Born in 1806, in Naples, Maria Cristina had had a very poor education, as her father, Francisco I. of the Two Sicilies, and her mother, Maria Isabel, Infanta of Spain, thought that much intellectual work was unnecessary for a girl, and the rollicking, jovial maiden herself preferred the pleasures of horsemanship and hunting to any kind of brain-work. Gossip was busy with the name of the handsome Princess in connection with that of Luchessi Bailen before her marriage with Ferdinand, but from the time she came to Spain as the wife of Ferdinand VII. until three months after his death there was not a word to be said against her, as she was a model wife and mother. Her buxom form, clad in the brown garb of a Sister of the Carmelite Order, was never absent from the bedside of her husband, and for two months after his death she duly mourned his loss. But the reaction came. The simple, somewhat ignorant, but affectionate nature of Maria Cristina was captivated by Muñoz, who certainly could not be said to belong to the upper classes, as his parents kept a tobacco-shop; and it was as the friend of the fiancé of the dressmaker Teresita, who exercised so much power over the Queen, that the young man was found a place at Court. The Queen’s new friend was bald, common, and of poor education, but the influence of his royal patroness soon raised him to be an officer of the bodyguard.[13] [13] “Estafeta del Palacio Real,” by Bermejo. It was about five months after Ferdinand’s death that Maria Cristina impetuously took the reins of her destiny into her own hands, and on December 17, 1833, she gave voice to her intention to go to La Granja, under the escort of the Adjutant-General, Don Francisco Arteaga y Palafox, General of the Guards, the _gentil hombre_ Carbonell, and the honoured Muñoz. By chance or by arrangement, the favourite had the place in front of the Queen, and the party proceeded on the way. But the snow was so heavy that the road from the height of Navacerrada was quite impassable, and they had to turn back, though not before the royal carriage had collided with a bullock-cart, loaded with wood, and the broken glass of one of the windows had cut the hand of the Queen. The three gentlemen were all loud in their sympathy, but it was the handkerchief of Muñoz which Cristina accepted, and she also distinguished him by allowing him to bandage her hand. Undaunted by the return to the capital rendered necessary by reason of the weather, the Queen commanded the same party to be in attendance for the same expedition on the following day. As Arteaga and Carbonell watched their royal mistress and Muñoz on the long drive to Segovia, they saw that this expedition, undertaken without the attendance of any lady, signified a very serious predilection on the part of the Queen for the parvenu.