Infanta Maria Francisca of Braganza (; en, Mary Frances); full name: ''Maria Francisca de Assis da Maternidade Xavier de Paula e de Alcântara Antónia Joaquina Gonzaga Carlota Mónica Senhorinha Sotera e Caia de Bourbon e Bragança''; 22 April 1800 – 4 September 1834) was a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

infanta ''Infante'' (, ; f. ''infanta''), also anglicised as Infant or translated as Prince, is the title and rank given in the Iberian kingdoms of Spain (including the predecessor kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, Navarre, and León) and Portugal to th ...

'' (princess) 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 ...

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 his spouse

Carlota Joaquina of Spain 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. ...

Biography

Maria was born in

Queluz, Portugal Queluz () is a city within the Sintra Municipality, on the Portuguese Riviera, in the Lisbon metropolitan area of Portugal. It is famed as the home of Queluz National Palace, the 18th century pleasure palace of the Portuguese Royal Family, as wel ...

. On 22 September 1816 in Madrid, she married her uncle Infante Carlos Maria Isidro of Spain, "Count of Molina". The couple had three children: * Infante Carlos, Count of Montemolin (1818–1861) * Juan, Count of Montizón (1822–1887) * Infante Fernando (1824–1861) In 1833, Maria Francisca, her husband and children were exiled from Spain because they refused to recognize Isabella II as heiress to the Spanish throne. They went first to Portugal and then to

Alverstoke Alverstoke is a small settlement which forms part of the borough of Gosport, on the south coast of Hampshire, England. It stretches east–west from Fort Blockhouse, Haslar to Browndown Battery, and is centred east of the shore of Stokes Bay and ...

, Hampshire, UK. While in Hampshire, Maria became ill and died on 4 September 1834. A crowd of several thousand were known to have visited the village to pay their respects as her body lay at the rectory of St Mary's Gosport, where her funeral was held and a marble stone honours her memory. Although initially interred in St Mary's Catholic Church Gosport, Maria Francisca's remains were later transferred to

Trieste Cathedral Trieste Cathedral ( it, Basilica cattedrale di San Giusto Martire), dedicated to Saint Justus, is a Roman Catholic cathedral and the main church of Trieste, in northern Italy. It is the seat of the Bishop of Trieste. In 1899, Pope Leo XIII g ...

in Italy, where the Carlist pretenders and their wives are buried. Four years after her death, Carlos remarried, to Maria Francisca's own sister

Maria Teresa, Princess of Beira Infanta Maria Teresa of Braganza ( or ; 29 April 1793 – 17 January 1874) was the firstborn child of John VI of Portugal and Carlota Joaquina of Spain, and heir presumptive to the throne of Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal between 1793 and 1795, unt ...

Ancestry

References

, - 1800 births 1834 deaths Portuguese infantas Spanish countesses House of Braganza House of Bourbon (Spain) 19th-century Portuguese people 19th-century Portuguese women People from Queluz, Portugal Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa Dames of the Order of Saint Isabel Daughters of kings {{Portugal-royal-stub