Luísa Clara de Portugal

Luísa Clara de Portugal (known as Flor da Murta (Myrtle flower) 1702 – 1779) was a Portuguese courtier.

Portugal was the daughter of Bernardo de Vasconcelos e Sousa, from the family of the Counts of Castelo Melhor.

On 6 January 1720 she married Jorge Francisco de Menezes (1690 – 1736), and had three children with him before beginning her affair with the king, with whom she had a daughter, Maria Rita Gertrudes de Portugal (1731 – 1808), who was separated from her mother and became a nun at the Convent of Santos-o-Novo Convent in Lisbon.

Realising that he could not challenge the king to a duel, he took his children and left Lisbon to live in nearby Sintra, thereby giving his wife the freedom to carry on her relationships.

[2][4] Through her husband, she became the owner of the Quinta da Terrugem, in Oeiras, and the residence of the Menezes, Lords of Alconchel in Spain and Ponte de Sor in Portugal, which is in the current Rua de São Bento, in Lisbon.