A Savoy-Bonaparte marriage seemed like just the thing to help bind Paris and Turin together; something which the House of Savoy at least would have thought absolutely unthinkable in the past. Arrangements were soon being made for Princess Maria Clotilde to marry Napoleon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte, son of Jerome Bonaparte the one-time King of Westphalia.

The princess was less than overjoyed at the news she was to marry Bonaparte. In fact, she was absolutely horrified by the prospect and with good reason. She was an intensely religious, innocent, petite girl of barely fifteen. Her husband-to-be was a very large, very anti-clerical and worldly man of more than thirty-seven. She was so young in fact that the wedding had to be postponed for a time and the Piedmontese were less than impressed with how anxious the lumbering Bonaparte was to come and scoop up their dear little princess. The two were married in Turin on January 30, 1859 in what some onlookers described as the union of a gazelle and an elephant.

No two people could possibly have been less suited to each other. He was an anti-clerical liberal who liked lavish parties and fast living; a big man with big appetites. She was a deeply religious conservative who preferred peace and quiet, a small woman with a big heart, bound by royal duty to serve God and the people. He liked to party, she liked to pray, his instincts were ambitious, her instincts were charitable. Princess Maria Clotilde was, needless to say, a very unhappy wife. Yet, she had finally agreed to the marriage because of her devotion to royal duty and in so far as the politics of the match were concerned the marriage worked out well. Plon-Plon (as her husband was known) was a tireless advocate for French intervention in Italy on the side of Piedmont-Sardinia and the Italian nationalist movement. The policies of Emperor Napoleon III regarding Italy were not entirely consistent (his wife constantly urging him in the opposite direction) but French support against Austria was crucial in the eventual triumph of the House of Savoy and the unification of Italy.

Princess Maria Clotilde therefore had the satisfaction of knowing she had done her duty as her father wished but it is doubtful how much that meant to her when her daily life was filled with such unhappiness. She gave Plon-Plon three children; Prince Napoleon Victor in 1862 (who later married Princess Clementine of Belgium), Prince Louis in 1864 and Princess Maria Letizia in 1866 who later married the one-time Savoy King of Spain Amedeo I. She was devoted to her children and was a very good mother but her husband caused her no end of grief with his numerous affairs which was difficult for a proud Savoy princess to take. However, she was nothing if not a woman of duty and proved she could and would endure almost anything that her royal duties demanded of her. It was small comfort that most of the French disliked her husband as much as she did and one thing the French and Italians both agreed on was that he was not worthy of such a good, dutiful wife. However, she carried on, devoting herself to prayer and charity which also earned her a great deal of respect and affection among the people of her adopted country.

Eventually though, the star of Emperor Napoleon III began to decline and with the disastrous war with the German states in 1870 the French Second Empire came crumbling down and Paris soon broke out in yet another chaotic revolution, in some ways more horrific than those of the past. The Bonaparte clan began to flee Paris and France but Princess Maria Clotilde was reluctant, even in the face of frenzied revolutionaries and the Prussian army. She was adamant that as an Italian princess of the House of Savoy she did not run away but preferred to stay proudly at her post even as the ship of state was sinking beneath the waves. However, for the sake of her family she was finally persuaded to leave Paris and the family moved to Switzerland. When King Victor Emmanuel II died in 1878 it was, in many ways, the final straw for the long suffering princess. With her older sons staying with their father, she took her young daughter with her to Turin for the funeral and remained in Italy afterwards. Shutting herself off from the outside world for the most part in Moncalieri Castle outside Turin, she spent her remaining years in seclusion, prayer and keeping up her charitable work. She died there on June 25, 1911 at the age of sixty-eight.

No one who ever knew her could not sympathize with her for all she had to endure in her life nor could they not but admire her for the stoic pride with which she did endure it. The Princess was a responsible woman, a woman of deep faith, great compassion and devotion to duty. She strove at all times to carry out her responsibilities to God, her country, her family and her people. She had a very magnificent sense of what it really means to be royal. For her, to be royal was to be the servant of her people and she showed that by enduring an unhappy marriage and in her many, many years spent helping the less fortunate. She was an example and an inspiration and, as such, it is entirely fitting that she has since been declared a Servant of God and her cause for beatification is currently underway.

Queen Marie Clotilde of France

HRH Princess Marie Adélaïde Clotilde Xavière of France was born on September 23, 1759 in Versailles, the eldest surviving daughter of Louis, Dauphin of France by Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony. She was the granddaughter of King Louis XV and sister of Prince Louis Auguste, later His Most Christian Majesty King Louis XVI. Her father died when he was only 36 and her mother fell into a deep depression afterwards and died only a couple of years later. Madame Clotilde, as she was known, was, along with her sister Elisabeth, raised by Madame de Marsan. Nonetheless, the legacy of her parents was strongly seen in Marie Clotilde. Like her father, she was very religious and a little on the plump side which led some to (rather cruelly one would think) nickname her ‘Gros-Madame’ when she was a girl. Perhaps because of this she was rather shy and withdrawn, a demur type we would say. Some have seized on this to portray the princess as passive and having a rather blank character but nothing could be further from the truth. She simply did not wear her emotions on her sleeve. She and her sister Elisabeth, who grew up together, were very attached to each other and Princess Elisabeth, who led such a tragic life, was extremely distraught when Madame Clotilde left France to marry.

She was only sixteen when she was married in 1775 to Prince Charles Emmanuel of Piedmont, son and heir of King Victor Amadeus III of Piedmont-Sardinia and Queen Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain. This had been arranged well in advance and from the time she was very young the princess had been taught Italian so as it fit in quickly with the royal court in Turin. Many of the snobs at the French court, where being beautiful and fashionable often seemed the be-all and end-all, made mocking comments after her departure about her weight (though I will hasten to add that by our standards today she does not look to have been that overweight to me) to the effect that the Prince of Piedmont was getting ‘two wives instead of one’. The match was part of a diplomatic offensive of sorts involving several such marriages and so King Victor Amadeus III was only concerned that she would be able to have children but, Prince Charles Emmanuel was not bothered in the least by the size of his bride, saying he simply had “more to worship”. The gallant Savoy prince loved his wife from the start and she him in what would be a very happy and devoted marriage for the two.

Unfortunately, the concerns of Victor Amadeus III would prove well founded as the couple were never able to have children (though who can say if the responsibility rested with the bride or the groom). Nonetheless, Marie Clotilde and Charles Emmanuel were very happy together. Both were very devout Catholics and their shared faith proved a solid foundation for their union. Both also had good examples to follow coming from parents who were extremely devoted to each other as well. Marie Clotilde admired and respected her husband and Charles Emmanuel loved his wife regardless of what size dress she wore. Marie Clotilde was also warmly welcomed into the House of Savoy by her new sisters-in-law who all became fast friends and very supportive of each other. Marie Clotilde was never able to see France again as the outbreak of the Revolution prevented any such happy visits. Her brother and his Queen along with so many others, including her beloved sister Elisabeth were all sent to the guillotine by the bloodthirsty revolutionaries. It was a heart-wrenching time for Marie Clotilde but she took refuge in her faith, her in-laws were supportive and her father-in-law, King Victor Amadeus III, was happy to provide sanctuary for those of the French Royal Family who could escape including Clotilde’s brother the Count of Artois and her aunts Madame Adelaide and Madame Victoire.

In 1796 the old King died and Marie Clotilde became Queen consort alongside her husband who became King Charles Emmanuel IV of Piedmont-Sardinia. Despite being greatly outmatched, as a matter of principle the late Victor Amadeus III had declared war on the revolutionary republic only to be soundly beaten and forced to sign a humiliating peace. However, only a few years after coming to the throne, French republican forces invaded again forcing Charles Emmanuel and Marie Clotilde to flee to the island of Sardinia. Sustained by their faith and little else the couple later moved to Rome and later Naples, aided by the patrician Colonna family. During this time, Marie Clotilde was an angel of mercy to her husband’s dying aunt, Princess Maria Felicita of Savoy (herself a saintly woman) while in Naples. The woman died later in Rome and only a year later, on March 7, 1802, Queen Marie Clotilde departed this life as well, at the age of only 42, to the very end being concerned with the welfare of others and the care of her husband. The King was so distraught by her passing that he abdicated his rights and joined the Society of Jesus. Marie Clotilde of France, Queen consort of Piedmont-Sardinia was buried in Naples at the Church of Santa Caterina a Chiaia. On April 10, 1808 His Holiness Pope Pius VII (who had known the Queen personally) declared her “venerable”, the first step in the process of beatification. As far as I know, her cause has not since progressed. She was, nonetheless, a great Christian, a great wife and a great queen.