María Manuela Kirkpatrick y Grivegnée
María Manuela Kirkpatrick | |
|---|---|
| Countess of Montijo | |
 | |
| Born | 24 February 1794 Málaga, Spain |
| Died | 22 November 1879 (aged 85) |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Issue | María Francisca, Duchess of Alba Eugénie, Empress of the French |
| Father | William Kirkpatrick |
| Mother | Marie Françoise de Grevignée |
Isabella II of Spain in 1847-1848.
Early life
She was born in
Liège-born wife, Marie Françoise de Grevignée, whose sister Catherine married the French diplomat Mathieu de Lesseps.[1]
Personal life
María was brilliant, vivacious and talented. On 15 December 1817, she married Don
Bonapartist and veteran of the Napoleonic Wars.[2] They had two daughters, and a son, Francisco "Paco", who died young, including:[3]
- María Francisca de Sales "Paca" de Palafox Portocarrero y Kirkpatrick (1825–1860), who inherited most of the family honours; she became Duchess of Alba by marriage to Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, 15th Duke of Alba.[2]
- Empress consort of the French.[4]
In the 1830s, Manuela and the girls moved to Paris for their education. There she renewed her association with
George William Frederick Villiers, later Earl of Clarendon, who is rumoured to have been her lover. Manuela also continued her friendship with Prosper Mérimée, whom she had met in Spain and who took great interest in the education of the girls. Manuela was Mérimée's source for the story of Carmen.[3]
In 1837 Manuela briefly moved to England to further her daughters' education, but soon returned to Paris. After the death of her husband, and perhaps the disappointment of Villiers' marriage to an English lady, Manuela engaged in an extensive social life and pursued her ambition to find suitable husbands for her daughters. In 1844 Paca became the wife of one of the richest men in Europe:
Earl of Tinmouth, 8th Baron Bosworth, 8th Duke of Liria and Xérica, and 15th Duke of Alba de Tormes. Eugénie did even better; guided by her mother and Mérimée, she married Napoleon III, Emperor of the French.[5]
Manuela lived long enough to see the rise and fall of the
Napoléon, Prince Imperial.[2] Her great-great-granddaughter Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart was the most titled noble in the world.[3]
References
- ISBN 1-84530-071-8
- ^ a b c "THE COMTESSE DE MONTIJO; EUGENIE'S PROGENITORS. THE ENTERPRISING MR. KIRKPATRICK AND HIS DAUGHTER--THE MAIDEN CAPTURES A COUNT AND PARTS FROM HIM--THAT OBSCURE NOBLEMAN THE FATHER OF AN EMPRESS". The New York Times. 8 December 1879. Retrieved 9 May 2024.
- ^ ISBN 0-80-712624-1.
- ^ Lobée, Frédéric Auguste (1907). Women of the Second Empire: Chronicles of the Court of Napoleon III. John Lane. p. 260. Retrieved 9 May 2024.
- ISBN 0-312-01827-4.
External links
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