Teresa, Princess of Beira
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Princesa dona Maria Teresa of Braganza (pron. IPA: [mɐ'ɾiɐ tɨ'ɾezɐ] or ['tɾezɐ]; English: Mary Theresa; Ajuda, Lisbon, April 29, 1793-Trieste, January 17, 1874) was a Portuguese princess and heir to the throne of Portugal between 1793 and 1795, until her younger brother António Pio was born.
She was granted the title Princess of Beira (usually given to the heir of the heir-apparent to the throne, and/or the eldest daughter of the incumbent sovereign). Maria Teresa was the eldest daughter of King John VI of Portugal, then the heir-apparent of the reigning queen Maria I of Portugal, and his wife Carlota Joaquina (daughter of Charles IV of Spain).
She was married on May 13, 1810 in Rio de Janeiro (where the royal family was exiled because of the Napoleonic wars) to her cousin Infante Pedro Carlos, Prince of Spain and Portugal. She was widowed on May 26, 1812, but soon after gave birth to her only child, a posthumous son Infante Sebastian of Portugal and Spain (1813-75).
Very conservative, she was an ally of her younger brother Miguel I of Portugal in her attempts to obtain the throne of Portugal (civil war 1826-34), and of her brother-in-law and uncle Infante don Carlos, Count of Molina in his attempts to obtain the Spanish throne. In the last years of the reign of her uncle Ferdinand VII of Spain (died 1833), Teresa lived in Madrid and plotted to strengthen Don Carlos' position in succession. She participated the First Carlist War (1833-39), being a leading supporter of Carlism, church and reactionary interests. Her sister Francisca, Titular Queen of Spain, wife of Carlos, died in 1834.
On 15 January 1837, the Cortes of Spain legislated her excluded from the Spanish succession, rights belonging to her in descent from her mother, on grounds of her being rebel along with don Carlos. Her son Sebastian's rights were similarly excluded, but he was later, in 1859, restored in Spain. Also don Carlos' sons, and Teresa's brother Miguel I of Portugal were excluded at the same law.
Next year, she married again, in 1838, to her (brother-in-law and uncle,) longtime ally Infante Carlos of Spain (1788-1855), whom she viewed the rightful king of Spain; the widower of her sister Maria Francisca. The second marriage remained childless, but she took care of her stepsons, who were her nephews anyway.
They soon exited from Spain, because of unsuccess in the civil war, and never returned. She died in Trieste on 17 January 1874, having survived her second husband by 19 years.
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