Exchange of the Princesses (1729)
The Exchange of the Princesses refers to the ceremonies of the double marriage of Spanish Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain to the heir of the Portuguese throne, Joseph, Prince of Brazil, and of her older half-brother Ferdinand, Prince of Asturias to Joseph's sister the Infanta Barbara of Portugal, in January 1729.
In what was a complex diplomatic and protocolary arrangement, the two sets of princes and princesses were escorted to the Portugal–Spain border by the two Iberian royal courts and were exchanged on a purpose-built ephemeral pavilion built on a bridge over the Caia River, by the towns of Elvas and Badajoz. There was a great preocupation with ensuring the ceremonial was perfectly symmetrical so that both kings, John V of Portugal and Philip V of Spain, were given equal precedence. There was also a concern with evoking — and outdoing — the episode on the Isle of Pheasants in which Infanta Mariana Victoria of Spain had originally been betrothed to Louis XV of France.
The marriage negotiations were conducted by the :es:Carlos Ambrosio Gaetano Spínola de la Cerda|Marquis of Los Balbases and the :pt:Rodrigo Anes de Sá Almeida e Meneses, 1.º Marquês de Abrantes|Marquis of Abrantes.
Some of the carriages used for the ceremony subsist in the collections of the National Coach Museum in Lisbon: berlines, the, and the. A gala berline is at the Luray Caverns Car and Carriage Caravan Museum in Luray, Virginia.Gallery
