John Van Der Kiste

The heroine of Gaeta John Van Der Kiste

In 1859 the seventeen-year-old Maria Sophia, Duchess in Bavaria, married Francis, Duke of Calabria, heir to the throne of the Two Sicilies. Just over two years later, she and her husband saw their kingdom disappear, overrun by the forces of Garibaldi and absorbed into a newly united Italy. A lively, high-spirited princess, the sixth of ten children of the Duke and Duchess in Bavaria and younger sister of Elizabeth, Empress of Austria, she had hoped for to a bright future when she was betrothed to the Bourbon Crown Prince. He ascended the throne four months after their marriage, but within less than eighteen months, as Garibaldi's troops approached Naples, their capital, they were forced to seek refuge in the fortress at Gaeta. During a three-month siege, the courageous last stand of the Bourbon dynasty gained Queen Maria Sophia, 'the heroine of Gaeta', a reputation that she held the rest of her life, tireless in her efforts to rally the defenders, helping to nurse the wounded, and daring the attackers to do their worst. This biography, the first in English for over a century, recounts the story of her life, from a carefree upbringing in Bavaria to her all-too-brief time as Queen of the Two Sicilies, her exile in Rome, Paris and Germany, her less than satisfactory marriage and their child who only lived three months, a brief extra-marital affair, and the last years to her death in 1925.