1807, Tuscany, Charles Louis. Silver 1½ Francescone (10 Lire) Coin.
Mint Year: 1807
Mint Place: Pisa (Italy)
Denomination: 1½ Francescone (10 Lire)
Region: Italian States, Tuscany (Kingdom)
Reference: Davenport 152, KM-C49.2.
Weight: 39.21gm
Diameter: 44mm
Material: Silver
Obverse: Busts of Charles Louis (as ruler) and Maria Louisa (as regent) vis á vis. Legend: CAROLVS . LVD . D . G . REX . ETR & M . ALOYSIA . R . RECTRIX I. I . H . H . (hammer) (PISIS monogram)
Reverse: Crowned multiple coat of arms with chain of the golden fleece around and three star orders hanging. Legend: DOMINE SPES MEA - A IUVENTUTE MEA . / PISIS 1806 Comment: Royal spanish arms of Lion and Castille in inner shield!
Maria Louisa of Spain (Spanish: Maria Luisa Josefa Antonietta Vicentia y Borbón-Parma; 6 July 1782, – 13 March 1824) was a daughter of Charles IV of Spain. She married Louis of Bourbon-Parma and was Queen of Etruria and later Duchess of Lucca.
During her regency, Maria Louisa founded a School for the teaching of upper level sciences, the Museum of Physics and Natural History of Florence. To ingratiate herself with the Florentine people, she entertained lavishly at the Pitti Palace, holding splendid receptions for artists and writers, as well as government officials. She gave a celebrated party in the loggia del Lonzi for 200 small boys and girls from working class families. They were allowed to take home the plates, glasses, spoons and napkins, after the banquet, as the regent watched from a platform erected at the Palazzo de la signorina.
The Kingdom of Etruria (Italian: Regno di Etruria) was a kingdom comprising the larger part of Tuscany which existed between 1801 and 1807. It took its name from Etruria, the old Roman name for the land of the Etruscans.
It was created by the Treaty of Aranjuez, signed on 21 March 1801. In the context of a larger agreement between Napoleonic France and Spain, the Bourbons of Parma were compensated for the loss of their territories in Northern Italy, which had been occupied by French troops since 1796: in return for Ferdinand, Duke of Parma relinquishing his claims, his son Louis was compensated with the Kingdom of Etruria, a new kingdom created out of the old Grand Duchy of Tuscany. To make way for the Bourbons, the Habsburg Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand III, was ousted and compensated with the secularized land of the Archbishop of Salzburg.
The first King, Louis I, died young in 1803 and his young son Charles Louis succeeded as King Louis II. His mother Maria Louisa of Spain, Queen of Etruria was appointed regent.
In 1807, Napoleon dissolved the Kingdom again and integrated it into France, turning it into three French départements.
The king and his mother were promised the throne of a new Kingdom of Northern Lusitania (in the North of Portugal) but this plan never materialized due to the break between Napoleon and the Spanish Bourbons in 1808.
After Napoleon’s downfall in 1814 Tuscany itself was restored to its Habsburg Grand Dukes. In 1815 the Duchy of Lucca was carved out of Tuscany as a temporary compensation for the Bourbons of Parma until in 1847 they could resume their rule over Parma.