Family Maria Amelia was the second daughter and second child of
Antoine, Duke of Montpensier and
Infanta Luisa Fernanda, Duchess of Montpensier. Her father was the youngest son of
Louis Philippe I and
Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily while her mother was the younger daughter of
Ferdinand VII of Spain and
Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies. She had nine siblings, of whom only four survived to adulthood.
Life and death Maria Amelia's parents had settled in Seville after the
1848 revolution that had deposed her paternal grandfather,
Louis Philippe I. Maria Amelia was born on 28 August 1851 at the
Palace of San Telmo. Before her birth, her aunt
Queen Isabella II decreed that whether the child was a son or a daughter they would be granted to the title of
Infante of Spain. At the end of September 1851, she was presented in an official religious ceremony where her parents and the political and religious authorities in the city participated. Following the
1868 glorious revolution, Maria Amelia, along with her family moved to Lisbon where her father had close connections with the Portuguese royal family. A marriage between Maria and
Infante Augusto of Portugal was contemplated, but did not happen. This was said to be because she was in love with her first cousin,
Prince Ferdinand of Orleans, Duke of Alençon, but she did not end up marrying him either. The exile in Lisbon was followed by another in France, where the family settled in the
Château de Randan in
Auvergne. The family returned to Spain in 1870 and settled in Seville. of Maria Amelia Shortly after the return to Spain, Maria Amelia became seriously ill. On 9 November 1870, she died in the Palace of San Telmo at the age of 19 and was buried in the Infantes Pantheon of the
Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. == Ancestry ==