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Leopold of the Two Sicilies (1813–1860)

Prince Leopold
Count of Syracuse
Leopold, Count of Syracuse.jpg
Leopold, Count of Syracuse by Nadar
Born (1813-05-22)22 May 1813
Palermo
Died 4 December 1860(1860-12-04) (aged 47)
Pisa
Burial Basilica of Santa Chiara, Naples
Spouse Maria of Savoy
Issue Princess Maria Isabella
Full name
Italian: Leopoldo Beniamino Giuseppe
House Bourbon-Two Sicilies
Father Francis I of the Two Sicilies
Mother Maria Isabella of Spain
Full name
Italian: Leopoldo Beniamino Giuseppe

Prince Leopold of the Two Sicilies (22 May 1813, Palermo – 4 December 1860, Pisa) was a prince of the Two Sicilies and was known as the Count of Syracuse.

Leopold was the fifth son of Francis I of the Two Sicilies and his second wife, Maria Isabella of Spain. In 1816, at the creation of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, when he was three years old, he was given the title of Count of Syracuse.

At his father's death in November 1830, Leopold's elder brother, Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, named him Lieutenant general in Sicily. As governor in Palermo, he introduced important reforms. Fearing his popularity and the desire of Sicily for independence, he was recalled from his position in early 1835. In April of the same year, he was sent to travel abroad.

Ferdinand II considered a marriage between Leopold and his cousin Princess Marie of Orléans, but the negotiations with her father, Louis-Philippe of France, foundered over the French uprisings in 1834 and Louis-Philippe's refusal to grant Marie her part of the "donation-partage" of his lands (a condition Ferdinand had put in place for the marriage to occur). Leopold was an artist, a skillful sculptor and patron of the arts. He lacked great ambition, preferring to lead a life of pleasure.

Leopold married Princess Maria of Savoy, second-eldest daughter of Prince Joseph Maria of Savoy, Count of Villafranca (son of Eugenio), and his wife Pauline Benedictine de Quélen de Vauguyon, on 16 June 1837 in Naples. They were ill-matched and their marriage was unhappy. He was an agnostic and liberal. She was a conservative religious fanatic, with nothing in common with him. They managed to have only one child, Maria Isabella, who died less than a year after her birth in 1838. From them on they lived separate lives. She retired to live a religious life in almost seclusion at her palace of Chiaia.


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