Elisabeth Farnese
Elisabeth Farnese was Queen of Spain by marriage to King Philip V. She was the de facto ruler of Spain from 1714 until 1746, since she managed the affairs of state with the approval of her spouse. She is particularly known for her great influence over Spain's foreign policy. From 1759 to 1760, she governed as regent.
Elisabeth was born in 1692 in Parma, the daughter of Odoardo Farnese, Hereditary Prince of Parma and his wife, Countess Palatine Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg. Elisabeth would be their only child to survive into adulthood, her siblings all dying in infancy. Her father died in 1693, and her mother later remarried to his younger brother, Francesco, in hopes for another heir. This never happened, and Elisabeth remained sole heiress. Elisabeth's marriage was considered of great political importance, and she received many proposals, notably from Piedmontese and Modenese princes, ultimately being married to the Spanish king, Philip V, whose first wife, Queen Maria Luisa, had died earlier that year.
Soon after her arrival at the Spanish court, Elisabeth proved to be dominant and strong-willed. With the help of her Italian courtiers, she eliminated the French party at court and capitalized on her husband's frequent mental incapacity to enforce her own will. She pursued an aggressive international policy, attempting to place her husband and children in various European thrones, which granted her the contempt of her subjects and provoked the failed War of the Quadruple Alliance. With the wars of the Polish and Austrian Succession, however, she succeeded in enthroning her male sons in Naples, Sicily and her native Parma, recovering most of the historical Italian territories of the Spanish royal house, while her daughters also married prominently into the French and Portuguese royal families.
She was scorned and admired at the same time by her contemporaries, who regarded her as an authoritarian, scheming and unscrupulous monarch. At times she came to the extent of personally heading divisions of the Spanish Army in her war efforts. Frederick the Great would state about her: "she walks boldly towards the fulfillment of her designs; there is nothing that can surprise her, nothing that can stop her."
Her son Charles would go on to inherit the Duchy of Parma, with Elisabeth's mother as regent. Following multiple transfers of power, including rulers from the House of Habsburg, her son Philip was made Duke. Thus, all further dukes of Parma have descended from Elisabeth.
Parma
Elisabeth was born at the Palazzo della Pilotta in Parma, the daughter of Odoardo Farnese and Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg. Her mother later married her uncle Francesco Farnese, Duke of Parma.Elisabeth was raised in seclusion in an apartment in the Palace in Parma. She had a difficult relationship with her mother, but was reportedly deeply devoted to her uncle-stepfather. She could speak and write Latin, French, and German and was schooled in rhetoric, philosophy, geography and history, but, reportedly, she found no interest in her studies and lacked intellectual interests. She was a better student in dance, studied painting under Pietro Antonio Avanzini and enjoyed music and embroidery. She survived a virulent attack of smallpox.
Because of the lack of male heirs of her father, her uncle-stepfather, and her youngest uncle, who all succeeded one another, preparations were made for the succession of the Duchy of Parma through the female line. She consequently received many marriage proposals. Victor Amadeus, Prince of Piedmont and Francesco d'Este, Hereditary Prince of Modena both asked for her hand but negotiations eventually failed, as well as Prince Pico della Mirandola. The Duchy of Parma would later be inherited by her first son, Infante Carlos. After his accession to the Spanish throne, the title passed on to her third son, Infante Felipe. It was he who founded the modern day House of Bourbon-Parma.
Marriage
On 16 September 1714 she was married by proxy at Parma to Philip V of Spain. The marriage was arranged by the ambassador of Parma, Cardinal Alberoni, with the concurrence of the Princesse des Ursins, the Camarera mayor de Palacio of the King of Spain. Elisabeth was a natural choice for Philip V because of the traditional Spanish interests in Italian provinces, and she was the heir of the Parmesan throne.The Parmese ambassador convinced the all-powerful Princess des Ursins to give her crucial consent to the marriage by convincing her that Elisabeth was a simple-minded person, accustomed to nothing but needlework and embroidery and easy to control and dominate as a replacement for the previous, cooperative queen consort. In parallel, Alberoni informed Elisabeth that the king "wishes to be governed" by others and that she would be an unhappy queen unless she swiftly took control, and that she would also be liked by the Spaniards if she removed the influence of the French party headed by the Princess des Ursins.
Elisabeth left Parma in September and traveled to Spain by land in a retinue led by Marquis Schotta and Ippolita Ludovisi, Princess of Piombino. Originally intending to travel by sea, she became ill in Genoa, and the plans were therefore altered. On her way to Spain, she met the Prince of Monaco and the French ambassador, who forwarded her gifts from the King of France. Elisabeth spent several days in Bayonne in November as guest of her maternal aunt, the Queen Dowager Maria Anna of Spain. At the Franco-Spanish border, she was met by Alberoni, who spent several days warning her against des Ursins. Upon entrance to Spain, she refused to part with her Italian retinue in exchange for a Spanish one, as had originally been planned.
On 23 December at Jadraque, Elisabeth met the Princesse des Ursins, who as her newly appointed Mistress of the Robes wished to present herself before Elisabeth met Philip V at Guadalajara. The princess had sent out spies who reported that Elisabeth was in fact not at all a timid person who would be easy to control. Elisabeth received des Ursins and asked to speak with her privately. Shortly after, the party could hear the sounds of a violent argument, after which des Ursins was arrested, fired, and immediately escorted over the border to France. There have been many different versions of this incident, and different suggestions as to how it occurred. Alberoni informed the king that Elisabeth had acted with his best interests at hand, and when Philip met Elisabeth at Guadalajara 24 December, he quickly fell in love with her at first sight, just as he had with his first spouse.
Queen of Spain
Elisabeth enjoyed hunting and wore male riding attire while doing so. She was described as an excellent shot and rider, and often hunted with the king. She spent extravagantly, both on herself and on her confidants. Her circle of confidants consisted, except her nurse Laura Pescatori, of her Italian doctor Cervi and Marquis Scotti, who were also a part of her Italian retinue. Her favorites among her ladies-in-waiting was first her Flemish attendant La Pellegrina, who acted as the go-between for her and minister Patino, and the Duchess of Saint-Pierre; after the former had married and the latter departed for France in 1727, she favored the Marchioness Las Nieves, who had the task to act as the queen's informant and who by 1736 was said to be the one who should be courted for supplicants to the queen. She respected her chief lady-in-waiting, Countess de Altamira, who managed her ladies-in-waiting very strictly.The queen collected Italian works from the 16th and 17th centuries, including masterpieces by Correggio, Guido Reni, Francesco Salviati and Flemish works by such celebrated artists as Anthony van Dyck, and the Bruegel family.
Initially, Queen Elisabeth was popular because her dismissal of des Ursins made her seem as the savior of Spain from French dominance, but her increasing influence over the monarch soon made her as unpopular as des Ursins. Elisabeth was also unpopular among the Spanish nobility for the decline of formal Spanish etiquette court life, and pamphlets of the "Spanish party" typically accused her of keeping the king in slavery, benefiting foreigners and trying to murder her stepsons.
Political influence
With the advice of Alberoni and Cardinal del Giudice, Elisabeth became the confidante of Philip and proceeded to eliminate the French party at court. They were replaced with her own followers through a network of clients and supporters, created with the help of her Italian nurse Laura Pescatori. Her chief adviser was Alberoni, who guided her as to how to protect the interests of herself and Parma, while he himself, as a foreigner, had only her to rely on for his power.Despite early accounts of her submissive stance, Queen Elisabeth gained strong influence over Philip and his advisors. Reportedly she had charm and purposefulness, she was intelligent and could converse, be happy, jovial and charming. But she was also ambitious for glory, approval and popularity. According to the French ambassador the Duke of Saint-Aignan, she got the king to believe that what she willed was what he wanted, and she shared his tastes and whims. Also, depressive episodes often left Philip V paralyzed and unable to handle government affairs, during which she handled them. Such periods occurred in 1717, 1722, 1728, 1731, 1732–33 and 1737, when Elisabeth seems to have dedicated herself exclusively to caring for his health.
In contrast to what was customary for a Spanish monarch, Philip preferred to share the queen's apartments rather than have his own separate ones, and it was in the queen's apartments he met with his ministers. Elisabeth was therefore present at all government meetings from the start, and while she initially sat by the side embroidering, she soon participated more and more and eventually speaking for her spouse while he sat quiet. The king did not live in his own apartments but in the queen's, where he spent the whole night. When he awoke, he discussed the government business with the queen, after which the couple, still in their dressing gowns, conferred with their ministers in the queen's bedroom while the government business was spread over the queen's bed by her ladies-in-waiting. From 1729, they seldom emerged from the queen's quarters before two in the afternoon, after which they very swiftly performed their official functions. Philip did not like ceremonial court life and preferred to live in the smaller hunting palaces such as El Pardo or Aranjuez, where ceremonial court life could not properly occur. The royal couple's absence from court life and lack of public visibility became so marked that they were criticized for it, especially Elisabeth. After the dismissal of Alberoni in 1719 she was effectively the sole ruler in Spain.
In 1724, entreaties failed to prevent the abdication of Philip, who gave up the throne in favour of his firstborn, heir from his first marriage. Phillip then retired to the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso. Also in 1724, Elisabeth acquired the San Ildefonso Group for him from the Odescalchi family. During the reign of Louis Elisabeth kept her hold of power. Seven months later, however, the death of the young king recalled Philip to the throne. It was Elisabeth who, with the aide of the ministers, the papal nuncio, theologians and her network of contacts, pressured him to retake the crown.