A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Maria Christina
MARIA CHRISTINA,
Queen Dowager and ex-regent of Spain, daughter of Francisco Genari, King of Naples, was born in 1806. She was of the Bourbon line of princes, consequently a distant relation of Ferdinand the Seventh, King of Spain, to whom she was married, December, 1829. Ferdinand was then forty-five years of age, coarse, vulgar, and sensual; he had been married three times, and had treated each of his successive wives with the grossest abuse,—one was even supposed to have died by poison, administered by his hand; his constitution was exhausted by a dissolute life, and his mind, always inferior, had become nearly fatuous. Christina was in the beautiful bloom of youth and health, with a vigorous, though ill-regulated mind, and very captivating manners. It was not possible she could either love or esteem Ferdinand; but who had ever taught her these feelings were required towards her husband? Ambition and policy are the governing motives of royal (and, usually, of aristocratic) marriages. Shall we condemn Christina because she followed the rule of her order? Let us be just; though she doubtless married Ferdinand from selfish motives, she "was a much better wife than he deserved, and her influence in annulling the absurd Salic law has been of advantage to the Spanish nation; because had Don Carlos, a fanatic monk, succeeded his brother Ferdinand, the awful horrors of religious despotism and persecutions, worse, far worse, even than their civil wars, would have deluged the country in blood, and stifled the last sigh of freedom.
The reputation of Christina had spread through the kingdom long before her arrival; and on her appearance in Madrid, her youth, beauty, and affability realized the most sanguine expectations, and filled all Spain with enthusiasm. She studied from the first to make herself popular, and succeeded; she flattered the prejudices of the people, conformed to their usages, and adopted their dress. All this, aided by a countenance beaming with benevolence, and a charming smile which always played about her lips, soon caught the hearts of her subjects. .
During her marriage with Ferdinand, she became the mother or two daughters, Isabella the Second, born October 10, 1830, and Louisa, now wife of the Duke de Montpensier, born January 30, 1832. Through the influence of the queen, Ferdinand was induced, in March, 1830, to revoke the Salic law. The effect of this measure being to deprive the king's brother, Don Carlos, of the succession in favour of Isabella, gave rise to many intrigues during the latter part of Ferdinand's life, and after his death caused a dreadful civil war. During the illness of the king, in the last three years of his life, he appointed the queen regent of the kingdom, and on his death, in September, 1833, he left the regency, during the minority of Isabella, to Christina.
The death of the king was the signal for a war, which burst out at once in all parts of Spain. The country was almost equally divided between the adherents of Don Carlos, called Carlists, and the supporters of Isabella the Second, called Christinos, from the regent. After changing her ministers several times, Christina attempted to govern the kingdom without sharing her authority with any representative assembly. Finding herself, unsuccessful in this, she appointed two ministers successively, who were to give a more popular form to the government. But the dissatisfaction still continuing, Maria Christina was forced, by a military insurrection at La Granja, where she was residing, on the 13th. of April, 1836, to issue a decree, pledging herself to adopt the constitution of 1812, with such modifications as the Cortes might agree to. But afterwards, when the Cortes enacted the law of the "ayuntamientos," limiting the powers of the municipalities of the kingdom, it met with so much opposition, that it was found impossible to execute it. Maria Christina, in her perplexity, confided to Espartero, who was exceedingly popular, the formation of a new ministry. Espartero required her consent to the repeal of the obnoxious law, the dissolution of the existing Cortes, and the removal from her person of certain individuals. Unwilling to comply with these conditions, and unable otherwise to carry on the government longer, she resigned the regency, and retired into France, in October, 1840, with her husband, who had been originally a private in the king's guard, and who, even during the king's life, Christina had received into her confidence, and bestowed on him wealth and rank. Her two children are by some writers said to have been by this man,
Christina's political intrigues have ever, as it appears, been directed towards lessening the power and influence of England at the Court of Madrid, and drawing that Court into closer alliance with the French; whether she was right or wrong it is not for us to discuss. She is evidently a woman of vigorous mind and acute intellect. That her daughter Isabella was placed and has been thus long sustained on the Spanish throne, must be in a great measure attributed to her influence; and although she has not succeeded in setting at rest the civil broils which have so long distracted her unhappy country, yet injudicious, immoral, and even profligate as her conduct has on many occasions been, yet we must confess that the Queen Mother of Spain appears to have had the interests of the nation warmly at heart, and to have done her best to advance their interests.