Maria Isabel of Portugal

Maria Isabel of Portugal
Queen consort of Spain
Tenure 29 September 1816 – 26 December 1818
Born 19 May 1797
Palace of Queluz, Portugal
Died 26 December 1818(1818-12-26) (aged 21)
Royal Palace of Madrid, Spain
Burial El Escorial
Spouse Ferdinand VII of Spain
Issue
Detail
Infanta María Luisa Isabel
Infanta María Luisa Isabel
House House of Braganza
Father John VI of Portugal
Mother Carlota Joaquina of Spain
Religion Roman Catholicism

Maria Isabel of Portugal (Maria Isabel Francisca; 19 May 1797 – 26 December 1818) was an Infanta of Portugal who became the Queen of Spain as the second wife of Ferdinand VII of Spain.

Biography

Isabel depicted in front of Prado, 1829, by Bernardo López y Pique

Maria Isabel was an Infanta of Portugal and daughter of John VI of Portugal and his wife Carlota Joaquina of Spain. She was a sister of Pedro I of Brazil.

She married her maternal uncle King Ferdinand VII of Spain on 29 September 1816, whose first wife, Princess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily, had died childless ten years before.

Maria Isabel was again pregnant soon after the birth of her firstborn, but the birth was a difficult one. The baby was in breech and the physicians soon found that the child had died. Maria Isabel stopped breathing soon thereafter and the doctors thought she was dead; when they started cutting her up to extract the dead fetus, she suddenly shouted in pain and collapsed on her bed, bleeding heavily.

She died on 26 December 1818 in the Palace of Aranjuez while giving birth to a large, stillborn daughter and was buried at the Escorial, having failed to provide her husband with an heir to the throne.

Legacy

It is due to Queen Maria Isabel's dedication and affection for the art world that she managed to gather many treasures from the past and create a royal museum, which would end up being the beginnings of Museo del Prado. It opened on 19 November 1819, a year after the Queen's death.

Issue

Ancestors

Honours and arms

Coat of arms of Maria Isabel of Portugal, Queen of Spain.

See also

References

  1. Geneall.net (retrieved 30 March 2012).

External links

Maria Isabel of Portugal
Born: 19 May 1797 Died: 26 December 1818
Spanish royalty
Preceded by
Julie Clary
Queen consort of Spain
1816–1818
Succeeded by
Maria Josepha Amalia of Saxony
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