Maria Teresa, Princess of Beira

Infanta Maria Teresa
Princess of Beira
Born	(1793-04-29)29 April 1793 Ajuda, Lisbon
Died	Trieste
Spouse	Infante Peter Charles of Spain and Portugal Carlos V of Spain (Carlist claimant)
Issue	Infante Sebastian of Portugal and Spain
Full name Maria Teresa Francisca de Assis Antónia Carlota Joana Josefa Xavier de Paula Micaela Rafaela Isabel Gonzaga
House	House of Braganza
Father	John VI of Portugal
Mother	Carlota Joaquina of Spain
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Infanta Maria Teresa of Portugal (or of Braganza; Portuguese pronunciation: [mɐˈɾiɐ tɨˈɾezɐ] or [ˈtɾezɐ]; 29 April 1793 – 17 January 1874) was the firstborn child of John VI of Portugal and Carlota Joaquina of Spain, and heir to the throne of Portugal between 1793 and 1795, until her short-lived brother António Pio was born.

Early life

Maria Teresa Francisca de Assis Antónia Carlota Joana Josefa Xavier de Paula Micaela Rafaela Isabel Gonzaga was born in Ajuda, Lisbon in 1793. As the eldest child of the heir to the Portuguese monarch, she was granted the title Princess of Beira (given to the son of the heir to the throne). Maria Teresa was the eldest daughter of King John VI of Portugal, then the heir-apparent of the reigning queen Maria I of Portugal, and his wife Carlota Joaquina, daughter of Charles IV of Spain.

Marriage

Portrait by Nicolas-Antoine Taunay, 1817.

She was married on 13 May 1810 in Rio de Janeiro (where the royal family was exiled because of the Napoleonic wars) to her cousin Infante Pedro Carlos, Prince of Spain and Portugal. She was widowed on 26 May 1812, but soon after gave birth to her only child, a son, Infante Sebastian of Portugal and Spain (1813–75).

Very conservative, she was an ally of her younger brother Miguel I of Portugal in his attempts to obtain the throne of Portugal (civil war 1826–34), and of her brother-in-law and uncle Infante Don Carlos, Count of Molina in his attempts to obtain the Spanish throne. In the last years of the reign of her uncle Ferdinand VII of Spain (died 1833), Teresa lived in Madrid and plotted to strengthen Don Carlos' position in succession. She participated in the First Carlist War (1833–39), being a leading supporter of Carlism, church and reactionary interests. Her sister Francisca, Titular Queen of Spain, wife of Carlos, died in 1834.

Spanish succession

On 15 January 1837, the Cortes of Spain legislated her excluded from the Spanish succession, rights belonging to her in descent from her mother, on grounds of her being a rebel along with don Carlos. Her son Sebastian's rights were similarly excluded, but he was later, in 1859, restored in Spain. Also don Carlos' sons and Teresa's brother Miguel I of Portugal were excluded at the same law.

The next year she married again, in 1838, to her brother-in-law, uncle and longtime ally, Infante Carlos of Spain (1788–1855), whom she viewed as the rightful king of Spain; the widower of her sister Maria Francisca. The second marriage remained childless, but she took care of her stepsons, who were also her nephews and cousins.

They soon left Spain because of unsuccess in the civil war, and never returned. She died in Trieste on 17 January 1874, having survived her second husband by nineteen years.

Titles

• 29 April 1793 - 21 March 1795: Her Royal Highness The Princess of Beira
• 21 March 1795 - 13 May 1810: Her Highness Infanta Maria Teresa of Portugal
• 13 May 1810 - 20 October 1838: Her Highness Infanta Maria Teresa of Portugal and Spain
• 20 October 1838 - 30 March 1855: Her Highness The Contess of Molina
  • Carlist: 20 October 1838 - 30 March 1845: Her Majesty The Queen of Spain
• 30 March 1855 - 17 January 1874: Her Highness The Dowager Countess of Molina

Honours

• Dame of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa (10/11/1801).
• Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa (06/02/1818).

Ancestors

Family of Maria Teresa, Princess of Beira

16. Peter II of Portugal               8. John V of Portugal                       17. Maria Sofia of the Palatinate               4. Peter III of Portugal                             18. Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor               9. Maria Anna of Austria                       19. Eleonor Magdalene of the Palatinate               2. John VI of Portugal                                   20. John V of Portugal = 8               10. Joseph I of Portugal                       21. Maria Anna of Austria = 9               5. Maria I of Portugal                             22. Philip V of Spain               11. Mariana Victoria of Spain                       23. Elisabeth Farnese               1. Teresa, Princess of Beira                                         24. Philip V of Spain = 22               12. Charles III of Spain                       25. Elisabeth Farnese = 23               6. Charles IV of Spain                             26. Augustus III of Poland               13. Maria Amalia of Saxony                       27. Maria Josepha of Austria               3. Carlota Joaquina of Spain                                   28. Philip V of Spain = 22               14. Philip, Duke of Parma                       29. Elisabeth Farnese = 23               7. Maria Luisa of Parma                             30. Louis XV of France               15. Princess Louise Élisabeth of France                       31. Marie Leszczyńska

See also

• Descendants of John VI of Portugal
• House of Bourbon-Braganza