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Carlota Joaquina of Spain

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Carlota Joaquina of Spain
Queen consort of Portugal
Carlota Joaquina, today held at Ajuda
Burial
Monastery of São Vicente de Fora, Lisbon
SpouseJohn VI of Portugal
Issue
Detail		Teresa, Princess of Beira
Maria Isabel, Queen of Spain
Pedro I of Brazil
Miguel of Portugal
Infanta Ana, Duchess of Loulé
HouseHouse of Braganza
House of Bourbon
FatherCharles IV of Spain
MotherMaria Luisa of Parma

Carlota Joaquina of Spain (Portuguese: Carlota Joaquina Teresa de Bourbon e Bourbon; in Spanish: Carlota Joaquina Teresa de Borbón y Borbón) (25 April 1775 - 7 January 1830) was a Queen consort of Portugal. She was the eldest daughter of King Charles IV of Spain and his wife Maria Luisa of Parma.

Biography

She was born in Aranjuez. She was the eldest surviving child born to her parents. She was born in the reign of her paternal grand father, Charles III of Spain (1716-1788). Her father was the second son of Charles III and his Saxon wife Princess Maria Amalia; her mother, Maria Luisa of Parma was a grand daughter of Louis XV of France through her mother Princess Louise Élisabeth of France, Louis XV's favourite daughter. Louise Élisabeth's husband Philip, Duke of Parma was a younger brother of Charles III. Carlota Joaquina's future husband was a grand son of Mariana Victoria of Spain, sister of Charles III and the Duke of Parma.

The subject of her marriage was arranged by Mariana and Charless III in the late 1770's when Mariana went to Spain to encourage diplomatic relations between the estranged countries. Carlota Joaquina was to marry the Prince of Brazil and Carlota Joaquina's uncle Infante Gabriel would marry Infanta Mariana Vitória of Portugal, another grand child of Mariana Victoria of Spain.

On 8 May 1785 she was officially married (consummated on 9 January 1790 in Lisbon) to the future João VI, King of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, the second son of Queen Maria I of Portugal and the late King Consort Pedro III of Portugal.

In 1788, when his eldest brother Joseph, Prince of Brazil, died, João became the first in line to his mother's throne. Soon he received the titles Prince of Brazil and 17th Duke of Braganza. Between 1788 and 1816, Carlota was known as Princess of Brazil. Dom Joao, her husband, was good-natured, indolent, corpulent and almost as ugly as was she. His religious observances bored her and they were quite incompatible. Nevertheless they produced nine children and, because they were all handsome, it was rumoured that especially the younger ones had a different father. After the birth of the ninth child they began to live separate lives, he at Mafra and she at Queluz. Here it was rumoured that she had bought a retreat where she indulged in sexual orgies.

King Joao VI lived in the Palace of Bemposta and Queen Carlota Joaquina in Queluz. Though she lived there quietly, she became decidedly eccentric in dress and behaviour. However, their eldest son, Dom Pedro left behind as regent in Brazil, was proclaimed and crowned on 1 December 1822 as its independent Emperor. Joao VI refused to accept this until, in August 1825, he was persuaded by the British to do so. In March 1826, prematurely aged, he died. Claiming ill-health, Carlota Joaquina refused to attend his deathbed and started the rumour that her husband had been poisoned by the Freemasons.

The Emperor of Brazil now became King of Portugal as well; but knowing this to be impossible, Pedro abdicated in Portugal and made his eldest daughter Queen as well as betrothing her to Dom Miguel, his younger brother. In the meantime Infanta Isabel Maria, Carlota's daughter, was to be the regent in Portugal. About two years later the little queen set out, only to find upon arrival at Gibraltar that her uncle and fiancé had not only removed the regent but declared himself King of Portugal.

While in Brazil, Carlota Joaquina made attempts to obtain the administration of the Spanish dominions in Latin America. Spain itself was under Napoleon and its kings, her father and brother Ferdinand, were held by Napoleon in France. She regarded herself as the heiress of her captured family. Allegedly among her plans was to send armies to occupy Buenos Aires and northern Argentina to style herself as Queen of La Plata. The Portuguese-Brazilian forces, however, only managed to annex the eastern banks of the river as Cisplatina, which were kept in the Empire after 1822 and seceded in 1828 as the Republic of Uruguay.

When the Portuguese Royal Family returned to Portugal in 1821 after an absence of 14 years, Carlota Joaquina met a country that had changed much since their departure. In 1807, Portugal had lived stably under absolutism. Napoleonic troops and the developments in her native Spain had brought revolutionary ideas. In 1820, a liberal revolution commenced in Oporto. A constitutional Cortes Gerais had been promulgated, and in 1821 it gave Portugal its first constitution. The queen had arch-conservative positions and wanted a reactionary development in Portugal. Her husband did not want to renege his vows to uphold the constitution. Carlota Joaquina made an alliance with her youngest son Miguel, who shared his mother's conservative views. In 1824, using Miguel's position as army commander, they took power and held the king a virtual prisoner in the palace, where the queen tried to make him to abdicate in favor of Miguel. However, the king received British help and regained power, finally compelling his son to leave the country. The queen had also to go briefly into exile.

Shortly before King João's death, he nominated their daughter Infanta Isabel Maria as regent, a position usually occupied by the queen dowager.

Carlota Joaquina died in Queluz Palace. It has been said that she committed suicide.

Issue

Carlota in Media

  • Carlota Joaquina - Princesa do Brazil (1994) - Directed by Carla Camurati. Cast: Marco Nanini, Marieta Severo, Vera Holtz, Ney Latorraca and Marcos Palmeira. Tells a summarized tale, mixing history with legend, of the Princess's life, from her childhood until her (mythical) suicide.
  • O Quinto dos Infernos (2003) - Directed by Wolf Maya. Cast: André Mattos, Betty Lago, Eva Wilma, Marcos Pasquim and Humberto Martins. A television miniseries produced by Globo TV which tells the tale of the Portuguese Royal Family during their stay in Brazil.

Ancestors

Family of Carlota Joaquina of Spain
16. Louis, Dauphin of France
8. Philip V of Spain
17. Maria Anna of Bavaria
4. Charles III of Spain
18. Odoardo II Farnese
9. Elisabeth of Parma
19. Dorothea Sophie of the Palatinate
2. Charles IV of Spain
20. Augustus II of Poland
10. Augustus III of Poland
21. Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth
5. Maria Amalia of Saxony
22. Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor
11. Maria Josepha of Austria
23. Wilhelmina Amalia of Brunswick
1. Ferdinand VII of Spain
24. Louis, Dauphin of France (= 16)
12. Philip V of Spain (= 8)
25. Maria Anna of Bavaria (= 17)
6. Philip, Duke of Parma
26. Odoardo II Farnese (= 18)
13. Elisabeth of Parma (= 9)
27. Dorothea Sophie of the Palatinate (= 19)
3. Maria Luisa of Parma
28. Louis of France, Duke of Burgundy
14. Louis XV of France
29. Princess Maria Adelaide of Savoy
7. Marie Louise Élisabeth of France
30. Stanisław Leszczyński
15. Marie Leszczyńska
31. Catherine Opalińska

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

Titles and succession

Preceded by Queen consort of Portugal
20 March, 1816 - 26 March, 1826 		Succeeded by
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