Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Three Generations

Marie-Amélie of Naples (1782-1866), Duchesse d'Orléans, later Queen of the French.

Louise-Marie d'Orléans (1812-1850), Queen of the Belgians. 

Charlotte of Belgium (1840-1927), Empress of Mexico. 

4 comments:

MadMonarchist said...

Marie-Amelie and Louise-Marie look alike but I always thought Charlotte more resembled King Leopold than her mother. On the other hand I thought Leopold II favored his mother more than his father, but that's just this 'beholder's' opinion.

May said...

I think you're right. And I think Leopold II got more than just his looks from the French side. I think that is also (at least partly) where he got his insistence on national and architectural grandeur. I was reading somewhere recently about how L-M used to complain that everything in Belgium was too small and provincial, and Leopold II definitely tried to change that!

MadMonarchist said...

'A small country with small people' or something like that didn't he say? That reminds me of Vicky and Kaiser Bill. She was quite vocal in her opinion that everything in Prussia was inferior to Britain, positively Spartan compared to how she was raised and I always wondered if that had anything to do with her son's obsessive desire to compete with the British.

May said...

"Petit pays, petit esprit."

"Small country, small minds."

Sadly, there's truth in it.