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Maria Pia of Savoy, Queen of Portugal

Maria Pia of Savoy (14 February 1847 - 5 July 1911) was a daughter of Victor Emmanuel II the first King of Italy by his first cousin Queen consort Adelaide of Austria. On the day of her baptism Pope Pius IX, her godfather, gave her a Golden Rose.

Marriage

Maria was married to Luís I of Portugal on the 6 October 1862 in Lisbon, they had two children:

• Carlos I of Portugal (1863-1908)
• Infante Afonso, Duke of Porto (1865-1920).

Queen Dowager

Luís died on 19 October 1889 and Maria Pia became Queen Dowager. The Queen was devastated after the assassination of her son, King Carlos I of Portugal and grandson Luís Filipe, Duke of Braganza on 1 February 1908.

She was deeply upset by the deposition of her other grandson Manuel II of Portugal by the 5 October 1910 revolution and the resulting establishment of the Portuguese First Republic. Maria Pia left Portugal with the rest of the royal family to exile in 1910. She returned to her native Italy, where she died on 5 July 1911. She is said to have mourned the loss of Portugal.

Her remains are interred in the royal mausoleum in the Basilica of Superga, near Turin with most members of the House of Savoy since the 18th century.

When the Portuguese parlamient discussed the queen's excessive expences, Maria Pia replied saying "if you want a queen, you have to pay for her". Maria Pia of Savoy was also known in Portugal as "angel of charity" or "mother of the poor" for her compassion and work on social causes.

Ancestry

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