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NAME : LUISA
SURNAME : de MOLINA
married in the SANFELICE family
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION :
Brown, wavy hair, not too tall, tumid lips.
THE PERIOD : Late 18th century
PLACES : Palazzo Mastelloni in Naples
THE FACTS : Luisa’s father is a Spanish
nobleman, but Luisa is not very rich even if she tries to live in a
plenty. At the age of 17, Luisa marries a very young boy, her cousin
Andrea, son of the Duke of Laureano named Gennaro DELLI MONTI SANFELICE.
Andrea belongs to a noble family but he’s not heir nor of the title of
duke neither of the wealth of the dukedom, which go to his older brothers.
Andrea and Luisa get married because of a very strong love, specially
physical.
The two young people lead a life which is too expensive
compared with their real money possibilities : she always buys expensive
clothes, hats and organizes parties; on the other hand he signs draft
without having a penny. In this way Luisa and Andrea are soon overwhelmed
by debts.
Luisa’s mother, Camilla Salinero, as already done in the
past, writes a letter to the king Ferdinando asking him to help the young
couple, even in the consideration that they have got three children. But
king Ferdinando decides to help them not by paying the debts as he has
done in the past, but ordering that the three children are to be closed in
three different monasteries, while Luisa and Andrea are sent to Laureana,
near Salerno, which is a dukedom of a relative of Andrea’s. But to Luisa
and Andrea that very small town is too boring,so they move out not too
far, that is Agropoli, the dukedom of another relative of Andrea’s . In
the meantime the first crises in the marriage start.
It is 1789, the couple has spent two years between
Laureana and Agropoli, but they still have the habit of wasting a lot of
money. Consequently, the king is very angry and he decides to separate the
couple for one year. After one year Luisa and Andrea would meet again in
Salerno under the tutelage of Michele Sanfelice, Andrea’s half-brother.
But due to the fact Luisa is pregnant, Michele says that it is not
possible to take care even of the baby. So Luisa will go to give birth to
her child into a monastery in Monte Corvino and she will be there all the
time needed. She remains in the monastery for three years but nobody will
know anything about her baby.
In 1792 Luisa escapes from the monastery with the help
of Andrea; they go to Naples but they are forced to hide to avoid the
anger of the king. But very soon they realize the king doesn’t care about
them because he’s got more serious problems such as that of the Jacobins.
The Jacobines are people who, inspiring to the ideas of the French
Revolution, want to abolish the monarchy to establish the republican
government.
Luisa and Andrea living in their house in Palazzo
Mastelloni in Largo Carità. As always they spend a lot of money so they
have got lot of debts again; the creditors denounce Andrea who should go
into prison but he’s saved, once again, by his relatives. Meanwhile the
marriage between Andrea and Luisa is at the end.
It is 1797. They live in the same house but separately.
From the end of the marriage ( 1797 ) until 1799 Luisa meets many people
in her house. She hates lowliness. Among the new friends, there are
Vincenzo Cuoco ( a young lawyer ), Ferdinando Ferri ( another young lawyer
), and the young Gerardo Baccher. These three men are all Luisa’s lovers
even if she is in love with Ferdinando Ferri. On the other hand is
seriously in love with Luisa. However, the three are conscious that Luisa
opens the doors of her bedroom to all of them.
In 1799 some important events happen in the Kingdom of
Naples, the French advance, the escape of the king Ferdinando and Queen
Carolina to Sicily, the strong battle of the ‘LAZZARI’ defending Naples (
lazzari are people not rich defending the king ), the capitulation of
Naples, the birth of the Neapolitan Republican which lasts from 21st
January to the 13th June. But people supporting the monarchy organizes
several riots against the republican government. One of this is “
Baccher’s Conspiracy “, organized by the Bacchers and even by Gerardo
Baccher. So Gerardo Baccher is a loyalist. All his companions decide to
attack the Jacobins, the supporters of the Republicans. But how can the
royalist be distinguished by the Jacobins and avoid any sort of violence?
The royalists will have a special permission, a sort of pass, a document
to be saved from the violence of the lazzari. Gerardo thinks that even
Luisa needs the pass so he delivers her the card. Luisa doesn’t know and
doesn’t care about the political problems of Naples, but for the first
time, receiving the pass from Gerardo, she is approached to the political
events. She doesn’t care about who is a royalist and who is a republican,
and just in that moment she realizes that Gerardo Baccher is a royalist
and he is preparing a conspiracy against the republicans.
After receiving the pass from Gerardo, Luisa starts to
be worried about the man she loves, that is Ferdinando Ferri. She makes a
very generous deed; in fact Luisa decides to give her pass to Ferdinando
Ferri, to protect him from any possible troubles. When she delivers the
pass to Ferdinando Ferri, she realizes he is a republican, so he is
Gerardo Baccher’s enemy. In this way Luisa reveals to the republicans that
the royalists are preparing a conspiracy. But, courageously, she doesn’t
betray Gerardo Baccher, in fact she doesn’t reveal the name of the person
she got the pass from. Ferdinando Ferri reveals everything to his
republican friend Vincenzo Cuoco and together they decide to denounce
Luisa. Her lovers denounce her!! Luisa is interrogated by the police but
she doesn’t reveal the name of Gerardo Baccher even if he is arrested
because other people reveal that he is one of the organizers of the
conspiracy. In the meantime Lady Eleonora Pimentel de Fonseca writes an
article on the newspaper “ il Monitore Napolitano “. She considers Luisa
as an heroine, who has avoided the attack of the royalists. When king
Ferdinando, in Sicily, reads the article, he becomes very angry, How is
possible that Luisa, many times helped by the king, decides to help the
republicans?
But the Republican government is defeated by the king’s
forces so the royal revenge starts. The king orders that Luisa is arrested
and then he decides for her death. Many republican people are killed after
the order of the king : they are executed in Piazza Mercato. So Luisa is
imprisoned waiting for the trial; but her condemnation to death is
confirmed. Her mother suggests her to act as a pregnant woman, and even a
doctor, Antonio Villari, tries to help her confirming her pregnancy. In
this way Luisa has at her disposal nine months more during which the king
could change idea about her death. In the meantime she is sent to Palermo
( Sicily ) because the king wants his personal doctor to visit her to be
sure about her pregnancy. In Palermo the trick is revealed and once more
the king confirms her condemnation. Princess Maria Clementina, king
Ferdinando’s daughter in law, asks him a favour as a tradition allows,
that is to save Luisa’s life, but the king doesn’t grant the favour. In
the morning of 11 September 1800 she is moved out to the scaffold built
for her in Piazza Mercato. None agrees with this execution, even because
the period of the strong fights for the Republic is over. Killing her the
year before, in 1799, perhaps could have been accepted, but now people cry
because refuse Luisa’s death. The headsman pushes the victim on the block
and lets the knife fall down; it hurts Luisa on her shoulders. She shouts.
The headsman catches her and cuts her throat.
THE MYTH: Luisa is a fragile woman, closed in
her small world, who seeks for love and finds some sorts of love; she
looks for protection and finds ‘ protectors ‘, she abandons her children,
her husband, overwhelmed by the events. But she still keeps a sort of
innocence. When her private life gets in touch with the hard reality, the
meeting becomes a bigger and bigger crash. She will be punished for her
husband’s mistakes, for her lovers’ mistakes ( Ferri and Cuoco ) . A very
high price : the prisonery, the scaffold, the death.
She is considered as a heroine of the Neapolitan
Revolution by Eleonora Pimentel de Fonseca, who writes about her on the
newspaper “ MONITORE NAPOLITANO “. But she is not a heroine of the
Revolution because she is not conscious of the political facts. The
problem is that the Revolution needs to have some heroes. And when the
king Ferdinando reads on the newspaper that Luisa is a heroine because she
has revealed the royalist conspiracy, he is very angry and decides for her
death. He will never know about her political ignorance. So Luisa is a
false heroine of the Revolution, she is just a VICTIM.
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