6 Pregnancies by 21: What Really Killed the Inbred Princess of Las Meninas

She is the most famous little girl in the history of art: Infanta Margarita Teresa of Spain, the princess at the centre of Velázquez's Las Meninas. At 15 she was married to her own uncle, Emperor Leopold I. By 21 she had been pregnant at least six times, and she was dead. Everyone says the Habsburg inbreeding killed her. The evidence says something else. We walk through the gallery of her portraits, the paintings that were sent to Vienna so her future husband could watch her grow up: the peach dress, Las Meninas, the blue dress, the mourning dress and the theatre costume of the "party of the century". And we follow the Habsburg plan to its end: her only grandson, named heir to the whole Spanish empire. 00:00 The girl in Las Meninas 01:13 Room I: The peach dress (1653) 02:36 Room II: Las Meninas, and who was watching 03:59 Room III: The blue dress, and the brothers 05:41 Room IV: Married to her uncle at 15 07:19 Room V: The party of the century, and the cradles 09:51 Room VI: Dead at 21 11:07 The last room: the grandson who was meant to rule Spain 13:06 The verdict Was she a victim of her family's blood, or of their ambition? Tell me in the comments, and where in the world you're watching from. More from the Habsburgs: Did Philip II Kill His Inbred Son? (Don Carlos):    • Did Philip II Kill His Inbred Son? (Don Ca...   Previous episode: The Inbred King They Tried to Exorcise (Charles II of Spain), her brother Next: Joanna of Castile, the queen they called mad. Sources: Wikipedia (Margaret Theresa of Spain; Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria; Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress); habsburger.net, "Party time: the marriage of Leopold I and Margarita of Spain"; History of Royal Women, "Margaret Theresa of Spain – The Imperial Pawn"; JSTOR Daily, "Who was the little girl in Las Meninas?"; Kunsthistorisches Museum and Museo del Prado collection pages. The Blood Royal tells true stories from history. Scenes are illustrated with AI-generated artwork for dramatisation; they are not historical photographs or portraits. The real paintings and documents are public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Photo of Margarita Teresa's sarcophagus in the Imperial Crypt: Kaho Mitsuki, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Medical causes are historians' interpretations, not diagnoses. Music: "EBB" by Density & Time (YouTube Audio Library). Subscribe for new episodes every week:    / @bloodroyalhistory   #LasMeninas #Habsburg #DarkHistory