Secrets of the Gotha V Trivia Quiz

Answer: Elizabeth Farnese

Occupied for town centuries by the Spaniards, who had left bad memories, the kingdom of Naples then passed under the Austrian yoke. The poor Neapolitans had welcomed the re-conquest of their land by the Infanta Don Carlos, the eldest son of Felipe V, king of Spain.

Answer: He rebelled against his father and deposed him

After a prosperous reign of twenty-eight years he was forced, not without regret, to go from Naples to Madrid, leaving his successor his third son Ferdinand, assisted by a council of regency. His eldest son, Prince Felipe, was an imbecile; this made his second son, Charles, into the true crown prince, but in this capacity Charles also had to leave for Madrid in order to be trained as future king of Spain.

Answer: Maria Josepha

She was a delightful child, pretty, amiable and with a lively intelligence, endowed with all the talents and all the virtues that a mother as far-sighted as the great Maria Theresa could hope to see in her children. Those who knew the reputation of her future husband felt anxious at the thought that a creature so accomplished was to be sacrificed to such a peasant.

Their tears were soon groundless, for the archduchess died suddenly of smallpox.

Answer: Maria Carolina

He would be heartbroken by the loss of his wife, but that he would not be able to wait for six weeks of mourning before taking another one. It is quite understandable that married to such a husband - who was moreover faithful to her and naively recognised her intellectual superiority - the queen looked for some compensations for her unfortunate fate.

Answer: France

Maria Carolina, last of Maria Theresa's surviving daughters, died in Vienna in 1814, after seeing the arrival in the city amidst great rejoicing, of her grand-daughter, Francis I's daughter, the Empress Marie Louise, and her great-grandson, the king of Rome.

Answer: Two Sicilies

During the rise of Napoleon's empire, Ferdinand IV had been exiled after Napoleon granted the kingdom to Murat and once Murat was deposed in 1815 and Ferdinand reinstated, he merged the two kingdoms into the kingdom of Two Sicilies on 12th December 1816.

Answer: Francis I

His conduct was dictated by whim. He frequently hit his servants but in order to be forgiven would immediately say to his victim: 'You can ask me a favour' and was taken at his word.

Answer: Ferdinand II

Ferdinand II, whose suppression of revolutionary troubles earned him the unfair nickname of 'King Bomba' was, in spite of his critics and detractors, one of the greatest sovereigns Naples ever know, worthy of Charles III, the founder of the dynasty.

Answer: The Duke of Calabria

Indecisive in politics, torn between the parties, overwhelmed by advice which came as much from his wife as from his uncles and the queen mother, finally, of his own accord, he abandoned a throne which was vanishing beneath him.

Answer: 6th September 1860

He left without even taking his personal fortune - a lack of self-interest verging on stupidity - he left Naples on September 6 1860 and took refuge in Gaeta, a citadel which he intended to defend in cause of honour. Thus ended the Bourbon dynasty in Naples and Sicily.

All the information, and quotations, for these questions was taken from Ghislain de Diesbach's "Secrets of the Gotha". (New York: Meredith Press, 1964)