At the time Portugal presented a strange spectacle to the rest of Europe. D. Afonso, son of the fortunate D. João de Bragança, was in possession of the throne and was an insane imbecile. His wife, daughter of the Duke of Nemours, cousin of Louis XIV, dared hatch a plot to oust her husband from the throne. The king’s stupidity justified the queen’s bravado. Despite being Master of an unusual strength and having slept with his wife for a long time, she accused him of being impotent, and since Marie Françoise had through artfulness acquired what Afonso had lost in anger in the kingdom, she had him imprisoned (November 1667) and quickly obtained a Papal bull from Rome to confirm her virginity and bless her marriage to her brother-in-law Pedro. (Voltaire, in the time of Louis XIV)