In her life, the Duchess of Palmela had become such an important and well-known personality that when people in Lisbon spoke of "the Duchess" everyone knew who they were talking about, even though there were many others with the same title. Following the assassination of King Carlos in Lisbon on 1 February 1908, she remained in seclusion. The final exhibition of her art was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in the same year. She died on 2 September 1909, at her farm in Sintra, of angina pectoris at the age of 68. The Society for the Promotion of Economic Kitchens continued after the Duchess's death and would eventually pass to the control of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, a Portuguese charity connected to the Catholic Church.