Prince Louis, Count of Aquila
1824–1897 · Neapolitan prince and military man
Prince Luigi, Count of Aquila, was a member of the Italian branch of the House of Bourbon, born in Naples in 1824 and died in Paris in 1897. The sources consulted do not document any painting by him, so his historical importance rests mainly on his military and naval career and his role at the courts of Naples and Rio de Janeiro.
Son of the future King Francis I of the Two Sicilies and of Infanta Maria Isabel of Spain, he was trained for the navy. On 28 April 1844 he married Princess Januária of Brazil, daughter of Emperor Pedro I, in Rio de Janeiro, and became an honorary admiral of the Brazilian Imperial Navy. The couple settled in Naples, where Louis served as vice-admiral and was elected viceroy of Sicily in January 1848.
He declined several offers of crowns from Spanish American republics, including a proposal for a supposed Kingdom of Upper Peru. The invasion of Garibaldi's troops in 1861 forced the Neapolitan royal family into exile in France, where the count died in 1897.