Italian States Parma 5 Lire Silver Coin 1858 Regent Marie-Louise and son Robert I Duke of Parma
Robert I of Bourbon under the regency of his mother Luisa Maria. Robert I was born in 1848 and died in 1907, and was a minor Duke of Parma from 1854 until the annexation of his duchy by the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1859.Obverse: Joined busts of Regent Marie-Louise and son Robert I Duke of Parma facing left.
Lettering: (Robert I, Duke of Parma , Piacenza, Luisa Maria of Bourbon, Regent) ROBERTO I.D.DI PAR.PIAC.ECC. E. LUISA M.DI BORB. REGG. D · BENTELLI 1858.
Engraver: Donnino Bentelli.
Reverse: Coat of arms of the House of Bourbon-Parma.
Lettering: 5. LIRE DEUS ET DIES (God and the Day).
Engraver: Donnino Bentelli.
Edge: Reeded.
Metal: Silver (.900).
Weight: 25 g.
Diameter: 37 mm.
Shape: Round.
Princess Louise Marie Thérèse of Artois
Louise Marie Thérèse d'Artois (Louise Marie Thérèse; 21 September 1819 – 1 February 1864) was a duchess and later a regent of Parma. She was the eldest daughter of Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry, younger son of King Charles X of France and his wife Carolina of Naples and Sicily, daughter of King Francis I of the Two Sicilies.
Robert I, Duke of Parma
Robert I (Italian: Roberto I Carlo Luigi Maria di Borbone, Duca di Parma e Piacenza; 9 July 1848 – 16 November 1907) was the last sovereign Duke of Parma and Piacenza from 1854 to 1859, when the duchy was annexed to Sardinia-Piedmont during the unification of Italy. He was a member of the House of Bourbon, descended from Philip, Duke of Parma the third son of King Philip V of Spain and Elizabeth Farnese.
Born in Florence, Robert was the son of Charles III, Duke of Parma and Louise Marie Thérèse d'Artois, daughter of Charles Ferdinand, duc de Berry and granddaughter of King Charles X of France. He succeeded his father to the ducal throne in 1854 upon the latter's assassination, when he was only six, while his mother stood as regent.
When Duke Robert was eleven years old he was deposed, as Piedmontese troops annexed other Italian states, ultimately to form the Kingdom of Italy.
Despite losing his throne, Robert and his family enjoyed considerable wealth, traveling in a private train of more than a dozen cars from his castles at Schwarzau am Steinfeld near Vienna, to Villa Pianore in northwest Italy, and the magnificent château de Chambord in France.
Less than four months after Duke Robert's death in 1907 the Grand Marshal of the Austrian court declared six of the children of his first marriage legally incompetent (they had learning difficulties), at the behest of his widow, Duchess Maria Antonia. Nonetheless, Robert's primary heir was Elias of Parma (1880–1959), the youngest son of his first marriage and the only one of his sons by that marriage to beget children of his own. Elias also became the legal guardian of his six elder siblings. Although the eldest half-brothers, Sixte and Xavier, eventually sued their half-brother Elias for trying to obtain a greater share of the ducal fortune, they lost in the French courts, leaving the issue of Robert's second marriage with modest prospects. Some of his younger sons served in the Austrian armed forces.
In 1869, in exile, he married Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1849–1882), daughter of king Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies. She was his half first cousin once removed, as her father (Ferdinand II) and Robert's maternal grandmother (Princess Caroline Ferdinande of Bourbon-Two Sicilies) were half-siblings, both children of Francis I of the Two Sicilies. Maria Pia belonged to the deposed Royal Family of the Two Sicilies, and was thus a Bourbon, like her husband. She bore him 12 children, before dying in childbirth.