Maria Francisca of Savoy
Maria Francisca Elisabeth of Savoy ( in Portuguese: Maria Francisca Isabel de Sabóia, princesa de Nemours ) ( born June 21, 1646 Paris, † December 27, 1683 in Palhavã ) was from 1666 to 1668 and 1683 Queen of Portugal.
Life
Maria Francisca was the second daughter of Charles Amédée de Savoie, Duke of Nemours and Aumale, and his wife Élisabeth de Bourbon- Vendôme, a granddaughter of the French King Henry IV
King Louis XIV wanted to strengthen his alliance with Portugal, which was directed against the common enemy Spain. He agreed for that purpose a marriage of Maria Francisca with the Portuguese King Alfonso VI. , But who was mentally and physically disabled. The marriage by proxy was closed on June 27, 1666 and the bride then transferred from the fleet of her uncle, the Duke of Beaufort, to Portugal. On August 2, 1666 their wedding took place in Lisbon with the Portuguese king.
The beautiful, energetic and witty Maria Francisca brought her husband from the beginning no affection for, but fell in love with his younger brother, later the Portuguese King Peter II you allied with this against her husband and reached together with him that Alfonso VI. his first First Minister, Luís de Vasconcelos e Sousa, 3rd Count of Castelo Melhor, fired and soon afterwards had to do entirely without the exercise of his reign ( 1667). Alfonso VI. was forced at first to go into exile in Terceira in the Azores; later he lived in the palace of Sintra under house arrest. Peter ( II ) acted as regent for his brother stepped up to his death.
The marriage of Maria Francisca and Alfonso VI. was canceled on 28 March 1668, allegedly because Alfons not to have been able to consummate the marriage. Then Maria Francisca married with the dispensation of the Pope on April 2, 1668 her beloved Prince Regent Peter ( II ), to which they exerted a strong influence. Peter was after the death of Alfonso VI. (12 September 1683), the new king, but still at the end of the same year also different Maria Francisca. Her marriage to Alfonso VI. remained childless; Peter II was born in 1669 she had a daughter Isabel Luisa Josefa, who was among others the Duke Victor Amadeus II of Savoy promised, but already in 1690 died at the age of 21 years.