Teresa, Princess of Beira - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Infanta Maria Teresa of Portugal (or of Braganza; mɐˈɾiɐ tɨˈɾezɐ or [ˈtɾezɐ]; April 29, 1793 – January 17, 1874) was the firstborn child of John VI of Portugal

John VI of Portugal

John VI John VI John VI (full name: João Maria José Francisco Xavier de Paula Luís António Domingos Rafael; (13 May 1767 – 10 March 1826) was King of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves (later changed to just King of Portugal and the Algarves, after Brazil was recognized...

and Charlotte of Spain

Charlotte of Spain

Doña Carlota Joaquina of Spain was a Queen consort of Portugal as wife of John VI...

, and heir to the throne of Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

between 1793 and 1795, until her short-lived brother António Pio was born.

Maria Teresa Francisca de Assis Antónia Carlota Joana Josefa Xavier de Paula Micaela Rafaela Isabel Gonzaga of Braganza was born in Ajuda

Ajuda

Ajuda is a Portuguese civil parish in the municipality of Lisbon with an area and 17,961 inhabitants ; its density was 5707.3 inhabitants/km².-History:...

, Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

in 1793. As the eldest child of the Portuguese monarch, she was granted the title Princess of Beira

Prince of Beira

Prince of Beira is a title in Portugal, normally given to the second heirs to the throne and/or to the eldest daughter of the monarch. It was thus attributed to persons of the royal family especially esteemed by the sovereign...

(given to the heir to the throne). Maria Teresa was the eldest daughter of King John VI of Portugal

John VI of Portugal

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

Maria I of Portugal

Maria I was Queen regnant of Portugal and the Algarves from 1777 until her death. Known as Maria the Pious , or Maria the Mad , she was the first undisputed Queen regnant of Portugal...

, and his wife Carlota Joaquina

Charlotte of Spain

Doña Carlota Joaquina of Spain was a Queen consort of Portugal as wife of John VI...

, daughter of Charles IV of Spain

Charles IV of Spain

Charles IV was King of Spain from 14 December 1788 until his abdication on 19 March 1808.-Early life:...

.

She was married on May 13, 1810 in Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

(where the royal family was exiled because of the Napoleonic wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

) to her cousin Infante Pedro Carlos, Prince of Spain and Portugal. She was widowed on May 26, 1812, but soon after gave birth to her only child, a son, Infante Sebastian of Portugal and Spain

Infante Sebastian of Portugal and Spain

Sebastian Gabriel de Borbon y de Braganza, Infante of Portugal and Spain, was a royal of the 19th century, progenitor of the ducal lines of Hernani, Ansola, Durcal and Marchena, and Carlist army commander in the First Carlist War.- Family :He was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1811 as the only child of...

(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

First Carlist War

The First Carlist War was a civil war in Spain from 1833-1839.-Historical background:At the beginning of the 18th century, Philip V, the first Bourbon king of Spain, promulgated the Salic Law, which declared illegal the inheritance of the Spanish crown by women...

(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.

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.

They soon left Spain because of unsuccess in the civil war, and never returned. She died in Trieste

Trieste

Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...

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

Ancestors

See also