User:Hh1718/sandbox3

Though a zealous legitimist, Maria Beatrix has never engaged directly in politics; nothing is known e.g. of her advancing the Carlist cause when interfacing with European royals. However, by means of her family advice she had some tangible impact on Traditionalism.

When her older son, the widowed 46-year-old infante Carlos, was considering re-marrying, Maria Beatrix suggested that the 26-year-old Berthe de Rohan be his future wife. It is not clear what was the basis of her judgement and whether the two women have ever met, especially that Maria Beatrix closed herself in the monastery when Berthe was 4 years old. Most likely Maria Beatrix’s opinion was derived from information provided by her Habsburg relatives and other people who frequented the imperial Vienna court; what mattered was Catholicism and highly aristocratic ancestry of Berthe. Though following wedding Carlos appeared to have been fairly happy in his second marriage, which would last 15 years, in Carlist narrative the relation is presented as unfortunate if not disastrous. First, Berthe is deemed responsible for turning Carlos from an energetic, combative leader to a complacent man who largely lost interest in politics and focused on trivia, spending his time in theatres, operas and restaurants. Second, Berthe is blamed for loss of Carlist material legacy, held in the Loredan palace and inherited by her as the widow. It is believed she destroyed enormous private archive, which included correspondence of Carlos’ father and grandfather; apart from selling the Loredan palace, she later kept selling various artefacts, including arts, military gear, standards etc.

Maria Beatrix is also deemed partially responsible for rather unfortunate personal life of her grandchildren. In a way it resulted from the arrival of Berthe, who diverted the attention of Carlos from his children to his newly wed wife. Allegedly deprived of proper paternal guidance, Elvira and Beatrix engaged in turbulent if not scandalous personal relations. It was also Maria Beatrix who suggested that another granddaughter, Alicia, gets married to prince Friedrich von Schönburg-Waldenburg; Maria Beatrix was particularly impressed by his conversion from Lutheranism to Roman Catholicism. The marriage turned into a disaster; Alicia abandoned her husband shortly after giving birth to their son. All these unfortunate relations had no impact on politics; however, it was not the case of Maria Beatrix’s only grandson, Jaime. He and Berthe developed bitter and venomous hostility; the latter informed Carlos that the former was trying to approach her. Relations between the father and the son deteriorated almost to the point of total breakup. Berthe is also blamed for damaging increasingly cordial relations between Jaime and princess Mathilde of Bavaria. Jaime failed to develop romantic relations with any other woman and as a bachelor he died childless; this eventually produced the end of Carlist dynasty, with enormous impact on the movement.