Maria Anna Of Neuburg - Charles II Of Spain 's SECOND wife

Maria Anna of the Palatinate Neuburg was born on October 28, 1667 in Benrad Palace near Düsseldorf as the daughter of Elector Philip Wilhelm of the Palatinate and of Landgravine Elisabeth Amalia of Hesse-Darmstadt. She received a comprehensive scientific and musical education and the princess's religion education was placed in the hands of a Jesuit. After the childless Spanish king Charles II had been widowed by the death of his first wife Marie-Louise d'Orléans, Heinrich Franz von Mansfeld, who was the imperial ambassador in Madrid, was largely responsible for Maria Anna being chosen as the new bride for Charles II. The marriage meant a victory by the Habsburg dynasty over the Bourbon dynasty. The by-proxy wedding took place on August 28, 1689 in Neuburg. Because the War of the Palatinate succession, which was provoked by Louis XIV, was in progress at the time, Maria Anna had to undertake her journey to Spain by sea. It was not until May 4, 1690, that she was able to celebrate her actual marriage to Charles II at the monastery of San Diego near Valladolid and make her entry into Madrid on May 20, 1690. Maria Anna liked to refer to herself as her husband's first minister, as she had very great political influence over the king, who showed considerable mental and physical weakness. In 1691 she succeeded in having the senior minister Manuel Joaquín Álvarez de Toledo, 8 count of Oropesa, dismissed from his high office. However, she did not succeed in having her elder brother Johan Wilhelm become governor of the Netherlands in 1692. Instead, the Bavarian elector Maximilian II was given the government of the country by the Queen Mother, Marianne of Austria. Although Maria Anna had first maintained friendly relations with her mother-in-law, the relationship between the two women later deteriorated considerably. Maria Anna's aspirations were focused mainly on the interests of the of France, which was detrimental to Maria Anna's reputation as queen. Nor did her reputation benefit from the fact that she consulted mainly German confidants. Her German favorites were so unpopular that Maria Anna's position also suffered and the queen was further harmed by the fact that she was unable to fulfill the actual purpose of her marriage, which was to provide Charles II with an heir. The rumor that Maria Anna was pregnant was spread several times, but these rumors only strengthened Maria Anna's popularity for short periods of time. After her mother-in-law and adversary Marianne of Austria died in May 1696, the cardinal archbishop of Toledo, Luis Manuel Fernández de Portocarrero, acted as her political opponent. Portocarrero pursued a From 1699, Maria Anna advocated for the Archduke Charles, the later Emperor Charles VI, to become the heir to the Spanish throne, whereas Portocarrero wanted Philip of Anjou, a grandson of Louis XIV, to succeed Charles II. The cardinal managed to convince Charles II of his view shortly before Charles's death. It was only in Charles's last will that Philip V's claim to the throne had been established. Charles II died on November 1, 1700, being the last Spanish Habsburg. Upon Charles's death, Maria Anna had her husband's will annulled and sent a letter to the Emperor Leopold I, in which she designated his son, Archduke Charles, as the heir to the Spanish throne. Her actions were one of the instigators of the War of the Spanish Succession. Before Philip of Anjou took over the government in Spain as Philip V, Maria Anna had to retire to Toledo on the orders of Louis XIV. She lived there for the next five years, hoping in vain to play a greater role as dowager queen when the War of the Spanish Succession erupted and Archduke Charles was proclaimed Spanish king as Charles III in 1703. However, nothing came from her pursuit to get Charles III on the Spanish throne and in 1706 Maria Anna was forced into exile in the French country at Bayonne. Here she maintained a court of 400 people, but her further life was rather unremarkable. She suffered from a constant lack of money because she did not receive the pension that Charles II had bequeathed her in his last will. In Bayonne she was visited by famous memoirists, Count Polnitz and the Duc de Saint-Simon, among others. In 1738 Maria Anna returned to Spain from Bayonne and spent the last two years of her life in the Palacio del Infantado in Guadalajara, where she died at the age of 73. Maria Anna was buried in the Chapel of the Pantheon of the Infantes in the Real Sitio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, while her heart was taken to the Monastery of the Delcalzas Reales in Madrid. Thank you for watching.