Early Life
Maria was born at the Ribeira Royal Palace in Lisbon. Maria was baptized Maria Francisca Isabel Josefa Antónia Gertrudes Rita Joana de Bragança. On the day of her birth, her grandfather, King João V of Portugal, created her the Princess of Beira. She was the eldest of all her siblings.
When her father succeeded to the throne in 1750 as José I, Maria was declared his heiress-presumptive and given the traditional title of Princess of Brazil and Duchess of Braganza.
Read more about this topic: Maria I Of Portugal
Famous quotes related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)