Maria Carolina of Austria may not be as well-known as her sister, Marie Antoinette, or her great enemy, Napoleon—but her story deserves attention.


They say that behind every successful man is a strong woman. Well, Maria Carolina of Austria certainly didn’t stand behind anyone—let alone a man. When her halfwit husband the King of Naples didn’t seem up for the job, she rose to the occasion. Her aggressiveness and cunning caused her greatest enemy, Napoleon himself, to call her “the only man in Naples.” The following ferocious facts will show how Maria Carolina single-handedly burst through the glass ceiling in 16th-century Europe.