Born at the Royal Palace of Madrid on 23 June 1862, Infanta Paz was the third surviving daughter of Queen Isabella II and King Francisco.

Isabella II, preoccupied with her turbulent reign and her private life, alternated between periods of great affection towards her children and the distant approach to childhood that was the custom of the time.

According to historians, the true biological father of Infanta Paz was the diplomat and politician Miguel Tenorio de Castilla (1818–1916), who was secretary of Queen Isabella II for several years.

In 1890, in his old age, Tenorio de Castilla settled in a suite on the south wing of Nymphenburg Palace, Paz’s residence.

The royal family was at that time in San Sebastián, and on 30 September 1868, they crossed the border and went to live in exile in France.

In 1874, Paz’s brother King Alfonso XII was restored to the throne in place of their mother Queen Isabella II.

When Isabella II returned to live permanently in Paris, Paz and her sisters moved to the Royal Palace of Madrid with their brother King Alfonso XII.

She was also musical; she played the harp, and enjoyed songs by Paolo Tosti, as well as the operas of Giuseppe Verdi and Charles Gounod.

By the spring of 1880, plans were made to marry Infanta Paz to her first cousin Prince Ludwig Ferdinand of Bavaria.

[7] Ludwig Ferdinand’s mother was Infanta Amalia of Spain, a sister of Paz’s father King Francisco, and she was also a first cousin of Queen Isabella.

[8] Alfonso XII, who had briefly studied in Munich with his cousin Prince Ludwig Ferdinand of Bavaria, invited him to Madrid in order to meet Paz.

On June 5, 1880, Paz wrote on her diary: "Aunt Amalia of Bavaria (widow of Prince Adalbert) is in Paris with her sons Ludwig and Alphonso and her eldest daughter Isabella.

I leave everything in God's hands ... "[9] When Infanta Paz finally met Ludwig Ferdinand in the autumn of 1880, she found him unattractive and did not wish to marry him.

In Munich, when Paz met King Ludwig II of Bavaria, they conversed in French, and he gave her a warm welcome.

During the festivities for her arrival at the Bavarian court, Paz met Prince Luitpold, who would serve as Regent of Bavaria until his death in 1912.

Prince Adalbert was a writer and historian; Princess Pilar was a painter and wrote a book about the reign of her cousin King Alfonso XIII of Spain.

[16] They surrounded themselves with Spanish artists who visited Bavaria: the composer Tomás Bretón, the violist Pablo Sarasate and the painters Eduardo Rosales and José Moreno Carbonero.

[17] Besides the Spanish cultural figures mentioned above, her house was visited by writers and artist such as the composer Richard Strauss, the painter Franz von Lenbach and the Nobel prize winner Paul Heyse, among others.

Paz's links to her native country were reinforced with the marriage of her eldest son Prince Ferdinand of Bavaria to his first cousin Infanta Maria Teresa.

The following year, Paz and her family went to Madrid and represented Bavaria in the wedding of King Alphonso XIII with Victoria Eugenia of Battenberg.

As a wedding present, Paz gave Victoria Eugenia a crown made of gold found in the river Darro that had belonged to Isabella II.

[18] Paz also owned a rural property in Cuenca that she had inherited from her grandmother Queen Maria Cristina and the house of the Dukes of Riánsares in Tarancón, where she used to spend long sojourns enjoying the dry fields of La Mancha.

[18] Nearby, she bought a rural estate called Saelices that her husband transformed into a model of agricultural farming.

Paz's personal diary was drawn upon by her son, who in taking some passages from it and adding extracts from her letters to members of her family, published a book with the title Through Four Revolutions: 1862–1933.