Marie was on a list of 99 eligible European princesses to marry the young king. She was not the first choice on the list. She had been placed there initially because she was a Catholic princess and therefore fulfilled the minimum criteria, but was removed early on when the list was reduced from 99 to 17, for being too poor. However, when the list of 17 (including Barbara of Portugal, Princess Charlotte Amalie of Denmark, Elisabeth Therese of Lorraine and Enrichetta d'Este) was further reduced to four, the preferred choices presented numerous problems. Anne and Amelia of Great Britain, who were considered with the understanding that they would convert to the Catholic faith upon marriage, were favored by the Duke of Bourbon and Madame de Prie because it was supported by their political financiers, the firm of Paris Brothers Joseph Paris Duverney. Cardinal Fleury easily prevented the British match because of religious reasons. The last two were the sisters of the Duke of Bourbon, Henriette-Louise and Therese-Alexandrine, whom the King himself refused to marry because of the disapproval of Cardinal Fleury. Cardinal Fleury himself favored a match with Princess Charlotte of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg, which was supported by the maternal grandfather of Louis XV, The King of Sardinia, through his spy the Princess of Carignan, Maria Vittoria of Savoy.