Under the guise of wanting to consolidate peace, Philip of Orleans, then Regent of France, proposes to the King of Spain, Philip V, a marriage between the heir to the French throne, Louis XV, aged 11, and the very young infanta of Spain, Anna Maria Victoria, aged four years…
And he did not stop there : he also proposed to give his daughter, Miss de Montpensier, aged 12, as a wife to the Prince of Asturias, heir to the Spanish throne, to strengthen his position and consolidate the end of the conflict between the two kingdoms.
The reaction in Madrid is enthusiastic, and things are quickly falling into place. The exchange of the princesses took place at the beginning of 1722, with great pomp and circumstance, on a small island in the middle of the Bidasoa, the river that serves as the border between the two countries.
Everything could go well. But nothing will work as planned…