María Teresa Vallabriga y Rozas

María Teresa de Vallabriga y Rozas, born in Zaragoza on November 6, 1759, daughter of the nobleman José Ignacio de Vallabriga y Español, Lord of Soliveta, and Josefa de Rozas y Drummond, Countess of Castelblanco and widow of the Count of Torresecas. She is the niece of the Marquises of San Leonardo, with whom she has lived since the age of fourteen, when she was orphaned. Shortly before the age of seventeen, she married the almost forty-nine-year-old Infante D. Luis de Borbón y Farnesio, with whom she would accompany in a strange exile that would keep her isolated between Velada and Arenas de San Pedro, suffering the notorious contempt of her brother-in-law, King Carlos III, who only allowed her husband to visit the Court periodically, but not her or her children. She had four children: Luís María (1777), Antonio María (1779; died the same year), María Teresa Josefa (1780), and María Luisa Fernanda (1783). She lived in the Palace of Arenas with her husband, their children, and their small Court until his death on August 7, 1785. Seven days after her husband's death, her children were sent to Toledo by order of the King, and she did not see them again until, after seven years, Carlos IV ended her exile in Arenas and allowed her to live wherever she wanted. In 1802 she left Arenas for good, visiting her children and moving to Zaragoza, where she settled in the Casa Zaporta, better known as the Casa de la Infanta, where she moved the splendid art collection she had inherited from her late husband. Among them were several works by Goya. In 1799, she was recognized as an Infanta and decorated, along with her daughters, with the Order of Maria Luisa. After the marriage of her eldest daughter to Godoy, the family regained honors and privileges. She retired to Mallorca during the War of Independence and returned to her hometown in 1814, where she lived until his death on February 26, 1820, at the age of 60. She is buried in the crypt of the Basilica del Pilar.