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and Anna of Foix-Candale, Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Elisabeth de Bourbon of France, Françoise de Montglat, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Henrietta Anne of England, Henrietta Maria de Bourbon of France, Hungary and Croatia, King Charles I of England, King Henry IV of France, King Louis XIII of France, King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, King Vladislaus II of Bohemia, Maria de Medici, Queen of Portugal
Elisabeth de Bourbon of France (November 22, 1602 – October 6, 1644) was Queen of Spain from 1621 to her death and Queen of Portugal from 1621 to 1640, as the first spouse of King Felipe IV & III of Spain and Portugal.
Elisabeth de Bourbon of France, also known by her Spanish name, Isabella of Bourbon, was born at Château de Fontainebleau on November 22, 1602, the eldest daughter of King Henri IV of France and Navarre and his second wife, Marie de’ Medici, the sixth daughter of Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Archduchess Joanna of Austria, the youngest of 15 children, the youngest daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia.
Archduchess Joanna of Austria never knew her mother and eldest sister as her mother died two days after Joanna’s birth and her sister Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of Poland, the wife of King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania died at age 18 two years before Joanna was born. The marriage was short and unhappy. Elisabeth was of frail health, experiencing epileptic seizures which took her life.
Joanna’s paternal grandparents were King Felipe I of Castile and Queen Joanna of Castile. Her maternal grandparents were King Vladislaus II of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, and Anna of Foix-Candale. Through her father, Joanna was also a descendant of Queen Isabella I of Castile and Mary, Duchess of Burgundy.
According to the court, Princess Elizabeth’s mother, Marie de’ Medici, showed a cruel indifference to her, because she had believed the prophecy of a nun who assured her that she would give birth to three consecutive sons.
Shortly after her birth, she was betrothed to Philip Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont, son and heir of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, by Infanta Catherine Michaela, daughter of King Felipe II of Spain, and his third wife, the French princess Elisabeth of Valois, the eldest daughter of King Henri II of France and Catherine de’ Medici. However, Philip Emmanuel died of smallpox in 1605.
As a daughter of the King of France, she was born a Fille de France. As the eldest daughter of the king, she was known at court by the traditional honorific of Madame Royale.
The early years of Madame Royale were spent under the supervision of the royal governess Françoise de Montglat at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a quiet place away from the Parisian court, in which she shared education and games with her legitimate siblings, as well as illegitimate half-siblings; children who were the result of her father’s constant love affairs.
Besides the Dauphin, the other Enfants de France (Henri IV’s legitimate children) were Christine Marie, later Duchess of Savoy; Nicholas Henri, Duke of Orléans, who died in infancy; Gaston, Duke of Orléans; and Henrietta Maria, later Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland as the wife of King Charles I.
When King Henri IV was assassinated outside the Palais du Louvre in Paris on May 14, 1610, her brother the Dauphin (with whom Elisabeth had a very close relationship) succeeded him to the throne as King Louis XIII of France and Navarre under the regency of their mother Marie de’ Medici.