Mariana Victoria of Spain’s first claim to fame was being the child bride–a failed one to be exact–at the center of an international scandal. Then, life threw everything but the kitchen sink at her, from an apocalyptic natural disaster to a husband gone mad. This would’ve broken most people, but this Queen kept her eye on the prize: power. Europe would never be the same.
1. She Was Born With A Silver Spoon
Silver spoon doesn’t even begin to describe Mariana Victoria, who entered the world in 1718 as the first daughter of of Spain, the nation’s longest reigning monarch, and Elisabeth Farnese, its unofficial ruler. Mariana Victoria was also the great-granddaughter of of France.
Understandably, her matchmaking parents wanted to preserve this royal pedigree…only, it ended in utter humiliation.
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