Maria Theresa of Spain

Born an Infanta of Spain and Portugal on 10 September 1638, daughter of Philip IV and Elisabeth of France, Maria Theresa was handed to Louis XIV in 1660 — her double first cousin — in a marriage designed to stop the bleeding between France and Spain. Famed for virtue and piety, she had almost no say in French politics, save a brief regency in 1672 during the Franco-Dutch War, the last queen to hold one. Five of her six children died young; the court moved around her. She died at forty-four on 30 July 1683 from an abscess on her arm. Her grandson Philip V took the Spanish throne in 1700 after h…