Infanta María Luisa of Spain, Duchess of Talavera de la Reina (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

: ''María Luisa de Silva y Fernández de Henestrosa''; 3 December 1880 – 2 April 1955) was a Spanish aristocrat and the second wife of Infante Ferdinand of Spain, Prince of Bavaria, who was a first cousin and (former) brother-in law of

Alfonso XIII of Spain Alfonso XIII (17 May 1886 – 28 February 1941), also known as El Africano or the African, was King of Spain from 17 May 1886 to 14 April 1931, when the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed. He was a monarch from birth as his father, Alf ...

. She was the second child and elder daughter of Luis de Silva y Fernandez de Henestrosa, 10th Count of Pie de Concha and his wife, María de los Dolores Fernández de Henestrosa, herself the daughter of the 9th Marquess of Villadarias. Doña Maria was granted the title " Duchess of Talavera de la Reina", made a

grandee Grandee (; es, Grande de España, ) is an official royal and noble ranks, aristocratic title conferred on some Spanish nobility. Holders of this dignity enjoyed similar privileges to those of the peerage of France during the , though in neith ...

of Spain and accorded the style of ''

Highness Highness (abbreviation HH, oral address Your Highness) is a formal style used to address (in second person) or refer to (in third person) certain members of a reigning or formerly reigning dynasty. It is typically used with a possessive adjecti ...

'' on 25 June 1914, gazetted 2 September of that year. Doña Maria married Infante Don Fernando de Baviera at

Guipúzcoa Gipuzkoa (, , ; es, Guipúzcoa ; french: Guipuscoa) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French depa ...

, Spain on 1 October 1914, whose first wife (and cousin), Infanta Maria Teresa, had died in 1912. Doña Maria was 56 when, on 17 May 1927, Maria Teresa's brother, King Alfonso XIII, made her an infanta ''de gracia'' (by "royal grace") and gave her the elevated treatment of '' Royal Highness'', allowing her to fully share her husband's title and rank: ''"Desiring on this date to give evidence of My Royal esteem to Her Highness the Most Serene Lady Doña María Luisa de Silva y Fernández de Henestrosa, Duchess of Talavera de la Reina, second wife of His Highness Infante Fernando of Bavaria and Bourbon and of My gratitude for the loving disposition with which she has assisted in the education and care of the children of My most beloved sister Infanta María Teresa, I hereby grant upon her the rank, honours and style corresponding to the condition of Infanta of Spain".'' Although her husband was a patrilineal descendant of Ludwig I of Bavaria, he had become a

naturalised Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the i ...

Spaniard in 1905 in conjunction with his first marriage (being the third generation of his cadet branch of the royal

House of Wittelsbach The House of Wittelsbach () is a German dynasty, with branches that have ruled over territories including Bavaria, the Palatinate, Holland and Zeeland, Sweden (with Finland), Denmark, Norway, Hungary (with Romania), Bohemia, the Electorate ...

to live as modern '' princes étrangers'' in Spain). Four days after Doña Maria de Silva was made a duchess in Spain, her fiancé renounced his dynastic rights as a member of the Bavarian Royal Family, 29 June 1914, completing the transfer of the prince's allegiance from Germany to Spain shortly before the

Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated on 28 June 1914 by Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip. They were shot at close range whil ...

led to World War I, although the legalities and logistics of the inter-dynastic re-arrangement of assets were disrupted and protracted by the war. Infante Ferdinand of Spain, Prince of Bavaria and Infanta Maria Luisa, Duchess of Talavera de la Reina had no children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Henestrosa, Maria Luisa de Silva y Fernandez de 1880 births 1955 deaths

Maria Luisa Maria Luisa may refer to: People * Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici (1667–1743), last lineal descent of the House of Medici * Maria Luisa Ambrosini (20th century), non-fiction author * Maria Luisa, Duchess of Lucca (1782–1824), Queen of Etruria ...

Spanish infantas Spanish duchesses Nobility from Madrid