March 27, 1625: Accession of Charles I, as King of England, Scotland and Ireland

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Accession, Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria, Charles I of England, Henrietta Marie de Bourbon of France, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, King Henri IV of France and Navarre, King James VI of Scotland, Maria-Anna of Bavaria, Marie de' Medici

From the Emperor’s Desk: for some reason I am unable to post with pictures. I am looking into it and hopefully pictures will be back soon!

Charles I (November 1, 1600 – January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from March 27, 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after his father inherited the English throne in 1603, he moved to England, where he spent much of the rest of his life.

He became heir apparent to the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1612 upon the death of his elder brother, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. An unsuccessful and unpopular attempt to marry Charles to the Spanish Habsburg Infanta Maria Anna culminated in an eight-month visit to Spain in 1623 that demonstrated the futility of the marriage negotiation.

Maria Anna was born an Infanta of Spain and an Archduchess of Austria as the daughter of King Felipe III of Spain and Portugal and Archduchess Margaret of Austria, herself a daughter of Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria and Maria Anna of Bavaria.

The proposal with the Spanish princess Maria Anna fell through when King Felipe IV of Spain and Portugal demanded Charles convert to the Catholic Church and live in Spain for a year as pre-conditions for the marriage. As King Felipe IV was aware, such terms were unacceptable, and when Charles returned to England in October, he and Buckingham demanded King James declare war on Spain.

Two years later, he married the Bourbon princess Henrietta Maria de Bourbon of France.

Henrietta Maria de Bourbon of France, the youngest daughter of King Henri IV of France (Henri III of Navarre) and his second wife, Marie de’ Medici; met her future husband in 1623 at a court entertainment in Paris, when he was on his way to Spain with the Duke of Buckingham to discuss the possible marriage with Infanta Maria Anna of Spain.

Searching elsewhere for a bride, Charles sent his close friend Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, to Paris in 1624. A Francophile and godson of Henri IV of France, Holland strongly favoured a marriage with Henrietta Maria, the terms of which were negotiated by James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle.

Henrietta Maria was aged fifteen at the time of her marriage, which was not unusual for royal princesses of the period. Opinions on her appearance vary; her niece Sophia of Hanover commented that the “beautiful portraits of Van Dyck had given me such a fine idea of all the ladies of England that I was surprised to see that the queen, who I had seen as so beautiful and lean, was a woman well past her prime.

King James I-VI died on March 26, 1625 and Charles succeeded as King of England, Scotland and Ireland.

A proxy marriage was held at Notre-Dame de Paris on May 1, 1625 where Duke Claude of Chevreuse stood as proxy for King Charles, with the couple spending their first night together at St Augustine’s Abbey near Canterbury on 13 June 1625. As a Roman Catholic, Henrietta Maria was unable to participate in the Church of England ceremony on February 2, 1626 when Charles was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

After his succession in 1625, Charles quarrelled with the English Parliament, which sought to curb his royal prerogative. He believed in the divine right of kings, and was determined to govern according to his own conscience. Many of his subjects opposed his policies, in particular the levying of taxes without parliamentary consent, and perceived his actions as those of a tyrannical absolute monarch.

Charles’ religious policies, coupled with his marriage to a Roman Catholic, generated antipathy and mistrust from Reformed religious groups such as the English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters, who thought his views too Catholic. He supported high church Anglican ecclesiastics and failed to aid continental Protestant forces successfully during the Thirty Years‘ War.

His attempts to force the Church of Scotland to adopt high Anglican practices led to the Bishops’ Wars, strengthened the position of the English and Scottish parliaments, and helped precipitate his own downfall.

July 13, 1608: Birth of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia and Archduke of Austria. Part II.

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Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, Hungary and Croatia and Archduke of Austria, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, King Ferdinand IV of Bohemia, King of Bohemia, The Thirty Years War

Ferdinand III (July 13, 1608 – April 2, 1657) was from 1621 Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary from 1625, King of Croatia and Bohemia from 1627 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1637 until his death in 1657.

Ferdinand was the first Habsburg monarch to be recognized as a musical composer.

Ferdinand was born in Graz as third son of Emperor Ferdinand II of the House of Habsburg and his first wife, Maria Anna of Bavaria, and was baptised as Ferdinand Ernst. He grew up in Carinthia with loving care from his parents and he developed great affection for his siblings and his father, with whom he always found a consensus in future disagreements.

Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Hungary, Croatia and Archduke of Austria

At his father’s court he received religious and scholarly training from Jesuits and Christoph Simon von Thun (head of Ferdinand’s Imperial court and household) had greatly influenced the education of the young archduke.

After the deaths of his brothers Charles (1603) and Johann Karl (1619), he was designated as his father’s successor and systematically prepared to take over the reign. Like his father, he was a devout Catholic, yet he had a certain aversion to the influence of the Jesuits who had ruled his father’s court.

Ferdinand became Archduke of Austria in 1621. On December 8, 1625 he was crowned King of Hungary, on November 27, 1627 King of Bohemia. Ferdinand enhanced his authority and set an important legal and military precedent by issuing a Revised Land Ordinance that deprived the Bohemian estates of their right to raise soldiers, reserving this power solely for the monarch.

His father was unable to secure him the election as King of the Romans at the Regensburg diet of 1630. After he had unsuccessfully applied for the supreme command of the Imperial army and participation in campaigns of Wallenstein, he joined Wallenstein’s opponents at the Imperial court in Vienna and was involved in the arrangements on his second deposition in the beginning of 1634.

He married the Spanish Infanta, his cousin Maria Anna of Spain, after years of negotiations with Spanish relatives in 1631. Although in the middle of the war, this elaborate wedding was celebrated over a period of fourteen months.

Infanta Maria Anna of Spain was the daughter of King Felipe III of Spain and his wife Archduchess Margaret of Austria 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. Her elder brother was the Archduke Ferdinand, who succeeded as Emperor Ferdinand II in 1619, the father Emperor Ferdinand III.

Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, Holy Roman Empress, Queen of Bohemia, Hungary, Croatia and Archduchess of Austria

The marriage produced six children, including his successors, King Ferdinand IV of Hungary and Croatia and Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I.

His loving and intelligent wife and her brother, the Spanish Cardinal Infante Fernando, had great influence on Ferdinand and formed the most important link between the Habsburg courts in Madrid, Brussels and Vienna in the difficult period of the war for Habsburg following the death of Wallenstein.

Commander in chief

Archduke Ferdinand was finally elected King of the Romans at the Diet of Regensburg on December 22, 1636. Upon the death of his father on February 15 1637, Ferdinand became Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III.

By the time Ferdinand became Emperor, vast sections of the imperial territories had been absolutely devastated by two decades of war.

Ferdinand ascended the throne at the beginning of the last decade of the Thirty Years’ War and introduced lenient policies to depart from old ideas of divine rights under his father, as he had wished to end the war quickly.

As the numerous battles had not resulted in sufficient military containment of the Protestant enemies, and confronted with decaying Imperial power, Ferdinand was compelled to abandon the political stances of his Habsburg predecessors in many respects in order to open the long road towards the much delayed peace treaty. Although his authority among the princes was weakened after the Thirty Years War, in Bohemia, Hungary and the Austria, however, Ferdinand’s position as sovereign was uncontested.

His political adviser Trauttmansdorff advanced to the position of Prime Minister of Austria and Chief diplomat, but was replaced by Johann Ludwig von Nassau-Hadamar in 1647 as his health had begun to deteriorate. Trauttmansdorff was succeeded as Obersthofmeister by the later Prime Minister Johann Weikhard of Auersperg who also taught the royal heir Ferdinand IV. Unlike his father, Ferdinand III employed no spiritual counsellor.

1625 – King Charles I of England marries Catholic princess Henrietta Maria of France and Navarre, at Canterbury.

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Canterbury, Charles I of England, Felipe III of Spain, Felipe IV of Spain, Henri IV of France and Navarre, Henrietta Maria de Bourbon of France, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, Proxy Marriage

Charles I (November 19, 1600 – January 30, 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from March 27, 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark, but after his father inherited the English throne in 1603 (as James I), he moved to England, where he spent much of the rest of his life.

Charles became heir apparent to the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1612 upon the death of his elder brother, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales.

Charles and Buckingham, James’s favourite and a man who had great influence over the prince, travelled incognito to Spain in February 1623 to try to reach agreement on the long-pending Spanish match with Infanta Maria Anna of Spain the daughter of King Felipe III of Spain and Margaret of Austria, 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. Her elder brother was the Archduke Ferdinand, who succeeded as Emperor Ferdinand II in 1619.

The trip to Spain was an embarrassing failure. The Infanta Maria Anna thought Charles little more than an infidel. The proposal fell through when Felipe IV of Spain demanded Charles convert to the Catholic Church and live in Spain for a year as pre-conditions for the marriage. As Felipe IV was aware, such terms were unacceptable, and when Charles returned to England in October, he and Buckingham demanded King James declare war on Spain.

The Spanish court also insisted on the repeal of the penal laws, which Charles knew Parliament would not agree to. A personal quarrel erupted between Buckingham and the Count of Olivares, the Spanish chief minister, and so Charles conducted the ultimately futile negotiations personally.

With the failure of the Spanish match, Charles and Buckingham turned their attention to France in searching elsewhere for a bride. Charles sent his close friend Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, to Paris in 1624. A Francophile and godson of Henri IV of France, Holland strongly favoured a marriage with Henrietta Maria, the terms of which were negotiated by James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle.

Henrietta Maria de Bourbon was the youngest daughter of Henri IV of France (Henri III of Navarre) and his second wife, Marie de’ Medici, and was named after her parents.

Henrietta Maria was born at the Palais du Louvre on 25 November 25, 1609, and was brought up as a Roman Catholic.

As a daughter of the Bourbon king of France, she was a Fille de France and a member of the House of Bourbon. She was the youngest sister of the future Louis XIII of France. Her father was assassinated on May 14, 1610, when she was less than a year old. As a child, she was raised under the supervision of the royal governess Françoise de Montglat.

Henrietta Maria first met her future husband in 1623 at a court entertainment in Paris, when he was on his way to Spain with the Duke of Buckingham to discuss a possible marriage with Infanta Maria Anna of Spain.

Henrietta Maria was aged fifteen at the time of her marriage, which was not unusual for royal princesses of the period. Opinions on her appearance vary; her niece Sophia of Hanover commented that the “beautiful portraits of Van Dyck had given me such a fine idea of all the ladies of England that I was surprised to see that the queen, who I had seen as so beautiful and lean, was a woman well past her prime. Her arms were long and lean, her shoulders uneven, and some of her teeth were coming out of her mouth like tusks…. She did, however, have pretty eyes, nose, and a good complexion…”

A proxy marriage was held at Notre-Dame de Paris on 1 May 1625, where Duke Claude of Chevreuse stood as proxy for Charles, shortly after Charles succeeded as king, with the couple spending their first night together at St Augustine’s Abbey near Canterbury on June 13, 1625.

Charles delayed the opening of his first Parliament until after the marriage was consummated, to forestall any opposition.

Many members of the Commons opposed his marriage to a Roman Catholic, fearing that he would lift restrictions on Catholic recusants and undermine the official establishment of the reformed Church of England. Charles told Parliament that he would not relax religious restrictions, but promised to do exactly that in a secret marriage treaty with his brother-in-law Louis XIII of France.

Moreover, the treaty loaned to the French seven English naval ships that were used to suppress the Protestant Huguenots at La Rochelle in September 1625. Charles was crowned on February 2, 1626 at Westminster Abbey, but without his wife at his side.

Henrietta Maria’s Roman Catholicism made her unpopular in England, and also prohibited her from being crowned in a Church of England service; because she refused to participate in a Protestant religious ceremony, therefore, she never had a coronation.

March 27, 1625: Accession of Charles I, King of England, Scotland and Ireland

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Accession, Beheading, English Civil Wars, English Parliament, Henrietta Maria de Bourbon of France, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, King Charles I of England, King James I-VI of England & Scotland, Philip III of Spain

Charles I (November 19, 1600 – January 30, 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark and King Frederik II of Denmark and Norway and Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow.

James VI was the first cousin twice removed of Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland, and when she died childless in March of 1603, he became King of England and Ireland as James I. Charles was a weak and sickly infant, and while his parents and older siblings left for England in April and early June that year, due to his fragile health, he remained in Scotland with his father’s friend Lord Fyvie, appointed as his guardian.

By 1604, when Charles was three-and-a-half, he was able to walk the length of the great hall at Dunfermline Palace without assistance, and it was decided that he was strong enough to journey to England to be reunited with his family.

In January 1605, Charles was created Duke of York, as is customary in the case of the English sovereign’s second son, and made a Knight of the Bath. In 1611, he was made a Knight of the Garter.

Eventually, Charles apparently conquered his physical infirmity, which might have been caused by rickets. Even so, his public profile remained low in contrast to that of his physically stronger and taller elder brother, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, whom Charles adored and attempted to emulate.

In early November 1612, Henry Frederick died at the age of 18 of what is suspected to have been typhoid (or possibly porphyria). Charles, who turned 12 two weeks later, became heir apparent. As the eldest surviving son of the sovereign, he automatically gained several titles, including Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay. In November 1616, he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester.

In 1623 an unsuccessful and unpopular attempt to marry him to aSpanish Habsburg princess culminated in an eight-month visit to Spain that demonstrated the marriage negotiations’ futility.

Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, Archduchess of Austria

The princess in question was Infanta Maria Anna of Spain (1606 – 1646) the daughter of King Felipe III of Spain and his wife/cousin Archduchess Margaret of Austria, sister of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor. Infanta Maria Anna would later become Holy Roman Empress and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia by her marriage to her cousin Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor.

Two years later, Charles married the Bourbon princess Henrietta Maria of France. the youngest daughter of Henri IV of France (Henri III of Navarre) and his second wife, Marie de’ Medici, and was named after her parents.

Henrietta Maria was brought up as a Roman Catholic. As a daughter of the Bourbon king of France, she was a Fille de France and a member of the House of Bourbon. She was the youngest sister of the future Louis XIII of France. Her father was assassinated in 1610, when she was less than a year old. As a child, she was raised under the supervision of the royal governess Françoise de Montglat.

Henrietta Maria de Bourbon of France

Henrietta Maria was the mother of King Charles’ two immediate successors, Charles II and James II-VII. Contemporaneously, by a decree of her husband, she was known in England as Queen Mary, but she did not like this name and signed her letters “Henriette R” or “Henriette Marie R” (the “R” standing for regina, Latin for “queen”.)

King James I-VI of England, Scotland and Ireland died on March 27, 1625 and Charles succeeded him in all three kingdoms.

After his succession Charles quarrelled with the Parliament of England, which sought to curb his royal prerogative. He believed in the divine right of kings, and was determined to govern according to his own conscience.

Many of his subjects opposed his policies, in particular the levying of taxes without parliamentary consent, and perceived his actions as those of a tyrannical absolute monarch. His religious policies, coupled with his marriage to a Roman Catholic, generated antipathy and mistrust from Reformed religious groups such as the English Puritans and Scottish Covenanters, who thought his views too Catholic.

He supported high church Anglican ecclesiastics such as Richard Montagu and William Laud, and failed to aid continental Protestant forces successfully during the Thirty Years’ War. His attempts to force the Church of Scotland to adopt high Anglican practices led to the Bishops’ Wars, strengthened the position of the English and Scottish parliaments, and helped precipitate his own downfall.

From 1642, Charles fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments in the English Civil War. After his defeat in 1645, he surrendered to a Scottish force that eventually handed him over to the English Parliament (the “Long Parliament”). Charles refused to accept his captors’ demands for a constitutional monarchy, and temporarily escaped captivity in November 1647.

Re-imprisoned on the Isle of Wight, he forged an alliance with Scotland, but by the end of 1648 the Parliamentarian New Model Army had consolidated its control over England. Charles was tried, convicted, and executed for high treason in January 1649.

The monarchy was abolished and the Commonwealth of England was established as a republic. The monarchy was restored to Charles’s son, Charles II, in 1660.

February 15, 1637: Accession of Holy Emperor Ferdinand III

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Archduke of Austria, Charles I of England, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, King of Hungary and Croatia, Thirty Years War

Ferdinand III (Ferdinand Ernest; July 13, 1608 – April 2, 1657) was Archduke of Austria from 1621, King of Hungary from 1625, King of Croatia and Bohemia from 1627 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1637 until his death in 1657.

Ferdinand was born in Graz as third son of Holy Emperor Ferdinand II and his first wife, Maria Anna of Bavaria, she was the fourth child and second (but eldest surviving) daughter of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria and Renata of Lorraine.

Ferdinand was baptised as Ferdinand Ernst. He grew up in Carinthia with loving care from his parents and he developed great affection for his siblings and his father, with whom he always found a consensus in future disagreements. At his father’s court he received religious and scholarly training from Jesuits.

Ferdinand III was elected King of the Romans at the Diet of Regensburg on December 22, 1636. Upon the death of his father on February 15, 1637, Ferdinand became Emperor. His political adviser Trauttmansdorff advanced to the position of Prime Minister of Austria and Chief diplomat, but was replaced by Johann Ludwig von Nassau-Hadamar in 1647 as his health had begun to deteriorate.

When Ferdinand ascended the throne it was the beginning of the last decade of the Thirty Years’ War and introduced lenient policies to depart from old ideas of divine rights under his father, as he had wished to end the war quickly.

As the numerous battles had not resulted in sufficient military containment of the Protestant enemies and confronted with decaying Imperial power Ferdinand was compelled to abandon the political stances of his Habsburg predecessors in many respects in order to open the long road towards the much delayed peace treaty. Although his authority among the Imperial Princes was weakened after the war, in the Kingdoms of Bohemia, Hungary and the Archduchy Austria, however, Ferdinand’s position as sovereign was uncontested.

Further, Ferdinand III’s sovereign power in the Austrian hereditary lands, as well his royal power in Hungary and Bohemia was significantly greater than that of his predecessor before 1618. Princely power was strengthened, while the influence of the estates was massively reduced. The church reform towards the Counter-reformation continued.

Emperor Ferdinand III was the first Habsburg monarch to be recognized as a musical composer.

Emperor Ferdinand III first married the Spanish Infanta, his cousin Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, Daughter of King Felipe III of Spain and Margaret of Austria, 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. They were first cousins as male-line grandchildren of Charles II, Archduke of Austria, and Maria Anna of Bavaria.

Prior to her Imperial marriage Infanta Maria Anna of Spain was considered a possible wife for Charles, Prince of Wales; the event, later known in history as the “Spanish Match”, provoked a domestic and political crisis in the Kingdoms of England and Scotland.

Although in the middle of the war, this elaborate wedding was celebrated over a period of fourteen months. The marriage produced six children, including his successors, Ferdinand IV, King of Hungary and Emperor Leopold I.

His loving and intelligent wife and her brother, the Spanish Cardinal Infant Ferdinand, had great influence on Ferdinand and formed the most important link between the Habsburg courts in Madrid, Brussels and Vienna in the difficult period of the war for Habsburg following the death of Wallenstein

The Empress Maria Anna of Spain had died giving birth to her last child on May 13, 1646. Emperor Ferdinand III remarried to another first cousin, Maria Leopoldine of Austria (1632-1649) on July 2, 1648. The wedding ceremony, held in Linz, was notably splendid. This marriage however lasted little more than a year, ending with Maria Leopoldine’s own premature death in childbirth.

Ferdinand III’s last marriage was to Eleonora Magdalena Gonzaga of Mantua-Nevers on April 30, 1651, Ferdinand III married Eleonora Gonzaga. She was a daughter of Charles IV Gonzaga, Duke of Rethel.

Empress Eleonora was very pious and donated, among other things, for the Ursuline monastery in Vienna and the Order of the Starry Cross for noble women. She was also well educated and interested in art. She also composed music and wrote poetry and together with Ferdinand was the centre of the Italian academy.

Emperor Ferdinand also brought about the royal election of his son, Ferdinand IV, King of Hungary as King of the Romans who, however died in 1654.

Because his second son Leopold was still too young to be elected as King of the Romans, Ferdinand delayed the opening as well as the conclusion of the Deputationstag following the Reichstag to gain time until the next election. After all, Leopold was crowned King of Hungary and Bohemia. In 1656, Ferdinand sent an army into Italy to assist Spain in her struggle with France.

Emperor Ferdinand III died on April 2, 1657, and rests in the Capuchin Crypt in Vienna. His interior organs were separately buried in the Ducal Crypt.

September 17, 1665: Death of Felipe IV, King of Spain and Portugal.

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Felipe IV of Spain, House of Bourbon, House of Habsburg, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, King Carlos II of Spain, Kingdom of Portugal, Kingdom of Spain, Philip III of Spain, Philip IV of Spain, Princess Elisabeth of France

From the Emperor’s Desk. Instead of focusing on the political aspects of his reign I will focus on his personal life.

Felipe IV (April 8, 1605 – September 17, 1665) was King of Spain and (as Felipe III) King of Portugal. He ascended the thrones in 1621 and reigned in Portugal until 1640. Felipe IV is remembered for his patronage of the arts, including such artists as Diego Velázquez, and his rule over Spain during the Thirty Years’ War.

Felipe IV was born in Royal Palace of Valladolid, and was the eldest son of Felipe III of Spain and Portugal and his wife, Archduchess Margaret of Austria, 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.

In 1615, at the age of 10, Felipe was married to 13-year-old Elisabeth of France, she was the eldest daughter of King Henri IV of France and Navarre and his second spouse Marie de’ Medici.

Although the relationship between Felipe and Elisabeth does not appear to have been close; some have even suggested that Olivares, his key minister, later deliberately tried to keep the two apart to maintain his influence, encouraging Felipe to take mistresses instead.

Felipe had seven children by Elisabeth, with only one being a son, Balthasar Carlos, who died at the age of sixteen in 1646. The death of his son deeply shocked the king, who appears to have been a good father by the standards of the day. Elisabeth was able to conspire with other Spanish nobles to remove Olivares from the court in 1643, and for a brief period she held considerable influence over Felipe; by the time of her death, however, she was out of favour, following manoeuvering by Olivares’ successor, Luis de Haro.

Felipe IV remarried in 1649, following the deaths of both Elisabeth and his only legitimate heir. His choice of his second wife, his niece, Infanta Maria Anna, second child of Maria Anna of Spain and her husband Ferdinand (1608-1657), who became Holy Roman Emperor in 1637.

Infanta Maria Anna was guided by politics and Felipe’s desire to strengthen the relationship with Habsburg Austria. They were married on October 7, 1649. Maria Anna bore him five children, but only two survived to adulthood, a daughter Margarita Teresa, born in 1651, and the future Carlos II of Spain in 1661 – but the latter was sickly and considered in frequent danger of dying, making the line of inheritance potentially uncertain.

Perceptions of Felipe IV’s personality have altered considerably over time. Victorian authors were inclined to portray him as a weak individual, delegating excessively to his ministers, and ruling over a debauched Baroque court. Victorian historians even attributed the early death of Baltasar Carlos to debauchery, encouraged by the gentlemen entrusted by the king with his education.

The doctors who treated the Prince at that time in fact diagnosed smallpox, although modern scholars attribute his death to appendicitis.

Historians’ estimation of Felipe IV gradually improved in the 20th century, with comparisons between Felipe IV and his father, Filipe III, being increasingly positive – some noting that he possessed much more energy, both mental and physical, than his diffident father.

Felipe IV was idealised by his contemporaries as the model of Baroque kingship. Outwardly he maintained a bearing of rigid solemnity; foreign visitors described him as being so impassive in public he resembled a statue, and he was said to have been seen to laugh only three times in the course of his entire public life.

Felipe IV certainly had a strong sense of his ‘royal dignity’, but was also extensively coached by Olivares in how to resemble the Baroque model of a sovereign, which would form a key political tool for Felipe throughout his reign.

Felipe IV was a fine horseman, a keen hunter and a devotee of bull-fighting, all central parts of royal public life at court during the period.

Privately, Felipe appears to have had a lighter persona. When he was younger, he was said to have a keen sense of humour and a ‘great sense of fun’. He privately attended ‘academies’ in Madrid throughout his reign – these were lighthearted literary salons, aiming to analyse contemporary literature and poetry with a humorous touch.

A keen theatre-goer, he was sometimes criticised by contemporaries for his love of these ‘frivolous’ entertainments. Others have captured his private personality as ‘naturally kind, gentle and affable’.

The Catholic religion and its rituals played an important part in Felipe’s life, especially towards the end of his reign. Depressed by events across his domains, he became increasingly concerned with religious affairs. In particular, Felipe paid special devotions to a painting of the Nuestra Señora del Milagro, the Virgin of Miracles; the painting was said to miraculously raise and lower its eyes in response to prayer.

During the emergency of 1640–1643, Felipe appears to have had a crisis of faith. Felipe IV genuinely believed the success or failure of his policies represented God’s favour or judgement on his actions. The combination of the revolts, the French advances and the loss of his trusted favourite Olivares appears to have deeply shaken him.

Felipe IV, as a lover of the theatre, has been remembered both for the ‘astonishing enthusiasm’ with which he collected art. On the stage, he favoured Lope de Vega, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, and other distinguished dramatists.

Felipe IV has been credited with a share in the composition of several comedies. Court theatre used perspective scenery, a new invention from Italy not used in commercial theatre at the time.

Legacy

Felipe IV’s reign, after a few years of inconclusive successes, was characterized by political and military decay and adversity. He has been held responsible for the decline of Spain, which was mainly due to organic causes largely beyond the control of any one ruler.

Felipe IV died broken-hearted in 1665, expressing the pious hope that his surviving son, Carlos II, who was only 4 years old at the time, would be more fortunate than himself. On his death, a catafalque was built in Rome to commemorate his life.

In his will, Felipe IV left political power as regent on behalf of the young Carlos II to his wife Maria Anna, with instructions that she heed the advice of a small junta committee established for this purpose. This committee excluded Juan, Felipe IV’s illegitimate son, resulting in a chaotic powerplay between Maria Anna and Juan until the latter’sdeath in 1679.

Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, Holy Roman Empress. Part III.

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Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Empire, House of Habsburg, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, Philip IV of Spain

Maria Anna arrived at the Imperial court in Vienna with the Spanish fashion, theatre, dance and music (including the first sounded guitar). As the wife of the heir, she maintained good relations with all the members of her husband’s family; however, she had a complicated relationship with Ferdinand’s stepmother, the Empress Dowager Eleonora Gonzaga, mainly because between both began a competition for influence at the Imperial court. Maria Anna also paid much attention to the arts, especially painting. She collected works of Italian, Spanish and Flemish painters of the late Renaissance and early Baroque.

In Regensburg on December 22, 1636 Ferdinand was elected as King of the Romans, and a week later he was crowned by the Archbishop of Mainz. Maria Anna was crowned Queen of Germany one month later, on January 21, 1637. After his father’s death on February 15, 1637, Ferdinand became Holy Roman Emperor under the regnal name of Ferdinand III and also became sovereign King of Hungary and Bohemia. As his wife, she received the titles of Holy Roman Empress and sovereign Queen. Her coronation as Queen of Hungary took place in Pressburg during the Hungarian Diet of 1637–1638.

Maria Anna, being active in politics as the adviser of her spouse, was an important mediator between the Emperor and their Spanish relatives. Despite the fact that she always defended the interests of her husband, she did not forget the interests of her brothers King Felipe IV and the Cardinal-Infante Fernando.

In her court, which was consisted mainly of Spaniards, frequent guests were the Spanish ambassador and diplomats. The Emperor, during his absences from the Imperial court in Vienna, appointed his wife as regent, for example in 1645 during the Thirty Years’ War, when he was in the Kingdom of Bohemia.

Death
In March 1645 Maria Anna and her children left Linz, due to the approach of the Protestant Swedish army, and moved to Vienna. By April it was ready to cross the Danube there and threatened to occupy the city. The Imperial family fled instead temporarily to Graz. After returning to Vienna, they were forced to move again to Linz because of the plague.

The Empress’ sixth pregnancy became known in January 1646; four months later, on May 12, at Linz Castle, Maria Anna suddenly felt ill with fever and heavy bleeding and died the next morning. Her unborn child, a girl, was taken out alive from her womb. She was named Maria after her mother, but only lived a few hours. On May 24, both mother and daughter in the same coffin were moved to Vienna and buried in the Imperial Crypt, which already contained the coffins with the remains of the two sons of the Empress who died earlier.

The funeral cortege was accompanied by the Spanish ambassador and the Empress’ maid of honor. Very upset by the death of his wife and child, the Emperor was unable to attend the funeral. However, after returning to Vienna in late August he finally paid his respects to the remains of Maria Anna, and in September he announced the engagement of their eldest daughter Maria Anna with Balthasar Carlos, Prince of Asturias. However, the Prince died the following month shortly after the announcement. The Spaniards courtiers members of the late Empress’ household who came with her from Spain, including her confessor and the maids of honor of the late Empress, stayed at the Imperial court in Vienna and lived there for a few more years after her death.

Issue
During her marriage, Maria Anna gave birth to six children:

Ferdinand IV (1633 – 1654), King of the Romans and titular King of Hungary and Bohemia.
Maria Anna (1634 – 1696), who married her maternal uncle King Felipe IV of Spain.
Philipp August (1637 – 1639), Archduke of Austria.
Maximilian Thomas (1638 – 1639), Archduke of Austria.
Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor (1640 – 1705).
Maria (born and died May 13, 1646), Archduchess of Austria.

Maria Anna of Spain

Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, Holy Roman Empress. Part II.

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Austrian Habsburgs, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, King of Hungary, Spanish Habsburgs

Marriage
At the end of 1626, Maria Anna was betrothed to Ferdinand, the younger brother of her first fiancé, and the new heir of Emperor Ferdinand II. Ferdinand was her first cousin, being the son of her mother’s brother. The formal engagement was preceded by a series of negotiations which were conducted in 1625.

That same year, Prince Ferdinand was crowned King of Hungary, and in 1627 King of Bohemia. In the negotiations were included all the life aspects of the Infanta at the court of her future spouse. Despite the desire of the groom that Maria Anna’s confessor would be the Jesuit Ambrosio Penalosa, the appointment eventually went to Capuchin Diego Quiroga. In the marriage contract signed by both parties in 1628, it was noted that Maria Anna could retain her rights of inheritance over the Spanish throne, while her older sister Infanta Anna, married to King Louis XIII of France in 1615, was forced to renounce to her rights.

Maria Anna had left Madrid for Vienna in December 1629, fully three years after her engegement, and nearly five years after the proposal for marriage was first mooted. The journey, once embarked upon, took more than a year to complete. En route by sea, in Genoa complications arose due to an epidemic of the plague that erupted in the Italian Peninsula. For this reason, the party was unable to stop in Bologna, where Cardinal Antonio Barberini (nephew of Pope Urban VIII), was waiting for the Infanta to give her the Golden Rose.

The party moved to Naples, where Maria Anna finally received the award. Leaving the Kingdom of Naples, the Infanta crossed the Papal States, having made a pilgrimage to the Basilica della Santa Casa. On this section of her journey, Maria Anna was accompanied by Roman aristocracy, led by another nephew of Pope Urban VIII, Taddeo Barberini, Prince of Palestrina. On 26 January 1631, she arrived in Trieste, where she met Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, her future brother-in-law, who would first stand in for his brother at a wedding-by-proxy and then escort the Infanta to Vienna. That very day, Maria Anna was married to King Ferdinand of Hungria-Bohemia per procura with Archduke Leopold Wilhelm serving as the proxy.

Before the official wedding, King Ferdinand, not trusting the previous portraits that he had seen of the Infanta, decided to secretly view his bride. The Royal oberhofmeister asked for an audience with Maria Anna; on this visit, he was accompanied by some nobles, among whom was her groom. Struck by the beauty of the Infanta, King Ferdinand immediately revealed his identity and began a conversation with Maria Anna in Spanish. The love and respect that the future emperor felt for his wife lasted throughout their marriage. He was never unfaithful to her and never had any illegitimate children.

In Vienna on February 20, 1631, Maria Anna was married to King Ferdinand of Hungary-Bohemia. The festivities lasted a whole month. The marriage was described as friendly. Maria Anna was described as happy-tempered, friendly, and intelligent, and she was able to relieve the feelings of the rather melancholic Ferdinand.

August 18, 1606: Birth of Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, Holy Roman Empress. Part I.

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Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Empire, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, king James I-VI of England and Scotland, King Philip III of Spain, Spanish Match

Infanta Maria Anna of Spain was born in the Palace of El Escorial, near Madrid, on August 18, 1606 as the fourth child and third (but second surviving) daughter of King Felipe III of Spain and his wife Margaret of Austria, Archduchess of the Inner Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg, and 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.

Infanta Maria Anna of Spain

Infanta Maria-Anna of Spain (18 August 1606 – 13 May 1646) was a Holy Roman Empress and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia by marriage to Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III. She acted as regent on several occasions during the absences of her spouse.

Of her seven siblings, only four survived infancy: Anna (later wife of King Louis XIII of France), Felipe IV of Spain, Charles (who died young in 1632) and Ferdinand (the later known Cardinal-Infante and Governor of the Spanish Netherlands). Maria Anna’s parents had a close kinship: her father was her mother’s first cousin once-removed. On her father’s side she was the granddaughter of King Felipe II of Spain, and his fourth wife and niece Archduchess Anne of Austria, and on her mother’s side she was the granddaughter of Charles II, Archduke of Inner Austria and his wife Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria.

Betrothal

From early childhood, Maria Anna has played an important role in the matrimonial projects of her father. In adolescence she was betrothed to Archduke Johann-Charles, eldest son and heir of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor and his first wife Maria Anna of Bavaria. Her fiance was her first cousin, being the son of her mother’s brother. The marriage never took place due to Archduke Johann-Charles’ early death in 1618.

In 1622, King James I-VI of England and Scotland received an offer from the Spanish King Felipe IV to strengthen the relations of their countries through a dynastic marriage between Charles, Prince of Wales, and Infanta Maria Anna. London and Madrid began active negotiations. The possible marriage between the Prince of Wales and the Spanish Infanta, was known in history under the name “Spanish Match”, and caused an internal political crisis in both England and Scotland.

Charles, Prince of Wales.

In 1623 the Prince of Wales, accompanied by George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, visited Madrid to meet his intended bride. However, Maria Anna did not wish to marry a Protestant and Charles would not convert to Catholicism. At the end, the wedding never took place not only for political reasons but also because of the reluctance of the new Spanish King to conclude a dynastic marriage with the House of Stuart. Charles eventually married Henrietta Maria of France, daughter of King Henri IV of France and Navarre and Marie de Medici.

July 13, 1608: Birth of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor

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Archduchess Maria-Leopoldine of Austria, Eleonora Gonzaga, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Empire, Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, Margaret-Theresa of Austria, Thirty Years War

Ferdinand III (July 13, 1608 – April 2, 1657), was born in Graz, the eldest son of Emperor Ferdinand II of Habsburg and his first wife, Maria Anna of Bavaria, the fourth child and second (but eldest surviving) daughter of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria and Renata of Lorraine. He was baptised as Ferdinand-Ernst. He grew up in Carinthia with loving care from his parents and he developed great affection for his siblings and his father, with whom he always found a consensus in future disagreements. At his father’s court he received religious and scholarly training from Jesuits.

Ferdinand became Archduke of Austria in 1621. On December 8, 1625 he was crowned King of Hungary, on November 27, 1627 King of Bohemia. His father was unable to secure him the election as Roman king at the Regensburg diet of 1630. After he had unsuccessfully applied for the supreme command of the imperial army and participation in campaigns of Wallenstein, he joined Wallenstein’s opponents at the imperial court in Vienna and had been involved in the arrangements on his second deposition in the beginning of 1634.

Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II (Father)

Maria-Anna of Bavaria (Mother)

Ferdinand was finally elected King of the Romans at the Diet of Regensburg on December 22, 1636. Upon the death of his father on February 15, 1637, Ferdinand became Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III..

By the time Ferdinand became emperor, vast sections of the imperial territories had been absolutely devastated by two decades of war. The population was completely exhausted and massively diminished, countless people were impoverished, disabled, sick, homeless, many had lost their families and had abandoned all moral standards. Ferdinand did not endeavour to continue the war. But the momentum of the war, the political circumstances and his reluctance to act prevented a quick end to the war. Any hope to make early peace with France and Sweden did not materialize.

Ferdinand ascended the throne at the beginning of the last decade of the Thirty Years’ War and introduced lenient policies to depart from old ideas of divine rights under his father, as he had wished to end the war quickly. As the numerous battles had not resulted in sufficient military containment of the Protestant enemies and confronted with decaying imperial power Ferdinand was compelled to abandon the political stances of his Habsburg predecessors in many respects in order to open the long road towards the much delayed peace treaty. Although his authority among the princes would weaken after the war, in Bohemia, Hungary and the Austrias, however, Ferdinand’s position as sovereign was uncontested.

Ferdinand was the first Habsburg monarch to be recognized as a musical composer.

Infanta Maria-Anna of Spain

On February 20, 1631, Ferdinand III married his first wife, Infanta Maria-Anna of Spain (1606–1646). She was the youngest daughter of Felipe III of Spain and Margaret of Austria, the daughter of Archduke Charles II of Austria and Maria-Anna of Bavaria, the daughter of Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria and Anna of Austria, and thus the paternal granddaughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I. Her elder brother was the Archduke Ferdinand, who succeeded as Emperor in 1619.

Maria-Anna of Bavaria

They were first cousins, as Maria-Anna’s mother was a sister of Ferdinand’s father. They were parents to six children: among them were

* Ferdinand IV, King of the Romans (September 8, 1633 – July 9, 1654)
* Maria Anna “Mariana”, Archduchess of Austria (December 22, 1634 – May 16, 1696). At the age of 14, she was married to her maternal uncle Philip IV of Spain. Their daughter Margaret Theresa of Spain married Mariana’s brother Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.
* Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor (June 9, 1640 – May 5, 1705)

On July 2, 1648 in Linz, Ferdinand III married his second wife, Archduchess Maria-Leopoldine of Austria (1632–1649). She was a daughter of Leopold V, Archduke of Austria, and Claudia de’ Medici. They were first cousins as male-line grandchildren of Charles II, Archduke of Austria, and Maria Anna of Bavaria. They had a single son:

Archduchess Maria-Leopoldine of Austria

* Charles Josef, Archduke of Austria (August 7, 1649 – January 27, 1664). He was Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights from 1662 to his death.

On April 27, 1651, Ferdinand III married Eleonora Gonzaga. She was a daughter of Charles IV Gonzaga, Duke of Rethel and his wife and cousin Maria Gonzaga (heiress to the Duchy of Montferrat).

Eleonora Gonzaga

Emperor Ferdinand III died on April 2, 1657 and rests in the Capuchin Crypt in Vienna. His interior organs were separately buried in the Ducal Crypt.