Maria Isabel of Braganza

Isabel depicted in front of Prado, 1829, by Bernardo López y Pique

Maria Isabel was an Infanta of Portugal and daughter of John VI of Portugal and his wife Carlota Joaquina of Spain. She was a sister of Pedro I of Brazil. She married her maternal uncle King Ferdinand VII of Spain on 29 September 1816, whose first wife, Princess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily, had died childless ten years before. On August 21, 1817, she gave birth to a daughter, María Isabel Luisa, who died at four months.[1]

Maria Isabel was again pregnant soon after the birth of her firstborn, but the birth was a difficult one. The baby was in breech and the physicians soon found that the child had died. Maria Isabel stopped breathing soon thereafter and the doctors thought she was dead; when they started cutting her up to extract the dead fetus, she suddenly shouted in pain and collapsed on her bed, bleeding heavily. She died soon afterwards, on 26 December 1818 in the Palace of Aranjuez, and was buried at the Escorial.[1]

It is due to Queen Maria Isabel's dedication and affection for the art world that she managed to gather many treasures from the past and create a royal museum, which would end up being the beginnings of Museo del Prado. It opened on 19 November 1819, a year after the Queen's death.[2]

• Infanta María Luisa Isabel of Spain (21 August 1817 – 9 January 1818)
• Infanta María Luisa Isabel of Spain (26 December 1818), stillborn.[3]

Coat of arms of Maria Isabel of Portugal, Queen of Spain.

• Dame of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa
• Dame of the Order of Saint Isabel