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Princess Maria Carolina, Duchess of Berry

1798–1870

Born
5 Nov 1798, Caserta
Country of birth
Italy
Died
1870, Mureck
facts
11
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Caserta

    Birth, Caserta

  2. Child born: Princess Louise d'Artois

    Birth, Élysée Palace

  3. Child born: Prince Henri, Count of Chambord

    Birth, Paris

  4. Child born: Donna Francesca di Paola Lucchesi-Palli

    Birth

  5. Died · Mureck

    Death, Mureck

What was it like?

The world around Caserta, 1798: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

When Princess was born in 1798, Caserta belonged to the Kingdom of Italy, ruled by Victor Emmanuel II of Italy.

Who ruled

  • Victor Emmanuel II of Italy

    Monarch of Italy, 1861–1878 · Kingdom of Italy

Born around the same time

  • Ippolito Rosellini

    1800 · Italian egyptologist (1800–1843)

  • Justin de Jacobis

    1800 · Italian Roman Catholic saint and bishop (1800–1860)

  • Millard Fillmore

    1800 · president of the United States from 1850 to 1853

  • France Prešeren

    1800 · Slovene national poet, a Carniolan Romantic poet of Slovene descent (1800–1849)

  • Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay

    1800 · British historian and politician (1800–1859)

  • Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

    1800 · German Field Marshal (1800–1891)

Fashion

Coral jewelry for festive occasions

On feast days, ordinary women often adorned themselves with coral jewelry, which was meticulously categorized into fourteen different shades, ranging from blood-red to black. This industry was so significant that it drew the interest of foreign travelers who observed the detailed production process in Livorno.

Everyday dress for peasant men

Peasant men typically dressed in coarse-fabric jackets, knee-length breeches, and waistcoats. While these garments were not refined in cut, there was a noticeable attention to detail and a sense of good taste in the pairing of colors.

Music
Around 1800–1824

Instruments of home and street music

Guitars and violins were common in Neapolitan homes and were used by street musicians for serenades, especially after midnight. Musicians also sold small instruments like tambourines, guitars, and crotali at festivals.

Around 1800–1824

Music during religious festival processions

Religious processions often featured musicians, including porters who danced while carrying heavy barrels of wine on their shoulders to the sound of a distant orchestra.

Getting around

Extra animals for steep terrain

Travelers often needed extra horses or mules to navigate steep or sandy mountain terrain, paying extra fees for these additional animals.

Rare river travel by boat

Travel by boat on the Arno River was possible but rare, as travelers often preferred carriages out of fear of heavy rains and the river's unpredictable water levels.

Daily life

Schools and Student Life

State-run schools for girls taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and textile work, with deserving students eligible for a substantial dowry of 140 scudi after eight years. Pupils were required to maintain absolute silence and were corrected with zeal and charity if they showed negligence or inappropriate behavior.

Peasant Cooking and Meals

Peasant families frequently cooked large pots of vegetable soup, especially on Fridays when meat was avoided. Leftovers were repurposed by reboiling the soup in a pan with bread on subsequent days.

Food

Acquacotta: The Peasant Stone Soup

Ordinary people often ate acquacotta, a simple dish literally meaning cooked water, made from water, stale bread, and onions.

Leftover Bread Soup Traditions

Peasants commonly prepared large pots of vegetable and bread soup, specifically adhering to meatless diets on Fridays. Leftover soup was often reboiled with bread in the following days to create ribollita.

Prices and wages

Fixed Price Bread in Florence

In Florence, the price of a loaf of bread was fixed at eight soldi for most of the eighteenth century, with authorities adjusting the loaf's weight rather than the price itself to manage market fluctuations.

Self-Sufficiency and Rural Debt

Many rural families produced their own food and clothing instead of buying them, often paying artisans like cobblers or tailors with their own farm products rather than using money. In some areas, sharecropping families were frequently deeply indebted to their landlords, with average debts reaching 82 scudi.

Work

Peasant Wisdom and Clever Survival

Peasants often used folk proverbs to guide their daily labor, such as the saying that one should prune olive trees with a fool at the base and a wise man at the top. They also relied on clever tactics, like hiding beans from landlords to cook as acqua cotta, to survive and maintain their own household needs.

The Mezzadria Sharecropping Life

Peasant farmers, known as mezzadri, lived and worked on land under a sharecropping system, often balancing their master's requirements with small personal gardens and livestock. They were considered inattuali servants who lived with their own families in separate homes rather than in the master's house.

During their lifetime

  1. 1799

    Anti-Republican Risings (1799)

    Popular anti-republican uprisings occurred throughout Italy during the summer and autumn of 1799, reflecting the intense instability following the French invasion and the collapse of the newly formed republican systems.

  2. 1831

    Cholera epidemic of 1831

    A cholera epidemic struck the area around Vienna in 1831, causing significant mortality and leading to systematic expansions of the sewage system.

  3. 1835

    Deadly cholera epidemic hits Italy in 1835

    A cholera epidemic struck Italy between 1835 and 1837, resulting in over 140,000 deaths, including nearly 20,000 in Naples alone. Poor sanitation in urban centers favored the spread of the disease, which disproportionately affected the poor.

  4. 1837

    First steam railway in 1837

    The first steam railway line in the empire opened in 1837, connecting Vienna to Deutsch-Wagram and marking a new era for travel.

  5. 1842

    First seaside medical hostel opens in 1842

    In 1842, a seaside hostel was opened in Viareggio, Tuscany, specifically for treating children suffering from tuberculosis. This was the first facility of its kind in Italy, marking an early attempt at marine therapy.

  6. 1847

    First telegraph line established in 1847

    The first Italian telegraph line connecting Florence, Pisa, and Livorno was established in 1847. This technology represented a major leap in communication speed across the region.

Family

Parents

Spouses

Children

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.