Juky 13, 1621: Death of Archduke Albrecht VII of Austria, Governor General of the Australian Netherlands

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Archbishop of Toledo, Archduke Albrecht VII of Austria, Governor General of the Austrian Netherlands, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, King Felipe II of Spain, Pope Clement VIII, Pope Gregory XIII, Pope Leo XI

Archduke Albrecht VII of Austria (November 13, 1559 – July 13, 1621) was the ruling Archduke of Austria for a few months in 1619 and, jointly with his wife, Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, sovereign of the Habsburg Netherlands between 1598 and 1621.

Archduke Albrecht VII of Austria

Prior to this, he had been a cardinal, archbishop of Toledo, viceroy of Portugal and Governor General of the Habsburg Netherlands. He succeeded his brother Archduke Matthias as reigning Archduke of Lower and Upper Austria, but abdicated in favor of Ferdinand II the same year, making it the shortest (and often ignored) reign in Austrian history.

Archduke Albrecht was the fifth son of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II and Infanta Maria of Spain, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (King Carlos I of Spain) and Infanta Isabella of Portugal.

Archduke Albrecht was sent to the Spanish Court at the age of eleven, where his uncle, King Felipe II, looked after his education, where he was apparently quite intelligent. Initially he was meant to pursue an ecclesiastical career.

On March 3, 1577 he was appointed cardinal by Pope Gregory XIII, with a dispensation because of his age of eighteen, and was given Santa Croce in Gerusalemme as his titular church.

King Felipe II planned to make Albrecht Archbishop of Toledo as soon as possible, but the incumbent, Gaspar de Quiroga y Sandoval, lived much longer than expected; he died on November 12, 1594.

In the meantime Albrecht only took lower orders. He was never officially ordained a priest or bishop, and thus he resigned the See of Toledo in 1598. He resigned the Cardinalate in 1598.

After the dynastic union with Portugal, Albrecht became the first viceroy of the kingdom and its overseas empire in 1583. At the same time he was appointed Papal Legate and Grand Inquisitor for Portugal.

As viceroy of Portugal he took part in the organization of the Great Armada of 1588 and beat off an English counter-attack on Lisbon in 1589. In 1593 Felipe II recalled him to Madrid, where he would take a leading role in the government of the Spanish Monarchy. Two years later, the rebellious Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone and Hugh Roe O’Donnell offered Albrecht the Irish crown in the hope of obtaining Spanish support for their cause.

While pursuing a war with Spain, Albrecht made overtures for peace with Spain’s enemies, but only the French King Henri IV was disposed to enter official negotiations. Under the mediation of the papal legate Cardinal Alessandro de’Medici — the future Pope Leo XI — Spain and France concluded the Peace of Vervins on May 2, 1598.

Spain gave up its conquests, thereby restoring the situation of Cateau Cambrésis. France tacitly accepted the Spanish occupation of the prince-archbishopric of Cambray and pulled out of the war, but maintained the financial support for the Dutch Republic.

Only a few days after the treaty, on May 6, 1598, Felipe II announced his decision to marry his eldest daughter, Infanta Isabella to Archduke Albrecht and to cede them the sovereignty over the Habsburg Netherlands. The Act of Cession did however stipulate that if the couple would not have children, the Netherlands would return to Spain

Here is some background on Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain (August 12, 1566 – December 1, 1633)

Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain

Infanta Isabella was the eldest surviving daughter of King Felipe II of Spain and his third wife, Elisabeth of Valois, who was the eldest daughter of King Henri II of France and Catherine de’ Medici.

Engagement

At the age of two, Isabella was promised to marry her cousin Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor (1552 — 1612), son of her aunt Maria. However, Isabella had to wait for more than 20 years before the eccentric Rudolph declared that he had no intention of marrying anybody. Meanwhile, she served as her father’s primary caretaker during the last three years of his life, when he was plagued by gout and frequent illness.

Marriage

As mentioned King Felipe II decided to cede the Spanish Netherlands to Isabella on condition that she marry her first cousin, Albrecht VII, Archduke of Austria. He was her former fiancé’s younger brother the former Viceroy.

Archduke Albrecht VII and Archduchess Isabella of Austria, Sovereigns of the Austrian Netherlands

They were to reign over the Netherlands jointly and be succeeded by their descendants according to the male-preference cognatic primogeniture but should a female succeed, she was required to marry the King of Spain or the person chosen by the King of Spain.

It was stipulated that, should they have no children, the Netherlands would revert to the King of Spain upon the death of either spouse.

As Albrecht was the Archbishop of Toledo, he had to be released from his religious commitments by Pope Clement VIII before the wedding could take place.

Shortly before King Felipe II died on September 13, 1598, he resigned the thrones of the Netherlands in favor of Isabella and her fiancé. The Pope celebrated the union by procuration on November 15, at Ferrera. On April 18, 1599, 33-year-old Isabella married the 40 year old Albrecht in Valencia.

July 5, 1554: Birth of Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of France. Part I.

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Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, Carlos I of Spain, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, King Charles IX of France, Queen of France, St. Bartholomew Day Massacre

Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria (July 5, 1554 – January 22, 1592) was Queen of France from 1570 to 1574 as the wife of King Charles IX. A member of the House of Habsburg, she was the daughter of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, and Infanta Maria of Spain, daughter of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (King Carlos I of Spain) and Infanta Isabella of Portugal.

Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria was the fifth child and second daughter of her parents’ sixteen children, of whom eight survived infancy. During her childhood, she lived with her elder sister Archduchess Anna and younger brother Archduke Matthias in a pavilion in the gardens of the newly built Stallburg, part of the Hofburg Palace complex in Vienna.

Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of France

With her flawless white skin, long blonde hair and perfect physique, she was considered one of the great beauties of the era. She was also regarded as demure, pious, and warmhearted but naive and intensely innocent because of her sheltered upbringing. Still, she was intellectually talented.

Very early on, around 1559, a match between Elisabeth and Charles, Duke of Orléans, was suggested. In 1562, the Maréchal de Vieilleville, a member of the French delegation sent to Vienna upon seeing the eight-year-old princess, exclaimed: “Your Majesty, this is the Queen of France!”

Although Vieilleville was not entitled to make an offer, Elisabeth’s grandfather Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor appeared interested: gifts were exchanged and contacts initiated between the two courts – but no one bothered to teach French to the young princess.

Queen of France

Only in 1569, after the failure of marriage plans with King Frederik II of Denmark and Sebastian of Portugal, the French offer was seriously considered. Catherine de’ Medici, mother of the Duke of Orléans and the power behind the throne, initially preferred Elisabeth’s elder sister Archduchess Anna; but the latter was already chosen as the new wife of her uncle King Felipe II of Spain.

Catherine de’ Medici finally agreed to the marriage with the younger Elisabeth, as France absolutely needed a Catholic marriage in order to combat the Protestant party, the Huguenots, as well as to cement an alliance between the House of Habsburg and the French Crown.

Elisabeth was first married by proxy on October 22, 1570 in the cathedral of Speyer. Her uncle, Archduke Ferdinand of Further Austria-Tyrol, was standing as proxy for Charles. After long celebrations, she left Austria on November 4 accompanied by high-ranking German dignitaries, including the Archbishop-Elector of Trier.

Because of bad weather upon her arrival in France, whereas constant rain had made roads impassable, the decision was taken to have the official wedding celebrated in the small border town of Mézières in Champagne. Before reaching her destination, Elisabeth stayed in Sedan, where her husband’s two younger brothers Henri, Duke of Anjou and François, Duke of Alençon greeted her.

Curious about his future wife, Charles dressed himself as a soldier and went to Sedan, where he mixed in the crowd of courtiers to observe her incognito while his brother Henri was showing her the architecture of the fortress of Sedan. Charles was reportedly delighted with the sight of her.

Charles IX, King of France

King Charles IX of France and Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria were formally married on November 26, 1570 in Mézières; Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon performed the ceremony. The occasion was celebrated with immense pomp and extravagance, despite the dire state of French finances. The new queen’s wedding dress was of a cloth of silver sprinkled with pearls, and her tiara was studded with pearls, emeralds, diamonds, sapphires and rubies.

Because of the difficult journey and the cold weather, at the beginning of 1571 Elisabeth fell ill. Since the wedding took place far away from Paris, it was only in the spring that the German-French alliance was celebrated once again with magnificent feasts in the capital. On March 25, 1571, Elisabeth was consecrated as Queen of France by the Archbishop of Reims at the Basilica of Saint-Denis. The new queen officially entered Paris four days later, on March 29. Then, she disappeared from public life.

Elisabeth was so delighted about her husband that she, to general amusement, did not hesitate to kiss him in front of others. However, Charles IX already had a long-term mistress, Marie Touchet, who famously quoted: “The German girl doesn’t scare me” (L’Allemande ne me fait pas peur); after a brief infatuation with his teenage bride, Charles IX soon returned to his mistress.

However, the royal couple had a warm and supportive relationship. Charles realised that the liberal ways of the French Court might shock Elisabeth and, along with his mother, made an effort to shield her from its excesses. In addition, Catherine de’ Medici made sure that her new daughter-in-law was kept out of the affairs of state.

Elisabeth spoke German, Spanish, Latin and Italian with fluency, but she learned French with difficulty; also, she felt lonely in the lively and dissolute French court; yet, one of her few friends was her sister-in-law, Margaret of Valois, who was not known for her virtue. Busbecq, her former tutor who accompanied her to France, was made Lord Chamberlain of her Household, and Madeleine of Savoy was appointed her Première dame d’honneur.

Elisabeth, shocked with the licentious ways of the French court, dedicated her time to embroidery work, reading and especially the practice of charitable and pious works. She continued to hear mass twice a day, and was appalled at how little respect was shown for religion by the supposedly Catholic courtiers.

Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of France

Her one controversial act was to make a point of rejecting the attentions of Protestant courtiers and politicians by refusing the Huguenot leader, Gaspard II de Coligny the permission to kiss her hand when he paid homage to the royal family.

Despite her strong opposition to Protestantism in France, she was horrified when she received news of the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre begun on 24 August 24, 1572, and which continued for several days afterwards, when thousands of French Protestants were slaughtered in Paris.

According to Brantôme, the following morning, shocked upon learning from someone in her entourage about the massacre, she asked if her husband knew. Told that he not only knew about it, but was its initiator, exclaimed: “Oh, my God! What is this? Who are these counselors who gave him such advice? My God, I ask of you to forgive him…”

Then she asked for her book of hours and began to pray. During those days, Elisabeth was given petitions to speak for the innocent, and she managed to assure a promise to spare the lives of the foreign (especially numerous German) Protestants. Quite advanced in pregnancy at the time, (she was seven months pregnant), she did not publicly rejoice at so many deaths – like other prominent Catholics did.

Two months later, on 27 October 1572, Elisabeth gave birth to her first and only child, a daughter, in the Louvre Palace. The child was named Marie Elisabeth after her grandmother, Empress Maria, and Queen Elizabeth I of England, who were her godmothers.

By the time of her birth, the health of Marie Elisabeth’s father was deteriorating rapidly, and after long suffering, in which Elisabeth rendered him silent support and prayed for his recovery, Charles IX died on 30 May 1574; Elisabeth wept “tears so tender, and so secret,” according to Brantôme, at his bedside.

June 27, 1550: Birth of Charles IX, King of France

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Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, Catherine de Médici, Charles IX of France, Henri II of France, Henri III of France, Henri of Navarre, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, Margaret de Valois

Charles IX (Charles Maximilien; June 27, 1550 – May 30, 1574) was King of France from 1560 until his death in 1574 from tuberculosis. He ascended the throne of France upon the death of his brother Francis II in 1560.

Born Prince Charles Maximilian de Valois, third son of King Henri II of France and Catherine de’ Medici, in the royal chateau of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and styled Duke of Angoulêm from birth, he was created Duke of Orléans after the death of his older brother Louis, his parents’ second son, who had died in infancy on October 24, 1560.

King Henri II died on July 10, 1559, and was succeeded by his eldest son, King François II (who married Mary I, Queen of Scots on April 6, 1558). After François II’s short rule, (François II died December 5, 1560) the ten-year-old Charles Maximilian was immediately proclaimed King Charles IX of France.

When François II died, the Privy Council appointed his mother, Catherine de’ Medici, as governor of France (gouvernante de France), with sweeping powers, at first acting as regent for her young son. On May 15, 1561, Charles IX was consecrated in the cathedral at Reims. Prince Antoine of Bourbon, himself in line to the French throne and husband to Queen Joan III of Navarre, was appointed Lieutenant-General of France.

On November 26, 1570 Charles IX married Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, the daughter of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, and Maria of Spain (daughter of Carl V, Holy Roman Emperor and King Carlos I of Spain, and Isabella of Portugal).

With her flawless white skin, long blond hair and perfect physique, Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria was considered one of the great beauties of the era. She was also regarded as demure, pious, and warmhearted but naive and intensely innocent because of her sheltered upbringing

After decades of tension, war broke out between Protestants and Catholics after the massacre of Vassy in 1562. In 1572, after several unsuccessful peace attempts, Charles ordered the marriage of his sister Margaret of Valois to Henri of Navarre (the future King Henri IV of France), a major Protestant nobleman in the line of succession to the French throne, in a last desperate bid to reconcile his people.

Facing popular hostility against this policy of appeasement, Charles allowed the massacre of all Huguenot leaders who gathered in Paris for the royal wedding at the instigation of his mother Catherine de’ Medici. This event, the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre, was a significant blow to the Huguenot movement, though religious civil warfare soon began anew. Charles sought to take advantage of the disarray of the Huguenots by ordering the siege of La Rochelle, but was unable to take the Protestant stronghold.

All his decisions were influenced by his mother, a fervent Roman Catholic who initially sought peace between Catholics and Protestants but after the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre supported the persecution of Huguenots.

Charles died of tuberculosis in 1574, without legitimate male issue, and was succeeded by his brother as King Henri III.

June 21, 1528: Birth of Archduchess Maria of Austria, Holy Roman Empress, Queen of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia

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and Croatia, Archduchess Maria of Austria, Archduchess of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, Holy Roman Empire, Hungary, Infanta of Spain, King Carlos I of Spain, Kingdom of Spain, Queen of Bohemia

Archduchess Maria of Austria (June 21, 1528 – February 16, 1603) was the empress consort and queen consort of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia. She served as regent of Spain in the absence of her father Emperor Charles V from 1548 until 1551.

Early life

Maria was born in Madrid, Spain to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, (Carlos I of Spain) and Isabella of Portugal, the second child and first daughter of King Manuel I of Portugal and his second wife, Maria of Aragon, herself the the third surviving daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Fernando II-V of Aragon and Castile (the Catholic monarchs).

As a member of the House of Habsburg she was both an Archduchess of Austria and an Infanta of Spain.

Archduchess Maria grew up mostly between Toledo and Valladolid with her siblings, Archduke Philipp and Archduchess Joanna of Austria. They built a strong family bond despite their father’s regular absences. Maria and her brother, Philipp, shared similar strong personal views and policies which they retained during the rest of their lives.

Regent of Spain

On September 15, 1548, aged twenty, she married her first cousin Archduke Maximilian of Austria the eldest son of the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, younger brother of Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and the Jagiellonian Princess Anne of Bohemia and Hungary (1503–1547).

The couple had sixteen children during the course of a twenty-eight-year marriage.

While her father was occupied with German affairs, Maria and Maximilian acted as regents of Spain from 1548 to 1551 during the absence of Infante Felipe I of Spain. Maria stayed at the Spanish court until August 1551, and in 1552, the couple moved to live at the court of Maximilian’s father in Vienna.

In 1558, Maria returned to Madrid and acted as regent of Spain during the absence of her brother, now King Felipe II, from 1558 to 1561.

Empress

After her return to Germany, her husband eventually succeeded his father Ferdinand I, at his death, as Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia which he ruled from 1564 to his death in 1576.

Maria was a devout Catholic and frequently disagreed with her religiously ambiguous husband about his religious tolerance.

During her life in Austria, Maria was reportedly ill at ease in a country which was not entirely Catholic, and she surrounded herself with a circle of strictly Catholic courtiers, many of whom she had brought with her from Spain. Her court was organized by her Spanish chief lady-in-waiting Maria de Requenes in a Spanish manner, and among her favorite companions was her Spanish lady-in-waiting Margarita de Cardona.

In 1576, Maximilian II died. Maria remained at the Imperial Court for six years after his death. She had great influence over her sons, the future emperors Rudolf and Matthias.

Return to Spain

Maria returned to Spain in 1582, taking her youngest surviving child Archduchess Margaret with her, promised to marry Felipe II of Spain, who had lost his fourth wife, her oldest daughter, Archduchess Anna in 1580. Margaret finally refused and took the veil as a Poor Clare. Commenting that she was very happy to live in “a country without heretics”, Maria settled in the Convent of Las Descalzas Reales in Madrid, where she lived until her death in 1603.

She was the patron of the noted Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victoria, and the great Requiem Mass he wrote in 1603 for her funeral is considered among the best and most refined of his works.

Maria exerted some influence together with Queen Margaret, the wife of her grandson/nephew, Felipe III of Spain. Margaret, the sister of the future Emperor Ferdinand II, would be one of three women at Felipe III’s court who would apply considerable influence over the king.

Margaret was considered by contemporaries to be extremely pious – in some cases, excessively pious, and too influenced by the Church, and ‘astute and very skillful’ in her political dealings, although ‘melancholic’ and unhappy over the influence of the Duke of Lerma over her husband at court. Margaret continued to fight an ongoing battle with Lerma for influence until her death in 1611. Felipe had an ‘affectionate, close relationship’ with Margaret, and paid her additional attention after she bore him a son, also named Felipe in 1605.

Maria, the Austrian representative to the Spanish court – and Margaret of the Cross, Maria’s daughter – along with queen Margaret, were a powerful Catholic and pro-Austrian faction in the court of Felipe III of Spain.

They were successful, for example, in convincing Felipe to provide financial support to Ferdinand from 1600 onwards. Felipe III steadily acquired other religious advisors. Father Juan de Santa Maria, the confessor to Felipe III’s daughter, Maria Anna, was felt by contemporaries to have an excessive influence over Felipe at the end of his life, and both he and Luis de Aliaga, Felipe III’s own confessor, were credited with the overthrow of Lerma in 1618. Similarly Mariana de San Jose, a favoured nun of Queen Margaret’s, was also criticised for her later influence over the King’s actions.

Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary and Bohemia. Conclusion

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Diet of Augsburg, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, Ottoman Empire, Philip II of Spain, Pope Pius V, Protestants, Stephan IV Bathory of Poland, Suleiman I, Treaty of Adrianople

In November 1562 Maximilian was chosen King of the Romans, or German King, by the electoral college at Frankfurt, where he was crowned a few days later, officially designating him heir to the empire. After assuring the Catholic electors of his fidelity to their faith, and promising the Protestant electors that he would publicly accept the confession of Augsburg when he became emperor, he also took the usual oath to protect the Church, and his election was afterwards confirmed by the papacy.

Maximilian was the first King of the Romans not to be crowned in Aachen. In September 1563 he was crowned King of Hungary by the Archbishop of Esztergom, Nicolaus Olahus, and on his father’s death, in July 1564, he became Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia. He was also Archduke of Austria.

The new emperor had already shown that he believed in the necessity for a thorough reform of the Church. He was unable, however, to obtain the consent of Pope Pius IV to the marriage of the clergy, and in 1568 the concession of communion in both kinds to the laity was withdrawn. On his part Maximilian granted religious liberty to the Lutheran nobles and knights in Austria, and refused to allow the publication of the decrees of the council of Trent.

Amidst general expectations on the part of the Protestants he met his first summoned Diet of Augsburg in March 1566. He refused to accede to the demands of the Lutheran princes; on the other hand, although the increase of sectarianism was discussed, no decisive steps were taken to suppress it, and the only result of the meeting was a grant of assistance for the war with the Turks, which had just been renewed.

The Ottomans would besiege and conquer Szigetvár in 1566, but their sultan, Suleiman I the Magnificent, would die of old age during the siege. With neither side winning a decisive engagement, Maximilian’s ambassadors Antun Vrančić and Christoph Teuffenbach would meet with the Ottoman Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha in Adrianople to negotiate a truce in 1568.

The terms of the Treaty of Adrianople required the Emperor to recognise Ottoman suzerainty over Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia. In his realm, Suleiman I was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 until his death in 1566. Under his administration, the Ottoman caliphate ruled over at least 25 million people.

Meanwhile, the relations between Maximilian II and Felipe II of Spain had improved, and the emperor’s increasingly cautious and moderate attitude in religious matters was doubtless because the death of Felipe II’s son, Don Carlos, had opened the way for the succession of Maximilian, or of one of his sons, to the Spanish throne. Evidence of this friendly feeling was given in 1570, when the emperor’s daughter, Archduchess Anna, became the fourth wife of Felipe II. Archduchess Anna was Felipe’s niece, her mother, Infanta Maria of Spain, was Felipe’s sister. Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor and Infanta Maria of Spain, were first cousins.

In 1570 the emperor met the diet of Speyer and asked for aid to place his eastern borders in a state of defence, and also for power to repress the disorder caused by troops in the service of foreign powers passing through Germany. He proposed that his consent should be necessary before any soldiers for foreign service were recruited in the empire; but the estates were unwilling to strengthen the imperial authority, the Protestant princes regarded the suggestion as an attempt to prevent them from assisting their co-religionists in France and the Netherlands, and nothing was done in this direction, although some assistance was voted for the defense of Austria.

The religious demands of the Protestants were still unsatisfied, while the policy of toleration had failed to give peace to Austria. Maximilian’s power was very limited; it was inability rather than unwillingness that prevented him from yielding to the entreaties of Pope Pius V to join in an attack on the Turks both before and after the victory of Lepanto in 1571; and he remained inert while the authority of the empire in north-eastern Europe was threatened.

In 1575, Maximilian was elected by the part of Polish and Lithuanian magnates to be the King of Poland in opposition to Stephan IV Bathory, but he did not manage to become widely accepted there and was forced to leave Poland.

Emperor Maximilian II died on October 12, 1576 in Regensburg while preparing to invade Poland. On his deathbed he refused to receive the last sacraments of the Church. He is buried in St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

By his wife Maria he had a family of ten sons and six daughters. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, who had been chosen King of the Romans in October 1575, and was elected as Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. Another of his sons, Matthias, also became Holy Roman Emperor Emperor; three others, Ernst, Albert and Maximilian, took some part in the government of the Habsburg territories or of the Netherlands, and a daughter, Elizabeth, married Charles IX of France.

June 21, 1528: Birth of Archduchess Maria of Austria, Holy Roman Empress and Queen consort of Bohemia and Hungary.

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Archduchess Maria of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, King Carlos I of Spain, King Felipe II of Spain, King Philip II of Spain

Archduchess Maria of Austria (June 21, 1528 – February 26, 1603) was Holy Roman Empress and queen consort of Bohemia and Hungary as the spouse of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia and Hungary. She served as regent of Spain in the absence of her father Holy Roman Emperor Charles V from 1548 until 1551, and in the absence of her brother Felipe II of Spain from 1558 to 1561.

Archduchess Maria of Austria

Archduchess Maria was born in Madrid, Spain to Charles V (Carlos I) Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, and Infanta Isabella of Portugal. She grew up mostly between Toledo and Valladolid with her siblings, Felipe and Joanna. They built a strong family bond despite their father’s regular absences. Maria and her brother, Philip, shared similar strong personal views and policies which they retained during the rest of their lives.

On September 15, 1548, aged twenty, she married her first cousin Archduke Maximilian of Austria, the eldest son of the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand I, younger brother of Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and the Jagiellonian princess Anne of Bohemia and Hungary (1503–1547).

He was named after his great-grandfather, Emperor Maximilian I. At the time of his birth, his father Ferdinand succeeded his brother-in-law King Louis II in the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Kingdom of Hungary, laying the grounds for the global Habsburg Monarchy. Maximilian II was crowned King of Bohemia in Prague on May 14, 1562 and elected King of Germany (King of the Romans) on November 24,1562. On September 8, 1563 he was crowned King of Hungary and Croatia in the Hungarian capital Pressburg (Pozsony in Hungarian; now Bratislava, Slovakia). On July 24, 1564 he succeeded his father Ferdinand I as ruler of the Holy Roman Empire.

The couple had sixteen children during the course of a twenty-eight-year marriage.

Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary and Bohemia.

While her father was occupied with German affairs, Maria and Maximilian acted as regents of Spain from 1548 to 1551 during the absence of Prince Felipe. Maria stayed at the Spanish court until August 1551, and in 1552, the couple moved to live at the court of Maximilian’s father in Vienna. In 1558, Maria returned to Madrid and acted as regent of Spain during the absence of her brother, now King Felipe II, from 1558 to 1561.

Empress

After her return to Germany, her husband eventually succeeded his father Ferdinand I, at his death, as ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia and Hungary, which he ruled from 1564 to his death in 1576. Maria was a devout Catholic and frequently disagreed with her religiously ambiguous husband.

During her life in Austria, Maria was reportedly ill at ease in a country which was not entirely Catholic, and she surrounded herself with a circle of strictly Catholic courtiers, many of whom she had brought with her from Spain. Her court was organized by her Spanish chief lady-in-waiting Maria de Requenes in a Spanish manner, and among her favorite companions was her Spanish lady-in-waiting Margarita de Cardona.

In 1576, Maximilian died. Maria remained at the Imperial Court for six years after his death. She had great influence over her sons, the future emperors Rudolf and Matthias.

Maria returned to Spain in 1582, taking her youngest surviving child Archduchess Margaret with her. Archduchess Margaret promised to marry Felipe II of Spain, who had lost his fourth wife, his niece and Maria’s her oldest daughter, Archduchess Anna in 1580. This would haven Felipe’s second marriage to one of his nieces. Archduchess Margaret finally refused to marry her uncle and instead took the veil as a Poor Clare. Commenting that she was very happy to live in “a country without heretics”, Maria settled in the Convent of Las Descalzas Reales in Madrid, where she lived until her death in 1603.

Maria exerted some influence together with Queen Margaret, the wife of her grandson, Felipe III of Spain. Margaret
was the daughter of Archduke Charles II of Austria and Maria-Anna of Bavaria and thus the paternal granddaughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I and the sister of the future Emperor Ferdinand II. Queen Margaret would be one of three women at Felipe III’s court who would apply considerable influence over the king.