Królowa matka – szara eminencja
Queen mother – the grey eminence

Summary/Abstract: This article is about Maria Christina of Bourbon (1806–1878), the wife of Ferdinand VII, king of Spain, and her efforts to maintain de facto authority in the country after her husband’s death in 1833. At first, she used the fact that her three year old daughter, Queen Isabella II, was queen regnant of Spain for this purpose. After Isabella’s coming of age, her mother became the grey eminence. At that time she gained control of the activity of the constitutional organs of the state: i.e. the Spanish Crown, the government, and the parliament, forcing them to take decisions in accordance with her private interest, rather than the Spanish raison d’état. The author presents how the queen mother managed to gain such a wide range of powers, in what areas she was especially active, and why in these ones (policy, economics, finances) rather than in others.

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