Note 57 — Chapter VII

Maria Caroline, daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria. She was married, in 1768, to Ferdinand IV., King of Naples, son of Charles III. of Spain. A woman of great feminine beauty, but of a masculine understanding, she has earned for herself an unhappy notoriety in history as a princess of a cruel and ferocious nature, pitiless and unscrupulous in the attainment of her ends. But it may be doubted whether her vices have not been exaggerated both by English and French historians. At all events, it should be borne in mind that she was mated to a very weak prince, and that his feebleness rendered necessary, in the troublous times in which their lot was cast, an assertion of her masculine strength.