Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche
Queen · 1660-1683 · born on 10 September 1638, died on 30 July 1683
Daughter of Philip IV of Spain, Marie-Thérèse married King Louis XIV in 1660, under the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) that ended the war between France and Spain. An Infanta of Spain, she became Queen of France at twenty-one.
A pious and retiring queen, she lived in the shadow of the Sun King, who openly kept favourites (La Vallière, Montespan). She nevertheless gave the crown a male heir, the Grand Dauphin, and several children, of whom few survived.
Her renunciation of her rights to the Spanish succession, required at her marriage by the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), was later contested by Louis XIV, who used it to justify the War of Devolution (1667-1668). She died in 1683, at forty-five. Her death paved the way for Louis XIV’s secret second marriage to Madame de Maintenon.
In the tree of power
- Spouse: Louis XIV (1643-1715)