Maria Theresa of Spain (d. 1683)
Maria Theresa of Spain (Spanish: María Teresa de Austria; French: Marie-Thérèse d'Autriche; 10 September 1638 – 30 July 1683), was by birth Infanta of Spain and Portugal (until 1640) and Archduchess of Austria as member of the Spanish branch of the House of Habsburg and by marriage Queen of France and Navarre.
Her marriage in 1660 to King Louis XIV, her double first cousin, was made with the purpose of ending the lengthy war between France and Spain. Famed for her virtue and piety, she saw five of her six children die in early childhood, and is frequently viewed as an object of pity in historical accounts of her husband's reign, since she was often neglected by the court.
Without any political influence in the French court or government (except briefly in 1672, when she was named regent during her husband's absence during the Franco-Dutch War), she died at the early age of 44 from complications from an abscess on her arm.
Her grandson Philip V inherited the Spanish throne in 1700 after the death of her younger half-brother, Charles II, and the War of the Spanish Succession, founding the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon, which has reigned with some interruption until present time.