Maria Luisa of Parma

Queen consort of Spain (1751-1819)

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Lived 1751–1819, aged 68Spain

Spain Historical Figures

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Era
1751–1819
Aged 68

Summary

Updated 2026-06-09

Queen of Spain for two decades, she ran the kingdom through her husband and her favourite, Manuel Godoy — a arrangement that made her hated at court and in the streets, and left her suspected of poisoning a daughter-in-law she couldn't stand.

Biography

About

Maria Luisa of Parma married Charles IV and became Queen of Spain in 1788. Her open reliance on Manuel Godoy — politically and personally — and the sway she held over the King turned both nobility and public against her. She clashed bitterly with the Duchess of Alba and the Duchess of Osuna, rivals who matched her in will if not in rank. When her daughter-in-law Princess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily died, whispers of poison followed: the Queen had despised her. She held the throne until 1808, when the Peninsular War swept the old order away.

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