Maria Francisca of Nemours

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maria Francisca of Savoy-Nemours, Queen of Portugal

Marie Françoise Élisabeth of Savoy (Portuguese: Maria Francisca Isabel; Paris, June 21, 1646-Lisbon, December 27, 1683), Princess of Nemours, second daughter of Charles Amédée of Savoy, 6th Duke of Nemours and Elisabeth de Bourbon-Vendome. She married first to Afonso VI of Portugal and then to his brother the future Peter II of Portugal, then Duke of Beja and regent.

In a time when Louis XIV of France needed the support of Portugal against their enemies (Spain), the French king arranged a marriage between Marie Françoise, an important member of the French nobility, and the recently crowned Afonso VI of Portugal, an ill young man paralyzed of the left side of his body and mentally unstable. Marie Françoise departed from La Rochelle aboard the Vendôme. When in Lisbon and disappointed in her fate, she fomented a palace coup that ended the government of Luís de Vasconcelos e Sousa, 3rd Count of Castelo Melhor.

As the Portuguese Restoration of Independence War continued, the incapable King Afonso VI ruled influenced by ambitious members of the nobility. Queen Marie Françoise jointly with his younger brother Infante Peter conducted a revolt forcing the king to abdicate his powers and consent to a practical exile in Terceira in the Azores. She also managed to get an annulment of the marriage, by invoking the supposed impotence of the king, and only months afterwards she married Prince Peter, now the Prince Regent. She gave in 1669 birth to an only daughter: Isabel Luísa Josefa of Braganza, Princess of Beira, but was not able to produce further issue, which was problematic to Peter who needed heirs, as otherwise the entire Braganza dynasty was at brink of extinction. When Afonso died in 1683, Peter succeeded him as Peter II of Portugal and Marie Françoise became Queen again - and died in December of the same year.

She was first buried at the Convent of the Francesinhas, and then moved in 1912 to the Braganza's (or National) Pantheon at the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora.