The Princess and the Corpse

At age sixteen in 1824 Italy's richest heiress, Cristina Trivulzio, married her prince and acquired the name she would be known as -- even though they separated soon after -- Principesa Cristina Barbiano di Belgiojoso, throughout an adventurous life, which she was lucky to escape with several times.

Cristina associated with the revolutionaries attempting, for decades, to expel foreign rulers and unite Italy.  Living in the Austrian Empire's territories in northern Italy, that attracted the attention of the Empire's police, and the principesa fled to France.  There she wrote articles in support of the struggle for independence and met with exiled rebels along with the leading intellectuals and artists of the time such as de Tocqueville and Franz Liszt.  There was time for other diversions, though, as she had a daughter (Maria) in 1838, probably fathered by her personal secretary Bolognini.

When Europe erupted in revolution in 1848, Cristina organized soldiers in Milan and supported the short-lived Roman  Republic by establishing a corps of nurses and administering a hospital.  Not pleased with her once again, the Austrian secret police meanwhile searched her villa in Locate (south of Milan) for evidence they could use to arrest her.  They did not find it, but what they did find, in a wardrobe, was the body of her secretary Gaetano Stelzi who had been deceased (from tuberculosis) for about a year.  Rumor has it the princess and her maid had embalmed Signor Stelzi in the kitchen, dressed him and hid him.  It seems she had a thing for male secretaries.

Again a step ahead of the Imperial police, Cristina escaped on a ship to Istanbul, Turkey.  She settled on a farm she had purchased, and supported by a successful opium poppy harvest, spent the next ten months touring Syria and Palestine.  Rather shocked by the subjugation of women in these lands, she wrote two books, Oriental Harems and  Scenery, and Of Women's Condition and Their Future.  

Returning to  Italy in 1856, our intrepid princess continued her work with the independence movement and finally saw unification in 1861.  What a gal.

Divided Italy in 1848