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Prince Francis, Count of Trapani

Prince Francis
Count of Trapani
Francesco, conde de Trapani.jpg
Born (1827-08-13)13 August 1827
Naples, Two Sicilies
Died 24 September 1892(1892-09-24) (aged 65)
Paris, France
Spouse Archduchess Maria Isabella of Austria
Issue Maria Antonietta, Countess of Caserta
Maria Carolina, Countess Zamoyska
Full name
Italian: Francesco di Paola Luigi Emanuele
House House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies
Father Francis I of the Two Sicilies
Mother Maria Isabella of Spain
Religion Roman Catholic
Full name
Italian: Francesco di Paola Luigi Emanuele

Prince Francis of the Two Sicilies, Count of Trapani (Full Italian name: Francesco di Paola Luigi Emanuele, Principe di Borbone delle Due Sicilie; 13 August 1827 – 24 September 1892) was a member of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.

Born in Naples, Francis was the youngest child and son of Francis I of the Two Sicilies and his second wife, Maria Isabella of Spain. He received the title of Count of Trapani. He was three years old at the death of his father and the ascension of his brother Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies to the throne. As the youngest son in a large family, he was destined to follow a career in the church and was educated at the Jesuit college in Rome. His religious career was abandoned in 1844 when King Louis Philippe of France proposed to marry Francis to the young Queen Isabella II of Spain. She was three years younger than him and was both his cousin and his niece. The French ambassador to the Holy See who met the Count of Trapani at this time described him unfavorably as " very ugly, small, of sickly appearance, without expression of intelligence; and when I remember in what condition of health I saw Queen Isabella during my stay in Spain (she suffered from an acute form of eczema), I cannot help thinking that at least from the physical point of view, they could choose better".

The Count of Trapani hesitated in putting forward his candidacy to marry Isabella II. His brother the Count of Aquila, his confessor, and the pro-Austrian party in Naples were all against the idea, thinking that he would be an instrument in King Louis Philippe's hands and that the Queen of Spain could not bear children. However, after a family council on 17 June 1845, Trapani accepted marrying his niece under pressure by his brother Ferdinand II, his mother, and the French ambassador. However, he could not ask for the Queen's hand, she had to offer it. Spain's prime minister Narvaez and Francis's sister Queen Maria Christina favored his candidacy. However, after the fall of Narvaez's government in April 1846, and facing the lack of support in Spain for the project, Maria Christina chose her nephew the Duke of Cadiz as a husband for her daughter in an agreement with King Louis Philippe.


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