Infanta Maria Teresa of Braganza ( or ; 29 April 1793 – 17 January 1874) was the firstborn child of

John VI of Portugal , house = Braganza , father = Peter III of Portugal , mother = Maria I of Portugal , birth_date = , birth_place = Queluz Palace, Queluz, Portugal , death_date = , death_place = Bemposta Palace, Lisbon, Portuga ...

and Carlota Joaquina of Spain, and

heir presumptive An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir apparent or a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question. ...

to the throne of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

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 Ajuda () is a ''freguesia'' (civil parish) and district of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. Ajuda is located in western Lisbon, northeast of Belém and west of Alcântara. The population in 2011 was 15,617.Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits w ...

in 1793. As the eldest child of the heir to the Portuguese monarch, she was granted the title

Princess of Beira Prince of Beira ( pt, Príncipe da Beira, feminine: ''Princesa da Beira'') is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent of the heir apparent to the King of Portugal, throne of Portugal. The title's original use that it be granted on the ...

(given to the son of the heir to the throne). Maria Teresa was the eldest daughter of

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...

, then the heir-apparent of the reigning queen Maria I of Portugal, and his wife

Carlota Joaquina Doña Carlota Joaquina Teresa Cayetana of Spain (25 April 1775 – 7 January 1830) was Queen of Portugal and Brazil as the wife of King Dom John VI. She was the daughter of King Don Charles IV of Spain and Maria Luisa of Parma. ...

, daughter of

Charles IV of Spain , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Charles III of Spain , mother = Maria Amalia of Saxony , birth_date =11 November 1748 , birth_place =Palace of Portici, Portici, Naples , death_date = , death_place ...

Marriage

She was married on 13 May 1810 in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

(where the royal family was exiled because of the

Napoleonic wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...

) to her cousin Infante Pedro Carlos, Prince of Spain and Portugal. She was widowed on 26 May 1812, soon after giving birth to her only child, a son, Infante Sebastian of Portugal and Spain (1811–1875). 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 1826–1834), 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 , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Charles IV of Spain , mother = Maria Luisa of Parma , birth_date = 14 October 1784 , birth_place = El Escorial, Spain , death_date = , death_place = Madrid, Spain , burial_p ...

(died 1833), Teresa lived in Madrid and plotted to strengthen Don Carlos' position in succession. She participated in the

First Carlist War The First Carlist War was a civil war in Spain from 1833 to 1840, the first of three Carlist Wars. It was fought between two factions over the succession to the throne and the nature of the Spanish monarchy: the conservative and devolutionist ...

(1833–1839), 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 Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into pr ...

on 17 January 1874, having survived her second husband by nineteen years.

Honours

PRT Ordem de Nossa Senhora da Conceicao de Vila Vicosa Cavaleiro ribbon

Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa * Ordine di Santa Isabella

Dame of the Order of Queen Saint Isabel * Order of Queen Maria Luisa (Spain) - ribbon bar

Dame of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa

Ancestry

References

La Princesa de Beira y los Hijos de Don Carlos by Conde de Rodezno (1938) , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Maria Teresa of Braganza, Infanta 1793 births 1874 deaths Portuguese infantas House of Bourbon-Braganza House of Braganza People from Lisbon 18th-century Portuguese people 19th-century Portuguese people 18th-century Portuguese women 19th-century Portuguese women Dames of the Order of Saint Isabel Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa Daughters of kings