Maria Theresa of Spain
(1638-1683)
BIRTH
September 10, 1638
PLACE
San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain
NAME
María Teresa Bibiana de Austria
DEATH
July 30, 1683
PLACE
Versailles, France
FAMILY
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Spanish Habsburg princess Maria Theresa married Louis XIV under the Peace of the Pyrenees, and her claims to the Spanish inheritance shaped French policy and later brought her grandson to the throne of Spain. Spain never paid it, and Louis later used her claims to justify the War of Devolution in 1667. She had six children, but only one, Louis, the Grand Dauphin, survived to adulthood. Maria Theresa died at the Palace of Versailles on July 30, 1683.
EARLY LIFE
Maria Theresa was born on September 10, 1638, at the monastery-palace of El Escorial near Madrid, the daughter of Philip IV of Spain and his first wife, Elisabeth of France. She was a first cousin of Louis XIV on both sides of her family. Her mother died in 1644 and her only full brother, Balthasar Charles, in 1646, leaving her for a time the heir to the Spanish throne. She was raised in the strict etiquette of the Spanish court. The Peace of the Pyrenees of 1659, which ended the long war between France and Spain, provided for her marriage to Louis XIV. They married at Saint-Jean-de-Luz on June 9, 1660.
As part of the marriage treaty, Maria Theresa renounced her rights to the Spanish throne in return for a large dowry. Spain never paid it, and Louis later used her claims to justify the War of Devolution in 1667.
She had six children, but only one, Louis, the Grand Dauphin, survived to adulthood. Devout and retiring, she had little political influence, and Louis kept several mistresses openly at court.
Maria Theresa died at the Palace of Versailles on July 30, 1683. Her descent from the Spanish royal family later helped her grandson Philip, Duke of Anjou, become king of Spain as Philip V in 1700.
CAREER
DEATH
Maria Theresa of Spain's death is attributed to a reported fatal abscess. Spain never paid it, and Louis later used her claims to justify the War of Devolution in 1667. As part of the marriage treaty, Maria Theresa renounced her rights to the Spanish throne in return for a large dowry. She had six children, but only one, Louis, the Grand Dauphin, survived to adulthood. Devout and retiring, she had little political influence, and Louis kept several mistresses openly at court. In 1673, a suspicious letter from a lady-in-waiting of the Queen was sent to the Regent of Spain, Maria Anna of Austria, while the two countries were at war. Maria Theresa of Spain died on Jul 30, 1683, in Versailles, France. The available biographical account does not describe a continuous final medical course. It gives no dependable sequence of treatment and last symptoms from which to reconstruct a more detailed bedside narrative.
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