Two Marias: Illegitimacy and Agency on the fringes of the Restoration Court

Abstract

Soror Maria da Cruz was a nun at the convento de Nossa Senhora da Quietação in Alcântara whilst Dona Maria lived unprofessed at the convento de Santa Teresa de Jesus in Carnide. These seventeenth-century women have long been considered the same person. Both were illegitimate and were related to the royal family. An analysis of the letters that they wrote and received evidence the scope of their roles and their influence which extended into the political and diplomatic spheres.