Maria Theresa of Spain
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Some suspected Theresa's death in 1683 was foul play. |
Maria Theresa of Spain (
French:
Marie Thérèse) (
September 10,
1638 –
July 30,
1683), queen consort of
France as wife of
Louis XIV of France, was born at the
Escorial as the daughter of
Philip IV of Spain and of
Elisabeth of France (1602 - 1644).
She was called, in France,
Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche: her aunt,
Anne of Austria, also a Spanish princess, also used the Austrian archiducal title which the Spanish
Habsburgs still bore.
By pretending to seek a bride for his master in Margaret of Savoy,
Cardinal Mazarin had induced the king of Spain to make proposals for the marriage of his daughter with Louis XIV, and the
treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 stipulated for her marriage with the French king, that Marie would renounce any claim to the Spanish succession. As the treaty, however, hinged on the payment of her dowry, which was practically impossible for Spain, Mazarin could evade the other terms of the contract. Therefore, Marie Thérèse would pass her succession rights to her son,
Louis who in turn passed them to his second son, who will become
Philip V of Spain.
Marie Thérèse was married on
June 9,
1660, when Philip IV with his whole court accompanied the bride to the Isle of Pheasants in the
Bidassoa, where Louis met her.
The new queen's amiability and her undoubted virtues failed to secure her husband's regard and affection. She saw herself neglected in turn for
Louise de La Vallière, Mme.
de Montespan and others; but Marie Thérèse was too pious and too adoring of her husband to openly resent the position in which she was placed by the king's avowed infidelities. Provided the Queen acted with dignity and didn't make a scene, the King would leave her to her own devices, with her dwarves, chocolate and maids. With the growing influence of Madame
de Maintenon over his mind and affections he bestowed more attention on his wife, which she repaid by lavishing kindness on the mistress.
Marie Thérèse had no part in political affairs except in 1672, when she acted as
Regent during Louis XIV's campaign in the Netherlands. She died on
30 July 1683 at
Versailles, not without suspicion of
foul play on the part of her doctors. There is, however, no real proof that the Queen was poisoned. Her death was probably the only occasion in her life that caused the King any sort of emotion on his part, albeit briefly, apart from his sadness at losing so many legitimate children in infancy. Of her six children only one survived her, the
dauphin Louis, who died in 1711.
See the funeral oration of
Bossuet (Paris, 1684), E. Ducere,
Le Mariage de Louis XIV d'après les contemporains et des documents inédits (Bayonne, 1905); Dr Cabanes,
Les Morts mysterieuses de l'histoire (1900), and the literature dealing with her rivals Louise de la Vallière, Madame de Montespan and Madame de Maintenon.
