André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri1859-1861
Prince of Capua and family
Carte de visite
Paul FreckerPrince Carlo of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Prince of Capua (known as le Prince de Capoue in French), is seen here with his wife, Penelope Smyth, Contessa di Mascali. The second woman is their daughter, Princess Vittoria.
Born at Palermo on 10 November 1811, Prince Carlo was the second (surviving) son of Francesco I of Bourbon-Two Sicilies and a younger brother of King Ferdinando II. On 5 April 1836 at Gretna Green in Scotland, he married morganatically Penelope Caroline Smyth, daughter of Grice Smyth of Ballynatray, Co. Waterford, Ireland. [Gretna Green was the first stagecoach stop in Scotland after the border city of Carlisle. It became popular with young lovers when the Marriage Act of 1754 made marriage under the age of 21 without parental consent illegal in England.] The couple went on to marry a further three times - in Madrid, in Rome and in England - but their union was never recognized under Sicilian law because the King of Naples, Prince Carlo's brother, withheld his consent.
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