(May 5, 1826-July 11, 1920)
Born in Granada, Spain
Birth name was Dona Maria Eugenia Ignatia Augustina Palafox de Portocarrero y Kirkpatrick, Countess of Teba
Empress Consort of France (1853-71)
Married to Napoleon III

She was the emperor's third choice, as he had been rebuffed the granddaughter of the King of Sweden and by the niece of Queen Victoria.
She reportedly disliked sex and ended relations with her husband after the birth of their son.
Not too surprisingly, Napoleon III had a lot of mistresses.
She encouraged her husband's authoritarian tendencies.

She set women's fashions in Europe during her reign.
She and Napoleon III survived an assassination attempt in which three bombs were thrown at their carriage (1858).
After being exiled to England, she established a monastery for monks driven out of France by anti-clerical laws of the Third Republic.
Her son died while fighting for the British in the Zulu War (1879).

Credit: C. Fishel

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