Mariana Engracia Álvarez de Toledo Portugal y Alfonso-Pimentel
Mariana Engracia de Toledo Portugal y Pimentel (1623-1686), was a Spanish courtier. She was the lady-in-waiting (junior Camarera mayor de Palacio) to the queen of Spain, Mariana of Austria, and the aya (nurse or royal governess) to king Charles II of Spain. Life She was born to Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Portugal, 6th Count of Oropesa, and Mencía María Alfonso-Pimentel y Zúñiga, and married her cousin Pedro Fajardo y Alfonso-Pimentel, 5th marquis de Los Vélez (d. 1647). She was appointed lady-in-waiting to the queen in 1654, and promoted to junior or deputy Camarera mayor de Palacio to the queen in 1659. She was a favorite and personal confidante of the queen. They shared a common interest in religion. In 1661, she was appointed aya (nurse or governess) to the crown prince. When her charge the infant crown prince became king and her friend queen Mariana became queen regent in 1665, Mariana Engracia came in to a position of great influence at court. She was courted in her own palace by supplicants such as the ambassadors of France and Austria. She strengthened her position by forming a mutual alliance with the queen's Jesuit prime minister Juan Everardo Nithard. She and