page_title: John V of Portugal
section_title: Offspring
hierarchical_section_title: John V of Portugal / Succession / Offspring
caption_attribution_description: English: Baptism of the Portuguese prince called Peter III, Prince of Brazil.Português: Baptismo do infante português de seu nome D. Pedro III, Príncipe do Brasil.
context_page_description: Dom John V, known as the Magnanimous and the Portuguese Sun King, was a monarch of the House of Braganza who ruled as King of Portugal during the first half of the 18th century. John V's reign saw the rise of Portugal and its monarchy to new levels of prosperity, wealth, and prestige among European courts.
  John V's reign saw an enormous influx of gold into the coffers of the royal treasury, supplied largely by the royal fifth that was received from the Portuguese colonies of Brazil and Maranhão. John spent lavishly on ambitious architectural works, most notably Mafra Palace, and on commissions and additions for his sizable art and literary collections. Owing to his craving for international diplomatic recognition, John also spent large sums on the embassies he sent to the courts of Europe, the most famous being those he sent to Paris in 1715 and Rome in 1716.
  Disregarding traditional Portuguese institutions of governance, John V ruled as an absolute monarch.
context_section_description: Maria Barbara's birth was followed by the birth of Pedro, Prince of Brazil, on 19 October 1712, which temporarily gave John a male heir. Prince Pedro's death on 29 October 1714 greatly saddened him, but he took solace in the fact that his son, the Infante José (now Prince José), had been born on June 6 earlier that same year. Following the birth of Prince José, John and Maria Anna would have three more children: Infante Carlos, born 2 May 1716, Infante Pedro, born 5 July 1717, and Infante Alexandre, born 24 September 1723. Of the last three infantes, only two would survive to adulthood, Infante Carlos and Infante Pedro; only one would continue the Braganza line: Infante Pedro.
  John's children were trained rigorously growing up. His plan was to have an intelligent son who could take his place as king, a strategically married daughter, and well-prepared statesmen sons; but he would achieve only part of his goal. From her birth, Infanta Maria Barbara's marriage had been closely arranged and monitored by John. When the engagement of Mariana Victoria of Spain to Louis XV of France was nullified, John proposed Infanta Maria Barbara as a possible bride for Louis XV, but in the end she was refused. John still managed to gain something from the dissolution of the engagement between Louis XV and Mariana Victoria, i.e., a wife for his son Prince José and a husband for Infanta Maria Barbara, Mariana Victoria's older brother Fernando, Prince of Asturias. Negotiations between Portugal and Spain began in 1725, and four years later John's eldest children would be matched with their spouses-to-be. The princesses Maria Barbara and Mariana Victoria were exchanged at a ceremony, called the Exchange of the Princesses (Troca das Princesas), held on the Caia River on 19 January 1729. Prince José married Mariana Victoria on 19 January 1729 in Elvas, and Infanta Maria Barbara married Prince Fernando on 20 January 1729 in Badajoz.
  None of John's three other sons would marry in his lifetime. Infante Alexandre died at the age of five, and Infante Carlos died at the age of twenty without any marriage proposals or children. Only Infante Pedro would live long enough to marry, but John did not live long enough to see it. Infante Pedro married the daughter of his older brother King José I, Princess Maria Francisca, Princess of Brazil, on 6 June 1760. When Princess Maria became Queen Maria I of Portugal upon the death of her father, King José I (John's son), Prince Pedro became King Pedro III, following Portuguese royal law that if the consort of a queen regnant produced children with the queen regnant, he would become king of Portugal jure uxoris.
  John fathered at least four children from various extramarital affairs: António of Braganza, by Luísa Inês Antónia Machado Monteiro, Gaspar of Braganza, Archbishop of Braga, by Madalena Máxima de Miranda, José of Braganza, High Inquisitor of Portugal, by Paula de Odivelas, and Maria Rita of Braganza, by Luísa Clara de Portugal. Out of his four illegitimate children, the three males were all recognized as John's sons and were collectively known as the Children of Palhavã, after the Palace of Palhavã that belonged to Luís Carlos Inácio Xavier de Meneses, 1st Marquis of Louriçal, where they lived at John's expense. The Children of Palhavã received educations worthy of nobility and went on to become noteworthy members of the clergy.  Maria Rita was never officially recognized as his daughter, but he informally arranged for her life at the Convent of Santos and managed her expenses. The husband of Maria Rita's mother, Jorge de Meneses, attempted to stop John's actions for Maria Rita, but the king had him exiled to Spain and then to England.
caption: The Royal Family at the Baptism of Pedro, Prince of Brazil; German,  c. 1712.
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