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The European Catholic Dynasties and the Fight Against Smallpox: Bourbon Rulers Between Resilient and Resistant Actions

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Resilience and Recovery at Royal Courts, 1200–1840

Part of the book series: Queenship and Power ((QAP))

Abstract

In the mid-eighteenth century, the threat of smallpox panicked the courts of Paris, Naples, Parma, and Vienna. In France, in 1756, Louis-Philippe I of Orléans decided to inoculate his sons despite the hostility of the Church, the physicians’ guild, and even King Louis XV. He called on the famous inoculator, the Swiss Théodore Tronchin, who had had a long career fighting smallpox. The news of the successful inoculations spread first in Paris, and from there to other countries and other branches of Bourbon dynasty. The Bourbons of Parma, after several more deaths in the family from smallpox, chose to follow the example of their French cousins by inoculating the young heir. The Habsburgs, who since 1761 had been losing family members to smallpox, with severe repercussions for its matrimonial strategies, followed suit when the Empress Maria Theresa decided to inoculate her family. All these rulers adopted similar resilience strategies, becoming fervent promoters of inoculation, despite the opposition at court, from the Church, and from the medical profession.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The authors developed the idea and project of this paper together. In detail, the introduction is the work of both authors, paragraphs 1 and 2 were written by Giacomo Lorandi, paragraphs 3, 4, 5 were written by Cinzia Recca.

  2. 2.

    Bennett (2012), Carmichael Silverstein (1987), Duncan et al. (1996), Fenner et al. (1988), Ochmann and Roser (2018), Sköld (1996).

  3. 3.

    Zanobio and Armocida (1997, 158–160).

  4. 4.

    For Lady Wortley Motagu and her contribution to fighting smallpox, see Barnes (2012), Grundy (1999), Montagu (1763), Montagu (1861).

  5. 5.

    Boylston (2012).

  6. 6.

    Langer (1976), Seth (2008, 149–165, 207–222).

  7. 7.

    The inoculation was reported in the Gazette de Berne 36, 30 Apr. 1756.

  8. 8.

    Collé (1868, 2:48): ‘Madame, quoique mon parti soit pris, si ce n’est point votre sentiment et de votre consentement que se fait cette inoculation, elle ne sera point faire; ce sont vos enfants comme les miens’, ‘Eh! Monsieur, qu’on les inocule, et laissez-moi pleurer’. All translations are our own unless otherwise noted.

  9. 9.

    Cabané (1913, 336): ‘Après tout, vous êtes le maître de vos enfants!’

  10. 10.

    Darmon (1989, 85–100).

  11. 11.

    Cabané (1913, 338): ‘La duchesse d’Orléans ayant paru à l’Opéra avec ses deux enfants, des applaudissements et des acclamations sans fin l’accueillirent, comme si les deux princes avaient échappé miraculeusement à la mort’.

  12. 12.

    Lindeboom (1958).

  13. 13.

    Tronchin (1765, 8:755–771).

  14. 14.

    Lorandi (2017, 255–257).

  15. 15.

    Lorandi (2020, 73–86).

  16. 16.

    Grundy (1994, 32–34).

  17. 17.

    From the mid-eighteenth century on, there was a new awareness of the family’s role in bringing up and protecting children, with the father gradually taking over tasks from the mother that had previously been the sole preserve of women (Roberts 2016, 102–136).

  18. 18.

    Perrot (1984).

  19. 19.

    Lanoë (2007).

  20. 20.

    Lanoë (2008).

  21. 21.

    Poinsinet (1756, 19): ‘Nymphes, séchez vos pleurs, vous serez toujours belle’.

  22. 22.

    Barras and Louis-Courvoisier (2001, 185–202).

  23. 23.

    The Paris Parliament’s decision was necessary after an outbreak of smallpox in the French capital (Bazin 2008, 37–44).

  24. 24.

    Darmon (1989, 62–70, 78–82).

  25. 25.

    Badinter (2010, 15–18).

  26. 26.

    Relation de l’inoculation (1764, 9–16).

  27. 27.

    Bertini (2000, 92–98): ‘ardemment désiré être inoculé’.

  28. 28.

    Bédarida (1928, 349–358).

  29. 29.

    Biondi (2003, 69–89).

  30. 30.

    For Enrichetta d’Este, see Archivio di Stato di Parma (State Archives of Parma), Parma (ASP), Carteggio farnesiano-borbonico interno, b. 29, 4 Nov. 1764; for Matilde d’Este, see ASP, Carteggio farnesiano-borbonico estero Modena, b. 30, 24 Feb. 1766.

  31. 31.

    Institut de France (Institute of France), Paris, Ms 2499/6, report to Paris from the Marquis of Chauvelin, ambassador to Turin, 3 Nov. 1764.

  32. 32.

    ASP, Carteggio farnesiano-borbonico estero Spagna, b. 27, 5 Nov. 1764. At least six of his sixteen children had smallpox and died young or were disfigured.

  33. 33.

    Voltaire (1968–1977, D12816), Voltaire to Louis François Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, 3rd duc de Richelieu, 30 July 1765: ‘La mort du duc de Parme est une belle leçon de l’inoculation. Son fils qui a eu la petite vérole artificielle est en vie, et le père, qui a négligé cette précaution, meurt à la fleur de son âge. … Est-il possible que le préjugé dure en France si longtemps.’

  34. 34.

    Stollberg-Rilinger (2017, 508).

  35. 35.

    Stollberg-Rilinger (2017, 50).

  36. 36.

    Rusnock (2016).

  37. 37.

    Flamm and Vutuc (2010, 266).

  38. 38.

    On this regard see also Vocelka (2010) Vocelka and Heller (1998, 170).

  39. 39.

    For the policies imposed by Empress Maria Theresa through the institution of the Health Commission in Vienna and throughout the Habsburg territories, see Wimmer (1991).

  40. 40.

    Vocelka and Heller (1998, 170).

  41. 41.

    Corradi (1973, 2:184).

  42. 42.

    Fadda (1983, 48). There had been a 30-year hiatus because of political instability, protracted by the Seven Years War (1756–1763) and the ideological-cultural stresses of the blockade, one of many obstacles to the Enlightenment and reforming movements which were indispensable to the advance of inoculation.

  43. 43.

    Between 1765 and 1766, two luminaries of the Enlightenment from Lombardy, Giuseppe Parini (see Ode L’innesto del vaiolo in Parini 1765) and Pietro Verri (see Verri 1766, 756–803), argued in favour of ‘prophylactic medicine’.

  44. 44.

    Fadda (1983, 103).

  45. 45.

    Gandoger de Foigny (1768).

  46. 46.

    Cosmacini (2016). Journal des Savants, 173/September, 126–128.

  47. 47.

    Later, in 1772 and again in 1774, the Grand Duke was to entrust the inoculation of his sons to Gatti.

  48. 48.

    Borrelli (1997, 72–73).

  49. 49.

    Mazzola (2009), Borrelli (1994).

  50. 50.

    There is an emblematic passage in Genovesi’s Lezioni di Commercio o sia d’Economia civile (1765) which gives a good sense of the climate of those years, highlighting the need for further research that brings medicine and politics together (see Stapelbroek 2006).

  51. 51.

    On 12 May 1768 the young Queen Maria Carolina arrived in Naples, having already married King Ferdinand by proxy in Vienna.

  52. 52.

    Recca (2017, 2018, 2020).

  53. 53.

    For the reluctance of King Charles III, see Duro and Tuells (2016, 64–69).

  54. 54.

    Both problems were solved from 1864 by only using vaccine taken from cows and abolishing arm-to-arm vaccination, a late solution compared to similar moves in the kingdom of Naples in 1805 by Troja and in 1810 by Galbiati, who had practised retro-vaccination.

  55. 55.

    Buonaguro et al. (2015).

  56. 56.

    Recca (2021).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Storia Moderna e Contemporanea, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Giacomo Lorandi

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze della Formazione, Palazzo Ingrassia, Studio XIII, University of Catania, Catania, Italy

    Cinzia Recca

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  1. Giacomo Lorandi
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  1. Linnaeus University, Småland, Sweden

    Fabian Persson

  2. University of Bradford, Bradford, UK

    Munro Price

  3. University of Catania, Catania, Italy

    Cinzia Recca

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Lorandi, G., Recca, C. (2023). The European Catholic Dynasties and the Fight Against Smallpox: Bourbon Rulers Between Resilient and Resistant Actions. In: Persson, F., Price, M., Recca, C. (eds) Resilience and Recovery at Royal Courts, 1200–1840. Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20123-3_9

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