Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria

Maria Anna Christine Victoria of Bavaria arrived at the French court on 28 November 1660 and married Louis, Grand Dauphin, the son and heir of Louis XIV. Known as la Grande Dauphine, she was swiftly judged dull, unattractive, and perpetually sickly — a poor fit for the baroque theater of Versailles, where she lived isolated and unappreciated. She bore three sons before her death on 20 April 1690, thirty years old and largely forgotten by the palace that had never wanted her. One of those sons became Philip V of Spain, and through him her blood runs through every Spanish monarch who followed, s…