The correspondence that the foreign ambassadors in Madrid wrote to their countries of origin is of great interest because it allows us to know several details of the daily life at the Spanish court, as well as various political and diplomatic aspects. The objective of this article is to analyze what the ambassadors reported about Maria Luisa of Parma, daughter-in-law of Carlos III and wife of Carlos IV, during the transition period that she had from Princess of Asturias to Queen of Spain during the last three years of the reign of her father-in-law and the first one of her husband. Some of the issues addressed by the ambassadors in their correspondence and that seriously affected Maria Luisa during this period were the constraint in which she lived at the court of her father-in-law, the problem of the poor health of her children and the succession to the crown, as well as her growing influence in political affairs upon becoming Queen of Spain.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15366/ldc2022.14.24.002