Maria Luisa of Parma (Luisa Maria Teresa Anna; 9 December 1751 – 2 January 1819) was, by marriage to King Charles IV of Spain, Queen of Spain from 1788 to 1808 leading up to the Peninsular War. Her relationship with Manuel Godoy and influence over the King made her unpopular among the people and aristocrats. She was rivals with the Duchess of Alba and the Duchess of Osuna. The death of her daughter-in-law Princess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily, whom she disliked, was said to be the poisoning by the Queen.
Life
Early life
She was the youngest daughter of Philip, Duke of Parma, the fourth son of Philip V of Spain, and Louise Élisabeth of France, the eldest daughter of King Louis XV and his Polish-born wife, Queen Marie Leczinska. Born in Parma, she was christened Luisa María Teresa Ana after her maternal grandparents and her mother's favourite sister Anne Henriette of France, but is known to history by the short Spanish form of this name: María Luisa, while Luisa was the name she used in private.
Her parents had been the Duke and Duchess of Parma since 1749, when the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) awarded the duchy to the Bourbons.
Maria Luisa, her brother Ferdinand and her sister Isabella are traditionally said to have been educated by Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, a well-known French philosopher. However, Condillac did in fact not arrive in Parma until 1768.
Maria Luisa was not considered as beautiful as her elder sister, but was still described as attractive, though she was quite short.
Princess of Asturias
María Luisa's mother tried to engage her to Louis, Duke of Burgundy, heir to the French throne. However, the young duke died in 1761. In 1762, Maria Luisa instead became engaged to her cousin Charles, Prince of Asturias, later King Charles IV of Spain. When her elder sister Isabella died in 1763, there were suggestions that Maria Luisa marry her sister's widower, Emperor Joseph II, but the proposal was refused and her engagement to Charles of Asturias was confirmed. The wedding took place on 4 September 1765 in La Granja Palace.
Her husband was the son and heir of the widowed Charles III of Spain, previously Duke of Parma and King of Naples and Sicily. This formally gave her the position of princess of Asturias, or crown princess. However, as there was no queen in Spain at that time, María Luisa became the first lady in precedence at the court almost from the beginning of her residence there, after the Queen Mother and former Royal Regent, Queen Isabel de Farnesio, died a few months later.
Maria Luisa was described as intelligent, ambitious and dominant. Regarding her appearance, she was considered to be pretty at the time of her wedding. She was known for her elegance and extravagance in fashion and jewelry. However, already by the age of thirty, she was reportedly prematurely aged and described by the Russian ambassador Zinoviev: "Repeated childbirths, indispositions and maybe some inheritable diseases has caused her to wither entirely; the yellow tone of her skin and the loss of her teeth was the final death blow to her beauty." Her father-in-law Charles III viewed her to be frivolous and attempted to control and supervise her private life and restrict her personal freedom, but with little success.
Her relationship to Charles was described as a good one, but she reportedly dominated him early on. Her father-in-law took care to remove both Charles and Maria Luisa from interfering in state affairs; however, while her husband was of a passive character and devoted to his interests in hunt and mechanics, Maria Luisa was interested in state affairs and, being the dominant partner of the two, became the leading figure in the circle of opposition which gathered around the heir to the throne.
Queen of Spain
In 1788, her husband succeeded his father as Charles IV of Spain, making Maria Luisa queen. On the first meeting between Charles IV and his ministers, Maria Luisa was present, a step which attracted attention and which became the rule during the reign of her spouse. Being the dominant party in the marriage, Maria Luisa dominated Charles IV and thus the government, but was in turn reputed to be dominated by prime minister Manuel de Godoy.