This work offers a new portrayal of Queen Maria Carolina of Naples as a woman of power with weaknesses and ambitions, and analyzes the Queen's actions, from her political choices to her alliance and betrayals. A careful examination of the period (1781-1785) covered by the diary shows that the daily life of the Queen and offers key evidence of her political acumen and her personal relationships. Recca cross-analyses unpublished personal documents, which include the integral diary and private correspondence. The book focuses on the political influence that Queen Maria Carolina wielded beside her husband, King Ferdinand IV, and the criticism that has been made by contemporary historians and intellectuals who have often tended to discredit the sovereign for personal rather than political reasons.

Autorentext

Cinzia Recca is Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Catania, Italy, in the Department of Educational Science. She has published several papers in historical journals and volumes and is the Copy-editor of the Royal Studies *Journal*. She is currently researching the Hapsburg shadow in the Kingdom of Naples in the Mid-Eighteenth century, analyzing and focusing on the unpublished correspondence of Queen Maria Carolina and her brothers.

Inhalt

.1.- Maria Carolina. Sovereign and mother.- 2. Structural physiognomy, historical value of diaries and the daily routine of the Queen.- 3. Complex interdependence between public and private moments: Queenly audiences, meetings and precouncil.- 4. The reformist impulse of John Acton, an essential expert in the service of the Court.- 5. 1785: Conspiracies and attempts to overthrow the Queen.- 6. Between praise and condemnation. A look at the historical debate..- Editorial Criteria.- Diary from 1 November of 1781 until 27 December of 1781.- Diary from September 10, 1782 until the end of December.- Diary 1783.- Diary 1784.- Diary 1785.