Early Modern Habsburg Women: Transnational Contexts, Cultural Conflicts, Dynastic Continuities (Women and Gender in the Early Modern World) [1 ed.] 9781472411648, 9781315578477, 1472411641

Table of contents :
Cover
Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Transnational and Transcultural Ties
1 “Bella gerant alii.” Laodamia’s Sisters, Habsburg Brides: Leaving Home for the Sake of the House
2 Maria Maddalena, Archduchess of Austria and Grand Duchess of Florence
3 The Three Lives of Margherita of Savoy-Gonzaga, Duchess of Mantua and Vicereine of Portugal
Part II: Epistolary and Spatial Power
4 “Lord of my soul”
5 An Illegitimate Habsburg: Sor Ana Dorotea de la Concepción, Marquise of Austria
6 From Castile to Burgundy: The Evolution of the Queens’ Households during the Sixteenth Century
Part III: Birthing Habsburgs
7 Giving Birth at the Habsburg Court: Visual and Material Culture
8 Habsburg Motherhood: The Power of Mariana of Austria, Mother and Regent for Carlos II of Spain
Part IV: Visual and Sartorial Politics
9 Mariana of Austria’s Portraits as Ruler-Governor and Curadora
10 Isabel of Borbón’s Sartorial Politics: From French Princess to Habsburg Regent
11 The Making and Meaning of the Monastic Habit at Spanish Habsburg Courts
Index

Citation preview

Early Modern Habsburg Women

Women and Gender in the Early Modern World Series Editors: Allyson Poska, The University of Mary Washington, USA Abby Zanger The study of women and gender offers some of the most vital and innovative challenges to current scholarship on the early modern period. For more than a decade now, “Women and Gender in the Early Modern World” has served as a forum for presenting fresh ideas and original approaches to the field. Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary in scope, this Ashgate book series strives to reach beyond geographical limitations to explore the experiences of early modern women and the nature of gender in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa. We welcome proposals for both single-author volumes and edited collections which expand and develop this continually evolving field of study. Titles in the series include: Women’s Literacy in Early Modern Spain and the New World Edited by Anne J. Cruz and Rosilie Hernández Education and Women in the Early Modern Hispanic World Elizabeth Teresa Howe

Early Modern Habsburg Women Transnational Contexts, Cultural Conflicts, Dynastic Continuities

Edited by Anne J. Cruz and Maria Galli Stampino University of Miami, USA

First published 2013 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Anne J. Cruz, Maria Galli Stampino, and contributors 2013 Anne J. Cruz and Maria Galli Stampino have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: Early modern Habsburg women: transnational contexts, cultural conflicts, dynastic continuities / edited by Anne J. Cruz and Maria Galli Stampino. pages cm.—(Women and gender in the early modern world) Includes index. ISBN 978-1-4724-1164-8 (hardcover: alk. paper) 1. Queens—Europe—Biography. 2. Habsburg, House of. 3. Countesses—Europe— Biography. 4. Marriages of royalty and nobility—Europe. I. Cruz, Anne J. II. Stampino, Maria Galli. D107.3.E37 2014 943.6’0309252—dc23 2013016006 ISBN 9781472411648 (hbk) ISBN 9781315578477 (ebk)

Contents List of Illustrations   List of Tables   Contributors   Acknowledgments   Introduction   Anne J. Cruz

vii xi xiii xvii 1

Part I Transnational and Transcultural Ties 1 “Bella gerant alii.” Laodamia’s Sisters, Habsburg Brides: Leaving Home for the Sake of the House   Joseph F. Patrouch

25

2 Maria Maddalena, Archduchess of Austria and Grand Duchess of Florence: Negotiating Performance, Traditions, and Taste   Maria Galli Stampino

41

3 The Three Lives of Margherita of Savoy-Gonzaga, Duchess of Mantua    and Vicereine of Portugal Blythe Alice Raviola

59

Part II Epistolary and Spatial Power 4 “Lord of my soul”: The Letters of Catalina Micaela, Duchess of Savoy, to Her Husband, Carlo Emanuele I   Magdalena S. Sánchez

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5 An Illegitimate Habsburg: Sor Ana Dorotea de la Concepción, Marquise of Austria   Vanessa de Cruz Medina

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6 From Castile to Burgundy: The Evolution of the Queens’ Households during the Sixteenth Century   Félix Labrador Arroyo Part III

119

Birthing Habsburgs

7 Giving Birth at the Habsburg Court: Visual and Material Culture   María Cruz de Carlos Varona

151

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8 Habsburg Motherhood: The Power of Mariana of Austria, Mother and Regent for Carlos II of Spain   Silvia Z. Mitchell Part IV

175

Visual and Sartorial Politics

9 Mariana of Austria’s Portraits as Ruler-Governor and Curadora by Juan Carreño de Miranda and Claudio Coello   Mercedes Llorente

197

10 Isabel of Borbón’s Sartorial Politics: From French Princess to Habsburg Regent   Laura Oliván Santaliestra

225

11 The Making and Meaning of the Monastic Habit at Spanish Habsburg Courts   Cordula van Wyhe

243

Index  

275

List of Illustrations Cover image: Mariana de Austria, 1652. Diego de Velázquez. Oil on canvas, 231 x 131 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Album, Art Resource. 2.1

Maria Maddalena of Austria (Wife of Duke Cosimo II de Medici) with Her Son, Ferdinand II, 1622. Justus Sustermans. Oil on canvas, 56 5/8 x 46 9/16 in. Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan.

40

3.1

Margherita of Savoy-Gonzaga, Duchess of Mantua, 1608. Frans II Pourbus. Oil on canvas, 206.5 x 116.3 cm. Inv. no. GE-6957. The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Photo: Vladimir Terebenin, Leonard Kheifets, Yuri Molodkovets.

58

4.1 Catalina Micaela, Duchess of Savoy. Giovanni Caracca. Oil on canvas, 194 x 108 cm. Museo Civico Casa Cavassa, Saluzzo, Italy.

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5.1

Ana Dorotea, a Nun at the Convent of the Descalzas Reales, 1628. Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640). N0581. Apsley House, London. © English Heritage.

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7.1

Marten’s head. Enamel, gold, rubies, garnets, and pearls. 8.4 cm. Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, No. 57.1982.1.

150

7.2

Isabel de Valois. Juan Pantoja de la Cruz, copy of an original by Sofonisba Anguissola (c.1561–1565). Oil on canvas, 119 x 84 cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Album/Art Resource, NY.

155

7.3

Nacimiento de la Virgen [Nativity of the Virgin], 1603. Juan Pantoja de la Cruz. Oil on canvas, 260 x 172 cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Photo: Joseph Martin. Albers Foundation/Art Resource, NY.

157

7.4

Virgen de la Expectación [Virgin of the Expectation], 1625. Attr. Francisco de Ocampo (sculptor) and Francisco Pacheco (polychrome), 93 cm. Castilleja de la Cuesta (Seville), Parish Church of Santiago, Spain. Photo: Francisco Javier Tovar.

162

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7.5

Nacimiento de la Virgen [Birth of the Virgin], c.1627. Francisco de Zurbarán. Oil on canvas, 141 x 108.6 cm. The Norton Simon Foundation, Pasadena, California (F.1970.13.P).

165

7.6

Nacimiento de la Virgen [Birth of the Virgin], c.1560–1570. Luis de Morales. Oil on canvas, 69.2 x 93.2 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Photo: Joseph Martin. Albers Foundation/Art Resource, NY.

167

8.1

Mariana de Austria, c.1670–1675. Juan Carreño de Miranda. Oil on canvas, 211 x 125 cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Album/Art Resource, NY.

174

9.1

Doña Mariana de Austria, c.1670–1675. Juan Carreño de Miranda. Oil on canvas, 198 x 148 cm. Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid.

201

9.2

Doña Mariana de Austria. Juan Carreño de Miranda. Oil on canvas, 2,178.5 x 115 cm. Museo Romántico de Madrid.

206

9.3

Doña Mariana de Austria. Juan Carreño de Miranda. Oil on canvas, 206 x 123 cm. Fundación Casa Ducal de Medinaceli, Palacio Tavera, Toledo, Spain.

208

9.4 Doña Mariana de Austria, c.1674–1683. Claudio Coello. Oil on canvas, 205 x 103 cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.

215

10.1 Queen Elizabeth Bourbon (or Elizabeth of France). Anonymous, 17th century. Oil on canvas. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Album/Art Resource, NY 

224

11.1 Medieval Franciscan habit believed to have been worn by St. Francis. Basilica of St. Francis, Lower Church, Assisi. Photo by the author.

247

11.2 Detail of the area below the left-hand sleeve of Figure 11.1. Photo by the author.

247

11.3 Medieval tunic and mantle believed to have been worn by St. Clare. Reliquary Chapel, Basilica of St. Clare, Assisi. Photo by the author.

249

11.4

The Monastic Profession of Archduchess Margaret of Austria, P. Perete escul. Matriti. In Juan de Palma, Vida de la serenissima infanta Sor Margarita de la Crvz: religiosa descalça de S. Clara, Madrid: con preuilegio enla inprenta Real, 1636. © Cambridge University Library, Cambridge.

252

List of Illustrations

11.5

Sister Margaret of the Cross with Personifications of Holy Poverty and Prayer, P. Perete escul. Martriti. In Juan de Palma, Vida de la serenissima infanta Sor Margarita de la Crvz: religiosa descalça de S. Clara, Madrid: con preuilegio enla inprenta Real, 1636. © Cambridge University Library, Cambridge.

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255

11.6 Empress María of Austria. Juan Pantoja de la Cruz. Oil on canvas. Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid. © Patrimonio Nacional.

257

11.7 Juana of Austria, 1557. Alonso Sánchez Coello. Oil on canvas, 180 x 112 cm. © Schloss Ambras, Innsbruck; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

259

11.8 Mariana of Austria, c.1687. Claudio Coello. Oil on canvas, 104.7 x 84.1 cm. © Durham, The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle.

261

11.9 Franciscan habit of the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, 1621–1633, wool. © Convent of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns, Brussels. Photo: Patrimonio Nacional.

263

11.10 Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, 1627. Anthony van Dyck. Oil on canvas, 190 x 89 cm. © Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

265

11.11 Headscarf that was part of the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia’s mourning veil, c.1621–1633, silk. © Convent of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns, Brussels. Photo by the author.

266

11.12 Mourning veil of the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, c.1621–1633, silk. © Convent of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns, Brussels. Photo by the author.

266

11.13 The Body of the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia in Franciscan Shroud displayed in the Chapel of the Coudenbergh palace. Pieter de Jode after Anton Sallaert. In Jean Puget de la Serre, Mausolée erigé a la memoire immortelle de tres-haulte … Princesse Isabelle Claire Eugenie d’Autriche, Infante d’Espagne … Brussels: Jean Papermans, 1634. © British Library, London.

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List of Tables I.1

Genealogical chart, House of Habsburg

2.1

Genealogical chart, Maria Maddalena of Austria

42

3.1

Genealogical chart, Margherita of Savoy-Gonzaga

59

4.1

Genealogical chart, Catalina Micaela, Duchess of Savoy

80

5.1

Genealogical chart, Sor Ana Dorotea de la Concepción

98

6.1

“Budget for Our Lady, the Queen’s Household Expenses and All Her Majesty’s Officers for the Year of 1525” [Tiento de quenta de los gastos de la Casa de la reyna nuestra señora e de todos los ofiçiales de su Mt. para la consignaçión deste año de 1525]

129

6.2

“Bouche of court and yearly stipends of ladies-in-waiting, duennas, and maidens”

133

6.3

“List of extraordinary and ordinary expenses to be met each month” 133

8.1

Genealogical chart, Mariana de Austria

10.1 Genealogical chart, Isabel of Borbón

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176 225

This page has been left blank intentionally

Contributors Anne J. Cruz is professor of Spanish and Cooper Fellow at the University of Miami, where she chaired the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures from 2003 to 2008. She has published widely on early modern Spanish literature and culture, and has recently coedited, with Rosilie Hernández, the collection Women’s Literacy in Early Modern Spain and the New World, which received the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women’s Collaborative Research Award. Her study and translation, The Life and Writings of Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza: Autobiography, Correspondence, Poetry, is forthcoming in the series “The Other Voice” (Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies, University of Toronto). She is the series editor of New Hispanisms: Cultural and Literary Studies, with Ashgate. In 2012, she was named académica correspondiente of Spain’s Royal Academy of History. María Cruz de Carlos Varona is assistant curator in the Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs of the Museo Nacional del Prado. Previously, she was professor of art history at the Universidad Autónoma, Madrid. She has recently coauthored, with Javier Blas and José M. Matilla, Grabadores extranjeros en la corte española del Barroco (Madrid, 2012). She has recently published the essay “Saints and sinners in Madrid and Naples: Saint Mary Magdalene as a model of Conversion and Penance” in the exhibition catalog Jusepe de Ribera’s Mary Magdalene in a new Context (Museo Nacional del Prado-Meadows Museum, 2011). Her current interest is in women’s culture in early modern Spain, religious images in the Spanish world, and print culture in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Vanessa de Cruz Medina will be Mellon visiting fellow at Villa I Tatti, Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Florence, Italy (2014). She was Juan de la Cierza postdoctoral fellow at the Fundación Carlos de Amberes, Madrid, after receiving her Ph.D. in history from the Universidad Complutense, Madrid with a dissertation on correspondence, women, and the court in early modern Spain. She has published Una dama en la corte de Felipe II: cartas de Ana de Dietrichstein a su madre, Margarita de Cardona (Charles University, Prague, 2013), and contributed chapters to numerous books and articles. Her article “‘In service to my Lady, the Empress, as I have done every other day of my life’: Margarita de Cardona, Baroness of Dietrichstein and Lady-in-Waiting to María of Austria,” is forthcoming in The Politics of Female Households: Ladies-in-waiting across Europe, ed. N. Akkerman and B. Houben (Brill). Félix Labrador Arroyo is assistant professor of modern history and chair of the Department of Educational Sciences, Language, Culture, and the Arts at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid. He is a research member of the University

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Institute of the Court in Europe, Universidad Autónoma, Madrid. He has published Corte y casa real en Portugal durante los reinados de Felipe II y Felipe III (1580– 1621) (2009); and Evolución y estructura de la Casa de Castilla (2010), as well as some 30 articles and chapters in books. Mercedes Llorente received her doctorate in art history from University College, London. She researches as an independent scholar and works at the Fundación Domingo Lázaro, Madrid. Her books, Las Meninas and Mariana in Mourning: the Three Prudences (APHCEA); and Prince Baltasar Carlos’s Chamber in Las Meninas (Centro Virtual Cervantes) are forthcoming in 2013. She is currently preparing a study of Queen Margarita of Austria. Silvia Z. Mitchell is assistant professor of European history at Purdue University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Miami in 2013, where she was the recipient of the McKnight Doctoral Fellowship from 2006 to 2011. Her research focuses on the political history of early modern Spain within broad European and Atlantic perspectives, and on the role of women in shaping political and diplomatic outcomes across early modern Europe. She is currently working on a monograph on the regency of Mariana of Austria. Laura Oliván Santaliestra received her doctorate in history from the Universidad Complutense, Madrid. Her publications include Isabel de Bourbon (Círculo de Leitores, Lisboa 2012); “Minerva, Hispania y Bellona: cuerpo e imagen de Isabel de Borbón en el Salón de Reinos,” Chronica Nova, 37 (2011): 271–300); and “Decía que no se dejaba retratar de buena gana: modestia e invisibilidad de la reina Isabel de Borbón,” Goya 338 (2012): 13–35. Joseph F. Patrouch is professor of history and director of the Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies at the University of Alberta. A specialist on the histories of the Habsburg dynasty and its lands in central Europe, Professor Patrouch has published two monographs on related topics: Queen’s Apprentice: Archduchess Elizabeth, Empress María, the Habsburgs, and the Holy Roman Empire, 1554–1569 (2010) and A Negotiated Settlement: The Counter-Reformation in Upper Austria Under the Habsburgs (2000). He has also translated Heinz Fassmann and Gerhard Hatz, Understanding Vienna: Pathways to the City (2006), and is the editor responsible for the entries “Habsburg Dynasty” and “Austria” in the Oxford Bibliographies Online Renaissance and Reformation volume. He has published numerous articles, encyclopedia entries, and book reviews on related topics and currently serves on the board of the Society for Austrian and Habsburg History as well as on the editorial boards of the Austrian History Yearbook (Cambridge University Press); the H-Net discussion list HABSBURG; and Musicologica Austriaca (Österreichische Gesellschaft für Musikwissenschaft). He is a member of the Advisory Board for the series Contemporary Austrian Studies (Transaction Publishers) as well as of the Advisory Council of the Canadian Institute for Ukrainian Studies and of the Advisory Board of the University

Contributors

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of Alberta’s European Union Centre. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. Blythe Alice Raviola received her doctorate in early modern history from the University of Turin. She is researcher at IULCE (Instituto Universitario, La corte en Europa, Madrid) and editor consultant at Compagnia di San Paolo di Torino. She has published Il Monferrato Gonzaghesco. Istituzioni ed élites di un microstato (1536–1708) (Olschki 2003); and L’Europa dei piccoli stati. Dalla prima età moderna al declino dell’Antico Regime (Carocci 2008). Her most recent articles include “The Imperial System in Early Modern Northern Italy: A Web of Dukedoms, Fiefs, and Enclaves along the Po,” in R.E. Evans and P. Wilson, eds., The Holy Roman Empire (1495–1806): A European Perspective (Brill 2012). She has recently coedited, with M.A. Lopes, Portugal e o Piemonte. A casa real portuguesa e os Saboias : nove séculos de relações dinásticas e destinos políticos (XII–XX) (Universidade de Coimbra, 2012); and with L. Giachino, Sotto il segno di Chirone. Il Ragionamento di Annibale Guasco alla figlia Lavinia (Aragno, 2012). She is editor, with Franca Varallo, of the book series “Studi sabaudi,” with the Roman publishing house Carocci. They have coedited the series’ forthcoming first volume, L’Infanta. Caterina d’Austria, duchessa di Savoia (1567–1597). Magdalena S. Sánchez is associate professor of history at Gettysburg College and the author of The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun: Women and Power at the Court of Philip III of Spain (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998). She has also contributed the essay “Court Women in the Spain of Velázquez” to the Cambridge Companion to Diego Velázquez (Cambridge University Press, 2001). More recently she has researched women and court life during the reign of Philip II and has published two essays on Isabel Clara Eugenia, daughter of Philip II of Spain. She has now turned her attention to Philip’s younger daughter, Catalina Micaela. Her essay in this volume forms part of a book-length project on the Infanta Catalina Micaela, Duchess of Savoy. Maria Galli Stampino is professor in the department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Miami. Her research concentrates on Italian literature of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, especially performed theater and lyric and epic poetry. She is the author of Staging the Pastoral: Tasso’s Aminta and the Emergence of Modern Western Theater (MRTS, 2005). She has edited and translated Lucrezia Marinella’s Enrico, or Byzantium Conquered (University of Chicago Press, 2009) and curated the critical edition in Italian of the same poem (Mucchi, 2011). With Julie D. Campbell, she coedited In Dialogue with the Other Voice in Sixteenth-Century Italy: Literary and Social Contexts for Women’s Writing (Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies, University of Toronto, 2011). Currently, she is at work on a monograph exploring the conflict between Carlo Gozzi and Carlo Goldoni about scripted and improvised theater within the context of sung and civic performances in sixteenth- and seventeenthcentury Venice.

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Cordula van Wyhe is lecturer in the History of Art department at the University of York. Her research concentrates on Baroque art, with particular reference to the Northern and Southern Netherlands. She has edited Female Monasticism in Early Modern Europe: An Interdisciplinary View (2008), which includes “The ‘Idea Vitæ Teresianæ’ (1686): The Teresian Mystic Life and its Visual Representation in the Southern Netherlands”; and Isabella Clara Eugenia: Female Sovereignty at the Courts in Madrid and Brussels (2012), which includes an article on Isabel Clara Eugenia’s portraits. She recently completed an article on Rembrandt’s Nightwatch and an edition of the Spiritual Diaries of Sister Margaret of the Mother of God, Royal Convent of Discalced Carmelite Nuns in Brussels (1635–1637). One of her current research projects is a book on Marie de’ Médici.

Acknowledgments The idea for this volume was first conceived in Venice, where the Renaissance Society of America felicitously held its annual meeting in 2010. Two excellent panels of Habsburg scholars, adroitly organized by Silvia Z. Mitchell, addressed the complex lives of several women rulers of the Spanish and Austrian houses of Habsburg, exploring their political agency and personal experiences. The exceptional quality of the contributions, which underscored the women’s interconnections despite their cultural and geopolitical differences, convinced us of the need for an anthology that would highlight both their similarities and their individuality, simultaneously enhanced and sacrificed for the sake of the dynasty. To that purpose, we invited three additional historians and an art historian to round out this exciting collection of eleven chapters on six Habsburg women. We thank all the contributors for enriching our knowledge of these women’s political and cultural contributions, and we hope that the volume will inspire more scholars to study in even greater breadth and depth the interrelated experiences of other Habsburg women as they carried out their distinctive roles. Anne is grateful for Maria’s joyous Italian spirit, which made working with her un gioco sempre, and for her expert tally of the book’s many drafts. She thanks the international contributors for responding quickly to her many emails, and for patiently enduring the complex US publication process. Much appreciation is due Mary Lindemann and Mihoko Suzuki for their unfailing friendship, support, and good humor amid the vagaries of editorship and administration. And special thanks to Magdalena S. Sánchez—whose first book on a trio of Habsburg female relatives broke new ground in studying women’s political influence—for her willingness to share her intriguing new research on Infanta Catalina Micaela. Maria would like to thank Anne for her help, wise counsel, and support in this project and throughout the years. She still remembers fondly history classes by Professor Alberto Colombo at “Liceo classico Giovanni Pascoli” and the impromptu clarifications of the Habsburg family tree that Cristina Boracchi offered on a trip to Vienna many, many years ago. The connection between male and female subjects/agents of history came about thanks to classes in American Studies and English at the University of Kansas, with Beth Schultz, Ann Schofield, and the late Phil Paludan; it blossomed thanks to Al Rabil, Jr.’s passion and dedication; and it profited from discussions, exchanges, and debates with Julie D. Campbell, Mihoko Suzuki, Laura Giannetti, Guido Ruggiero, Richard Godbeer, Mary Lindemann, Pam Hammons, Barbara Woshinsky, Silvia Mitchell, and too many of my students to name individually (but you know who you are!). A.J.C. M.G.S.

Table I.1 Genealogical chart, House of Habsburg

Introduction Anne J. Cruz

On September 14, 1598, Archduke Albert of Austria left Brussels for Spain in order to accompany his cousin, Margarita of Austria, to meet the Spanish king, Philip III, and his sister, Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, to whom they were respectively betrothed. Their journey took them through the Veneto to Ferrara, where both were married by proxy; once they had reached Valencia, Spain, the papal nuncio confirmed the two unions.1 After the double ceremony, neither bride would ever again see the land of her birth: after leaving Austria, Margarita reigned for twelve years as queen consort of the world’s largest empire, giving birth to eight children before her death in 1611, while Isabel Clara Eugenia governed the Spanish Netherlands for over thirty years until her death, with no issue, in 1633. The double wedding of the Spanish Habsburg siblings to their Austrian Habsburg cousins obeyed the accustomed paradigm of the Habsburg lineage, whose principal goal was to maintain political control and encourage peace across Europe through marriage and progeny.2 Obliged by their royal birth to adapt to foreign lands and languages and to procreate in order to establish and prolong the dynasties, these Habsburg women faced with admirable courage the many political and cultural challenges—and even the constant threat of death due to childbirth—brought about by their marriages. During the early modern period, two Habsburg lineages dominated the European continent: the Spanish empire consolidated by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the Austrian empire under the rule of his brother, Ferdinand I, who inherited the title.3 As Joseph Patrouch explains in the first essay of our volume, imperial conservation and expansion were achieved in great part thanks to the strategic marriage alliances imposed on the Habsburg daughters. Shuttled across national 1 The famed voyage was recorded several times in different languages. The anonymous English version, A briefe discovrse of the voyage and entry of the Queene of Spaine into Italy was translated from the French and Dutch and published in 1617. For the voyage’s importance as part of European civic festivals, see Aliverti 227–8. See also Duerloo 176. 2 In this volume’s introductory essay, Joseph F. Patrouch cites the famous saying, “Let others fight – you, happy Austria, marry!” Double weddings by the Habsburgs were intended to further cement the relations between nations. As noted in Laura Oliván Santaliestra’s essay, that of Ana of Austria, Philip III’s and Margarita of Austria’s daughter, to Louis XIII, and of his sister, Isabel of Borbón, to Philip IV, Philip III’s and Margarita’s son, served to maintain peace between France and Spain. 3 For an excellent overview of the formation of the early modern Habsburg empires, see Ingrao.

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Early Modern Habsburg Women / Cruz

borders at an extremely young age, the women led lives that often sacrificed their personal happiness and desires to the pragmatic forces of early modern politics. The imposing numbers of women who were born or married into the Habsburg empires, and who ruled as queens consort, regents, or princesses on the various Habsburg thrones either through marriage or inheritance, merit far more attention than what they have received to date. Too often relegated to the periphery in traditional male-centered studies of the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs, they have been considered important only for their child-bearing function.4 Yet, while marriage and procreation are certainly significant factors when analyzing these women’s experiences from the perspective of gender, their social and political contributions were equally as important to the Habsburg lineage and, as this volume’s essays attest, to the history of early modern Europe. Despite the many difficulties they encountered, the Habsburg women soon assumed their role in history through their early understanding of politics honed at their own courts, their shrewd engagement of royal ceremony and propaganda, and their astute governing skills as rulers. As Habsburgs, the women shared specific cultural and familial norms and expectations that helped them adapt to diverse and distant surroundings. The essays that follow highlight the distinctiveness of five young Habsburg women—and one who became a Habsburg by marriage— as they left their countries of birth and each transformed herself into an entirely new identity, whether as queen, duchess, vicereine, or, as in the case of Emperor Rudolph II’s daughter, a nun. Indeed, the authors compellingly demonstrate their subjects’ transnational historical significance and their remarkable web of influence, both across Europe and at the courts to which they moved in order to solidify the Habsburg dynasties. Although our volume covers only a few of the many women who contributed so comprehensively to early modern history, we trust that these revisionary studies will inspire scholars to reconsider other Habsburg women’s exceptionality and impact. The Spanish and Austrian Branches of Habsburg The house of Habsburg is one of the oldest and most extensive ruling houses of all Europe.5 From the early twelfth century, when the name of Habsburg Castle was first mentioned in what is now Switzerland, its influence and power swept across Europe to claim in the sixteenth century the ultimately unrealizable achievement of universal monarchy. By the fifteenth century, the Habsburgs had united sufficiently to govern Danubian Europe; however, it was not until Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian’s fortuitous marriage to Mary of Burgundy that the Habsburg possessions were merged into a widespread European dynasty, incorporating the vast Burgundian domains and the Netherlands along with the 4 For Robert Oresko, providing an heir was the main purpose of the Habsburg dynastic marriages (394). He surmises that some of the arranged marriages may even have been designed to remain infertile in order to create a vacancy in a coveted territory (395). 5 For histories of the early Habsburg period, see Wheatcroft 1–68; and Tapié 1–34.

Introduction

3

hereditary Habsburg lands.6 Maximilian’s marriage alliance for his son, Philip the Fair, to Juana of Castile, daughter of the Catholic monarchs Isabel of Castile and Fernando of Aragón, who themselves relied on marital alliances to achieve political stability, established the Habsburg dynasty in Spain.7 On the deaths of her older siblings and their male children, Juana and Philip claimed the Spanish crowns of Castile and Aragón; although Juana should by law have succeeded her father, her purported madness effectively kept her from ruling.8 The title of Holy Roman Emperor would thus pass to Juana’s oldest son and Maximilian’s grandson, Charles V, who divided most of the Western world between his brother, Ferdinand I, and his son, Philip II. Ferdinand’s title of Holy Roman Emperor split the Habsburg empire into two major branches, Spanish and Austrian, with the latter ruling until the nineteenth century.9 Rather than a unified monarchy, the house of Habsburg resulted in a mosaic of states over which the sun never set and whose languages, cultures, and autonomy remained inviolate.10 The extension of the early modern Habsburg dynasty depended on marriage alliances, beginning with Maximilian’s own two unions.11 If, as Jean Bérenger proposes (134), the emperor was guided by three principles—the hatred of the French monarchy, the need for war funds, and Italian imperialism—the marriages arranged from his reign on through the seventeenth century continued to serve these interests. Although most Habsburg histories have dwelled on the dynasty’s male members,12 Magdalena S. Sánchez’s pioneering study of three early modern Habsburg women (Empress María of Austria, Queen Margarita of Austria, and Sor Margaret of the Cross) shows that their female counterparts were also “political 6 These comprised Lower Austria, the Tyrol, Inner Austria (Styria, Carinthia, Carniola), the bishoprics of Brixen and Trent, Gorizia, eastern Swabia, the lordships of Augsburg and possessions on the Upper Rhine, and Further Austria (Upper Alsace, Breisgau, Ensisheim, and Freiburg). 7 Besides Juana of Castile, Isabel and Fernando’s issue were Isabel of Asturias (Holy Roman Empress Isabel’s mother); Juan (married Philip the Fair’s sister, Margaret of Austria; died without issue); María of Aragón (João III of Portugal’s mother); and Catalina of Aragón (Mary Tudor’s mother). For biographies of Isabel of Castile, see Liss, and Weissberger. 8 Nevertheless, until her death in 1555, Juana’s signature as queen of Spain was required on all official documents. Monter notes that both Juana’s and Charles’s names appear on the coinage of the realms (“Gendered Sovereignty” 546). 9 Ferdinand’s marriage to Anne of Bohemia and Hungary annexed these lands to the Austrian Habsburgs; see Fichtner 6–7. 10 See Bérenger 2–3. Following H.G. Koenigsberger, John H. Elliott calls the disparate states a “composite.” See Elliott, Chapter 1, “A Europe of Composite Monarchies” 3–24. 11 After Mary of Burgundy’s death, and Maximilian’s annulled marriage to Ann of Brittany, the emperor married Bianca Maria Sforza, daughter of the wealthy Duke of Milan, a union that plunged Maximilian into war with France. 12 Bérenger, for instance, speaks of marriages as unions “where the personal feelings of a prince scarcely counted” (136; emphasis added). While this may be true, male rulers were allowed their sexual dalliances; moreover, the gains in political power were incommensurable.

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creatures”; they were prepared from birth to fulfill official functions, and many deserved the epithet of “queen’s apprentice” given by Joseph F. Patrouch to one of Empress María’s daughters, Archduchess Elizabeth.13 As Patrouch explains in his illuminating study of the young Austrian archduchess, monarchs arranged for their children’s marriages immediately after birth and preparations began before marriage to train daughters for their royal roles.14 Most issues were viewed as matters of cultural diplomacy: Philip III’s daughter, Ana of Austria, was encouraged to learn French before marrying Louis XIII, just as her sister-in-law, Isabel of Borbón, began to learn Spanish before her marriage to Philip IV.15 Philip III further counseled his daughter to participate in religious ceremonies and to exhibit devotion publicly to the Holy Sacrament, yet he refrained from instructing her in politics, expecting that, as a regent of France, she would best rely on the experience of others (Hoffman 120; 122). Nevertheless, the Habsburg women were keenly aware that their role included more than the acceptance of their new surroundings, and each of them left her mark on the culture into which she assimilated. Transnational and Transcultural Ties Although several studies have focused on individual Habsburg women, there has been little effort to view their experiences as forming part of a greater transnational and transcultural arena, and to compare their emotional, familial, and political ordeals when they prepared to assume power and during their rule.16 The essays 13 Sánchez 5; see also Patrouch, Queen’s Apprentice; and Earenfight, “Partners in Politics,” xiii–xviii. 14 Elizabeth married the French king Charles IX; after his early death, she returned to Austria where she spent the rest of her life as a nun. However, several Habsburg women who widowed continued to serve the empire: Maximilian’s daughter Margaret of Austria (1480–1530) was married for a brief six months to Juana of Castile’s brother, the Infante Juan. After his early death, she married the duke of Savoy, widowed a second time and, childless, governed the Netherlands as regent until her death. With François I’s mother, Louise of Savoy, she negotiated the Treaty of Cambrai, known as the “Ladies’ Peace.” Her collection of portraits was intended to reinforce the Burgundian-Habsburg family alliance; see Eichenberger and Beaven. Margaret was succeeded as governor of the Low Countries by Mary of Hungary (1505–1558), Charles V’s sister, also widowed and childless, then by Margaret of Parma (1522–1586), Charles V’s illegitimate daughter, who assumed the governorship in 1559. These three women foreshadowed the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia’s (1566–1633) long governorship of the Netherlands, from 1599 to her death in 1633. 15 Hoffman 115. Married the same day in 1615, Ana in Burgos and Isabel in Bordeaux, the two Habsburgs would be “exchanged” on the Isle of Pheasants in the Bidasoa River near Hendaya, Spain. As Laura Oliván Santaliestra explains in her essay, a painting of the event, then hanging visibly in the Great Hall of the Alcázar, served to encourage French and Spanish political relations. 16 For studies of individual Habsburg women, besides Sánchez, The Empress; and Patrouch, Queen’s Apprentice, see Aram; Cruz and Suzuki; Pérez Martín; Hein; Jordan; Kleinman; Oliván Santaliestra; Crankshaw; and van Wyhe, ed.

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in this collection thus illuminate the many concerns that the Habsburg women had in common, yet they also illustrate their particular traits and specific historical circumstances. The many areas that came under Habsburg dominance could only be maintained by close and constant alliances, and the strength of the “ties that bind” as John Elliott has called them (39), relied heavily on the female members of the two houses of Habsburg. Joseph F. Patrouch helps us to contextualize the experiences of the Habsburg women across the broader history of the Spanish and Austrian lines. Studying no fewer than sixty-six Habsburg daughters in his essay “‘Bella gerant alii.’ Laodamia’s Sisters/Habsburg Brides. Leaving Home for the Sake of the House,” he notes that the webs that crisscrossed the vast Habsburg domains were extended even farther thanks to the women’s dynastic marriages. In his analysis of the famous expression “Let others fight – you, happy Austria, marry,” Patrouch states that, unlike the classical heroine Laodamia, who laments the departure of her beloved warrior-husband, the heroines who make up the history of the house of Habsburg were themselves obliged to leave their families, less in the name of love than of individual sacrifice to the greater political good. Patrouch carefully recounts the European courts that were led by surprisingly high numbers of queens, princesses, and duchesses from the late medieval to the early modern periods. Indeed, from the 1500s to the 1800s, fully eight of the Habsburg princesses occupied the throne of the Holy Roman Empire as empresses-consorts.17 Patrouch’s conclusion—that the Habsburg dynasty’s successes and failures are intimately tied to the contributions made by Habsburg women—is developed in full by the other authors in this volume. As they make clear, the establishment and maintenance of the Habsburg unions across the various territories and nationstates of Europe in the early modern period exacted a heavy toll, mainly on the women themselves. To initiate these transnational liaisons, the female members of the Habsburg family were subjected to enforced marriage unions, often as children, with the concomitant abandonment of their family, country, language, and culture. Although no clear boundaries separated the Habsburg lands, a nationalist sentiment, one created by cultural and linguistic differences, existed nonetheless and prefigured later divisions and appropriations. On their arrival at what was usually an unknown country, therefore, they were nevertheless expected to follow its customs and court protocols, to take a secondary position to their husband, to educate their children for foreign rule, and to win over their constituents by yielding to their culture and language. Nonetheless, despite these obstacles, the women did not fail to leave their mark on their new land and, by extension, on European history. Although the Austrian Habsburgs did not accept women’s rule until the Pragmatic Sanction in 1740, with the ascent of Maria Theresa (1717–1780), Archduchess of Austria, as Holy Roman Empress, the Spanish Habsburg realms were governed by several women, mainly as queens consort or regents, as women were not excluded from inheriting the throne. For women as rulers, see Earenfight xiii; see also Cruz and Suzuki. 17

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Whether crossing from Spain to Turin (as in the case of the Spanish Infanta Catalina Micaela); from Turin to Portugal (Margherita of Savoy); from Vienna to Spain (Ana Dorotea and Mariana of Austria); from Paris to Spain (Isabel of Borbón); or from Graz to Florence (Maria Maddalena of Austria), the cultural politics effected by these women had far more influence than what has been perceived heretofore. With the sole exception of Sor Ana Dorotea, who exercised her political acumen from within the convent, all governed their respective states as queen consort, regent, duchess or vicereine. Because of early modern Spain’s enmeshed political and historical connections with neighboring Portugal and France, its long dominion over the Italian city-states, and its familial relations with the Austrian Habsburgs, only one of the six women discussed in this volume, Maria Maddalena of Austria, is not directly connected to the Spanish Habsburg court.18 Nevertheless, the experiences of all six Habsburg women pose specific questions to the gendering of transnational politics, as they took with them similar trappings of Habsburg power to other nations and adapted themselves on leaving home to the cultural and political exigencies of other courts, while simultaneously remaining loyal to the interests of their homeland. Given the political pressures placed on these six women, the relinquishing of their own personal needs and desires to national and transnational interests would seem to conflate them into one shadowy self that stood for all female Habsburgs. Yet, as the essays soon reveal, just the opposite occurred. It is true that since the female members of the house of Habsburg were trained from birth to fulfill their dynastic role at diverse courts, they shared similar educational processes and court rituals. Among those selected for marriage, their common importance as child bearers for dynastic purposes is also not in question. The same gender-inflected patterns structured the Habsburg women’s lives: all the women, save for the nun Sor Ana Dorotea, advanced from their dynastic marriages and maternal roles to their responsibilities as rulers. All demonstrated Habsburg piety and devotion to the Catholic church—the famous Pietas Austriaca19—and most became patronesses to artists and organized royal ceremonies and theatrical events as a means of strengthening their bonds to their adopted countries. Habsburg court culture, promoted through visual and material means, relished in frequent spectacles of sound and sight; portraits especially mirrored the images of royal women in splendorous outfits and jewels. Not coincidentally, Habsburg women became patrons of talented artists, both in order to express their cultural, political, and spiritual beliefs, and to participate as royal members of their new court. During her long reign in the Low Countries, for instance, Archduchess Isabel Clara Eugenia relied on the artistic skills of Flemish painters to depict her as sovereign; not wishing to abandon her familial and religious roots in Madrid, she commissioned Rubens to design the tapestries for the convent of the Descalzas 18 The subject of Maria Galli Stampino’s essay, Maria Maddalena was a sister of Philip III’s wife, Margarita of Austria, with whom she maintained contact and was closely allied to the Spanish court. 19 For the classic study of Habsburg devotional practices, see Coreth.

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Reales, with her image superimposed as Saint Clare.20 Patronizing the chamber painters to the king, Mariana of Austria made sure to depict herself in her role of regent, as we see in Mercedes Llorente’s essay. And, as Maria Galli Stampino writes in her essay, “Maria Maddalena, Archduchess of Austria and Grand Duchess of Florence: Negotiating Performance, Traditions, and Taste,” Maria Maddalena actively patronized musicians, actors, and artists in Florence (Harness 47–8 and 125–6). Yet, although cultural activities were intended to integrate the recently arrived sovereigns in their new surroundings, winning over new subjects did not come easily, no matter how willingly the women attempted to acculturate at foreign courts. Stampino asserts that Maria Maddalena, who served as co-regent during the childhood of Ferdinando II, her son with Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, was devalued in Italian circles for being perceived as unenlightened and exceedingly religious, and for imposing her taste on the Florentine court. Following the Habsburg tradition of frequent childbirth, Maria Maddalena had eight children before Cosimo’s early death. Despite her efforts to involve her children in Florentine cultural activities, she and her mother-in-law, Christine of Lorraine, were viewed as outsiders and heavily criticized by contemporary and later historians for their foreignness, religiosity, and extravagance. Maria Maddalena in particular has been singled out by recent critics for her support of the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy. Challenging those who have diminished her accomplishments, Stampino explores not only the archduchess’s patronage, which was expected of aristocratic women, but her ongoing attentiveness to the stage. The religious themes she chose, Stampino tells us, conveyed female virtues with which she and her mother-in-law identified. Stampino has found in novel archival sources that the religious plays usually assigned to Maria Maddalena had a previous history on the Florentine stage, and that her contributions to Florentine theater extend much further than what is currently attributed to her. Moreover, the celebrations arranged for visiting dignitaries—plays, but also poetry recitals, music, and ballet—were staged alongside popular entertainment, such as improvised comedies. By documenting their performance as well as the venues where they were staged, Stampino is able to trace the Medici ducal family’s attendance at and enjoyment of these previously ignored plays. In that she encouraged, patronized, and attended these events with her children, Maria Maddalena demonstrates the Habsburg women’s adaptability at blending in with local traditions while simultaneously molding the court to their tastes and needs. Effectively dismantling Maria Maddalena’s reputation for maintaining a dour and oppressive regency, Stampino proves instead that the archduchess, as a patron of the arts, learned to appreciate and share in the liberal culture of the Florentine court. If, in her initial voyage from the Habsburg court at Graz, Maria Maddalena brought her youthful influences to the Medici palace in Florence,21 Margherita of 20 Although Cordula van Wyhe’s essay in her edition on Isabel Clara Eugenia focuses mainly on the archduchess’s early portraits, she states that her portraits by Frans Pourbus the Younger and Rubens were a priority for the new rulers (117). 21 See Harness 41.

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Savoy-Gonzaga (1588–1655), the oldest daughter of Catalina Micaela, Duchess of Savoy, undoubtedly personifies the transnational connections among Habsburg women and, at the same time, their cultural loyalties to their origins. Although born in Turin, she was brought up according to the Burgundian tradition discussed in this volume by Félix Labrador Arroyo, which had been encouraged by her grandfather, Philip II. As a young girl, she became a player in the complex relations that linked several duchies: at fourteen, shortly after her mother’s death, her father, Carlo Emanuele I, Duke of Savoy, made her supreme governor of the Duchy of Savoy. On her marriage to Francesco Gonzaga, the Duke of Mantua’s son, she ruled Monferrato. After her husband’s and father-in-law’s deaths, Margherita added Mantua to her rule as her daughter Maria’s regent. However, she was accosted on all sides, even by her father and brother-in-law, who aspired to rule through her young child. Forced to leave her daughter in Mantua and sent back to Turin where she resided for many years, Margherita nevertheless continued to involve herself in politics. Her ancestral links to Portugal (she was a direct descendant of King Manuel I of Portugal [1469–1521]), supported her cousin Philip IV’s naming her vicereine of that country in 1635. Blythe Alice Raviola’s essay, “The Three Lives of Margherita of Savoy, Duchess of Mantua and Vicereine of Portugal,” perceptively separates Margherita’s political experiences into three different periods. If the first centered on her two marriages and her battle over her only child, her second life was marked, as had been the case for her mother, by her constant correspondence. Not wishing to spend this phase of her life in a convent, Margherita kept in contact with Mantua and Madrid through copious letters, continuing to express her political opinions; those to ambassadors and ministers served to ratify the peace treaty with France. Margherita’s third life, according to Raviola, was her most interesting, since as vicereine of Portugal she finally achieved the high government post she had longed for. Nonetheless, unable to exert power over the Portuguese, she was dethroned in 1640, triggering the separation of Spain and Portugal, a union her grandfather, Philip II, had achieved in 1580. The dispersal of Margherita’s remains after her death in Spain in 1655 stressed her international connections through her mother, Catalina Micaela: although her heart was kept at the convent of Las Huelgas in Burgos, Spain, her body was sent to her mother’s favorite sanctuary in the Piedmont. Yet she never returned, living or dead, to Mantua or Vicoforte, where she wished to be buried had she died in Italy. Thanks to Margherita’s interconnections, however, some two hundred years later, the house of Savoy would again unite Portugal and Italy through the reign of Maria Pia of Savoy (1847–1911), who became queen consort of Portugal on her marriage to Luis I in 1862. The early separation from family members, whether by travel to another country or, as was also common, by the mother’s death, developed in each Habsburg woman her own singular personality. From their childhood, the women learned to repress their feelings when necessary, to limit their expression through their husband’s language, to adapt to their new cultural surroundings, and to support their new country’s political and diplomatic goals. Mothers could also serve as models for

Introduction

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their daughters, as the latter often followed the same pattern of early education at court and travel for the sake of the Habsburg dynasty. Margherita of Savoy’s mother, the Spanish Infanta Catalina Micaela, exemplifies the characteristics typical of Habsburg women in that her life stresses the obeisance paid to their lineage, effectively dealing with conflictive international politics, and giving birth to ten children, yet often expressing her strong opinions even while revealing through her letters her affectionate relationship with her husband. Although she was the younger of Philip II’s and Isabel of Valois’s two daughters, Catalina Micaela left Spain in 1585 for the ducal court at Turin, Italy, fully fifteen years before her older sister Isabel Clara Eugenia departed to rule the Netherlands in 1599.22 Both daughters were educated for a politically auspicious marital union, and Isabel Clara Eugenia’s repeated engagements to her Habsburg cousins, culminating in her late marriage to Albert of Austria, make it especially obvious that politics overruled all else in these unions.23 Catalina Micaela’s marriage was thus intended to reward Philip’s ally, the Duke Carlo Emanuele I, who guarded “the gateway and bastion of all His Majesty’s estates in Italy.” 24 Along with the infanta’s hand, the duke received some 700,000 ducats and an annuity for the rest of his reign. In her essay, “‘Lord of my soul’: Catalina Micaela, Duchess of Savoy’s Letters to her Husband, Carlo Emanuele I,” Magdalena Sánchez vividly reviews the young infanta’s twelve-year marriage to the duke as one that required great effort; she was, however, successful in her struggle to adapt to the distant ducal court and endure the duke’s long absences, which she made up for through her profuse letter-writing. Epistolary and Spatial Power The vast correspondence produced by the Habsburg women has allowed for a close examination of their relations with their families and political allies, as they formed virtual communities of letters across borders.25 By writing, women kept informed and informed others of family, social, and political concerns. As we shall see in the case of Ana Dorotea, Rudolph II’s illegitimate daughter, the nun’s letters were a means of reaching beyond the convent to as far as the Vatican in order to exercise her authority. Catalina Micaela’s letters, although no less forceful, aimed at a much closer target. The remarkably constant and intimate correspondence between the two spouses reveals that they became unusually devoted to one another, despite Catalina 22 Isabel Clara Eugenia was born in 1566; Catalina Micaela, in 1567, one year before their mother’s death in 1568. They were brought up by their aunt Juana of Austria at the convent of the Descalzas Reales in Madrid. On Juana’s death in 1573, they were cared for by Anna of Austria, Philip II’s fourth wife and niece, who herself had five children before her death at thirty years of age in 1580. 23 Her numerous engagements earned her the title of “bride of Europe”; see Llanos y Torriglia; and García Prieto. 24 Parker, Grand Strategy 82. 25 See the collection by Campbell and Larsen.

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Micaela’s initial discomfiture at marrying down from her position as an infanta to that of a duchess. Sánchez describes the quantities of epistolary correspondence as “mountains,” affirming that, to her knowledge, no other royal woman wrote so many letters. She selects the duchess’s first eighty letters from over a thousand, all written during the duke’s absence at his controversial siege of Saluzzo. These first letters disclose that Catalina Micaela, appointed lieutenant by her husband, took decisive steps to sustain him in his military endeavors by raising funds, sending supplies, and writing to her father requesting his support.26 Her letters communicate the raw emotions of a young wife, far from her own country and a doting father, achingly missing her husband, yet needing to restrain her feelings in public. For a typical Habsburg marriage of political convenience, Catalina Micaela’s proved an exceedingly good match, no doubt due to the loving attention she joyfully lavished on her husband, who responded in kind. Yet the warmth between the two should not obscure the very real dangers that women faced in aristocratic marriages—during their twelve-year marriage, Catalina Micaela would bear the duke nine children, and die soon after giving birth prematurely to her tenth. Of all the Habsburg women’s contributions to their family’s political ambitions and endeavors, some were destined to be minor or less visible, but no less significant. Of the three Habsburg women studied by Magdalena Sánchez, for instance, one— Sor Margaret of the Cross—professed as a nun at the convent of the Descalzas Reales, yet she wielded considerable political power from within the cloister. In what turned out to be a surprisingly similar case, her niece, Ana Dorotea, Marquise of Austria, one of Emperor Rudolph II’s numerous illegitimate children,27 was sent to Spain, where she chose to profess at the same convent. Vanessa de Cruz Medina’s essay, “An Illegitimate Habsburg: Sor Ana Dorotea de la Concepción, Marquise of Austria,” meticulously reconstructs Ana Dorotea’s life, which was unusually long for the period (she died at eighty-two or eighty-three years of age; no documents are extant regarding her precise date of birth). She spent almost her entire life in a convent: first (1619–1622) in Vienna, where she was born, and then (1622–1694) at the convent of the Descalzas Reales in Madrid. The Spanish convent was a center of power for Habsburg women, albeit one that, before Sánchez, had gone mainly unrecognized by historians. De Cruz Medina hypothesizes that Ana Dorotea was called to the Descalzas Reales by her aunt, Sor Margaret of the Cross, owing to a wish for “dynastic continuity” within convent walls. No doubt the nun wanted a younger Habsburg to assume the active patronage role that she and her mother, Empress María, had established, since Ana Dorotea was taught to write in Latin and in Spanish and served apparently as her aunt’s secretary. Catalina Micaela was delegated with the authority to “provide, to all that occurred in her estates, during [the duke’s] absence, the necessary justice, offices, graces, and finance [di provvedere a tutto ciò che occorresse nei suoi Stati, pendente la di lui absenza, tanto di giustizia, costituzione d’uffizi, grazie e finanze]” (AST [Archivio di Stato di Torino], Corte, Tutele, reggenze e luogotenenze generali, m. 2/I, n. 4. Cited in Merlin 209). 27 Rudolph II was a son of Empress María and Sor Margaret of the Cross’s brother. He inherited the title of Holy Roman Emperor from his father, Maximilian II, yet never married; he was succeeded by his brother, Matthias. For a biography of Rudolph II, see Evans. 26

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Like her Habsburg female relatives at the Descalzas Reales, Ana Dorotea supported the Austrian cause, but she also took on other political issues as well as religious devotions, patronizing festivities, prayers, and beatification cases. Although a professed nun, she met often with family relations and members of the court; her most constant method of communication, however, were the many epistles she wrote from the convent. These included letters to Philip IV delivered by both his first and his second wives, who also received letters from the nun. De Cruz Medina has examined the correspondence Ana Dorotea exchanged with ministers, ambassadors, petitioners, and members of the Roman aristocracy, including over one hundred letters to different popes, cardinals, and secretaries of state. Her absorbing essay confirms that even a cloistered, illegitimate Habsburg wielded considerable power. Ana Dorotea’s confined space in the convent of the Descalzas Reales, in spite of its ample corridors and rich decoration, cannot compare to the royal Alcázar’s sizeable quarters that housed the Habsburg queens.28 Since the Alcázar’s expansion in 1537, the palace was divided by two patios that determined the building’s function: the king’s household occupied the west wing, while the queen’s household occupied the east. One of the ways in which the women’s arrival affected their new courts was in the disposition of the royal household, which pitted the medieval Castilian arrangement followed by Isabel of Castile against the Burgundian model inherited from Charles V. In the abstract, the term “household” [casa] described a political and economic organization involving the distribution of offices to courtiers and the services rendered by them, and in a concrete sense, it referred to the spaces allocated, the material goods consumed, and expenses incurred by the court. Félix Labrador Arroyo’s essay, “From Castile to Burgundy: The Evolution of the Queens’ Households During the Sixteenth Century,” concentrates on the organization, structure, and composition of the households of Habsburg queens, tracing the development, meaning, and implications of their households from the medieval Castilian model to the Burgundian model brought to Spain by Charles V. The changes in infrastructure of the queens’ households reveal the tensions among the great numbers of nobles assigned to varying posts, as they fought for hierarchical status and influence. In charting the increasingly numerous posts and their stipends, Labrador Arroyo offers a detailed chronological reconstruction of the Habsburg queens’ household in which political and cultural concerns vied for primacy. Household organization was therefore not merely a practical, but an ideological concern. The precision with which household offices and duties were assigned and its expenses regulated underscores the care given the daily activities of the queens, while the numbers of servants contracted and their distinctive posts show the sophistication of the Burgundian model. Moreover, the alterations that occurred to the household, which had been modified only slightly by Philip II on the arrival of Isabel of Valois, point to the political significance of regulating the See Gerard Powell. The Royal Alcázar was destroyed by fire in 1734.

28

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queens’ etiquette and behavior, since Isabel’s French entourage had effectively factionalized the court. Philip’s reforms of Anna of Austria’s household intended to avoid the court factions that had occurred with Isabel by ordering that Anna’s entry into the towns and cities imitate the Burgundian model of male monarchs. The 1575 ordinances established not only the rules, but the expenses for the household, thus setting the Burgundian influence as the official model over that of Castile, a state of affairs lasting until Philip IV’s reign. The insistence with which Philip II sought to maintain the Burgundian influence on the queen’s household demonstrates that he identified closely with the transnational Habsburg court. Not only were the ordinances issued for subsequent queens, but he expected them to be exported and sustained by the Spanish infantas who married and moved outside the kingdom, as did his daughter, Catalina Micaela when she married and left for her new ducal court in Turin. By contrast, some forty years later, his grandson Philip IV wished to revert to the Castilian model, harking to the times of Isabel of Castile, when Spain’s medieval kingdoms had yet to meld with other reigns. In each case, however, the emphasis on the queen’s household, with the concomitant efforts to ascertain highly ranked positions, substantiates both the formal and informal power wielded by the Habsburg women at their courts. Labrador Arroyo thus gives us a window into the complexities of the court culture of Spanish Habsburg queens and of their households, independent from those of their male relatives. Birthing Habsburgs Although Margherita of Savoy had only one child, and Sor Ana Dorotea had none, there can be no doubt that fecundity played a vital role in Habsburg women’s lives, as it meant the dynasty’s very survival. As we have seen in several essays in this collection, contemporary culture valued royal women first and foremost for their childbearing capability, and the women themselves were keenly aware of their need to reproduce. Indeed, the visual examples María Cruz de Carlos Varona offers on the topic show that not only royalty, but all noble families worried about producing heirs. She highlights the concerns shared among the Habsburgs and other noble and middle class women, and the many exemplars of maternity and mothering offered in Christian holy books, the works of art these women sponsored, and the writings they relied on for their education and edification. It is not that these women were simply subject—or that they subjected themselves—to a Church-imposed set of principles for good mothering; rather, they held these up both as an inspiration and to remind themselves and all other viewers of their close relationship with these models, as well as to identify with the spiritual as much as the physiological aspects of motherhood. In her essay, “Giving Birth at the Habsburg Court: Visual and Material Culture,” de Carlos Varona discusses the numerous works of art—paintings, jewelry, furs, and images—that, due to their symbolic or representational reference to childbirth, were appropriately gifted to young women. Habsburg women were subject to

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the same sets of expectations, amplified by their significant political, social, and cultural position. In the hope of a fecund marriage, these works of art were often passed down from mothers to daughters; one such case was the fertility amulet depicted in a portrait of Infanta Catalina Micaela. The marten’s fur and head she is holding, de Carlos Varona explains, is an heirloom from her mother, Isabel of Valois, who had been portrayed earlier with the jewel. A similar jewel appears in a portrait of Margarita of Austria, who had received her marten head from her mother-in-law, Anna of Austria. The amulet’s power was no doubt calculated to doubly ensure royal issue: married to Philip III, the only surviving son of Philip II, Margarita of Austria was selected as his wife in part for her probable fertility, since her own mother, Maria Anna of Bavaria, gave birth to fifteen children.29 As a patron of religious paintings depicting the Nativity, Margarita commissioned Juan Pantoja de la Cruz to insert in one painting the figures of the queen, her mother, and two of her sisters. Through their simulacra, de Carlos Varona believes, the painting arranged to have the queen’s female relatives accompany her during childbirth.30 Despite the obvious political significance of Margarita’s representation as mother of God, her female relatives’ intended presence during delivery underscored the Habsburg women’s real anxieties over giving birth. No matter how idealized the visual images and material objects that accompanied childbirth and the mother’s laying-in, they emitted a reminder of the constant physical dangers that could at any moment extinguish the mother’s or the child’s life. The recourse to religious imagery, therefore, aimed to merge the physical act of childbirth with its tranquilizing corollary of spiritual rebirth. In the process, the imagery contributed to the Habsburg’s deployment of Catholic beliefs and symbolism through the Pietas Austriaca, the extended house’s union of spiritual identity and political purpose. Indeed, the Austrian Habsburgs were famous for their fecundity: Empress María had given birth to sixteen children, two of whom married their Spanish relatives in order to continue the Spanish Habsburg line.31 The political pressure on Habsburg wives to bear children thus overrode the life-threatening danger that childbirth represented at the time.32 Since so many children died young, however, their births alone did not guarantee succession: male Habsburgs sought recurrent unions to protect their rule. Because Albert of Austria and Isabel Clara Eugenia were childless, the Spanish governorship of the Netherlands was lost after Philip Among her sisters in the painting was the Archduchess Maria Maddalena of Austria, with whom Margarita exchanged portraits while the two were pregnant. For Maria Anna of Bavaria, see Sánchez, “A Woman’s Influence.” 30 The layette items in this painting resembled those that were later sent by the wife of Margarita’s brother, Ferdinand II, to Isabel of Borbón on occasion of her delivery. 31 Although Empress María’s daughter Anna succeeded in giving Philip II a son, Archduke Albert, one of her five surviving sons, had no issue with Isabel Clara Eugenia. 32 In the era’s realpolitik, infertility was more troubling than their demise, since it could mean the wife’s repudiation by the husband, as happened to Katharina of Austria (1533–1572), who was returned to her brother, Maximilian II, by Segismundo II Augustus of Poland for not having borne any children (Patrouch 263–7). 29

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III’s son, the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand’s brief rule from 1633 until his death in 1641.33 In order to procure a male heir, Philip II married four times; although his fourth wife, Anna of Austria, gave birth to four sons, only one, Philip III, survived to inherit the throne. Philip IV’s beloved only son and heir apparent, Baltasar Carlos, died at age sixteen, bringing about a dynastic crisis that drove the king to marry his son’s betrothed, his niece, Mariana of Austria (1634–1696). The young Austrian archduchess, expected to be fertile, did not disappoint, yet of her five children, only one, Carlos II, lived to adulthood.34 In her essay, “Habsburg Motherhood: The Power of Mariana of Austria, Mother and Regent for Carlos II of Spain,” Silvia Z. Mitchell stresses Mariana’s maternal authority to emphasize the importance of motherhood in seventeenthcentury Habsburg culture and tradition. Mariana’s full understanding and adroit utilization of the convincing political and communicative means at her disposal as the monarch’s mother mark her as an example of female agency specifically designed to implement all her affective and symbolic powers. Indeed, given the authority she wielded as regent, she had as much power as those given the title of “female king” coined by William Monter.35 Widowed at age thirty, she coped with a governing junta left by Philip IV; her tumultuous reign and her reliance on her Austrian confessor, Cardinal Juan Evaristo Nithard, whom she named Grand Inquisitor, created a negative image still held by many historians.36 Like the other Habsburg women in this volume, Mariana was not at all shy in imposing her considerable authority. Mitchell concentrates on the events surrounding Carlos’s emancipation on his fourteenth birthday and the negotiations involved in the choice for a spouse, analyzing the regent’s controversial handling of her power as both a politician and the king’s mother. The kernel of the negative attention given Mariana can be found in the documents that Mitchell unearthed attesting to the polarized positions at court. Mariana was seen as a liability because her strong presence obstructed Carlos’s own actions, which was viewed as detrimental to those who wished to monopolize the young king. The ensuing tensions between mother and son prompted his departure from her side and, subsequently, forced her exile. But as Mitchell explains, Mariana’s struggles at court did not end there: although she was exiled to Toledo, she maintained constant epistolary contact with various members of the court, including her son. After two and a half years, Mariana returned to Madrid, where she continued to be involved in Habsburg politics until her death in 1696. 33 For Albert of Austria, see Duerloo, Albert; for the archdukes’ governorship of the Netherlands and the fall of the Habsburgs, see Parker, ed., Thirty Years’ War. 34 Carlos II’s inability to father an heir brought about the war of Spanish succession and effectively ended the Spanish Habsburg reign. 35 Monter makes the distinction between queen as “wife of a king” and the exercise of kingship itself; he believes the difference is due to the latter’s supreme monarchical authority with divine approval (Rise of Female Kings, xvi). Such a difference seems strained for Habsburg women rulers. 36 See Goodman 164–5.

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Besides her correspondence, a central means employed by Mariana to keep her image visible and to visualize her authority was through portraits. Habsburg women learned at court the use of visual images and the importance of the messages that such depictions conveyed. Their court portraits in particular celebrated and affirmed Habsburg women’s royal authority. Velázquez’s equestrian paintings of Margarita of Austria and Isabel of Borbón, and his portraits of Mariana of Austria, for example, idealized their majestic bearing even as their outsized wigs, voluminous farthingales, and richly embroidered gowns, much more opulent than the somber outfits worn by Philip IV, seemed to weigh them down (Bass 83). In contrast to Velázquez’s lavish portraits of Philip IV’s court, however, those commissioned by Mariana herself after the king’s death instead appeared to diminish her royal status. Mercedes Llorente’s essay, “Mariana of Austria’s Portraits as Ruler-Governor and Curadora by Juan Carreño de Miranda and Claudio Coello,” analyzes the numerous portraits that were intended to illustrate the two distinct roles she played in life after Philip IV’s death: that of ruler and queen mother.37 The visual documents discussed by Llorente complement Silvia Mitchell’s written records on Mariana in that they develop a much fuller and complex image of the queen than the negative picture conveyed by traditional historiography. In those portraits in which she is represented as queen regnant, she is dressed in widow’s weeds and seated at a work table, surrounded by the trappings of rule: her papers, quills, and inkwells. Her choice of setting, the Alcázar’s Hall of Mirrors, reinforces her status as a Habsburg monarch, as it was decorated with portraits of previous Habsburg rulers. Yet unlike her predecessors, who stood regally by a table, Mariana chose instead to remain seated as a working monarch, perhaps wishing to recall Philip II’s reputation of “governing the world with his pen” (Parker, Grand Strategy 29).38 Additionally, her portraits as curadora, or caretaker of her son under twenty-five years of age, underscore her deliberate role as the under-aged Carlos’s protector and advisor, securing through visual means the power that she wished to exercise in real life, but also the moment when her guardianship of Carlos II ended. Her portraits thus indicate a keen sense of the timely implicit and explicit meanings that images of one’s self could convey to a contemporary viewer. By selecting how she would be depicted, where her portraits would be located, and the paintings that would be situated near them, Mariana of Austria confirmed that she understood the royal behavior expected of her and underscored that she knew how to comport herself according to her rank, role, and lineage. Visual and Sartorial Politics While their formal correspondence, such as the letters of Sor Ana Dorotea, offers an evident example of the Habsburg women’s rhetorical self-fashioning, one carried 37 For the visual competition between Mariana and Philip IV’s illegitimate son, don Juan José of Austria, who wished to suppress her image, see Goodman 166–9. 38 Interestingly, this same portrait reminds the viewer of her confessor Nithard’s portrait, painted by Alonso del Arco only four years earlier in 1674.

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out with and through words, their portraits, as we have seen with Mariana de Austria, as well as their forms of dress, as in the case of Isabel of Borbón, verified their centrality at court (Sánchez, Court 108). For Habsburg women especially, clothing assumed the values of the foreign culture. Philip III’s daughter, Ana of Austria, for example, was pressured to dress a la francesa [in the French style] on her arrival in France for her marriage to Louis XIII, a formal request that elicited conflicting opinions from the Spanish ambassador, the Duke of Lerma, and even her father.39 By contrast, Ana’s future sister-in-law, Isabel of Borbón, was only ten years old when she was encouraged to dress in Spanish fashion. Drawing an analogy between the body politic and the child’s frame, Laura Oliván Santaliestra thoughtfully notes the transformations Isabel underwent to align herself with the Habsburgs in order to comply with her marriage to Ana’s brother, Philip IV. Her essay, “Isabel of Borbón’s Sartorial Politics: From French Princess to Habsburg Regent,” shows that the two contrasting views held of Isabel—her indolence versus her prudence—traditionally attributed to her role in bringing down Philip IV’s powerful favorite, the CountDuke of Olivares, have failed to recognize her own merits. Although not a Habsburg by birth, Isabel took the necessary steps to become one by marriage. According to historian Martha Hoffman, the lengthy negotiations required before the daughter of the French king could wed the Spanish monarch’s heir underscored their precariousness; the marriage might not have taken place had it not been for Henri IV’s opportune death (112). Oliván Santaliestra tells us, however, that three years before she wed, Philip IV’s aunt, Archduchess Isabel Clara Eugenia, sent the young girl a Spanish dress, presumably to wear at the reading of her marriage instructions at the Paris court.40 The meaning of the dress symbolized for the Spaniards Isabel’s relinquishing French frivolity and accepting Spanish solemnity. Nonetheless, although the signing of the marriage contract officially transformed Isabel into a Habsburg princess, an immediate change of costume did not instantaneously convert the spirited girl into the desired model of Spanish formality; for instance, she was often at odds with court protocol that forbade her customary open-air exercise. As she adapted to her new surroundings, her Hispanicization increased as Olivares fell from favor: the Count-Duke’s failure in the Mantuan Wars only served to enhance her perception by the Habsburg court. For Oliván Santaliestra, the most significant sign of Isabel’s conclusive acceptance was her portrait by Velázquez, the first equestrian portrait ever painted of a living Spanish queen. In a court known for its exploitation of classical mythology,41 the 39 According to Hoffman, the ambassador defended a queen’s right to dress in her own style, but suggested that Philip III encourage his daughter to dress in the French style more often; the Duke of Lerma crossed out the ambassador’s compromise; and the king wished that she dress in the French style, but without exposing her breasts (126). 40 Isabel Clara Eugenia took strong interest in the younger female members of the Habsburg dynasty; for the scapular she sent Philip III’s daughter, her niece Ana of Austria, and for her interest in Ana Dorotea’s safe travel to Spain, see the chapters in this collection by van Wyhe and de Cruz Medina respectively. 41 See Tanner.

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portrait’s iconography at last confirmed her elevated status as Habsburg queen consort. Yet as she traces Isabel’s early life, it was a status that had initially gained a foothold when a young girl first dressed in the style of the Spanish Habsburg court. The cultural politics deployed by assuming the fashion of the foreign court continued to be played out as these gowns were shed in favor of the widows’ outfits adopted during the Habsburg women’s later life upon the death of their spouses. Cordula van Wyhe’s essay, “The Making and Meaning of the Monastic Habit at Spanish Habsburg Courts,” concentrates on the religious garb chosen by both male and female Habsburgs as part of promoting the Pietas Austriaca. By leaving aside their finery for self-effacing attire inspired by the Franciscan habit, members of the Habsburg dynasty expressed their humility and love of God. The Habsburg women, however, continued to express their authority, albeit in more nuanced fashion. Van Wyhe surveys the symbolic importance of the religious garb worn by five related Spanish Habsburgs: Archduchess Margaret, who professed as Sor Margaret of the Cross in 1584 at the Descalzas Reales, would wear the habit of Saint Clare cloistered in the convent, but only after an impressive investiture that was, besides, aimed at promoting the Habsburg dynasty’s piety. Her mother, Empress María, lived in the convent’s uncloistered section after her return to Spain on Emperor Maximilian’s death, when she joined the Franciscan tertiary order. She thus wore the order’s sartorially related widows’ weeds, although modishly altered to register her rank and interest in worldly affairs. The marked modifications in the outfits of the Habsburg widows Juana of Austria, Mariana of Austria—which we may note in Mercedes Llorente’s illustrations in this collection—and Archduchess Isabel Clara Eugenia, whose final portrait, this time as a Franciscan tertiary, was again painted by Rubens, reveal their continued participation in governance.42 Although the infanta presented herself as a nun, her monastic dress, which mirrored her deceased husband Albert’s Franciscan shroud, bolstered her guardianship of his legacy. Significantly, van Wyhe concludes that despite their gravity, monastic habits, through their hybrid tailoring of court and convent, gave the Habsburg women the option to express their various worldly roles, while simultaneously endorsing their—and the dynasty’s—spirituality. From their birth in different lands, through their childhood, territorial and cultural displacement, marriage, childbirth, on to their widowhood, and, in one case, religious profession, the six Habsburg women examined by our authors never looked back, but accepted their given roles within the extended Habsburg alliances. If, as historians have averred, it was the fate of royal women to marry, procreate, and govern when necessary, the Habsburg women fully accepted their destiny. Yet they did much more than willingly assume their dynastic responsibilities: even the spaces where they lived, whether cloistered or expansive, took on their dwellers’ gendered political stance, as Habsburg power converged with their female agency. 42 Rubens’s portrait depicting Isabel Clara Eugenia in her role of dowager governor was apparently commissioned by her to celebrate the capture of Breda; see Esteban Estríngana 435.

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What are typically considered feminine elements such as childbirth, family relations, households, and clothes, become, in the lived experiences of the Habsburg women, the political and ideological tools with which they not only survived, but succeeded in the ceaselessly conflictive arena of the European courts.43 A Note on the Translations of the Habsburg Names: In most cases, we have rendered the names in the original language, with titles in the English equivalent, as in Empress María, Queen Margarita of Austria, Grand Duchess Maria Maddalena of Austria, Duke Carlo Emanuele, Archduchess Isabel Clara Eugenia, Vicereine Margherita of Savoy. Only the titles of infanta and infante have been left in the original, since their definition—a monarch’s daughters or younger sons with no hereditary rights—was not the equivalent of princess or prince. Some royal women’s names were Hispanicized when they arrived in Spain: Isabel of Borbón; María Luisa of Orleans. However, Anna of Austria (Philip II’s niece and fourth wife) retains her German name, while Ana of Austria (Philip III’s daughter), although married to Louis XIII, kept her Spanish name. Names that are already well known in their English translation have been rendered as such: Sor Margaret of the Cross, Rudolph II, Archduke Albert, Philip the Fair, Charles V, Philip II, Philip III, and Philip IV. To avoid confusion with the English king, Philip IV’s son’s name is rendered as Carlos II. Works Cited Aliverti, Maria Ines. “Visits to Genoa: The Printed Sources.” In Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe. General ed., J.R. Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, and Margaret Shewring. Vol. 1. Modern Humanities Research Association, vol. 15 (1). Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004. 222–35. Aram, Bethany. Juana the Mad: Sovereignty and Dynasty in Renaissance Europe. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. Arco, Alonso del. El cardenal Juan Everardo Nithard. Museo Nacional del Prado, 1674. Bass, Laura R. The Drama of the Portrait: Theater and Visual Culture in Early Modern Spain. University Park: Penn State University Press, 2008. Bérenger, Jean. A History of the Habsburg Empire 1273–1700. Trans. C.A. Simpson. London; New York: Longman, 1994. Bertini, Giuseppe, and Annemarie Jordan Gschwend. Il guardaroba di una principessa del Rinascimento. L’inventario di Maria di Portogallo, sposa di Alessandro. Rimini: Guaraldi, 1999. Betegón Díez, Ruth. Isabel Clara Eugenia. Infanta de España y soberana de Flandes. Madrid: Plaza & Janés, 2004. 43 Research for this introduction forms part of the BIESES Group (FF12012-32764), supported by Spain’s Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.

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A briefe discovrse of the voyage and entry of the Queene of Spaine into Italy. London, 1617. http://special-1.bl.uk/treasures/festivalbooks/BookDetails. aspx?strFest=0138. Campbell, Julie D., and Anne R. Larsen. “Introduction.” In Early Modern Women and Transnational Communities of Letters. Ed. Julie D. Campbell and Anne R. Larsen. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2009. 1–21. Coreth, Anna. Pietas Austriaca. Trans. William E. Bowman and Anna Maria Leitgeb. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2011. Crankshaw, Edward. Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, 1717–1780. London: Longmans, 1969. Cruz, Anne J., and Mihoko Suzuki, eds. The Rule of Women in Early Modern Europe. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2009. Duerloo, Eric. “Marriage, Power and Politics: The Infanta and the Archduke Albert.” In Isabel Clara Eugenia: Female Sovereignty in the Courts of Madrid and Brussels. Ed. Cordula van Wyhe. Madrid; London: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica; Paul Holberton Publishing, 2011. ———. Dynasty and Piety: Archduke Albert (1598–1621) and Habsburg Political Culture in an Age of Religious Wars. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2012. Earenfight, Theresa. “Partners in Politics.” In Queenship and Political Power in Medieval and Early Modern Spain. Ed. Theresa Earenfight. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005. xiii–xxviii. Eichenberger, Dagmar, and Lisa Beaven. “Family Members and Political Allies: The Portrait Collection of Margaret of Austria.” The Art Bulletin 77.2 (1995): 225–48. Elliott, John H. Spain, Europe & the Wider World, 1500–1800. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. Esteban Estríngana, Alicia. “‘What a Princess, Good God!’ The Heritage and Legacy of the Infanta Isabel.” In Isabel Clara Eugenia: Female Sovereignty in the Courts of Madrid and Brussels. Ed. Cordula van Wyhe. Madrid; London: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica; Paul Holberton Publishing, 2012. 415–43. Evans, Robert J.W. Rudolf II and His World: A Study in Intellectual History 1576– 1612. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Fichtner, Paula Sutter. The Habsburg Monarchy, 1490–1848. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. García Prieto, Elisa. “Isabel Clara Eugenia of Austria: Marriage Negotiations and Dynastic Plans for a Spanish Infanta.” In Isabel Clara Eugenia: Female Sovereignty in the Courts of Madrid and Brussels. Ed. Cordula van Wyhe. Madrid; London: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica; Paul Holberton Publishing, 2011. 130–53. Gerard Powell, Veronique. De Castillo a palacio. El Alcázar en el siglo XVI. Trad. Juan del Agua. Bilbao: Xarait, 1984.

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Goodman, Eleanor. “Conspicuous in her Absence: Mariana of Austria, Juan José of Austria, and the Representation of Her Power.” In Queenship and Political Power in Medieval and Early Modern Spain. Ed. Theresa Earenfight. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005. 163–84. Harness, Kelley. Echoes of Women’s Voices: Music, Art, and Female Patronage in Early Modern Florence. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Hein, Jørgen. “Isabella of Austria, Queen of Denmark.” In The Inventories of Charles V and the Imperial Family. Ed. Fernando Checa Cremades and Juan Luis González García. Vol. 3. Madrid: Fernando Villaverde, 2010. 2613–23. Hoffman, Martha K. Raised to Rule: Educating Royalty at the Court of the Spanish Habsburgs, 1601–1634. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2011. Ingrao, Charles W. The Habsburg Monarchy, 1618–1815. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Kleinman, Ruth. Anne of Austria: Queen of France. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 1985. Jordan, Annemarie. A rainha colecionadora. Catarina de Áustria. Lisbon: Círculo de Leitores, 2012. Liss, Peggy K. Isabel the Queen: Life and Times. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Llanos y Torriglia, Félix de. La novia de Europa. Isabel Clara Eugenia. Madrid: Ediciones Fax, 1944. Merlin, Pierpaolo. “Caterina d’Asburgo e l’influsso spagnolo.” In In assenza del re. Le reggenti dal XIV al XVII secolo (Piemonte ed Europa). Ed. Franca Varallo. Biblioteca dell’Archivum Romanicum, No. 354. Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2008. 209–34. Monter, William. “Gendered Sovereignty: Numismatics and Female Monarchs in Europe, 1300–1800.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 12.4 (Spring, 2011): 533–64. ———. The Rise of Female Kings in Europe, 1300–1800. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012. Oliván Santaliestra, Laura. Mariana de Austria. Imagen, poder y diplomacia de una reina cortesana. Madrid: Universidad Complutense, 2006. ———. María Pilar Pérez Cantó, and Esperanza Mó Romero. Rainhas de Portugal e Espanha: Margarida de Áustria (1584–1611) e Isabel de Bourbon (1602–1644). Lisboa: Círculo de Leitores, 2012. Oresko, Robert C.J.M.M. d’A. “Princesses in Power and European Dynasticism: Marie-Christine of France and Navarre and Maria Giovanna Battista of Savoy-Genevois-Nemours, the Last Regents of the House of Savoy in their International Context.” In In assenza del re. Le reggenti dal XI V al XVII secolo (Piemonte ed Europa). Ed. Franca Varallo. Biblioteca dell’Archivum Romanicum, No. 354. Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2008. 393–434. Patrouch, Joseph F. Queen’s Apprentice: Archduchess Elizabeth, Empress María, the Habsburgs, and the Holy Roman Empire, 1554–1569. Leiden: Brill, 2010. Parker, Geoffrey. The Grand Strategy of Philip II. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.

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———, ed. The Thirty Years’ War. 2nd edn. New York: Routledge, 2006. Pérez Martín, María Jesús. Margarita de Austria, reina de España. Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1961. Sánchez, Magdalena S. The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun: Women and Power at the Court of Philip III of Spain. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University, 1998. ———.“A Woman’s Influence: Archduchess Maria of Bavaria and the Spanish Habsburgs.” In The Lion and the Eagle: Interdisciplinary Essays on GermanSpanish Relations Over the Centuries. Ed. C. Kent, T.K. Wolber, and C.M.K. Hewitt. New York: Berghahn Books, 2000. 91–107. ———. “Court Women in the Spain of Velázquez.” In The Cambridge Companion to Velázquez. Ed. Suzanne L. Stratton-Pruitt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 87–108. Tanner, Marie. The Last Descendant of Aeneas: The Habsburgs and the Mythic Image of the Emperor. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. Tapié, Victor-Lucien. The Rise and Fall of the Habsburg Monarchy. Trans. Stephen Hardman. New York: Praeger, 1971. Weissberger, Barbara. Isabel Rules: Constructing Queenship, Wielding Power. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003. Wheatcroft, Andrew. The Habsburgs: Embodying Empire. London; New York: Viking, 1995. Wyhe, Cordula van. “Piety, Play and Power: Constructing the Ideal Sovereign Body in Early Portraits of Isabel Clara Eugenia (1586–1603).” In Isabel Clara Eugenia: Female Sovereignty in the Courts of Madrid and Brussels. Madrid; London: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica; Paul Holberton Publishing, 2012. 89–129. ———, ed. Isabel Clara Eugenia: Female Sovereignty in the Courts of Madrid and Brussels. Madrid; London: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica; Paul Holberton Publishing, 2012.

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Part I Transnational and Transcultural Ties

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Chapter 1

“Bella gerant alii.” Laodamia’s Sisters, Habsburg Brides: Leaving Home for the Sake of the House Joseph F. Patrouch

Introduction It has become a commonplace to refer to a specific Latin motto when discussing the marriage strategies of the members of the Habsburg dynasty in the later Middle Ages and early modern periods: Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria, nube! [Let others fight—you, happy Austria, marry!].1 This motto, which goes on to state Nam quae Mars aliis, dat tibi diva Venus [For those things that Mars gives to others, the goddess Venus gives to you] is used to underline the significant role of marriage (and therefore women as well as men) in Habsburg history. This essay analyzes aspects of the Habsburg marriage strategies between the later thirteenth and later eighteenth centuries by considering the women who married and left home in the period. These princesses were key players in their family’s international network, as they worked to tie the Habsburgs closely into the political scene of their times. Habsburg daughters were particularly important in the establishment of their family on the imperial throne, in the Habsburg politics against rival dynasties such as the Wittelsbachs in Bavaria, the Valois and Bourbons in France, the Přemysls and Luxembourgs in Bohemia, and the Jagiellons in Bohemia, Hungary and (especially) Poland, and in the rivalries between various branches of the Habsburg dynasty itself. A number of Habsburg daughters also played important roles as rulers or governors of the family’s complicated possessions in the Low Countries. The sample analyzed for the following discussion consists of sixty-six Habsburg daughters.2 These women became empresses, queens, electresses, grand For an example, see the Wikipedia entry “France-Habsburg Rivalry.” The sixty-six women studied here are drawn from Hamann. These women were the daughters of Habsburg fathers and lived between the time of the first Habsburg ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, Rudolf I, who died in 1291, and the last one, Charles VI (who unsuccessfully claimed the throne of Spain after Carlos II) and died in 1740. Six of the Habsburgs in this sample were “double Habsburgs,” as they also had Habsburg mothers. Although the sample may not be complete, it very likely includes the most significant women of both the central and western European branches of the family. Hamann’s work was crosschecked with the important genealogical reference work by Wurzbach [hereafter BLKÖ.] 1 2

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duchesses, duchesses, margravines, countesses, and baronesses. They exercised a variety of political offices such as regent or governor.3 Unlike the women who married into the House of Austria, those who married out of it have often been lost to history; they were subsumed into the narratives spun around their spouses.4 The daughters who left home were also essential players in the dynasty’s strategies and helped to shape late medieval and early modern European history in specific ways. Ironically enough, the famous motto referred to above, Bella gerant alii, may well have been meant as a taunt, derisively attributing to the Habsburgs feminine characteristics and questioning their military might and masculinity. The reading of the apparently straightforward verse, however, hides other aspects that complicate the common understanding of the passage. It is in part a direct quotation from one of the lines of Ovid’s famous Heroides [Heroines], a classical text influential in the early modern period, particularly in France, that rival kingdom to the Habsburgs’.5 In what is conventionally numbered as Letter XIII, the tragic heroine Laodamia writes to her absent warrior husband Protesilaus, “bella gerant alii, Protesilaus amet!” [Let others fight; let Protesilaus love].6 This was not to be the case: Protesilaus dies a hero’s death, the first Greek warrior to land during the Trojan War. If indeed a sixteenth-century reader had encountered the Habsburg verse, the hortatory nature of the context of this royal daughter’s epistle to a distant husband could have been recalled. In the case of the late medieval and early modern Habsburg princesses to be discussed here, the (meta)physical space is reversed. It was the women who, like Protesilaus, left their families in the service of some greater good. The words of grieving Laodamia, lamenting her husband’s sailing and pining for the physical proximity of her beloved (a proximity which the gods briefly reinstate, with fatal consequences), may in some way have reflected the feelings of the mothers, sisters, brothers, and fathers who saw their daughters and sisters disappear over the horizon into the wider political world: “Happy as long as you remained in view, / I gladly strained my eyes to follow you.”7

3 Four of these daughters are discussed elsewhere in this collection: see the chapters by de Cruz Medina, Llorente, Mitchell, Sánchez, and Stampino. 4 The growth of Habsburg power is often traced to the male Habsburgs’ marriages to important heiresses. For a popular example of this type of narrative, see Leitner, who concentrates on four case studies of male Habsburg marriages: those to Mary of Burgundy, Bianca Maria Sforza, Juana of Castile, and Mary I Tudor. 5 See White. 6 For one version of the text, see Reeson 23–9 (here, 26; line 82). Reeson’s comments on the passage’s context are on p. 161. See Hine 79–85 for an English translation (here 82). On the Habsburgs’ use of Trojan imagery, see Tanner. 7 Hine 80. And further, “I envy Trojan women, who can cry / over their menfolk with the foe nearby” (Hine 84). In 1814, William Wordsmith composed a moving poem dealing with the tragic death of Laodamia after the gods allow her deceased husband to briefly return to her and life (Van Doren, ed. “Laodamia” 632–7).

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Geographic Distribution When examining the political careers of the sixty-six Habsburg princesses under study, some conclusions may be reached regarding the geographic distribution of the marriage alliances undertaken by the Habsburgs between roughly the 1270s and the 1770s. Not surprisingly, the territories immediately surrounding Austria proper played the largest role in the family’s marital plans.8 Habsburg daughters often did not have to travel far on their bridal journeys. In a pattern that will be repeated until almost the final days of the Habsburg empire in the twentieth century, the rulers of the duchy, then electorate (later kingdom) of Bavaria were primary marriage partners. Ten of the Habsburg princesses under study (approximately 15% of the total) married Bavarians starting in the early fourteenth century and continuing to the end of the period of this study in the mid-to-late eighteenth century. Because the kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary were ruled by Habsburgs almost continuously from the 1520s, the numbers have to be handled carefully, but Habsburg princesses ruled as queens of those territories regularly. There were a total of nine Habsburg queens of Hungary and eight Habsburg queens of Bohemia.9 They all attained their positions via marriage, not birth, and two of the Hungarian queens as well as one of the Bohemian ones did so before the Habsburgs acquired those kingdoms. If one takes into account Silesia and Moravia (complex political units associated with the Bohemian kingdom), a further four Habsburg princesses must be added to the calculations, placing Bavaria, Bohemia, and Hungary at the top of the list of territories that attracted Habsburg brides. The position of Holy Roman Emperor was elective. In the period under study most of the emperors were drawn from various branches of the Habsburg family. This is particularly the case from the election of King Albrecht II in 1438 until the death of Emperor Charles VI in 1740. During those three centuries, all of the kings and emperors who ruled the Holy Roman Empire were Habsburgs. During the period of study, eight different Habsburg princesses sat on the imperial throne as empresses-consort. Unlike in some of the other political units discussed above, all of these women took office later in the period, after the Habsburgs had gained the necessary status. The first Habsburg Holy Roman Empress was María, the 8 In this context, the term “Austria” will refer to the central European hereditary holdings of the Habsburgs which they began to assemble in the later thirteenth century. These were mostly near or in what is now the Republic of Austria. For more on the late medieval and early modern idea of “Austria,” see Patrouch, “Austria.” 9 After the Habsburg accession to the thrones of Bohemia and Hungary, all of these women were queens of both kingdoms. On Hungary, see Radícs, who briefly discussed five of these Habsburg queens, along with the Transylvanian princess Maria Christierna (see below). His work was produced as part of the celebrations marking the millennium of the Hungarian kingdom as well as the homage ceremonies for the ruling Habsburg king, Franz Joseph and his consort Elisabeth. For more on Habsburg queens of Bohemia and Hungary, see Patrouch, “The Coronations.”

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consort of Emperor Maximilian II. She served from 1562 to 1576.10 Two Habsburg empresses, Maria Amalie (served 1742–1745) and the famous Maria Theresia (served 1745–1765), were consorts to non-Habsburg emperors. The rulers of the complex kingdom of Poland were another important set of marriage partners for the early modern Habsburgs. Eight Habsburg princesses served as queens of Poland between 1454 and 1757. Four of them rest today in tombs in the Krakow cathedral; one is buried in Vilnius, recalling the political ties between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland during the Commonwealth and the reign of the Jagiellons there; one is buried in Dresden, recalling similar ties between the Saxon electorate and Poland; and the other two rest still in Austria, having returned to the land of their birth before their deaths. The case of the first Habsburg queen of Poland, Elisabeth (1436?–1505), illustrates the pervasive themes associated with these women, who left home to establish political power bases elsewhere (Hamman 86). After marrying King Casimir IV in 1454, she and her husband had a dozen children, firmly establishing the Jagiellon dynasty on the throne.11 Three of Elisabeth’s sons went on to become kings of Poland-Lithuania. She expended her foreign assets to support relatives in ongoing rivalries between branches of the Habsburg dynasty, in this case the so-called Albertine Line against the “Leopoldine Line” represented by her legal guardian as a child, the emperor Frederick III. One of her sons became king of Bohemia, another was canonized. A number of European courts saw between three and five Habsburg princesses in residence in the later medieval and early modern periods. These include Portugal, with five Habsburg queens or crown princesses in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; France with four Habsburg queens; the electorate of Saxony with four Habsburg duchesses; and the newly-unified kingdoms of Spain with three Habsburg queens, one of whom, Maria Anna, the sister of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I (known in Spain as Mariana), is the subject of two chapters in this collection.12 The duchy of Mantua also was home to three Habsburg archduchesses who had to take a step down in rank as they ascended the throne. Even the northern kingdom of Sweden had a couple of Habsburg queens, three if one counts the titular queen Caecilia Renate, queen of Poland from 1637–1644: she apparently never set foot in the kingdom her husband claimed. Denmark-Norway had a Habsburg queen, too, although Isabella (1501–1526) died shortly after she and her husband were exiled from that kingdom. It was not always safe or easy to be a queen. When one goes further back into the dynasty’s history, when the Habsburg women and men were attempting with varying degrees of success to maintain the exalted position that Rudolf I had attained for them on the throne of the emperors, one sees that the ranks of the marriage partners for the Habsburg daughters were 10 For more on Empress María see Patrouch, Queen’s Apprentice; and Sánchez, The Empress. 11 Saint John Capistrano officiated at Elisabeth’s wedding to Casimir. 12 See the essays by Mitchell and Llorente.

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more modest. By contrast, the spatial distribution continued to be extensive. Habsburg princesses were married to the rulers of Baden, Brandenburg, Calabria, Coucy, Ferrara, Florence (and later the Grand Duchy of Tuscany), Gorizia, Hardegg, Jülich-Cleves-Berg, Lorraine, Öttingen, Palatinate-Neuburg, Parma, Savoy, and even Transylvania. That experiment was short-lived: Archduchess Maria Christierna’s marriage to the Transylvanian ruler Sigmund Bathory in 1595 was annulled only four years after its inception. The important roles of the Habsburg princesses in the governments of Savoy and Tuscany are examined in detail in the pages to follow in the contributions by Magdalena S. Sánchez on Philip II of Spain’s daughter Catalina Micaela and by Maria Galli Stampino on Archduchess Maria Maddalena. The Imperial Election of 1273 The Habsburgs first reached the throne of the Holy Roman Empire in the late thirteenth century. The marriages of Habsburg daughters played important roles in the realization of this important step in the establishment of the dynasty as a central European, then European, and ultimately worldwide power. The Habsburg count Rudolf married the Swabian countess Gertrud von Hohenberg und Heigerloch (1225–1281) in 1245 and they reportedly had fourteen children together (BLKÖ 6:149).13 Their daughters would be important figures in the elaborate system of alliances that laid the foundation for Rudolf’s election as German king at Frankfurt am Main in October, 1273 and his expansion of power and influence toward the east into Austria in the years following. Rudolf’s primary rival for the imperial throne was the Bohemian king Ottokar II Přemysl, an ambitious ruler who was angling to extend his influence and holdings to the south and west. Ottokar made the tactical mistake of boycotting the election assembly and was outmaneuvered by the influential palatine, Count Ludwig “the Stern” [der Strenge] of Bavaria. He was one of the imperial electors who helped to engineer the victory of Rudolf of Habsburg. As part of the negotiations and basebuilding associated with Rudolf’s election, in the same year Ludwig married one of Rudolf and Gertrud’s daughters, Mathilde (1251–1304) (Hamann 351–2; BLKÖ 7:88–9). The Saxon elector Albrecht II also married one of his Habsburg candidate’s daughters, Agnes (1257?–1322), also in 1273 (Hamann 28; BLKÖ 6:137). Within six years, the Habsburgs developed marital ties to the other two secular electors as well: Gertrud and Rudolf’s daughter Hedwig (died 1286) married into the complex family of the margraves-electors of Brandenburg, helping to remove these important northeastern rulers from the sphere of influence of Ottokar and his successors (Hamann 161). Her sister Katharina (died 1282) helped cement the role of the dukes of Lower Bavaria in the imperial corridors of power when she married Otto, the son of the new elector Heinrich, who had gained his position 13 Other sources place the date of the wedding around 1253. See, for example, Hartmann and Schnith 365.

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due to the absence of King Ottokar (Hamann 232; BLKÖ 6:400). Of course, the Habsburgs benefitted from having this ally as well. Moving from this power base among the electors, Rudolf directed his attention, like so many of his successors, toward the influential kingdoms of the crowns of Saint Václav (Bohemia) and Saint István (Hungary). Rudolf and Gertrud’s daughter Clementia (died 1293) married the striving Angevin claimant to the Hungarian and Croatian thrones, Charles Martell, in 1281. They would become the parents of King Charles I of Hungary (Charles Robert). Four years later, Rudolf and Gertrud’s daughter Judith (1271–1297) married Ottokar Přemysl’s son King Václav II (ruled 1278–1305). They had been betrothed since childhood. The marriage was to smooth over the rifts in the imperial constitution which had appeared due to the rivalry between King Ottokar and Count Rudolf and his supporters (Hamann 73; BLKÖ 6:159). These six comtal daughters were key figures in the success of the Habsburgs and their strategies to achieve European-wide significance. Not only did they help the modestly ranked Count Rudolf attain the throne of the empire, they helped begin the eastern strategy of this originally southwestern German/Swiss/ French family. By the later thirteenth century, the Habsburgs were on their way to becoming based in the empire and its southeast. The significance of their earlier holdings in Alsace and the upper Rhineland would henceforth decline. Marriage to Countess Gertrud had cemented Habsburg influence in Swabia, but it was their children, and particularly their daughters, who helped this couple cement their influence throughout the empire and beyond. Medieval Transitions After Rudolf I died in 1291, a complicated transitional period began. Rudolf and Gertrud’s son was elected as King Albrecht I and ruled the empire from 1298 until his assassination in 1308. Albrecht’s son Friedrich was one of two claimants to the throne following a disputed election in 1314 that also saw the election of Friedrich’s cousin Louis, the son of Rudolf and Gertrud’s daughter, Duchess Mathilde of Bavaria. After a military defeat at the Battle of Mühldorf in 1322, Friedrich no longer exercised the powers of his royal office. Instead, who ruled was the descendent of this female branch of the Habsburg family, Louis IV (“the Bavarian”). Until the election of King Albrecht II in 1438, the Habsburgs on the male side were excluded from the imperial throne. King Albrecht I’s daughters were not as successful in organizing Habsburg influence as his sisters had been. Albrecht married the important southern imperial duchess Elisabeth of Carinthia, Tyrol and Gorizia (1262?–1313), extending Habsburg ties into the southern Alpine regions. Their five daughters’ marriage partners show well the political horizons of the dynasty at this time. The eldest, Anna (1280?–1328), first married a margrave of Brandenburg and then, after being widowed at eighteen, the duke of Silesia-Wrocław (Hamann 51–2; BLKÖ 6:149;

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Hartmann and Schnith 390). Her sister Agnes (1281?–1364) became probably the best-known of the Habsburg princesses of her generation (Hamann 30; BLKÖ 6:137; Hartmann and Schnith 390).14 When she was approximately sixteen years of age, she married the last Árpád king of Hungary, the widower Andreas III. After his death, Agnes returned five years later to the Habsburg heartland as queen dowager. There she spent the rest of her long life administering the Habsburgs’ western lands, adjudicating disputes between her relatives, and dealing with the bloody aftermath of her father’s death. She and her mother set up the important site of Habsburg family memory, the abbey of Königsfelden.15 The famous German mystic Meister Eckhart dedicated writings to Dowager Queen Agnes, mentioning her in his “Book of Benedictus.” Anna and Agnes’s younger sister Elisabeth (1285?–1352) became duchess of the important frontier political unit of Lorraine when she married her brother Friedrich’s ally in the struggles for the imperial throne, Duke Friedrich IV (‘the Battler”) (Hamann 82–3; BLKÖ 6:165; Hartmann and Schnith 391). Like her husband, their son Rudolf predeceased Elisabeth. He fell in the famous Battle of Crécy. The fourth daughter of King Albrecht I and Elisabeth, Katharina, is buried in Naples (Hamann 232; BLKÖ 6:400; Hartmann and Schnith 391). Originally destined to marry Emperor Henry VII, her father’s successor on the imperial throne, Katharina went on instead to marry Charles Anjou, the duke of Calabria and son of the king of Naples, Robert. This marriage alliance continued the Habsburgs’ Angevin ties started by her aunt, Queen Clementia of Hungary. Katharina’s youngest sister, Jutta (also “Bona” or “Guta”), ended this generation of Habsburg princesses with a more modest but still not insignificant marriage: she became a countess of Öttingen, one of the most important principalities in Swabia (Hamann 160; BLKÖ 6:157; Hartmann and Schnith 391). For over a century after the defeat of King Friedrich I at Mühldorf in 1322, the Habsburgs were off the imperial scene, both on the male and female sides of the family. The family’s members concentrated on building up their holdings in Austria and the surrounding territories. The Habsburg daughters’ marriages in this period reflect this shift in orientation and rank. The number of Habsburg princesses in these fourteenth- and early fifteenth-century generations was not large, even though the dynasty split, as it often did, into competing branches with separate geographic centers. Habsburg duchesses married Silesian dukes from the venerable Piast Dynasty in Świdnica, the subalpine Gorizia, and neighboring Bavaria.16 14

See also Widmoser, and Radícs 5–26. On the role of Königsfelden Abbey in the creation of Habsburg dynastic identity, see Wheatcroft 35–8. 16 Duchess Agnes of Silesia (?–1392), niece of King Friedrich I (Hamann 29; BLKÖ 6:137). Countess Anna of Gorizia (1318–1343) was first married to the Wittelsbach duke of Lower Bavaria, Heinrich III. One of Friedrich I’s daughters, she was twice widowed and became the prioress of the convent of Poor Clares in Vienna (Hamann 52; BLKÖ 6:149). Duchess Margarethe of Bavaria (1395–1447) was the sister of the later king Albrecht II (Hamann 272; BLKÖ 7:3). 15

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One became a baroness in Coucy, a famous and powerful principality in Picardy.17 As a sign of things to come, two fourteenth-century Habsburg archduchesses named Margareta married into the neighboring Luxembourg dynasty in Moravia.18 Probably the highest-ranking marriage of a Habsburg princess in this period was to the Elector Friedrich II of Saxony. Another Duchess Margareta married him in 1431, shortly before the Habsburgs regained the imperial throne. This marriage is a sign of the dynasty’s political resurgence.19 The French Connections One of the most significant political units of Europe in this period, particularly after the end of the Hundred Years’ War in the mid-fifteenth century, was the kingdom of France. The Valois dynasty came out on top after the century-long succession crisis that had started in 1337 and its members were committed to an active foreign policy. They engaged in continuing conflicts with neighboring political units such as the powerful if fragmented Burgundian lands on France’s eastern borders and the city-states and other political units of the Italian peninsula to its south. It is not possible here to go into detail about the shifting international scene of the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries, but one aspect of it that recurs is the rivalry between the Valois and their successors, the Bourbons, who take over France in the later sixteenth century on the one side, and the Habsburgs, on the other. As a way of regulating, directing, or at least influencing this relationship, marriages were often arranged.20 A period of significant Habsburg influence on French royal affairs begins in 1530 and continues right up to the end of the ancien régime in the 1790s. Partly through marriage alliances between male members of the Habsburg dynasty and 17 Katharina (?–1349) was another niece of King Friedrich I. After the death of her first husband Baron Enguerrand VI of Coucy, she married Count Konrad II of Hardegg, the burgrave of Magdeburg (Hamann 232; BLKÖ 6:400–401). 18 The first Margravine Margareta (1346–1366) was the daughter of Duke Albrecht II, the widow of the Wittelsbach Duke Meinhard III of Tyrol, and the third wife of Margrave Johann Heinrich. She is a good example of the tripartite nature of late medieval imperial history with its competition between the Habsburg, Wittelsbach, and Luxembourg dynasties (Hamann 271; BLKÖ 7:2). The second Margravine Margareta (1370?–1400?) was the daughter of Duke Leopold III (Hamann 271–2; BLKÖ 7:3). 19 Electress Margareta (1416/17–1486) was the daughter of Duke Ernest (“the Iron”) and sister of the later Emperor Friedrich III. Her descendents would found both branches of the important Wettiner dynasty, one branch of which would later be known as the House of Windsor (Hamann 272; BLKÖ 7:3–4). 20 French queens have not been studied very extensively, with a few significant exceptions. As Chantal Grell has written in her introduction to the important collection of articles on the Habsburg queen Ana of Austria: “Il n’était pas coutume, dans les grandes Histoires de France, de prêter attention aux reines” [It was not customary for the great French histories to pay attention to queens] (Grell 1).

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heiresses of kingdoms and principalities on France’s borders, the Habsburgs had gained legal control of most of the conglomeration of territories once known as Burgundy (and that will be referred to here as “the Low Countries”), and most of the Iberian kingdoms and principalities (with the significant exceptions of Portugal and a portion of Navarre). These Iberian kingdoms were increasingly ruled together after the Habsburgs took control and began to be known as “Spain.” The Spanish crowns also controlled extra-Iberian lands in the Mediterranean, on the Italian peninsula, and in the Americas. Most of this acquisition of territory and legal jurisdiction by the Habsburgs occurred surprisingly quickly between 1477 and the 1520s. This is also the period when in the east they gained control of the Bohemian lands and part of the Hungarian and Croatian kingdoms, and strengthened their hold on the imperial throne that they had acquired in 1438 and would not relinquish until 1740. From the beginning of the reign of Queen Éléonore in 1530 until the execution of Queen Marie Antoinette in 1793, over half of the eleven women who held the French royal office were daughters of Habsburg fathers or mothers. Two of the queens had both parents as Habsburgs. These were the thoroughly Habsburg Elisabeth (in office 1570–1574) and Ana (known as Anne in France; in office 1615–1643, regent 1643–1651).21 The daughters of Habsburg fathers were Eleonor (known as Éléonore in France; in office 1530–1547) and María Teresa (known as Marie Thérèse in France; in office 1660–1683).22 The daughters of Habsburg mothers were Marie de’ Medici (1600–1610, regent 1610–1615) and Marie Antoinette (in office 1770–1792). Another way of pointing to the influence of members of the Habsburg dynasty on the French crown is to note that for approximately 117 of the 263 years in that period, there were queens on the thrones, either as queens consort or as queens regent, with at least one Habsburg parent. The French crown also supported four of these women as queens dowager for over seventy years. Marie Thérèse died in office and Marie Antoinette was deposed and then executed. Eleonor, Elisabeth, and Marie spent all or much of their widowhoods outside France. Of the queens dowager, only Anne voluntarily remained in her husband’s kingdom until death. The Low Countries and Female Rule Habsburg princesses, as we have already seen in the case of the widowed Queen Agnes of Hungary, often continued their political roles after the deaths of their spouses. In France, Anne of Austria served as queen regent from 1643 to 1651 On Elisabeth, see Patrouch, Queen’s Apprentice. See also Hamann 87–8 and BLKÖ 6:169–71. The literature on Ana of Austria is extensive; in addition to Grell, see Hamann 58–9; BLKÖ 6:152–3; Dulong, Anne d’Autriche; Kleinman; and Buchanan. 22 On Eleonor, see Hamann 76–7 and BLKÖ 6:160–61. See also De Boom, and Combat. On Marie Thérèse, see Hamann 339–40 and BLKÖ 7:58–60. See also Courtequisse and Dulong, Le marriage. An important work for the significance of these marriages is Zanger. 21

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during the minority of her son, Louis XIV, with varying degrees of success. Often, family traditions dictated that the widowed Habsburgs would either remarry or return to the family for important roles in secular or religious governance. This essay will not emphasize the latter, but numerous Habsburg widows played roles in the establishment of religious houses, particularly convents tied to the Franciscan Order. In addition to Dowager Queen Agnes of Hungary, the Dowager Duchess of Gorizia and Bavaria, Anna, played a leading religious role, as did the widowed crown princess of Portugal, Juana of Austria, Dowager Queen Elisabeth of France, and the renounced Princess of Transylvania, Maria Christierna.23 One of the preferred areas of Habsburg female rule, normally as governors but also as hereditary rulers, was the conglomeration of territories in the Low Countries which the family had acquired through a mixture of female inheritance and military success in the late fifteenth through the early sixteenth centuries. These territories would prove difficult to maintain and were caught between the aggressive French rulers in the south and rebellious subjects who gained the upper hand in the north. After approximately eight decades of intermittent and sometimes fierce fighting, the rebels eventually gained independence for some of the provinces in the mid-seventeenth century. The politics of a number of the leaders of territories in the western part of the Holy Roman Empire, combined with the relative political weakness of the imperial prince-archbishop electors there, exacerbated an already difficult political position for the Habsburgs and their daughters who tried to rule these unruly lands. In the 237 years between 1507 and 1744, six Habsburg women ruled the Low Countries either as governors or joint hereditary rulers. For about one hundred of these years, Habsburg princesses were in control; for twenty-three of these years, the Habsburg Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia ruled jointly with her husband.24 Habsburg female rule in the Low Countries began in 1507 when the widowed duchess of Savoy, Margaret (1480–1530), was installed by her father Emperor Maximilian I as ruler in his stead in the territories her late mother had inherited and which Maximilian was administering in the name of his grandchildren (Hamann 272–5; BLKÖ 7:4–11). She had led an adventurous life up until this appointment: originally betrothed to the king of France, she was renounced, then married to the heir of the Spanish kingdoms, who died six months later, and finally wed to the duke of Savoy, Philibert. This marriage only lasted about three years. First she had been given rule over the Free County of Burgundy after her brother Philip I “the Fair” died in 1506. Emperor Maximilian soon realized that his far-flung possessions needed more personal attention than he could provide, and that the 23 Agnes co-founded the abbey at Königsfelden. Anna was abbess of the Poor Clares house in Vienna. Juana founded a convent of Poor Clares in Madrid, famously known as the Descalzas Reales; and Elisabeth did the same in Vienna. Maria Christierna became the prioress of the important house of canonesses in Hall in Tyrol that had been founded a generation earlier by some of her aunts, the unmarried Habsburg archduchesses Magdalena, Margarete, and Helena. 24 For more on this Habsburg princess, see Sánchez, “Sword and Wimple.”

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seven-year-old heir to these possessions, Charles of Ghent, needed help which his aunt Margaret could provide. She was relatively successful in this position. Charles reappointed her as his representative later after he came of age and was elected Holy Roman Emperor. Margaret served two terms as regent of the Netherlands: 1507–1515 and 1517–1530.25 After Margaret came another dowager Habsburg princess: the widowed queen of Hungary, Mary (1505–1558), was named ruler of the Low Countries (Hamann 283–5; BLKÖ 7:18–19; Radícs 39).26 Mary was Margaret’s niece and had lived for some time during her girlhood at her aunt’s sumptuous court at Malines. She had been betrothed to Louis Jagiellon, the future king of Hungary, in a famous ceremony in Vienna when she was ten years old and married Louis officially seven years later. The young couple enjoyed a brief reign in their frontier kingdom before Ottoman troops routed the Hungarian army at the famous Battle of Mohács in 1526. King Louis II was killed and Mary widowed. After a couple of years in central Europe she, like many a Habsburg bride, returned home to the House of Austria and took up the reins of government of the Low Countries which her aunt had relinquished. This analysis of Habsburg women rulers who left home (only at times to later return) has stressed the legitimate princesses of Habsburg’s paternity. When looking at the rolls of the female Habsburgs ruling the Low Countries, however, a different category of Habsburg princess appears: an illegitimate one. Margarita (1522–1586), the dowager duchess of Florence and duchess of Parma, was the daughter of Emperor Charles V, but her mother was not the beautiful empress Isabel (Hamann 275–7; BLKÖ 7:12–13). The offspring of a servant girl and imperial mistress, Johanna Maria van der Gheynst, Margarita was named regent of the Low Countries by her half-brother, the Spanish king Philip II, in 1559. She would serve a total of twelve years in the position, first from 1559 to 1567 and later from 1578 to 1582. After a period of male rule in the Habsburg Low Countries, Philip bequeathed his hereditary rights over the territories to his eldest daughter by his third wife Isabel of Valois, Isabel Clara Eugenia, and her husband, Albert, his brother-in-law and nephew (Hamann 168–9; BLKÖ 6:177–8).27 The couple would successfully govern the territory together for over twenty years (1598–1621), consolidating Habsburg power in the south and overseeing a relatively peaceful and prosperous phase of the area’s tumultuous early modern history. Childless, Isabel Clara Eugenia continued on as regent during her widowhood, ruling another eleven years on her own (1621–1633) as the Thirty Years’ War and then the widening 25

There are multiple biographies of this colorful figure. See for example, Carton de Wiart. Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire also was known as King Carlos I of the united Spanish kingdoms. 26 On her military role in this disputed province, see Patrouch “Mary of Hungary,” 1: 282–4. 27 On this couple, see Sánchez “Sword and Wimple”; and Duerloo and Thomas.

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Franco-Spanish war engulfed her lands. These lands reverted back to the senior branch of the Habsburg dynasty and would continue in first that branch and then the cadet branch’s control for the rest of the period of this study. A bit less than a century after the end of Isabel Clara Eugenia’s regency, the Habsburgs would return to the policy of female rule in the parts of the Low Countries that they controlled when one of the late Emperor Leopold I’s unmarried daughters, the forty-five-year-old Maria Elisabeth, was named regent there by her brother, Emperor Charles VI (Hamann 319–20; BLKÖ 7:46). Maria Elisabeth served as regent for sixteen years, from 1725 to 1741. Although Archduchess Maria Elisabeth did not follow the pattern discussed here of Habsburg daughters leaving home to marry, she did leave home to take up administrative tasks for the family. Her niece Maria Anna, the duchess of Lorraine, however, followed the standard pattern (Hamann 299; BLKÖ 7:26). After this Habsburg archduchess’ marriage in 1744, she and her husband were named co-regents of the Low Countries, but Maria Anna died after only a few months in office, ending the line of Habsburg women in positions of rule in those western provinces of the dynasty’s holdings. (An archduchess with a Habsburg mother, Maria Christina, served as co-regent there from 1781–1793.) The provinces were permanently lost to the Habsburgs in 1797 in the midst of the French Revolutionary Wars. Conclusions The sixty-six Habsburg princesses studied in this chapter went forth into the wider world of Europe to undertake the work of projecting their family’s interests and power across the continent. They helped establish the dynasty on the imperial throne in the late thirteenth century and helped maneuver it back into power through the tumultuous century that followed. Once the family was ensconced at the highest levels of political authority in central and western Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Habsburg princesses helped to keep the dynasty together and to manage its hereditary kingdoms in Bohemia, Hungary, Portugal, and Iberia. They also helped to rule the dynasty’s important holdings in the northwestern part of the continent, the Low Countries, and were key figures in managing one of the most pressing foreign policy issues for the Habsburgs in the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries: the dynasty’s relations with the often belligerent rival dynasties ruling in France, the Valois and then, the Bourbon. When studying the women associated with the House of Austria, we tend to focus on those brides who came to form part of the House. It is important as well to consider those who left home. Without them, the situations of their mothers, fathers, and brothers on the home front would have looked much different. Dealt often a difficult hand, these women often chose different paths abroad and many returned home for further service later in their careers. In order to understand the Habsburg dynasty’s successes and failures in the late medieval and early modern periods, it is essential to take these princesses’ contributions into consideration.

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Works Cited Boom, Ghislain, de. Éléonore d’Autriche. Reine de Portugal et de France. 1943. Rept. Brussels: Cri, 2003. Buchanan, Meriel. Anne of Austria: The Infanta Queen. London: Hutchinson, 1936. Carton de Wiart, Henry. Marguerite d’Autriche. une princesse belge de la Renaissance. Paris: Éditions Bernard Grasset, 1935. Combat, Michel. Éléonore d’Autriche, seconde épouse de François Ier. Paris: Pygmalion, 2008. Courtequisse, Bruno. Madame Louis XIV. Marie-Thérèse d’Autriche. Paris: Perrin, 1992. Duerloo, Luc, and Werner Thomas, ed. Albert & Isabella, 2 vols. Turnhout: Brepols, 1998. Dulong, Claude. Anne d’Autriche, mère de Louis XIV. Paris: Hachette, 1980. ———. Le marriage du Roi-Soleil. Paris: Albin Michel, 1986. “France-Habsburg Rivalry.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France%E2%80%93Habsburg_rivalry. Grell, Chantal, ed. Anne d‘Autriche. Infante d‘Espagne et reine de France. Paris, Perrin, 2009. Hamann, Brigitte, ed. Die Habsburger. Ein biographisches Lexikon. Munich: Piper, 1988. Hartmann, Gerhard, and Karl Schnith, eds. Die Kaiser. 1200 Jahre europäische Geschichte. Wiesbaden: Marix Verlag, 2006. Hine, Daryl, transl. Ovid’s Heroines: A Verse Translation of the Heroides. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991. Kleinman, Ruth. Anne of Austria: Queen of France. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 1985. Leitner, Thea. Habsburgs goldene Bräute. Durch Mitgift zur Macht. Vienna: Ueberreuter, 2000. Patrouch, Joseph F. “Austria.” In Oxford Bibliographies Online: Renaissance and Reformation. Ed. Margaret King. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. http://www.oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/view/document/obo9780195399301/9780195399302-0958xml. ———. “The Coronations of Queen María: Reaching beyond Religious Divisions in Prague, Frankfurt am Main, and Bratislava, 1562–1563.” Kosmas. Czechoslovak and Central European Journal 21 (2008): 9–21. ———. “Mary of Hungary.” In Amazons to Fighter Pilots: A Biographical Dictionary of Military Women. Ed. Reina Pennington. 2 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003. ———. Queen’s Apprentice: Archduchess Elizabeth, Empress María, the Habsburgs, and the Holy Roman Empire, 1554–1569. Leiden: Brill, 2010. Radícs, Peter von. Fürstinnen des Hauses Habsburg in Ungarn. Dresden: Pierson’s Verlag, 1896.

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Reeson, James. Ovid Heroides 11, 13 and 14: A Commentary. Leiden: Brill, 2001. Sánchez, Magdalena S. The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun: Women and Power at the Court of Philip III of Spain. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. ———. “Sword and Wimple: Isabel Clara Eugenia and Power.” In The Rule of Women in Early Modern Europe. Ed. Anne J. Cruz and Mihoko Suzuki. Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009. 64–79. Tanner, Marie. The Last Descendent of Aeneas: The Hapsburgs and the Mythic Image of the Emperor. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993. Van Doren, Mark, ed. William Wordsmith: Selected Poetry. New York: Modern Library, 1950. Wheatcroft, Andrew. The Habsburgs: Embodying Empire. London: Penguin, 1995. White, Paul. Renaissance Postscripts: Responding to Ovid’s Heroides in SixteenthCentury France. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2009. Widmoser, Eduard. “Agnes von Österreich.“ Neue Deutsche Biographie 1 (1953): 96 [Online edition accessed March 3, 2011.] Wurzbach, Constantin. Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Öesterreich. Volumes 6 and 7. Vienna: Universitäts Bucherei, 1860–1861. Zanger, Abby E. Scenes from the Marriage of Louis XIV: Nuptial Fictions and the Making of Absolutist Power. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.

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Fig. 2.1

Maria Maddalena of Austria (Wife of Duke Cosimo II de Medici) with Her Son, Ferdinand II, 1622. Justus Sustermans. Oil on canvas, 56 5/8 x 46 9/16 in. Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan.

Chapter 2

Maria Maddalena, Archduchess of Austria and Grand Duchess of Florence: Negotiating Performance, Traditions, and Taste Maria Galli Stampino

My essay situates itself at the crossroads between gender and the geographical emphasis that has dominated traditional historical and literary research in early modern Italian studies. Specifically, I want to depart from the twin and mutually reinforcing focus in Italian historiography on city-states and their male rulers to consider the cultural role played by Maria Maddalena (or Magdalena, as she signed herself to her death) of Austria (1589–1631) in her husband’s city of Florence, where she was co-regent with her mother-in-law, Christine de Lorraine, from the time of her husband Cosimo II’s death (February 28, 1621) to that of her son Ferdinando II’s eighteenth birthday (July 14, 1628)—the only period of female regency in the history of the Florentine principality (1537–1737). The shift in focal point that I propose requires us to take into account the networks of noble families that covered the entire European continent in early modernity by placing specific emphasis on their female members. In turn, such reconsideration translates into a renewed interest in the complex politics of matrimonial alliances that concentrates on how noble women, far from being powerless pawns on the large geopolitical board that was Europe, negotiated their own agency in political, cultural, and economic terms.1 After providing a short synopsis of Maria Maddalena’s life, I deliberate on how she and her co-regency are presented in the historiography up to the present. I then turn to documentary evidence to paint a more nuanced picture, one in which her own taste and cultural background are seen alongside the Florentine and Medici traditions Here, I develop the thought expressed by Stephen Orgel that matrimonial “alliances were normally arranged for sons just as for daughters; the distinction here is between fathers or guardians and children, not between sexes” (13). Many scholars have pursued this research line, concentrating on marriage choices, women regents, will writing by men and women, art patronage, and more. The recent study by Grace Coolidge, focusing on Spain but making explicit connection to other European courts, perceptively traces the tension between early modern gender roles borne out in literature, drama, and the law, and the drive to preserve “family, power, and lineage,” which proved “more important than the prescriptive gender roles of [the] time” for Spanish noble men and women (2). 1

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of patronage, with a particular emphasis on several types of staged performances. It is not my intent to emphasize her role as an organizer of festivities to the detriment of the contributions by countless other people (courtiers, musicians, composers, performers, and more). Rather, I wish to complement the findings of Kelley Harness, which I believe conclusively demonstrate that there existed a manner of handling visual and theatrical sponsorship specific to her regency. However, the complexity and the variety of court events, even just those that took place on theatrical stages, were such that it would be disingenuous to attribute the entire responsibility for each of them to one individual, albeit one so remarkably important as Maria Maddalena. Nonetheless, I want to demonstrate her subtle, yet clever ability to assert her taste alongside the traditions that she had learned to appreciate or accept in Florence. Table 2.1

Genealogical chart, Maria Maddalena of Austria Charles II of Austria (1540–90)

Philip III of Spain (1578–1621)

Margarita of Austria (1584–1611)

Maria Anna of Bavaria (1551–1608)

Maria Maddalena of Austria (1589–1631)

Cosimo II de’ Medici (1590–1621)

Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor

Maria Anna of Bavaria (1574–1616)

Maria Maddalena was born in Graz, in what is now Austria, on October 7, 1589 to Charles II Francis, Archduke of Austria, and his wife and niece, Maria Anna of Bavaria; she was the fourteenth of their fifteen children. Of the daughters, one became a nun; three died in their late adolescence or early twenties, unmarried; the oldest, Anne, married Sigismund III Vasa, King of Poland and Sweden, who, after Anne’s death, married her younger sister, Constance. The second oldest, Maria Christina, married Sigismund Bathory, Prince of Transylvania; and lastly, Margarita, tenth in birth order, married Philip III, king of Spain. This network of matrimonial alliances, both geographically vast and dynastically strong, was compounded by luck and excellent placement of the male issue. The oldest surviving son of the couple, Ferdinand, became Holy Roman Emperor as Ferdinand II, succeeding his heirless uncle Matthias in 1619 and ruling until his death in 1637. The other sons were Maximilian Ernest, a Teutonic Knight; Leopold, Archduke of Further Austria and Count of Tyrol; and the youngest, Charles, Bishop of Wroclaw and Brixen (or Bressanone, as the city is called in Italian) and Grand Master of the Teutonic Order of Knights.2 Only two of the fifteen children died in infancy, an earlier Ferdinand (July 15– August 3, 1572), and an earlier Charles (July 17, 1579–May 17, 1580). Not only was Maria Anna prolific, but much of her issue was strong enough to survive to adulthood. 2

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While living in Graz, Maria Maddalena was educated together with her brothers and sisters by the Jesuits; her cursus studiorum included Latin.3 It was not uncommon for young noble men and women of the time to be educated by men of the cloth; the Jesuits, in particular, aimed to shape the minds of those who would hold future positions of authority and the inclusion of the Habsburg princesses in their educational strategy is telling in and of itself. In the specific case of Charles II Francis and Maria Anna’s household, deep religiosity was encouraged in all children, as Maria Maddalena’s parents were devout Catholics, tied especially to the Society of Jesus (Sánchez 143). Charles II Francis was a promoter of the Counter-Reformation in his lands, and the division between Protestants and Catholics was keenly felt within the Habsburg family. Because of their political importance, religious leanings had relevant political consequences, especially during the years of the Council of Trent.4 As a student of the Jesuits, Maria Maddalena was exposed, both as an audience member and as an actor, to their use of performance and theater for educational purposes.5 Furthermore, she became fond of music: to cite Harness, “the Graz court also boasted a remarkably large musical establishment … As adults, both Emperor Ferdinand and Maria Magdalena remembered the lessons of their childhood, particularly the ways in which music and theater could propagate the Catholic agenda” (21). Her knowledge of and taste for edifying performances (with and without music) accompanied Maria Maddalena throughout her life and are reflected in the lavishly staged events that she sponsored at the Medici court during her regency. Married at nineteen in 1608, Maria Maddalena bore Cosimo II five sons and three daughters between August 1609 and November 1617. The oldest, Maria Cristina (1609–1632), seems to have been born with some physical or mental deficiency;6 Magdalena Sánchez states that Maria Maddalena’s sister Margaret’s daily routine “included attending mass, studying grammar, physical exercise, visiting the sick, and feeding the poor.” Furthermore, “like her sisters, she studied Latin” (71). 4 Emperor Maximilian II (1527–1576, ruled 1562–1576) seems to have had complex religious beliefs as well as affinities for Protestant preachers and princes; his relations with Pope Paul IV were tense (he refused to allow the publication of some decrees proclaimed at the Council of Trent in his own domain) as were those with members of both Spanish and Austrian branches of his own family. See Patrouch 100–107. 5 Harness points out that at Graz Maria Maddalena was involved, as performer or spectator, in didactic “plays based on the lives of Saint Dorothea (1595, 1607), Saint Catherine of Alexandria (1597), Saint Helena (1601), the biblical figure of Judith (1603), Saint Cecilia (1603), and Saint Mary Magdalen (1604)” (41). 6 In her biography of Maria Maddalena, Galasso Calderara asserts that Maria Cristina “in addition to being a girl, suffered from serious physical and mental problems” [alla colpa del suo sesso aggiunge quella di gravi anomalie fisiche e mentali], which, however, she leaves unspecified and unsupported by any documentation (57). This is confirmed, also without any documentary evidence, in Arrighi 70: 262. Very few official documents refer to Maria Cristina, but the fact that she never married would indicate some impediment to that life path. 3

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she was originally destined to marry Odoardo Farnese, the heir to the Duchy of Parma, but spent most of her youth and adulthood in a convent in Florence.7 There followed Ferdinando (1610–1670), who would become Granduke as Ferdinando II and would marry Vittoria della Rovere of Urbino; Giancarlo (1611–1663), made cardinal in 1644; Margherita (1612–1679), who married Odoardo Farnese of Parma in 1628; Mattias (1613–1667), appointed governor of Siena; Francesco (1614–1634); Anna (1616–1676), who married Ferdinand Charles, governor of Austria; and Leopoldo (1617–1675), made cardinal in 1667. After Cosimo’s death in February 1621, Maria Maddalena became co-regent of Tuscany with her mother-in-law Christine of Lorraine. Unfortunately, few documents dwell on the relationship between the two women, but it is clear that the two found a way to coexist and respect each other at court. In particular, in terms of participation in and sponsorship of performances, Maria Maddalena carried out a more public and political role by consistently taking her seat in the primo luogo¸ the place from which one could best view perspective-built stage settings (Harness 14); for her part, Christine took on patronage within Florentine religious establishments (Harness 17–19). Contemporary sources describe Maria Maddalena as deeply religious and with a good appetite, hence slightly overweight, although this did not stand in the way of another cherished pastime of hers, hunting. In September 1631, after her son had become granduke, she left to visit the imperial court and her brother, Ferdinand II, in Vienna; however, she never arrived at her destination. From Florence she and her sons Mattias and Francesco traveled to Bologna, Verona, Trento, and Innsbruck; she took ill in Passau (Germany, close to the border with modern-day Austria) (Arrighi 70: 264) and died on November 1, 1631, at age fortytwo, possibly of a grave attack of asthma8 or a pulmonary edema (Arrighi 70: 264). Although contemporary sources do not pass judgment on the regency period, as they concentrate on reporting daily goings-on at court, later assessments of Maria Maddalena’s personality, her influence on husband and son, and her capability as co-regent are uniformly negative.9 The eighteenth-century historian Jacopo Rigucci Galluzzi opens his remarks on the co-regency with the sentence “everything started to decline from the moment of Cosimo II’s death.”10 Rhetorically, the rest of his description fits well with his opening salvo: he states that Maria Maddalena 7 For the negotiations on the Medici-Farnese wedding and the late date of the exchange between Maria Cristina and Margherita, see Stampino, Staging the Pastoral (9). Harness reminds us that while it was customary for Medici princesses to spend some formative time in a convent before their marriage, only Maria Cristina and her aunt Maria Maddalena (Ferdinando I and Christine’s daughter) spent their entire lives in one, although they did not profess as nuns (282). 8 Pieraccini II: 354–7. Pieraccini reports the city only as “Possa,” following seventeenth-century sources that render the name in Italian. Several twenty-first century biographies wrongly give Padua as the city of her death (see both Italian and English entries under her name in Wikipedia, for example). 9 Nor is this surprising, as Silvia Mitchell’s essay in this volume reminds us in the case of Mariana of Austria. 10 “Tutto cominciò a declinare dal momento della sua [Cosimo II] morte” (Rigucci Galluzzi III: 394).

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and Christine displayed “weakness” [debolezza] as guardians, but that the court hobbled along under their “despotic and arbitrary will” [dispotico arbitrio] (Rigucci Galluzzi III: 396–7). They spent excessively to sustain their “useless magnificence” [fasto inutile] while withholding funds from projects started by Cosimo and provided for in his will (Rigucci Galluzzi III: 397). They pursued reforms preferred by them and ignored those ordered by Cosimo; they allowed religious men to enter the administrative ranks of the Tuscan government, a strategy that in turn gave further impetus to a mode of governing based on hollow appearance rather than substantive actions—as the Church was often believed to do. Even more reprehensibly, according to Rigucci Galluzzi, the two princesses exerted their influence beyond Ferdinando II’s legal coming of age, “as long as his two guardians were alive he seconded their inclinations.”11 Angelo Solerti, one of the main sources for scholars investigating early modern Florentine court performances, also makes his judgment clear, “after Cosimo II’s death, the court’s liveliness and magnificence disappeared altogether; masses, vespers and religious sermons occurred daily under the regency of grand duchess Maria Maddalena, who was stern and sanctimonious, and the Jesuits acted as if they were in charge.”12 Solerti’s misogynistic and anti-clerical tone corresponds well to Rigucci Galluzzi’s, but in one fundamental matter they are at odds: did Maria Maddalena continue to spend money in a futile display of power, as the latter suggests, or did the court become impervious to entertainment at large, as the former states? Riguzzi Galluzzi does not cite any documents, and Solerti limits himself to an admittedly important and extensive court diary, which he cites selectively and interprets idiosyncratically. It is more constructive to examine what spectacles were produced or even simply attended by the court during the co-regency to consider the interplay of taste, gender, and display of power and traditions during this period. In a much more recent study, Estella Galasso Calderara nevertheless takes her cue from the rhetoric of her predecessors to criticize Maria Maddalena, “after her husband’s death, the archduchess could fully enjoy her power and force the weight of her nefarious personality on the court.”13 She dwells on the religious bent that the court developed during the co-regency and on the long-term influence that Maria Maddalena exerted on Florentine policy, averring that Ferdinando II’s accession to the throne was “but a mere formality, as he was for all intents yoked to the will of his guardians, especially of his mother.”14 According to this interpretation, the mood of intense religiosity and the young prince’s inability to hold power continued well into “Finché vissero le due Tutrici secondò le loro inclinazioni” (Rigucci Galluzzi III: 443). “Con la sua [di Cosimo II] scomparsa cessò del tutto il brio e il fasto della corte,

11

12

e non si parlò d’altro che di messe, di vespri, di sermoni religiosi sotto l’austera e bigotta granduchessa Maria Maddalena, reggente, mentre i gesuiti spadroneggiavano” (Solerti, Musica, Ballo 158). 13 “Deceduto il marito, l’arciduchessa può godere pienamente il suo potere e imprimere alla corte il sigillo della propria deteriore personalità” (Galasso Calderara 94). 14 “Una mera formalità, perché il giovane acquista una autorità esclusivamente nominale e in effetti rimane, come prima, soggiogato alle volontà delle tutrici, e in particolare della madre” (Galasso Calderara 123).

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his rule, despite all hopes, “the people of Florence were tired of the long, tiresome domination at the hands of two sanctimonious foreign women, and held high hopes for Ferdinando II; soon, however, they realized that nothing had changed after his formal accession to power.”15 Maria Maddalena is thus accused of casting a long, ominous shadow on the future of Florence, via her son; in Galasso Calderara’s opinion, her gender, place of birth, and upbringing mark her as a perennial outsider who tried doggedly yet ineffectively to impose her worldview, taste, and political and cultural sympathies on her children, the Medici court, and even the city at large. The most recent biographical profile of Maria Maddalena to appear in Italian (2008) is not as direct in laying blame entirely on the archduchess, but it does depict the period of her rule in a negative light. Vanna Arrighi states that “the regency marked the beginning of the downward slope of the Medici government, on whose decadence the princess’s personal action weighed not a little.”16 The litotes at the closing of this clause open the way to a negative appraisal of Maria Maddelena’s “desire for grandeur” [volontà di grandezza] and “fervor in charitable works” [fervore nelle opera delle carità] that distanced the economic and political interests of the state from merchant and manufacturing enterprises (Arrighi 70: 263). Furthermore, in Arrighi’s assessment of Maria Maddelena’s court, the domestic sphere prevails over the public one: the regency’s foreign politics reflect her Habsburg origins in its support of both the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy, but it stands out for “too much attention devoted to issues of precedence and wedding negotiations.”17 There is in Arrighi’s opinion a sense of superficiality and disengagement from a broader view of European politics, in that Maria Maddalena is presented as interested solely in benefiting her natal and marital families and in keeping up appearances. This flies in the face of other assessments of royal women’s behavior, which emphasize that matrimonial alliances were central to the political role assumed specifically by female members of noble families in early modern courts. Indeed, Maria Maddalena’s sister Margarita of Austria “was very successful in getting [Philip III’s favorite, the Duke of] Lerma to help her negotiate matches” for her sisters; “eventually Maria Magdalena … married the son of the Grand Duke of Florence” (Sánchez 53–4). We could argue that, like her sister in Madrid, the archduchess made good use of her upbringing by devoting her time, attention, and political clout to marital negotiations for her daughters and son Ferdinando.18 “I Fiorentini, stanchi del lungo, saturante dominio di due bigotte, per di più straniere, sperano molto in Ferdinando II, ma ben presto dovranno accorgersi che nulla è mutato da quando egli ha assunto formalmente il potere” (Galasso Calderara 123). 16 “Il periodo della reggenza si caratterizzò come l’inizio della parabola discendente del governo mediceo, sulla cui decadenza pesò non poco l’azione personale [of the princess]” (Arrighi 70: 263). 17 “Un’eccessiva attenzione per le questioni di precedenza e le trattative matrimoniali” (Arrighi 70: 263). 18 As Sánchez cogently argues, “the ability to produce heirs was at the core of early modern society’s judgment of an aristocratic woman; her reputation improved even further if those children went on to assume important political offices or if they contracted advantageous marriages” (117). 15

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Lest we think that negative assessments originate only with Italian scholars, let us take a look at one of the most popular narratives of the Medici rule, J.R. Hale’s Florence and the Medici. The Pattern of Control (1977), which spans the Medici’s entire dominion of the city. The period that interests us here is addressed in chapter 6, significantly entitled “The Decline of a Dynasty and the Growth of a Legend,” which opens with a section devoted to Cosimo II’s and Ferdinando II’s reigns along with Christine de Lorraine’s and Maria Maddalena’s co-regency. Hale’s judgment of the interregnum is harsh: “For the first time Medici rule was woman-ridden not by mistresses anxious to please, but by viragos determined to dominate” (177). These so-called viragos had ample opportunity to do so when Cosimo died, leaving Ferdinando aged only eleven, “the double regency—especially as the two women fell into accord when neither had a husband living—harassed and confused a system perfectly capable of carrying on a routine, and was to emasculate Ferdinando’s sense of independence well after he had reached eighteen” (Hale 178). The curious choice of the phrase “double regency,” as opposed to co-regency, brings about the rhetorical effect of magnifying the impact (a negative one, by all means) of the women’s rule during Ferdinando’s minority and of extending it chronologically, as we saw in Rigucci Galluzzi and Galasso Calderara. It is easy to ascribe these harsh judgments to a diffused misogynistic stance. To this day however, scholars of Italian early modernity have failed to call attention to this negative opinion, perhaps because Maria Maddalena and Christine’s co-regency constitutes the exception in the period when women in Italy (and foreign women at that) did not rule for an extensive period of time, as happened in other European courts. Yet it is precisely the fact that this female co-regency constitutes a unicum in early modern Italian history that brings the misogyny of later critics to the fore, giving us the opportunity to underscore the ideology driving their views, and to assess the period and its agents more carefully. In the rest of this essay, I investigate archival sources to contextualize Maria Maddalena’s activities at court in one specific field, that is, the performances that the Medici organized or attended in Florence. I build on the extensive research carried out by Harness for her masterful monograph Echoes of Women’s Voices, in which she explores Maria Maddalena’s patronage of entertainment set to music and of paintings in her apartment at the Villa of Poggio Imperiale on the Florentine hills.19 I signal the continuity between the Florentine customs of entertainment, whether sponsored by the court or viewed by some of its members, in order to Harness points out that “in 1622, shortly after assuming power, Maria Magdalena purchased the Villa Baroncelli, which she renamed Villa Poggio Imperiale in honor of her Habsburg lineage” (43). This event was deemed so important that it was included in Cesare Tinghi’s Diario e cerimoniale della corte medicea [Diary and Ceremonial Description of the Medici Court] (Solerti, Musica, Ballo 172). Maria Maddalena’s explicit nod to her heritage offers the additional rhetorical advantage of marking her own presence in the topography of the city, subsuming her lineage into the Florentine one and on the features of the area. Stated differently, her intention to glorify her native family by renaming the 19

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counter the traditional juxtaposition between the period before the co-regency and the co-regency itself found in all previous assessments of these years. What is undoubtedly harder to gauge is the degree of Maria Maddalena’s personal involvement in all events, particularly those that were not sponsored by the court;20 however, her presence and the permission she gave family members and guests to attend are significant and have not been explored thus far. Harness has rightly pointed out that “Cosimo’s will … created an uneasy alliance between two women with similar religious views but opposing political positions and national loyalties” (Harness 15–16). Culturally, however, Christine and Maria Maddalena shared more than what appears at first sight: the religious themes that came to occupy the stage at court were appropriate for women sponsors; they showed the “innovation” and “originality considered essential to princely patronage” (Harness 10), and they conveyed a specific and highly appropriate message on the virtues and legitimacy of strong women’s behavior, such as the virgin martyrs Saint Agatha and Saint Ursula, Queen Judith from the Old Testament, and even the magician Melissa from Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso.21 In addition (and by contrast), the archival sources that I have consulted allow us to glimpse other performances, perhaps less official or less accurately Villa Baroncelli inscribed the powerful Habsburg connection on the city, the Florentine countryside, and the Medici family, elevating them all in the process. It should be noted, additionally, that the Medici family had traditionally supported and been supported by the Habsburgs, and that matrimonial alliances between a Medici scion and a Habsburg princess had taken place before Maria Maddalena and Cosimo II. The best known instance is the matrimonial alliance between Cosimo I and Eleonora di Toledo, successful both in the number of children (eleven, four of whom lived past their teen years) and in the loving relationship between the spouses. Eleonora was the daughter of don Pedro Álvarez de Toledo, son of the second Duke of Alba and viceroy of Naples, and María Osorio Pimentel, a ward of Queen Isabel of Castile (Gaston 159). Decorations of her rooms in the Palazzo della Signoria include “the coats of arts of the Toledo and Medici families … joined together and embraced by the Hapsburg double-headed eagle” (Hoppe 99) in both the socalled Camera verde and Salotto (Hoppe 99 and 102). Habsburg symbols were therefore present in Florence long before Maria Maddalena renamed the Villa Baroncelli. 20 In Tinghi’s manuscript Diario e cerimoniale della corte medicea, which Solerti edited and published as Musica, Ballo, all annotations written after Cosimo II’s death refer to the young Ferdinando as “His Highness” [Sua Altezza]. Obviously, in official or courtsanctioned documents the center of attention is always the male heir, even at a time when he is a minor and the co-regents are presumably making most decisions. Yet this choice of title makes it harder for subsequent readers to discern and interpret his role vis-à-vis those of his mother, grandmother, advisors, and other noblemen at court. 21 A chart of all court spectacles with female protagonists during the regency can be found in Harness 44–5. In her essay in this volume, Mercedes Llorente outlines the reasons why Mariana of Austria selected Tintoretto’s Judith and Holofernes to be hung in the Salón de los Espejos at the Madrid Alcázar. Such reasons closely mirror those implicit in the characters highlighted in courtly entertainment during Maria Maddalena’s regency in Florence, as Harness has elucidated.

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controlled, that members of the Medici family and their guests attended regularly. Specifically, I have made use of Francesco Settimanni’s Memorie Fiorentine Regnante Ferdinando II Medici Granduca di Toscana sovrano e Serenissime sue Tutrici Granduchesse di Toscana [Florentine Memoirs during the reign of Ferdinando II Medici, sovereign granduke of Tuscany and his most serene guardians, granduchesses of Tuscany] and compared Solerti’s transcription of Tinghi’s court diary to the original, which has allowed me to uncover some telling omissions. The issue of who controlled the organization and staging of the performances, as well as their accessibility, thus becomes central to our understanding of Maria Maddalena’s contributions to the Florentine court, although it remains limited by the difficulties in distinguishing those by other organizers or participants in the productions. Instead of juxtaposing a traditional model in which noblewomen were deprived of any relevance, let alone power, at court, to one that would bestow direct control on the same agents, it is crucial to paint a more nuanced picture, in which “control” is relative and negotiations are subtle but ever present, as is the circulation of habits and taste. When we look at documentary sources with renewed attention and a different emphasis, what becomes most obvious is that the stark difference between what occurred at court in the last months of Cosimo II’s rule and at the beginning of the co-regency, is a myth. Solerti informs us that the lack of information regarding festivities and entertainment for the years 1619–1620 in Tinghi’s Diario is due to a “grave illness” [grave malattia] that relegated him to his bed between August 1619 and October 1620; even in January 1621, that is, during carnevale festivities, the only entertainment mentioned is Jacopo Cicognini’s comedy, Santa Maria Maddalena (likely staged in honor of his wife, whose devotion to her namesake saint was well known), and a small family-only event for the feast of Epiphany (Solerti, Musica, Ballo 157). The religious topics that were to characterize musical performances under Maria Maddalena, therefore, were already well established at court before her regency. After Cosimo’s death on February 28, 1621, the period of mourning included and affected the wedding of Claudia de’ Medici to Federico of Urbino (April 29, 1621), which took place in Florence “without any solemnity” [senza alcuna solennità] (Solerti, Musica, Ballo 157); it extended into the early months of 1622. Tinghi’s diary reports the following remark, tellingly omitted by Solerti in his transcription, “one cannot avoid stating that for this carnevale Their Most Illustrious Highnesses forbade the wearing of all masks and all foolishness and festivities in the streets out of respect and regard for the first year from Granduke Cosimo’s death, may God hold him in His glory.”22 The notation “in the streets” [per le vie] indicates that mourning encompassed the entire city, not simply the 22 “Non e mancata di dire come in questo Carnivale loro Altezze Illustrissime aveano proibito il fare le mascere et tirare luocca et feste per le vie per rispetto et risguardo nel 1° anno et morte del gran Duca Cosimo che sia in gloria” (Tinghi II: 471v).

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restricted space of the court, in the sense of the various places that the Medici family and their retinue occupied for short or long periods of time.23 Yet, thanks largely to Maria Maddalena’s and Christine’s natal family networks, Florence continued to be a stopover for the European diplomatic circuit: ambassadors, envoys, and guests arrived and had to be entertained, and even the young Medici princes and princesses wanted to have “some fun” [un poco di gusto] (a phrase Tinghi uses repeatedly, as we shall see). Although scholars have focused on the lavish performances that the court sponsored in honor of such guests, archival sources paint a more complex picture in which different types of entertainment formed part of the Florentine tradition. The court enjoyed performances with and without music, staged by professionals and amateurs and in a variety of venues; their coexistence belies any notion that Maria Maddalena introduced any “foreign” tradition or taste that radically altered or even smothered a local, pre-existing one. In June 1622, Don Manuel de Zúñiga, Count of Monterrey and Spanish ambassador, visited the Medici court. Francesco Settimanni’s Memorie Fiorentine (which begins with events taking place in 1620) records his activities under the entry for Sunday, June 26, 1622: During the time he [Zúñiga] spent in Florence, he was shown all the most notable features of the city and of the Pitti Palace. He took in the festivities for Saint John’s feast day and the Medici cardinals offered him a celebration in the Casino near San Marco, followed at the same location by a comedy with music, which the ambassador and the other Spaniards who accompanied him liked very much.24

The visit was timed to coincide with the traditional religious festival dedicated to the city’s patron saint, Saint John the Baptist, whose feast day falls on June 24, and included other highlights, such as a tour of the notable places in the city.25 Interestingly, Settimanni’s list mentions but does not name Jacopo Cicognini’s play set to music by Giovanni Battista da Gagliano and Francesca Caccini, Il martirio 23 I recall here Magdalena Sánchez’s idea of “expanded court” under Philip III of Spain, which was “spatially flexible” (174): “politics were often discussed and decision apparently reached in gardens, private homes, hunting lodges, and convents, in addition to the more obvious sites of governmental deliberation such as the meeting rooms of the Council of State” (Sánchez 173). 24 “Nel tempo che fu in Firenze gli furono mostrate tutte le cose più notabili della città, e del Palazzo de’ Pitti: vide le feste di san Giovanni, ed al Casino di San Marco gli fu fatta una festa dalli signori Cardinali de’ Medici, e dopo desinare fu rappresentata nel detto Casino una Commedia con Musiche, con molto gusto di detto signor Ambasciatore, e degli altri Spagnuoli ch’erano seco” (Settimanni VIII: Part 1, 116r). 25 Two elements are especially noteworthy in Settimanni’s short passage: first, the beginning of the traditions that would later bloom in the Grand Tour with its well known loci deputati; second, the fact that Palazzo Pitti, which the namesake family had sold to the Medici in 1549, is still presented as a separate location entirely, reflecting its physical separation from the centers of political, administrative, and religious power, which lie on the opposite bank of the Arno.

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di Sant’Agata [The martyrdom of Saint Agatha], which was the centerpiece of the festivities in honor of the Count of Monterrey (Harness 69–79; Solerti, Musica, Ballo 162). A few months later, in February 1623, during carnevale season, Henri II de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, arrived for a visit. In this case the most notable event, according to historians, was the staging of Le fonti d’Ardenna: festa d’armi e di ballo [The Fountains of the Ardennes: A Festivity of Arms and Dances], written by Andrea Salvadori with music by Marco da Gagliano, on February 8 and again on February 23 (Harness 147–52; Solerti, Musica, Ballo 163–5). Tinghi explains that this “festa” was “done as a war and one-on-one fights for love,” juxtaposing paladins to “foreign knights” and including “nymphs in classical garb” who engaged in a “most beautiful dance … to stupendous music.”26 Settimanni mentions that, along with this event, many other pastimes were organized for the French visitor and the court: on February 2, “after dinner he donned a mask and boarded a six-horse coach; he played with snowballs and had a lot of fun: the more balls he was targeted by, the more he picked up.”27 The following day, the Accademia dei Rugginosi threw a party with one-on-one fighting and dances in his honor, and on February 5 after dinner he witnessed a game of soccer in the square of Santa Croce (Settimanni VIII: Part 1, 152v–53r). By contrast, Le fonti d’Ardenna, which Settimanni does not identify by title, deserved merely two lines in the entry for February 6. Another visit took place in October 1624, when Archduke Karl of Austria, Maria Maddalena’s brother, came to Florence with the ambassadors from Spain and Germany. Though Settimanni does not mention his visit at all, Tinghi’s diary not only records his arrival earlier on September 27, he mentions a poetry recitation by the young princesses Margherita and Anna in their uncle’s honor, along with madrigals sung by professionals on September 28, a mass, a staging by the young princesses, and a visit to the gardens (presumably Boboli’s) on October 1. He also records the performance of La regina Sant’Orsola [Queen St. Ursula] by Salvadori and Gagliano on October 6 and finally a “small party” [festicina] performed October 7 by the costumed princes and princesses at Villa Imperiale. When Prince Wladyslaw of Poland visited in late January and early February 1625, similar events took place. Settimanni records the staging of “the Tragedy of Saint Ursula, a comedy, a ballet of ladies, and a ballet of horses at Villa Imperiale,” plus a “hunt at the stables at San Marco and a one-on-one fight with the princes and other young noblemen of the city … and on top of that two soccer matches in the square of Santa Croce,” followed by a hunt on the way from Florence to Pisa.28 “Fatta in guisa di guerra e abatimento amoroso … cavalieri stranieri … ninfe vestite all’antica … un ballo bellissimo … con musica stupenda” (Solerti, Musica, Ballo 164). 27 “Dopo desinare andò mascherato in una Carrozza a sei cavalli per la Città, e toccò di molte palle di neve, prendendovi grande spasso di ciò poiché dove più glien’erano tirate, ivi più pigliava” (Settimanni VIII: Part 1, 152r). 28 “La Tragedia di S. Orsola, … una festa alla Villa Imperiale di Commedia, Balletto di Dame, e Balletto di Cavalli, una Caccia alle stalle di S. Marco, et una Barriera da Illustrissimi Principi con altri Fanciulli Nobili della Città … ancora gli furno fatti due Calci divisi nella Piazza di Santa Croce” (Settimanni VIII: Part 1, 270r). 26

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Ferdinando, Settimanni continues, wore a mask all the time and in the evenings he went to parties that were held in his honor (VIII: Part 1, 270r). In the case of this visit and carnevale season, there were two stage pieces set to music, a repeat of La regina Sant’Orsola and La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola di Alcina [Ruggiero Freed from Alcina’s Island], written by Ferdinando Sarcinelli and set to music by Francesca Caccini.29 We discern a clear pattern, one in which Maria Maddalena and the Medici court prepared important events that took place along with less formal ones, some more familiar in character, others more traditional and “popular” but interesting enough to be included in the schedule of visiting dignitaries and reported by contemporary diarists. The coexistence of these different types of entertainment belies the alleged break with Florentine mores brought about by the co-regents that later historians have constructed first and taken for granted later by attributing pre-eminence to specific performances and to Maria Maddalena’s alleged role and taste. For seventeenth-century writers (and presumably for court members and visitors), these events were notable but were part of a much larger and varied continuum of events and celebrations. Together with these festivities, which addressed special events in the diplomatic life of the Medici court, there was other entertainment that responded to a different need of the household: the so-called commedie all’improvviso, or improvised performances of comedies. An important clarification is necessary at this point: though the phrase all’improvviso is usually taken to refer to performances staged by professional (i.e. commedia dell’arte) theater troupes, contemporary chronicles use it with two different meanings: in addition to the latter, they refer to stagings that did not follow a set script but were improvised to a large degree, without any reference to the professional status of the performers. When in Florence, Tinghi lists in his diary several comedies performed by “comici di Zanni” or professional troupes.30 In his transcription, Solerti mentions these in passing or omits them altogether, with the result that he emphasizes the oppressive character of the Medici court during the co-regency, perhaps due to his lack of interest for commedia dell’arte in this particular publication.31 Yet Tinghi also mentions the comedies all’improvviso performed by members of academies or other nonprofessionals, specifically on February 6, 1623 (Accademici Rugginosi); February 14, 1624 (young men from Monte Lupo); December 26, 1624; and January 29, 1625 (both by the Accademici Incostanti). The motivation explicitly offered by Tinghi for all these performances on more than one occasion in his diary is as follows: “because the Most Serene Archduchess On Sant’Orsola see Harness 79–99 and Solerti, Musica, Ballo 174–8; on La liberazione see Harness 152–62 and Solerti, Musica, Ballo 179. 30 The dates for these performances are November 22, 1622; October 23, 26, and 30, 1623; November 9, 1623; December 5, 1623; December 12 and 13, 1624; November 12, 1625; December 11 and 13, 1625; January 8, 1626; and September 26, 1626. 31 In his works Gli albori del melodramma and Le origini del melodramma, Solerti pays more attention to the professional performers of early operas and comedies. 29

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wanted to give a little amusement to her Most Serene children.”32 This annotation could mean that Maria Maddalena did not like or could not countenance these performances, and this is how Solerti and others have interpreted it. It could also mean that the official court diarist did not want to insist too much on this activity, in order to keep some distance and mark some difference between what the court wanted to present as approved and sponsored by the Medici court (Ferdinando II and Maria Maddalena in particular) and what was performed as a mere bagatelle to entertain the young princes and princesses. Despite what the diary says, the location of such performances all’improvviso suggests that they were not simply something to be taken in for fun and kept at arm’s length. Tellingly, in fact, in November 1622 the comici di Zanni went to perform “in the hall in the Granduke’s apartment”;33 while in October of the following year the “troupe of Fritellino and Flaminia” (the very important commedia dell’arte group usually known by the name of the Accesi) performed “in the hall where the perspective is built,” presumably, the courtly Uffizi theater.34 At the same time, in a passage omitted by Solerti, Tinghi’s diary mentions that the ducal family “went upstairs to the hall for comedies,” the famous theater for hire known as Teatro di Baldracca, from the name of the alley to which its door opened.35 The venues varied, but the Medici family attended and enjoyed the performances all’improvviso wherever they occurred, even in venues that would seem inappropriate to their presence. One more detail emerges from Tinghi’s diary with respect to where the Medicis attended these performances. Even when they took place in a familyrestricted space such as Ferdinando’s apartments, as on November 22, 1622, “the most serene Archduchess; the Cardinal [Carlo de’ Medici, Ferdinando I’s son]; the Prince of Urbino [Federico Ubaldo, married to Claudia de’ Medici]; and the Granduke with his brothers and sisters sat down to listen to the aforementioned comedy, Two Horaces and two Cynthias behind a latticed partition, incognito; Their Highnesses enjoyed it very much.”36 The annotation recurs when Tinghi records the performance held at the Uffizi theater in October 1623 (Solerti, Musica, Ballo 170; Tinghi II: 646v; 647v; 650r) and at the theater for hire in December of the same year (Tinghi III: 7r) as well as in January 1626 (Tinghi III: 155v). Scholars have maintained that the Granduke’s participation in a public spectacle that was “morally licentious” was not allowed, hence the necessity for him to hide 32 “Volendo la Serenissima arciducessa dare un poco di gusto ai Serenissimi fillioli” (Solerti, Musica, Ballo 163). 33 “Alla sala dell’appartamento del Granduca” (Solerti, Musica, Ballo 163). 34 “Alla sala dove è ritto [sic] la prospettiva” (Solerti, Musica, Ballo 170). 35 “Andorno su ad alto alla sala della comedia” (Tinghi III: 96v). “Baldracca” is a slang term for a prostitute. For the Teatro di Baldracca, its location and uses, see the articles by Evangelista. 36 “Stette la Serenissima Arciducessa il Cardinale il Principe di Urbino et il Granduca con e’ fratelli et sorelle a uno ingraticolato in cogniti a sentire detta Comedia che fu soggetti di dua Orazi et le due Cinzie et loro Altezze ebbero gran gusto” (Solerti, Musica, Ballo 163–4).

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his presence at the Teatro di Baldracca (Evangelista, “Il teatro” 77, 79). I have maintained elsewhere that in a culture where the presence of the ruler, whether the Granduke, his mother the co-regent, or any member of the family and the household, constituted a focus for the audience’s attention, such a presence had to be disguised so the professional performance could be observed without any visual distraction.37 Still, if the Medici family’s presence was easy to conceal visually, the presence of someone of importance attending incognito would have been revealed in other ways, for example by the person’s reactions to the performance (laughter, clapping, and the like). Again, the distancing by the diarists of the court from these performances does not imply dislike, a different taste, or moral reprehension by the Medici in general or the co-regents in particular; rather, it indicates a break between what the court sponsored and what it participated in without any direct involvement in its organizational phase.38 Solerti’s frequent omission of Maria Maddalena’s and her family’s attendance at all’improvviso performances has led scholars to emphasize the oppressive atmosphere reigning in Florence during the co-regency: under Maria Maddalena’s sponsorship, court entertainment became religious in theme, and thus altogether foreign to the Medici tradition. Yet Harness has already demonstrated the co-regent’s purpose in selecting topics from the Old Testament as well as early Christian history and epic poems. My reading of contemporary diarists and other archival sources offers a complementary conclusion: although Maria Maddalena availed herself of the Medici tradition of lavish courtly performances in order to communicate to her court, guests, and city a gender-specific message about her virtues as a woman and as regent, she did not shun other kinds of entertainment, which she even showcased for important guests, such as soccer games and masked forays through the city during carnevale season. Furthermore, not only did she not suppress all’improvviso performances during her regency (something that would have been exceedingly difficult to carry out), she allowed her children to view them and attended them herself. Tinghi’s diary mentions the positive reactions of the Medici audience, without mentioning any names; nonetheless, whether she liked or merely tolerated these types of entertainment, Maria Maddalena did not take any radical actions against them. Instead, she accepted them and permitted her habits and perhaps even her taste to blend with the theatrical tradition that she encountered in Florence. Rather than acting “stern” and “sanctimonious,” as later historians have claimed, Maria Maddalena demonstrates, by adapting her Habsburg habits and embracing those of her marital city, that she understood her role as exemplary, not only for her family and the Medici court, but for the city of Florence itself. In their moves from their home territories to new cultural and political environments, See Stampino, “Rôles et espaces de la commedia dell’arte à Paris” 88. Because the Teatro di Baldracca was owned by the Florentine municipality, any

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troupe or group wanting to perform there had to ask for permission from and pay a fee to the Dogana, that is, the local Customs office; plenty of archival documentation is extant: see Ferrone 48.

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Habsburg women learned quickly to adapt their physical appearance and outward performance to suit the peoples and courts that they would reign.39 Similarly, by negotiating the types and subjects of entertainment that were part of her natal culture and taste alongside those to which she was exposed in Florence, Maria Maddalena presents us with an exemplar of a noblewoman who put her stamp on her court. She wisely utilized her position and influence, despite the limitations that later historians have read into her co-regency and, more generally, into the reigns of Habsburg women throughout early modernity. Given the cultural and political import of performances and court visits, Maria Maddalena´s activities resonated well beyond the confines of Pitti or of the Uffizi, making her influence manifest to the city of Florence, the Medici domains, and the courts to which visitors, ambassadors, and envoys returned and wrote about regularly. Works Cited “Archduchess Maria Maddalena of Austria.” Wikipedia in English http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Maddalena_of_Austria. Arrighi, Vanna. “Maria Maddalena de’ Medici,” Dizionario biografico degli Italiani. Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 1960. 70: 260–64. Coolidge, Grace. Guardianship, Gender, and the Nobility in Early Modern Spain. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011. Evangelista, Anna Maria. “Il teatro dei comici dell’Arte a Firenze (ricognizione dello ‘Stanzone delle Commedie’ detto di Baldracca).” Biblioteca teatrale 23– 24 (December 1979), 70–86. ———. “Il teatro della Commedia dell’Arte a Firence (1576–1653 circa).” Quaderni di teatro 2.7 (1980), 169–78. ———. “Le compagnie dei Comici dell’Arte nel teatrino di Baldracca a Firenze: notizie dagli epistolari (1576–1653).” Quaderni di teatro 6.24 (1984), 50–72. Ferrone, Siro. “Dalle parti ‘scannate’ al testo scritto. La commedia dell’arte all’inizio del secolo XVII.” Paragone 34 (1983), 38–68. Galasso Calderara, Estella. Un’amazzone tedesca nella Firenze medicea del ‘600. La Granduchessa Maria Maddalena d’Austria. Genoa: SAGEP, 1985. Gaston, Robert W. “Eleonora di Toledo’s Chapel: Lineage, Salvation and the War Against the Turks.” In The Cultural World of Eleonora di Toledo Duchess of Florence and Siena. Ed. Konrad Eisenbichler. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004. 157–80. Hale, J.R. Florence and the Medici: The Pattern of Control. London: Thames and Hudson, 1977. Harness, Kelley. Echoes of Women’s Voices: Music, Art, and Female Patronage in Early Modern Florence. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. 39 Laura Oliván Santaliestra’s essay in this volume shows how Isabel of Borbón transformed her appearance from French to Spanish, demonstrating her ability to mirror her environment.

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Hoppe, Ilaria. “A Duchess’s Place at Court: The Quartiere di Eleonora in the Palazzo della Signoria in Florence.” In The Cultural World of Eleonora di Toledo Duchess of Florence and Siena. Ed. Konrad Eisenbichler. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004. 98–118. “Maria Maddalena d’Austria,” Wikipedia in Italian. http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Maria_Maddalena_d%27Austria. Orgel, Stephen. Impersonations: The Performance of Gender in Shakespeare’s England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Patrouch, Joseph F. Queen’s Apprentice: Archduchess Elizabeth, Empress María, the Habsburgs, and the Holy Roman Empire, 1554–1569. Leiden: Brill, 2010. Pieraccini, Gaetano. La stirpe de’ Medici di Cafaggiolo. Saggio di ricerche sulla trasmissione ereditaria dei caratteri biologici. 3 vols. Florence: Vallecchi, 1925. Rigucci Galluzzi, Jacopo. Istoria del Granducato di Toscana sotto il governo della casa Medici. 5 vols. Florence: Gaetano Cambiagi, 1781. Sánchez, Magdalena S. The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun: Women and Power at the Court of Philip III of Spain. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. Settimanni, Francesco. Memorie Fiorentine Regnante Ferdinando II Medici Granduca di Toscana sovrano e Serenissime sue Tutrici Granduchesse di Toscana. Vol. VIII: Part 1, Archivio di Stato di Firenze, ms. 133. Solerti, Angelo. Le origini del melodramma. Turin: Fratelli Bocca, 1903. ———. Gli albori del melodramma. Milan: Sandron, 1904. ———. Musica, Ballo e Drammatica alla Corte Medicea dal 1600 al 1637. Notizie tratte da un Diario con appendice di testi inediti e rari. Florence: Bemporad, 1905. Stampino, Maria Galli. “Rôles et espaces de la commedia dell’arte à Paris,” Studi di letteratura francese 26 (2001): 79–92. ———. Staging the Pastoral: Tasso’s Aminta and the Emergence of Modern Western Theater. Tempe: ACMRS, 2005. Tinghi, Cesare. Diario e cerimoniale della corte medicea. 3 vols. Vols. 1 and 2. Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze, MS Gino Capponi 261. ———. Diario e cerimoniale della corte medicea. 3 vols. Vol. III. Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Miscellanea medicea 11.

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Fig. 3.1

Margherita of Savoy-Gonzaga, Duchess of Mantua, 1608. Frans II Pourbus. Oil on canvas, 206.5 x 116.3 cm. Inv. no. GE-6957. The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Photo: Vladimir Terebenin, Leonard Kheifets, Yuri Molodkovets.

Chapter 3

The Three Lives of Margherita of Savoy-Gonzaga, Duchess of Mantua and Vicereine of Portugal* Blythe Alice Raviola

Though the topic of female power in early modern Europe is not new, it is only now assuming importance in our scholarship. Thanks to many recent studies concerning the role of women in politics, patronage, literature, and arts, gender history has played a large role in calling attention to this issue, dignifying forgotten figures, especially the numerous powerful queens and sovereigns who were traditionally considered as exceptions. We should ask, however, whether the study of female power can not only be interrelated with that of male power, but compared to other female figures, institutions of power, dynastic arrangements, and the history of ideas, as has been observed by historians Robert Oresko and Fanny Cosandey. As the essays in this volume corroborate, women’s power—specifically, that of the Habsburg women—far from exceptional, is constantly negotiated through the many reciprocal political relations afforded them. Table 3.1

Genealogical chart, Margherita of Savoy-Gonzaga Philip III of Spain (1578–1621)

Isabel Clara Eugenia (1566–1635)

[3] Isabel of Valois (1534–68)

Catalina Micaela (1567–97)

Carlo Emanuele I of Savoy (1562–1630)

Margherita of SavoyGonzaga (1589–1655)

Francesco IV Gonzaga (1586–1612)

Maria (1609–60)

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While carrying out archival research on the relations among Spain, the duchy of Mantua, and the duchy of Savoy, I encountered a mother-daughter pair of women rulers who imposed a specific direction to the politics of their states and who attest to a tradition and inheritance of public duty rather than to the exceptionality of their function. In this collection, Magdalena Sánchez discusses the relationship between the mother, Catalina Micaela of Austria, daughter of Spain’s Philip II and her husband, Carlo Emanuele I of Savoy.1 My own essay focuses on one of Catalina Micaela’s and Carlo Emanuele I’s ten children: Margherita of SavoyGonzaga (1589–1655). Although Margherita is not an unknown figure, her central position in an international context is still insufficiently clear.2 We know, however, that she comported herself as a Spanish infanta her entire life, embodying the influence of Imperial Spain on the Italian peninsula and beyond. Her singular biography thus allows us to isolate three major phases in her life during which she participated fully in the complex relations among Turin, Mantua, and Madrid. As occurred in Catalina Micaela’s and Margherita’s own lifetime and for many centuries afterward, the marriage arrangement between the house of Habsburg and the duchy of Savoy forged strong and lasting ties. Like the other Habsburg women studied in this volume, Margherita was more than a pawn on the European chessboard. She represented political loyalty to the Habsburg monarchy, although paradoxically, she was also an unforeseeable variable to the two dynasties to which she belonged, as she moved from the periphery to the center of both Philip III’s and Philip IV’s reigns. Margherita’s traversal through the three distinct phases of her life—from her youth and her marriage, on to her widowhood—not only shows the political strife she struggled to overcome, and the difficult relations with her own daughter, but the vagaries of Spanish influence on Italian politics and on the kingdom of Portugal. Margherita’s First Life (1589–1612) Margherita was born in Turin on April 28, 1589, the fourth child of Catalina Micaela and Carlo Emanuele and the couple’s first girl. As did her brothers and sisters, she received a strict education in Spanish according to the tenets and I dedicate my essay to Robert Oresko, who died February 15, 2010. We will miss his great knowledge of female power and dynastic studies, and I will miss the friend who conversed with me about Margherita and many other issues of history and life. 1 The bibliography on Catalina Micaela is growing, after a long period of silence. See Merlin, “Etichetta e politica” II: 311–38; Merlin, “Caterina d’Asburgo” 209–34; and Raviola, “La imagen” III: 1733–1748. By contrast, the role of her sister Isabel Clara Eugenia as governor in the Low Countries and patron is very well known: see Sánchez, “Sword and Wimple,” and Wyhe. 2 The only book entirely devoted to her is by Romolo Quazza, the Piedmontese historian who has studied the wars of Succession of Mantua and Monferrato and the diplomacy of the house of Gonzaga; see Margherita di Savoia. *

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customs of the Spanish court, which deeply influenced her personality; throughout her life, she wrote most of her letters in Spanish and, as Sánchez claims of her mother, she enjoyed writing profusely.3 She was, besides, a devout Catholic and followed Spanish etiquette her entire life. Above all, she identified herself as a Spanish, rather than an Italian princess, a decision that would have momentous consequences in her later life. During her youth, her destiny was similar to that of any other girl of her rank: she should marry for dynastic reasons. Her father, the duke of Savoy, was pragmatic and smart: after conquering the marquisate of Saluzzo, he chose to focus his policies on the Italian peninsula rather than on France and conceived a strategic wedding for Margherita and her younger sister Isabella (1591–1626).4 The two marriages of Margherita and Francesco Gonzaga, son of Vincenzo I, Duke of Mantua; and of Isabella and Alfonso d’Este, son of Cesare, Duke of Modena and Reggio Emilia, have been studied extensively as the expression of the duke of Savoy’s attempt at a balance of power on the Italian peninsula. Yet, as Sánchez so well relates of her mother, young Margherita fell deeply in love with her future husband;5 she addressed romantic letters to him expressing her happiness to marry him.6 The wedding, which took place on February 22, 1608, became legendary for the pomp and magnificence that Carlo Emanuele displayed in open competition with the fathers-in-law of his two daughters.7 The formal union between a Piedmontese princess and a Gonzaga was critical in order to solve the problem of the rule of Monferrato. Symbolically celebrated on the Po—the river that connected Turin to Mantua passing through Casale8—the marriage put an end to the Sabaudian claims on the small dukedom strategically placed at the border of Eastern Piedmont, the duchy of Milan, the republic of Genoa, and many imperial fiefdoms that interrupted the territorial continuity of all those states.9 At the time of her marriage, Margherita was already prepared to rule since, after her mother’s death and during the apprenticeship of her elder brothers in 3 Most of her letters are in Archivio di Stato di Torino (hereafter ASTO), Materie politiche per rapporto all’Interno, Lettere di principi diversi, mazzo (hereafter m.) 6, fasc. I, 1599–1626, “Lettere di Margherita di Savoia, duchessa di Mantova, al padre Carlo Emanuele I.” Many others are also in ASTO, Paesi, Monferrato, “Doti dell’Infanta Margherita,” mm. 1 sgg.; at the Archivo General de Simancas (AGS), Estados pequeños de Italia, leg. 1943, 3691, 3830, 3836, 3840, 384; and in Estado Portugal, leg. 2614. 4 Carlo Emanuele’s Italian focus was seen as controversial by later historians; part of the nationalist historiography of the nineteenth century erroneously believed that a Savoy dynasty would have created a united Italy. See Merlin, Tra guerre e tornei; Rosso, “Il Seicento” 199–205; and Fratini. 5 See Sánchez’s essay in this volume. 6 Quazza, “Margherita di Savoia.” 7 Franca Varallo, “La festa per il matrimonio” and Besutti. 8 Raviola, “Modelli alternativi.” 9 See Raviola, Cartografia del Monferrato; Cavallera; and Raviola, “The Imperial System.”

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Spain, Carlo Emanuele had formally given her the charge of supreme governor of the duchy in 1603, when she was just fourteen (Quazza, Margherita di Savoia 11). Her first real experience of direct government, however, was in Monferrato, where she spent some months in 1609–1610 and again in 1611. There, she kept up contacts with her father, promoted the local élites in Turin, and tried to organize another inter-dynastic wedding between her brother Vittorio Amedeo, Duke of Piedmont, and Francesco’s sister, Eleonora. She also encouraged religious worship and dynastic cult: she wanted the body of her namesake, Margherita of SavoyAcaia, to be transferred from Alba to Casale. This Margherita, wife of Teodoro II Paleologo, and Marchioness of Monferrato, had died in 1464 and was revered as a saint even before having been found “in odore di santità” [in odor of sanctity] and beatified in 1669.10 By bringing her mortal remains to Casale, the capital city of Monferrato, Margherita meant to seal the alliance between the house of Savoy and the land now owned by the Gonzaga. When her father-in-law Vincenzo and her husband both died in 1612 (the first in February, the second in December), Margherita ruled the duchies of Mantua and Monferrato as the duke’s widow and as the mother of princess Maria, born in 1609. But there were many pretenders to the ducal crowns, not least her own father and brother. Her time as duchess and regent seemed close to an end—but not entirely, as we shall see. Margherita’s Second Life (1613–1635) Reclusion and diplomacy are the core elements of the second phase of Margherita’s life. The deaths of the two dukes of Mantua gave Carlo Emanuele I the opportunity to declare war on the Gonzaga, after he rejected both Vincenzo II and Cardinal Ferdinando, Vincenzo’s brother, as legitimate successors.11 Young Princess Maria became the focus of disagreement. Since women could formally rule Monferrato, Margherita immediately claimed her daughter’s rights and the fiefdom’s. Maria’s grandfather Carlo Emanuele and her uncle Ferdinando did the same: each wanted to educate the princess at his court away from her mother’s influence. Margherita’s position was extremely delicate: as duchess, widow, mother, and potential regent, she represented a real obstacle to Ferdinando and his succession; both Turin and Mantua understood she had to be stopped. The diplomatic dispatches depict her as “rebelling against her destiny”12 during the months after her husband’s death and feeling like a caged animal. Aware of her rank and deeply attached to her only child, she felt she was in danger and tried to defend herself and Maria as much as she could. However, reason of See Mostaccio. Oresko and Parrott. 12 “Stravolta e ribelle al suo destino” (Bellonci 294–5). Bellonci’s text is based on 10 11

archival resources but to a certain degree fictionalized. Yet her portrait of Margherita is indeed one of the few available to us and as such a starting point for further research.

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state prevailed: Margherita was forced to return to Turin and leave her daughter in Mantua. The false news that she was pregnant again did not convince the two courts to let her stay with Maria where she preferred. Even a printed speech by Carlo Emanuele that begins with “All the world’s laws give the mothers tutelage over their children, as this is more convenient,”13 failed to convince Ferdinando to send mother and daughter back together. Margherita left the Gonzaga dukedom in 1613 for her father’s house, where she would spend many years. Nevertheless, she did not spend her time there in silence and away from politics. She kept in contact with Mantua and Madrid by letter and through some loyal servants, such as Count della Torre and Count della Rocca; she continued to express her political opinions, especially against her relatives when she did not agree with them. In 1626, Philip IV, “vuestro buen primo” [your good cousin] as the king of Spain addressed himself to her, suggested that she be prudent and not attack her sister-in-law Cristina of Borbone, Duchess of Savoy, too openly. Cristina, who had married Vittorio Amedeo I in 1619, introduced some “novelty … as regards matters of courtesy and priorities”14 and Margherita and her sisters Maria Apollonia and Francesca Caterina (who would both become Franciscan nuns) intended to leave “your father’s state” to show their dissension.15 Advising her not to take “any decision” [resolución ninguna] without his permission, Philip IV promised her his protection “desiring that your person, as well as Your daughter, have all the consolations and prosperity that you deserve, and I will always do anything possible according our common blood.”16 This was a bold declaration of friendship and esteem expressed to a woman who could be dangerous because of her claims: both her father and brother in law knew she had some right to claim the Monferrato throne, and her brother Vittorio Amedeo feared her continuous petitions to obtain her dowry. She was thus perceived as capable of breaking fragile dynastic and political relations. Indeed, after her forced return to Turin, Margherita had violent arguments with her beloved father. As Maria Apollonia tells us in a vivid description, the duchess was often angry at him, turning red and becoming nervous when they were talking about her unfortunate situation: 13 “Tutte le leggi del Mondo danno alle madri la tutela dei figliuoli, e tutte le convenienze vogliono che siano educati da loro,” ASTO, Corte, Paesi, Monferrato, Doti dell’Infanta Margherita, m. 2, paquet 3, fasc. 2, 1613, “Manifeste du duc Charles Emanuel I contre le duc de Mantoue à l’occasion de la tutelle de la princesse Marie … avec la réponse du duc Ferdinand.” 14 AGS, Estados pequeños de Italia, leg. 3691, c. 70: 1626, June [n.d.], Philip IV to Margherita: “novedad … en materia de cortesias y precedençias.” 15 AGS, Estados pequeños de Italia, leg. 3691, c. 70: 1626, June [n.d.], Philip IV to Margherita: “el Estado de Vuestro padre.” On Cristina, her difficult character and her regency (1638–1642), see Rosso, “Le due Cristine”; on the sisters, see Raviola, “Venerabili figlie.” 16 “Deseando que asì Vuestra persona como la de Vuestra hija tengais los consuelos y prosperidades que merezeis, en que yo obraré siempre con muy ygual boluntad a la sangre que tengo Vos” (AGS, Estados pequeños de Italia, leg. 3691, c. 70: 1626, June [n.d.] Philip IV to Margherita).

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Early Modern Habsburg Women / Raviola We went with the duke to the rampart and the Infanta came too, and when we arrived to the bank, His Highness and she sat down on a bench and talked together for a while. I do not know if she enjoyed the conversation, because she changed color many times and when the duke left, some people who were with us started to tell her to sit down, to relax, and when I passed by her room, she was sitting down in a corner telling them what happened, and she was as red as a garnet.17

Margherita faced two problems: her daughter’s destiny and her own dowry rights. Both were linked to European issues, because of the French interest in Monferrato and Maria, and because the duke of Savoy was still expecting reparation for his wife’s settlement. Spain still had to pay part of Catalina Micaela’s dowry, and Spanish money should have been used to cover Margherita’s dowry as well. The large archival depository named “Doti dell’Infanta Margherita” testifies to the complex system of wedding settlements in the early modern period: rarely did the contracting parties respect their agreement, which was one of the weaknesses of female dynasties. When widowed, especially without sons, regents and princesses could not dispose of their goods and had to count on a reduced income.18 Margherita, however, was aware of her dynastic importance and did not want to relinquish what was due to her, some 500,000 golden escudos, 200,000 of which were owed her from Spain.19 17 “Fuimos con Sua Altezza al baluardo y vino también la Infanta, y cuando estuvimos a la riva, Sua Altezza y ella se asentaron en el banco y estuvieron allì un buen rato hablando. Aunque no se si el razonamiento le gustava mucho, porque se vio mudar muchas veces de color y … luego que Sua Altezza fue ydo, alguna persona que avia venido aquì aquel dia … le empezava a decir que se asentase, que no estuviese cansada y asì yo pasè por su aposento, que estava en un rincon asentada que les estava contando lo que avia pasado y estava colorada como una grana” (ASTO, Corte, Lettere di Principi Diversi, m. 4, doc. 1165, 2 August 1616). 18 This was Margherita’s main point of contention, even if her brother’s Sabaudian lawyers tried to demonstrate that she “left Mantua and came back to her father’s house, and he gave her all she needed compared to her status and condition” [si partì da Mantova et si ritirò in casa del Serenissimo suo padre, dal quale fu indi sempre alimentata et provista di tutto ciò che era necessario allo stato e alla grandezza sua] (ASTO, Corte, Paesi, Monferrato, Doti dell’Infanta Margherita, m. 2, paquet 3, fasc. 7, 1632, Parere e consulto per le ragioni di S.A.R. contro le pretensioni dell’Infante Margherita). 19 The dowry contract was signed on February 20, 1608; it established that Margherita receive 300,000 escudos from her father, 200,000 from the king of Spain, and 100,000 from her father-in-law Vincenzo (ASTO Corte, Paesi, Monferrato, Doti dell’Infanta Margherita, m. 2, paquet 3, fasc. 7 1632). Carlo Emanuele I paid only 75,000 escudos, and in Mantua she only had some jewelry at her disposal; she remained creditor to a large amount, which increased in time with interests. In 1645 her agent Orazio Quaranta asked that she be paid about 994,000 escudos (ASTO Corte, fasc. 14, 18 June 1645). After her death, she was owed about one million escudos (ASTO Corte, fasc. 13, 1658–63, Lettere diverse del duca Carlo II di Mantova … per l’aggiustamento delle differentie tra il signor duca di Savoia e detto duca per il Monferrato e le doti dell’Infanta Margherita, loose sheets).

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She was, at this time, residing at her father’s court. While she was expecting some money to live as her rank would have required, Margherita played a part (whose extent is not yet well known) within the Spanish faction; together with her sisters Maria Apollonia and Francesca Caterina, she also had some influence on the deep and radical devotion at court. In 1627, Emanuele Tesauro, one of the most important Italian intellectuals at the Savoy court,20 dedicated one of his works to Margherita. On July 20, the panegyric La Margherita was read in front of the infanta, as she was called, in Turin’s duomo; her name, which in Italian designates daisy, in Latin means pearl, so the text celebrates the princess’s purity, behavior, and “perfezzione donnesca” [lady-like perfection].21 There is an explicit comparison between Margherita of Savoy-Gonzaga and her ancestor Margherita of Savoy-Acaia, and between them and Saint Margaret (or Saint Marina), virgin of Antioch and sea pearl chosen by God for his holy Heaven. Tesauro wished to pay homage to the Spanish faction at court, well represented by Margherita, and probably encouraged her to take the veil like her sisters. Despite the difficulties in this phase of her life, however, Margherita decided against spending the rest of it in a convent. During the second war of succession for Mantua and Monferrato, which began in 1627 and continued until 1631, she began to officially declare her rights in writing to her father, her former brother-in-law, and her cousin Philip IV, enumerating what was still due her. These documents are rich in details and reflect her voice as a European princess: after the Peace of Cherasco (April 1631) that gave Mantua and Monferrato to the Gonzaga-Nevers, the French line of the dynasty, and Pinerolo to France, she thought it the right moment to consolidate her position if not in Mantua, then in Piedmont or elsewhere. That same year, she wrote letters to ambassadors and ministers to convince diplomatic agents to ratify the peace treaty and persuade the French to limit their requests. When Vittorio Amedeo I acted noncommittally toward Richelieu’s envoy, the latter wrote that it was “Margherita’s work” [obra de la princesa Margarita],22 and that the princess openly declared to Spain that she was trying to treat French ambassadors with “very sweet words” [palabras muy dulces].23 As soon as she returned to Mantua in September 1631, after the death of her daughter’s husband Carlo of Rethel, she also addressed a letter to Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, stating that “he had there the most faithful servant to whom to give orders.”24 Her loyalty to the Habsburg dynasty required something in return; 20 His masterpiece is Il Cannocchiale aristotelico (1654); in addition, he wrote many historical essays, panegyrics, and devotional texts. The bibliography on him is extensive: see at least Doglio. 21 On this symbolic discourse see Doglio 572–3, and now Giachino. 22 AGS, Estados pequeños de Italia, l. 3830, 2, 1631–32, Cartas de la princesa Margarita, c. 52, 9 December 1631: the count della Rocca, from Carignano, to the king of Spain. 23 AGS, Estados pequeños de Italia … Cartas de la princesa Margarita, c. 53, 17 November 1631: Margherita to a Spanish minister, from Mantua. 24 “Tiene aquì en mi la servidora más debota a quien mandar” (AGS, Estados pequeños de Italia, Cartas de la princesa Margarita, c. 86, 21 December 1631: Margherita to Ferdinando II).

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she expected to receive some money, respect, and a place within their network of power. She wrote openly to the Count-Duke of Olivares asking protection against her brother and the others who wanted her to return to the Piedmont: Let us come to the point: … I am consoled knowing that the king my lord, when he knows the truth, will not forget to give me his protection, and that Your Excellence, who has governed for many years with prudence and goodness, in this particular occasion is acting according to your Christian spirit. As to me, you have never seen me other than totally devoted and partial to the very august House of Austria.25

Recalling her maternal origins, she claimed that she was “her mother’s daughter” [hija de tal madre] that is, fully a Spanish infanta, as well as a widow; men (“mostly very important men”) should have “mercy, in particular on widows.”26 French ministers began to worry. In 1633, Louis XIII sent her a pointed letter, asking her not to indoctrinate her daughter during the regency and to leave Mantua as soon as possible: Cousin, I was very displeased to learn about the disagreement between the duke of Mantua our cousin and you, regarding an action that my cousin the princess of Mantua, his daughter-in-law, was persuaded to take; an action that could create too much confusion in his House … and we know that your presence in Mantua can do nothing to change her mind and will keep her far from a true reconciliation.27

While living with Maria and her children (the future Carlo II and Eleonora, who would marry Emperor Ferdinand III), Margherita actually tried to direct Mantuan “Vengamos al punto: … me console [sic] con pensar que, quando el rey my señor estarà informado de la berdad … no dejarà de tomar mi protecion, y que Vuestra Excelencia, que tantos años ha governado esta monarchia con tanta prudencia y bondad, procura que en esta occasion se bean también los effetos conformes a su cristiandad … De my no has faltado el mostrarme en todas occasiones verdadera sirvidora y parcial por l’augustissima casa de Austria” (AGS, Estados pequeños de Italia. Cartas de la princesa Margarita, leg. 3835, 1634, 2, Cartas de Margarida de Saboya, c. 189:12 March 1634: Margherita to Olivares, “conde mi señor,” from Pavia). 26 “[P]iedad … y mas los grandes en especial de las viudas.” AGS, Estados pequeños de Italia, Cartas de la princesa Margarita. I have quoted this important letter in “Il filo di Anna” 338, and in “Hija de tal madre.” 27 “Cugina, ho sentito con molto dispiacere la diversione nata ultimamente tra il duca di Mantova nostro cugino et voi, per rispetto di un atto che mia cugina la principessa di Mantova sua nuora è stata consigliata di fare, che è capace di mettere in confusione tutte le cose di quella casa … reconoscendo che il vostro soggiorno in Mantova non può se non alterare il suo spirito et alontanarlo da una vera reconcigliazione” (ASTO, Corte, Paesi, Monferrato, Doti dell’Infanta Margherita, m. 2, paquet 3, fasc. 9, 1633, “Relation des differents et des degouts qui se sont passè entre l’Enfante Marguerite de Savoye, duchesse de Mantoue, et le duc de Mantue, Louis XIV to Marguerite”). 25

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politics as regards Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. However, in the end she was forced to obey the orders of the king of France, who was also exerting pressure on Vittorio Amedeo. She expressed her anger against him and stated “that she was the king’s servant, but not his vassal … and that, before leaving, she wanted all her dowry.”28 She went on to assert pointedly, If the authority of the Most Christian King was to oppress a widow and princess of her quality, his blood relative, the king of Spain’s first cousin, the empress’s sister-in-law, the duke of Savoy’s daughter and sister, etc., and in that way oblige a mother to leave her only child, when her daughter was widow and mother of the only legitimate successor to those states … the king should remember that his epithet was “Louis the Just.” And closing her speech, she went to the evening mass.29

Margherita then started to prepare her luggage and, in deep sorrow, said her last farewell to Maria. Many Italian princes feared welcoming her because of her position. Where could she retire? “In the Papal States, or in Venice, or in the duchies of Parma or Modena, or in the States of His Catholic Majesty or in Savoy,”30 and yet she posed many a problem to each of these states. Pope Urban VIII could have hosted her in Ferrara, as he approved of her departure from Mantua “for that state’s peace,”31 but there were tensions between him and Margherita because he planned to grant a marriage dispensation to Maria so she could marry her father-in-law, Carlo I 28 “[C]he era serva del re, ma non sua vassalla … e che prima di partire voleva tutte le sue doti conforme alla sua ipoteca” (ASTO, Corte, Paesi, Monferrato, Doti dell’Infanta Margherita, m. 2, paquet 3, fasc. 9, 1633, “Relation des differents et des degouts qui se sont passè entre l’Enfante Marguerite de Savoye, duchesse de Mantoue, et le duc de Mantue”). Margherita received the letter from Louis XIII on August 20. This is an anonymous document that relates how she reacted to the French general de la Tour [della Torre]. 29 “Se l’auttorittà del re christianissimo in Mantova era per opprimer una principessa vedova della sua qualità, congionta a lui di sangue, prima cugina del re di Spagna, cugnata dell’Imperatrice, figlia e sorella del duca di Savoia etc., et in tal maniera astringer la madre a separarsi dalla figlia unica, in fresca viduità e madre d’unico figlio, prencipe e successore in quei stati, … e che si recordasse che si chiamava Luigi il Giusto, e qui terminando il discorso, andò la serenissima Infanta a vespro” (ASTO, Corte, Paesi, Monferrato, Doti dell’Infanta Margherita, m. 2, paquet 3, fasc. 9, September 28. 1633, “Relation des differents et des degouts qui se sont passè entre l’Enfante Marguerite de Savoye, duchesse de Mantoue, et le duc de Mantue”). 30 “O nello Stato del Papa, o di Venezia o di Parma o di Modona o di Sua Maestà Cattolica o della Reale Altezza di Savoia” (ASTO, Corte, Paesi, Monferrato, Doti dell’Infanta Margherita, m. 2, paquet 3, fasc. 10, September 28, 1633, “Scrittura attorno la persona e gl’interessi dell’Infanta duchessa di Mantova”). 31 “Per la quiete di quello Stato” (ASTO, Corte, Paesi, Monferrato, Doti dell’Infanta Margherita, m. 2, paquet 3, fasc. 10, September 28, 1633, “Scrittura attorno la persona e gl’interessi dell’Infanta”).

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Gonzaga-Nevers, and she could spoil his plans. Venice would gladly host her, but most likely Margherita did not wish to go there. Francesco I d’Este, Duke of Modena, “as her loving blood relative”32 (he was her nephew, son of her sister Isabella and Alfonso III d’Este), could have welcomed her, too, “but, being surrounded, as we can say, by the states of Mantua, Venice and the Papacy, who were all jealous and too involved in the issue,” he did not want to risk their wrath.33 The Farnese in Parma also did not want to take her in. In the end, she departed for the duchy of Milan under Spanish protection. Her brother Vittorio Amedeo was truly surprised by her dynastic claims. He wrote astonished letters to his ambassador to the Holy Roman Empire Ottavio Bolognesi, blaming his sister and commenting on her bizarre and autocratic behavior: “We have bizarre news from Mantua, and they say that the duke, suspecting the princess our sister because of some claims made by her daughter Princess Maria, was so displeased that he complained to the Most Christian King, who wrote her to leave Mantua.”34 After Margherita’s second, forced departure from Mantua, in September 1633, the duke of Savoy wrote to Bolognesi: The Lady Infanta our sister … has decided to stop in Pavia until an envoy she sent to Spain returns. The lord Cardinal Infante [Ferdinand of Austria, governor of the Duchy of Milan] is upset because her action can cause jealousies, but her will is so strong that she does not listen to any remonstration, from me and from others. The Pope denied the dispensation for the wedding between the princess Maria and the duke of Mantua, so jealousies and suspicions about the succession and conservation of Mantua and Casale will grow everywhere.35 32 “Come congiunto di sangue” (ASTO, Corte, Paesi, Monferrato, Doti dell’Infanta Margherita, m. 2, paquet 3, fasc. 10, September 28, 1633, “Scrittura attorno la persona e gl’interessi dell’Infanta”). 33 “[P]erò, trovandosi egli circondato, si può dire, dagli stati di Mantova, di Venetia e del papa, i quali tutti o prendono parte alle gelosie o le approvan” (ASTO, Corte, Paesi, Monferrato, Doti dell’Infanta Margherita, m. 2, paquet 3, fasc. 10, September 28, 1633, “Scrittura attorno la persona e gl’interessi dell’Infanta”). 34 “Di Mantova habbiamo una nuova molto stravagante, et è che quel duca insospettito della signora Infanta nostra sorella per alcune proteste fatte dalla principessa Maria sua figlia, habbia talmente mal impresso il Re Christianissimo che l’ha indotto a scriverle di partirsi da Mantova” (Archivio di Stato di Reggio Emilia [hereafter ASRE], Archivio Bolognesi, busta 6, September 10, 1633. Vittorio Amedeo I’s correspondence with Ottavio Bolognesi). 35 “La signora Infanta duchessa di Mantova nostra sorella … si risolve di fermarsi in Pavia sino al ritorno d’un huomo che ella ha spedito in Spagna. Il signor cardinal Infante [don Fernando de Austria] ne mostra sentimento per le gelosie che talvolta ne possono succedere, ma la volontà di lei è talmente fissa in questo che nulla rimette alle nostre né all’altrui rimostrationi. Il Papa ha negato la dispensa per lo matrimonio della principessa Maria col duca di Mantova, onde tanto più cresceranno i sospetti e le gelosie da tutte le parti e per li interessi della successione e per la conservatione di Mantova e di Casale” (ASRE, Archivio Bolognesi, busta 6, October 29, 1633).

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Probably Vittorio Amedeo undervalued Margherita’s pervasive influence on the Spanish court. But the more she wrote, the more she became persona non grata in Mantua and Turin, while becoming a strong political agent in Milan and Madrid. Her third life was beginning to take shape. Margherita’s Third Life (1635–1655) The third phase of Margherita’s life is probably the most interesting and surprising. She left Mantua in autumn 1633, leaving her daughter forever, and she also left Italy, because her cousin Philip IV appointed her vicereine of Portugal. We have to look for the reasons of this appointment in her direct relationships with the king and with the Count-Duke of Olivares, as we have seen with Margherita’s important letter of March 12, 1634. Most of the children of Carlo Emanuele I and Catalina Micaela continued to maintain strong links with the court of Spain and, as we will better see below, her brother Emanuele Filiberto already held an important position in the Spanish European system. In Margherita’s case, such a significant post might seem surprising, but Savoy had many, different regencies and Spain needed a trustworthy relative—and one not too involved with the tensions running through the Madrid court—to send to Lisbon. Margherita, therefore, appeared to be a good choice. Travelling by land through the duchy of Milan and then by sea, Margherita reached Barcelona in November. The local aristocracy and members of the royal court welcomed her “with all the magnificence due to her rank and her worth, in the real hope of a lasting peace and the means to help establish her Serene House at the court of that glorious king, … because this great princess showed her continuous prudence by having endured so much when it was necessary and she knew how to wait for the right occasion to achieve great success.”36 Thanks to her patience, Margherita attained an international dynastic position, which gave the House of Savoy a great opportunity: after her brother Emanuele Filiberto, who had died in Palermo in 1624 as viceroy of Sicily,37 the infanta was named to one of the most meaningful, if honorary, posts in the Spanish Empire. In fact, although the title was honorary, the post of viceroy (vicereine, in this case) assumed a particular nuance in Portugal when the kingdom was united to the crown of Spain in 1580. To be the longa manus of the king of Spain meant to be part of the articulate system ”Magnificenze dovute alla sua nascita et alli suoi meriti, con speranza certa d’una quiete perpetua e mezzi potentissimi di poter aiutare la Serenissima sua casa appresso di quel Re invittissimo … havendo dimostrato questa gran principessa la sua continuata prudenza nel tolerare quando fu tempo et costantemente aspettare l’occasione per procurarsi un sì gran bene” (ASTO, Materie politiche per rapporto all’Interno, Cerimoniale, Spagna, m. 1, fasc. 3, 1634, “Relazione venuta da Spagna con lettere delli 7 novembre dell’entrata della Serenissima Infanta Margaritta nelli stati di S.M. et della recettione statagli fatta in Barcelona, Alcalà et Madrid”). 37 On his governorship, see Rivero Rodríguez. 36

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of the Spanish Empire, governing one of the states that—like Flanders—had possessed (or claimed to possess) a strong political and dynastic independence. It was her moment: finally, at the age of forty-six, she could exert the power she had always longed for. Her entry was prepared with provisions from Spain: in her position of vicereine, she had her own house, with her own servants, tableware, and silverplate. Indeed, according to Félix Labrador, it is possible to suppose that Margherita’s house was modeled on her mother’s when Catalina Micaela went to Turin in 1585.38 Further study is needed on the organization of her court, but we have an inventory that testifies to all the preparations for her journey and stay in Lisbon, which lists many tapestries, fabrics, silver objects, including vases, plates, and trays; ivory and wood plates and platters, and large quantities of meat and other foodstuffs sent to Portugal. 39 Even if she was ready to assume the position of vicereine, Margherita found a difficult climate. Portuguese subjects were exasperated over the Spanish domination, and the internal situation was arduous. Moreover, in her new role, she had to interact with counselors who treated her like a foreigner. It is not surprising, therefore, that contemporaries and historians alike have attributed the Spanish failure in Portugal to her government.40 After five years, in December 1640, Margherita of SavoyGonzaga was dethroned; it is probable that the Count-Duke of Olivares—who did not like her and almost always excluded her from his networks, keeping in contact only with her minister and, above all, his creature Diogo Soares—was involved in her disgrace. Yet, as we know, it was her personal failure that brought about the separation of two states on the Iberian peninsula: the revolt of 1640 allowed Portugal to regain independence, marking also the beginning of the end for Olivares, who was held responsible for the political catastrophe by a large part of the Spanish court. More archival research is needed to understand how she reacted and what Philip IV thought of the end of her mission. After two years of imprisonment in Portugal, Margherita returned to Spain still with the title of vicereine; she kept her rank at court at the same time that Olivares’s influence was in decline. All the while, Margherita never stopped claiming her dowry rights: thanks to her agent Orazio Quaranta, she sent many letters, memorials, and legal proofs to Turin in an effort to obtain the monies owed her. The effects of this drawnout story were felt into the eighteenth century, as the ministers of the Sabaudian State continued their efforts to obtain (without good results) the ancient dowries of Catalina Micaela and her daughter until the Treaty of Utrecht (1713). During Margherita’s lifetime, her constant writing ensured that her voice was heard Queens’ households are currently receiving much attention in Iberian historiography; see Labrador in this collection. For Portugal, see Labrador and Marçal Lourenço. 39 Madrid, Archivo General de Patrimonio (AGP), Histórica, caja 117, Recepciones y Hospedajes de Soberanos y Principes extranjeros, “Princesa Margarita de Saboya en 1634.” I would like to thank Silvia Mitchell for bringing this to my attention and Almudena Pérez de Tudela for sending me photocopies of the material. 40 See Schaub 175 ff. 38

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throughout the courts of Europe. From 1645 until her last days in 1655, she disputed her claims with Sabaudian lawyers: after 31 years of hardship, and considering her “old age, deadly illness and concerns about her soul,”41 it was time to “tidy up these issues.”42 Margherita of Savoy-Gonzaga died in Miranda de Ebro (Burgos) on June 25, 1655. Her last will is a personal political statement delineating the three facets of her life, as princess, consort, and sovereign.43 As a European princess, she knew she could die anywhere: if in Italy, she stated in her testament that she wished to be buried in Mantua, where she experienced her most emotion-filled life, in a Franciscan habit: “I want my body to be buried in the habit of my mother Saint Clare, because, although I am not worthy, I am sister of the third order … of Saint Francis.”44 Her daughter Maria was her universal heir, and she should have received the dowry that she never obtained. Philip IV gave Margherita a regal burial at the Cistercian convent of Las Huelgas in Burgos, where many princesses and noblewomen were traditionally buried: her heart, which was removed following royal custom,45 remained there in Spain, while her body was sent to her paternal land, to the dynastic sanctuary of Vicoforte in Mondovì (Piedmont), to which her mother Catalina Micaela was deeply devoted.46 No parts of her body were destined to be sent to the duchies of Mantua and Monferrato, where she had spent the best years of her three-faceted life. Margherita’s three lives attest not only to one woman’s history, but to the many prospects that familial interrelations offered both to Houses large and small, and to their individual members. In part due to the interconnections established by the dynastic marriages of Philip II’s daughter, Catalina Micaela, and her daughter, Margherita of Savoy-Gonzaga, Vittorio Amedeo II, Duke of Savoy and future 41 “Età cadente, le passate infermità mortali e il pensiero dell’anima sua” (ASTO, Corte, Paesi, Monferrato, Doti dell’Infanta Margherita, m. 2, paquet 3, fasc. 14, 18 June 1645, memorial written by her agent Orazio Quaranta). 42 “Rassettar questi affari” (ASTO, Corte, Paesi, Monferrato, Doti dell’Infanta Margherita, m. 2, paquet 3, fasc. 14, 18 June 1645). Her sister Maria Apollonia, then living in Rome, tried to help Margherita to obtain her dowry and that of their mother, Catalina Micaela: she wrote many letters to her agents in Naples, where the credit on which they should find the money was preserved (Raviola, “Venerabili figlie”). 43 ASTO, Corte, Materie politiche per rapporto all’Interno, Cerimoniale, Testamenti, m. 4, fasc. 16, 1 September 1652, “Testamento della principessa donna Margarita di Savoia, duchessa di Mantova,” taken in Madrid. A gloss was signed in Miranda de Ebro on June 24, 1655. 44 “Voglio che mio corpo sia sepolto nell’abito di mia madre Santa Chiara, perché sono sorella, ancorchè indegna, del venerabile ordine terzo … di San Francesco” (ASTO, Corte, Materie politiche per rapporto all’Interno, Cerimoniale, Testamenti, m. 4, fasc. 16, 1 September 1652, “Testamento della principessa donna Margarita di Savoia, duchessa di Mantova”). 45 On this topic see Sabatier and Edouard 34–57. 46 See Cozzo 48–50.

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king of Sicily (1713) and of Sardinia (1718), could aspire to the Spanish throne during the Spanish War of Succession.47 Moreover, before 1700, his mother Maria Giovanna Battista of Savoy-Nemours expended diplomatic capital to obtain a Portuguese bride for him, the Infanta Isabel Luisa Josefa, daughter of Maria Giovanna Battista’s sister, Marie-Françoise-Elisabeth, and her second husband, the king Pedro II of Braganza.48 In the nineteenth century two members of the House of Savoy became rulers in Spain and Portugal: Amedeo Ferdinando Maria, Duke of Aosta, ruled Spain as Amedeo I between 1871 and 1873,49 and his sister Maria Pia of Savoy, who married King Luís I of Braganza in 1862, ruled as queen of Portugal until the country became a republic in 1911.50 More than mere coincidences, and much more than we realize, these bonds are the result of a long history in which Margherita had a relevant part that continued to unite Piedmont, Spain, and Portugal. Works Cited Arcangeli, Letizia, and Susanna Peyronel, eds. Donne di potere nel Rinascimento. Roma: Viella, 2008. Archivio di Stato di Reggio Emilia (ASRE). Archivio Bolognesi, busta 6. Archivio di Stato di Torino (ASTO). Corte, fasc. 13, 1658–63. “Lettere diverse del duca Carlo II di Mantova … per l’aggiustamento delle differentie tra il signor duca di Savoia e detto duca per il Monferrato e le doti dell’Infanta Margherita.” Archivio di Stato di Torino (ASTO). Corte, Lettere di Principi Diversi, m. 4. Archivio di Stato di Torino (ASTO). Corte, Materie politiche per rapporto all’Interno, Cerimoniale, Testamenti, m. 4, fasc. 16, 1 September 1652. “Testamento della principessa donna Margarita di Savoia, duchessa di Mantova.” Archivio di Stato di Torino (ASTO). Corte, Paesi, Monferrato, Doti dell’Infanta Margherita, m. 2, paquet 3, fasc. 2, 1613. “Manifeste du duc Charles Emanuel I contre le duc de Mantoue à l’occasion de la tutelle de la princesse Marie … avec la réponse du duc Ferdinand.” See Symcox 329–30. As Oresko explains, the Madama Reale was ”enthusiastic about her Lusitanian

47 48

niece, a match which would bring the crowns of Portugal and the Algarves to the House of Savoy”; even if “the Portuguese marriage contract was signed on 15 May 1679,” in 1684, for many reasons Vittorio Amedeo married the French princess Anne-Marie BourbonOrléans instead (35). 49 Third son of the first king of Italy Vittorio Emanuele II, Amedeo Ferdinando was born in 1848 and died in 1890. After the death of Fernando VII of Borbón without male heirs, he became king of Spain as Amedeo I. His succession to the throne was strongly contested and he abdicated in 1873. Spain was a republic for two years and then returned to monarchy in 1875 under the new king Alfonso XII, son of Isabel II of Borbón and nephew of Fernando VII, her father. 50 See Lopes. I would like to thank the author for sharing her unpublished manuscript with me.

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Archivio di Stato di Torino (ASTO). Corte, Paesi, Monferrato, Doti dell’Infanta Margherita, m. 2, paquet 3, fasc. 7, 1632, “Parere e consulto per le ragioni di S.A.R. contro le pretensioni dell’Infante Margherita.” Archivio di Stato di Torino (ASTO). Corte, Paesi, Monferrato, Doti dell’Infanta Margherita, m. 2, paquet 3, fasc. 9, 1633, “Relation des differents et des degouts qui se sont passè entre l’Enfante Marguerite de Savoye, duchesse de Mantoue, et le duc de Mantue.” Archivio di Stato di Torino (ASTO). Corte, Paesi, Monferrato, Doti dell’Infanta Margherita, m. 2, paquet 3, fasc. 10, September 28, 1633. “Scrittura attorno la persona e gl’interessi dell’Infanta duchessa di Mantova.” Archivio di Stato di Torino (ASTO). Materie politiche per rapporto all’Interno, Lettere di principi diversi, m. 6, fasc. I, 1599–1626. “Lettere di Margherita di Savoia, duchessa di Mantova, al padre Carlo Emanuele I.” Archivio di Stato di Torino (ASTO). Materie politiche per rapporto all’Interno, Cerimoniale, Spagna, m. 1, fasc. 3, 1634. “Relazione venuta da Spagna con lettere delli 7 novembre dell’entrata della Serenissima Infanta Margaritta nelli stati di S.M. et della recettione statagli fatta in Barcelona, Alcalà et Madrid.” Archivo General de Patrimonio, Madrid (AGP). Histórica, caja 117, Recepciones y Hospedajes de Soberanos y Principes extranjeros, “Princesa Margarita de Saboya en 1634.” Archivo General de Simancas (AGS). Estados pequeños de Italia, leg. 1943, 3691, 3830, 3836, 3840, 3841. Archivo General de Simancas (AGS). Estado Portugal, leg. 2614. Bellonci, Maria. Segreti dei Gonzaga. Milan: Mondadori, 1966. Besutti, Paola. “Il matrimonio dell’Infanta Margherita: le feste a Mantova.” In Politica e cultura nell’età di Carlo Emanuele I. Torino, Parigi, Madrid. Ed. Mariarosa Masoero, Sergio Mamino, Claudio Rosso. Florence: Olschki, 1999. 491–506. Cavallera, Marina, ed. Lungo le antiche strade. Vie d’acqua e di terra tra Stati, giurisdizioni e confini nella cartografia dell’età moderna. Genova, Stati sabaudi, Feudi imperiali, Stati farnesiani, Monferrato, Stato di Milano. Busto Arsizio: Nomos, 2007. Cosandey, Fanny. La reine de France. Symbole et pouvoir. XVe–XVIIIe siècles. Paris: Gallimard, 2000. Cozzo, Paolo. “Regina Montis Regalis”. Il santuario di Mondovì da devozione locale a tempio sabaudo. Rome: Viella, 2002. Craveri, Benedetta. Amanti e regine. Il potere delle donne. Milano: Adelphi, 2005. Cruz, Anne J., and Mihoko Suzuki, eds. The Rule of Women in Early Modern Europe. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2009. Doglio, Maria Luisa. “Letteratura e retorica da Tesauro a Gioffredo.” Storia di Torino, III, La città fra crisi e ripresa (1630–1730). Ed. Giuseppe Ricuperati. Torino: Einaudi, 2002. 569–630. Earenfight, Theresa ed. Queenship and Political Power in Medieval and Early Modern Spain. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005.

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Fratini, Marco, ed. L’annessione sabauda del marchesato di Saluzzo, tra dissidenza religiosa e ortodossia cattolica (secc. XVI–XVIII). Turin: Claudiana, 2004. Giachino, Luisella. “‘Margherite evangeliche’ e ‘donne di diamante’ nei Panegirici di Emanuele Tesauro.” In Prediche e predicatori nel Seicento. Ed. Maria Luisa Doglio and Carlo Delcorno. Bologna: il Mulino (forthcoming). Guerra Medici, Maria Teresa. Donne di governo nell’Europa moderna. Rome: Viella, 2005. Labrador, Félix. “La Casa de la Reina Catalina de Portugal: estructura y facciones políticas (1550–1560).” Miscelánea Comillas. Revista de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales 61 (2003): 203–52. Lopes, Maria Antonia. Rainhas Estefânia de Hohenzollern (1837–1859) e Maria Pia de Sabóia (1847–1911). Lisbon: Círculo de Leitores (forthcoming). Marçal Lourenço, Maria Paula. “A Casa das Rainhas e a formalizaçao da sociedade de corte (1640–1754): etiqueta, cerimónias e prática rituais.” In Economia, sociedade e poderes. Estudos em Homenagem a Salvador Dias Arnaut. Ed. L. Ventura. Coimbra: Editora Ausância, 2004. 753–82. Martínez Millán, José, and Maria Paula Marçal Lourenço, eds. Las relaciones discretas entre las monarquías Hispana y Portuguesa: las Casas de las reinas (siglos XV–XIX). Arte, música, espiritualidad y literatura. Actas del congreso internacional, Madrid, 11–14 de diciembre de 2007. 3 vols. Madrid: Polifemo, 2008. Merlin, Pierpaolo. Tra guerre e tornei. La corte sabauda nell’età di Carlo Emanuele I. Torino: SEI, 1991. ———. “Etichetta e politica. Caterina d’Asburgo, il Piemonte e la Spagna nella seconda metà del Cinquecento.” Las relaciones discretas entre las monarquías Hispana y Portuguesa. Las Casas de las reinas (siglos XV–XIX). Arte, música, espiritualidad y literatura. Actas del congreso internacional, Madrid, 11–14 de diciembre de 2007. Ed. José Martínez Millán and Maria Paula Marçal Lourenço. 3 vols. Madrid: Polifemo, 2008. Vol. I: 311–38. ———. “Caterina d’Asburgo e l’influsso spagnolo.” In In assenza del re. Le reggenti nei secoli XVI–XVII (Piemonte ed Europa). Ed. Franca Varallo. Biblioteca dell’Archivum Romanicum, No. 354. Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2008. 209–34. Mostaccio, Silvia. “Le sante di corte. La riscoperta sabauda di Margherita di Savoia-Acaia.” In Politica e cultura nell’età di Carlo Emanuele I. Torino, Parigi, Madrid. Ed. Mariarosa Masoero, Sergio Mamino, Claudio Rosso. Florence: Olschki, 1999. 461–73. Oresko, Robert, and David Parrott. “The Sovereignty of Monferrato and the Citadel of Casale as European Problems in the Early Modern Period.” In Stefano Guazzo e Casale fra Cinque e Seicento. Ed. Daniela Ferrari. Rome: Bulzoni, 1997. 11–86. ———. “Maria Giovanna Battista of Savoy-Nemours (1644–1724): Daughter, Consort and Regent of Savoy.” In Queenship in Europe, 1660–1815: The Role of the Consort. Ed. Clarissa Campbell Orr. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 16–55.

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Orr, Clarissa Campbell, ed. Queenship in Europe, 1660–1815: The Role of the Consort. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Poutrin, Isabelle, and Marie-Karine Schaub, eds. Femmes et pouvoir politique. Les princesses d’Europe. Rosny-sous-Bois: Bréal, 2007. Quazza, Romolo. “Margherita di Savoia duchessa di Mantova alla corte paterna. Da lettere inedite sue e di Federico Gazino.” In Atti e memorie dell’Accademia Virgiliana. Nuova serie 14–16 (1921–1923): 1–31. ———. Margherita di Savoia, duchessa di Mantova e vice-regina di Portogallo. Turin: Paravia, 1930. Raviola, Blythe Alice, ed. Cartografia del Monferrato. Geografia, spazi interni e confini in un piccolo Stato italiano tra Medioevo e Ottocento. Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2007. ———. “Il filo di Anna. La marchesa d’Alençon, Margherita Paleologo e Margherita di Savoia-Gonzaga fra antichi stati italiani ed Europa.” In In assenza del re. Le reggenti nei secoli XVI–XVII (Piemonte ed Europa). Ed. Franca Varallo. Biblioteca dell’Archivum Romanicum, No. 354. Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2008. 317–41. ———. “La imagen de la Infanta en la correspondencia de los gobernadores piamonteses.” In Las relaciones discretas entre las monarquías Hispana y Portuguesa. Las Casas de las reinas (siglos XV–XIX). Arte, música, espiritualidad y literatura. Actas del congreso internacional, Madrid, 11–14 de diciembre de 2007. Ed. José Martínez Millán and Maria Paula Marçal Lourenço. 3 vols. Madrid: Polifemo, 2008. Vol. I: 1733–48. ———. “Modelli alternativi. Giostre, tornei, allegorie d’acqua a Mantova e Torino fra Cinque e Seicento.” In La ronde. Giostre, esercizi cavallereschi e loisir in Francia e in Piemonte tra Medioevo e Ottocento, Atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Pinerolo, 15–17 giugno 2006. Ed. Franca Varallo. Florence: Olschki, 2010. 63–82. ———. “‘Hija de tal madre.’ La dote di Margherita.” In L’Infanta Caterina d’Austria, duchessa di Savoia (1567–1597). Ed. Franca Varallo and Blythe Alice Raviola. Rome: Carocci, 2013. 519–40. ———. “The Imperial System in Early Modern Northern Italy: A Web of Dukedoms, Fiefs and Enclaves along the Po.” In Acts of the International Conference The Holy Roman Empire, Oxford, New College, 30 August–2 September 2006. Ed. Robert E. Evans. Leyden: Brill (forthcoming). ———. “Venerabili figlie. Maria Apollonia e Francesca Caterina di Savoia, monache francescane, fra la corte di Torino e gli interessi di Madrid (1594– 1656).” In La Corte en Europa. Política y religión (siglos XVI-XVIII). Actas del coloquio internacional, Madrid, 13–16 de diciembre de 2010. Ed. José Martínez Millán (forthcoming). Rivero Rodríguez, Manuel. “La casa del príncipe Filiberto de Saboya en Madrid.” L’Infanta. Caterina d’Austria, duchessa di Savoia (1567–1597). Ed. Franca Varallo and Blythe Alice Raviola. Rome: Carocci, 2013. 499–517.

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Rosso, Claudio. “Il Seicento.” In Il Piemonte sabaudo. Stato e territori in età moderna. Ed. Pierpaolo Merlin, Claudio Rosso, Geoffrey Symcox, and Giuseppe Ricuperati. Turin: UTET, 1994. 173–267. ———. “Le due Cristine: Madama Reale fra agiografia e leggenda nera.” In In assenza del re. Le reggenti nei secoli XVI–XVII (Piemonte ed Europa). Ed. Franca Varallo. Biblioteca dell’Archivum Romanicum, No. 354. Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2008. 367–92. Sabatier, Gérard, and Sylvène Edouard, eds. Les monarchies de France et d’Espagne (1556–1715). Paris: Armand Colin, 2001. Sánchez, Magdalena S. The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun: Women and Power at the Court of Philip III of Spain. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. ———. “Sword and Wimple: Isabel Clara Eugenia and Power.” In The Rule of Women in Early Modern Europe. Eds. Anne J. Cruz and Mihoko Suzuki. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2009. 64–79. Schaub, Frédéric. Le Portugal au temps du comte-duc d’Olivares (1621–1640). Le conflit de jurisdictions comme exercise de la politique. Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 2001. Spagnoletti, Angelantonio. Le dinastie italiane nella prima età moderna. Rome: Laterza, 2003. Symcox, Geoffrey. “L’età di Vittorio Amedeo II.” In Il Piemonte sabaudo. Stato e territori in età moderna. Ed. Pierpaolo Merlin, Claudio Rosso, Geoffrey Symcox, and Giuseppe Ricuperati. Turin: UTET, 1994. 271–438. Varallo, Franca. “La festa per il matrimonio delle Infante (1608).” In Politica e cultura nell’età di Carlo Emanuele I. Torino, Parigi, Madrid. Eds. Mariarosa Masoero, Sergio Mamino, and Claudio Rosso. Florence: Olschki, 1999. 475–90. ———, ed. In assenza del re. Le reggenti nei secoli XVI–XVII (Piemonte ed Europa). Biblioteca dell’Archivum Romanicum, No. 354. Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2008. Wyhe, Cordula van, ed. Isabel Clara Eugenia: Female Sovereignty in the Courts of Madrid and Brussels. Madrid; London: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica; Paul Holberton Publishing, 2011.

Part II Epistolary and Spatial Power

Fig. 4.1

Catalina Micaela, Duchess of Savoy. Giovanni Caracca. Oil on canvas, 194 x 108 cm. Museo Civico Casa Cavassa, Saluzzo, Italy.

Chapter 4

“Lord of my soul”: The Letters of Catalina Micaela, Duchess of Savoy, to Her Husband, Carlo Emanuele I Magdalena S. Sánchez

“Lord of my soul. You can imagine how I have been all night and to see myself at eight in the morning without news from you and without you having come as you promised. For this reason I am sending this post [correo] to beg you to inform me of everything and especially of how you are because until I know, my heart will not be at peace.”1 With these words the Infanta Catalina Micaela (1567–1597), second daughter of Philip II of Spain, began a letter to her husband, Duke Carlo Emanuele I of Savoy, who was away from Turin on a military campaign in the marquisate of Saluzzo. Catalina continued to write the duke throughout his two-month absence on this campaign and throughout many of his other absences during their twelveyear marriage. Filled with similar words of affection and detailing her activities and concerns, Catalina’s letters provide fascinating insight into the daily life of an élite woman. For the most part, scholars have overlooked this amazingly rich source, even though Catalina was not just the consort of an aristocrat, but rather a woman who also governed Savoy on the many occasions when her husband was away from Turin. This essay will concentrate on one small part of the correspondence in order to consider Catalina’s relationship with her husband and her reaction to assuming political control during his first major absence from Turin after their marriage. Her letters reveal her very forceful and sometimes impulsive personality, as well as suggesting a certain degree of frustration at being without her husband and having to assume political responsibilities in his absence. She seemingly expressed this frustration only privately to the duke, however, because observers noted that she governed prudently, diligently, and energetically.2 The correspondence between Catalina and Carlo also sheds light on a sixteenth-century élite marriage, which at least in their case, was intimate, affectionate, and even amorous. 1 “Señor de mi alma.Vos podéis imaginar cual he estado toda esta noche mas de verme a las ocho de la mañana y no saber nuevas vuestras ni haber venido como me lo prometistes por eso despacho este correo para suplicaros me abiséis de todo y mas de como estás que hasta que esto sepa no puedo tener el corazon sosiegado.” ASTO m. 35, fol. 2r, September 29 (no year given, but letter is from 1588). 2 See the report of the Venetian ambassador, quoted in Merlin, “Etichetta e política” 323. See also Raviola 1737–47.

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Table 4.1

Genealogical chart, Catalina Micaela, Duchess of Savoy Isabel of Portugal (1503–39)

Albert VII of Austria (1559–1621)

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–58) Philip II of Spain (1527–98)

[3] Isabel of Valois (1545–68)

Isabel Clara Eugenia (1566–1635)

Catalina Micaela (1567–97)

Carlo Emanuele I of Savoy (1562–1630)

Margherita of SavoyGonzaga (1589–1655)

Catalina Micaela was the second daughter of Isabel of Valois and Philip II. Born in 1567, she was three days shy of her first birthday when her mother died. She grew up in the company of several formidable Habsburg women: her paternal aunt, Juana of Austria, who founded the monastery known as the Descalzas Reales in Madrid; her father’s fourth wife, Ana of Austria; her other paternal aunt, Empress María, who lived in Central Europe for much of her life, but returned to Castile in 1582 and resided in the Descalzas Reales. Catalina’s closest bonds as a young girl were no doubt to her father, Philip II, and her older sister, Isabel Clara Eugenia (who would later serve as co-ruler of the Netherlands with her husband, Archduke Albert).3 Catalina left Spain in 1585 at the age of eighteen to marry Carlo Emanuele, duke of Savoy; she eventually bore him nine children and died after the premature birth of their tenth 1597. At the time of Carlo’s marriage to Catalina, Savoy was just beginning to establish itself as an important power in European politics and welcomed an alliance with the king of Spain.4 For Catalina—a king’s daughter—marriage to a duke was not necessarily what she had envisioned, but Philip thought the marriage advantageous because of Savoy’s On Isabel Clara Eugenia, see Wyhe; Villermont; Sánchez, “Sword and Wimple.” On Isabel, Archduke Albert, and their court, see Thomas and Duerloo, and El arte en la corte de los archiduques. 4 Emanuel Filiberto, Carlo Emanuele’s father, moved his court from Chambéry to Turin only in 1563. At the time of Carlo’s marriage to Catalina, Turin was in the earliest stage of being transformed into a capital city. On this transformation, see Symcox. 3

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strategic placement close to France and on the Spanish Road to Flanders.5 Philip found his son-in-law to be anything but pliable; through Catalina, he tried to restrain and control Carlo, but with little success.6 After his wife’s death, Carlo grew even more independent from Spain; he outlived his wife by thirty-three years, dying of plague in 1630.7 The correspondence between Catalina and Carlo is very extensive, covering a nine-year period (1588–1597), and the letters number in the thousands.8 For this essay I will concentrate on one small part of that correspondence—their holographic letters, particularly Catalina’s, from late September to the end of November 1588 when the duke was besieging the marquisate of Saluzzo, a French enclave about eighty kilometers (fifty miles) south of Turin. In this two-month period, Catalina wrote the duke eighty letters, usually writing twice daily but often three or four times a day.9 She rarely missed a day, and when we consider that during this time the duke returned overnight to Turin twice and that in early November Catalina spent five days with him in Savigliano (during which time they obviously did not correspond), we can see that these eighty letters were written over an even more concentrated period.10 During these same two months, the duke wrote twenty-four 5 According to one report, Philip II offered Catalina a bowl of pearls when she was going to embark for Italy. Catalina took only three pearls, saying that those were sufficient for the wife of a duke. This incident suggests that Catalina was initially not entirely happy to marry a duke. See Dánvila y Burguero 739–40; Fórmica 11; Bouza 117, note 274. On the Spanish Road, see Parker, The Army of Flanders 59–70. As Parker explains, “The legal foundation of Savoy’s alliance with Spain was the Treaty of Groenendaal (March 26, 1559) but the lasting entente of the two powers was rooted in Savoy’s desire to acquire French territory (for which Spanish aid was necessary) and in Spain’s need for a military corridor between Milan and Franche-Compté. The estates of the duke of Savoy straddled the Alps and linked the two Spanish dominions perfectly” (60). 6 See, for example, Letter of Philip II to Catalina, November 26, 1589 in Bouza 170. For the relationship between Philip II and Carlo, see Altadonna 137–90; Parker, Felipe II 931–2. 7 For a political biography of Carlo Emanuele, see Gal. For a discussion of Carlo Emanuele’s political motivations, see Osborne 19–49. For political factions at Carlo’s court, see Merlin, Tra guerre e tornei 89–119. For Spanish-Savoyard relations, see Rosso 189–94. 8 Several letters written by Carlo to Catalina in 1587 survive but none from Catalina. Piera Condulmer has counted 2,100 letters from Catalina and about 4,800 from the duke. I have not counted the letters and do not know exactly how Condulmer arrived at her calculations, because Catalina certainly wrote more letters to Carlo than he wrote her. See Condulmer 326. 9 For example, on September 29 and October 2, 3, and 6, she wrote Carlo three times each of the days. On October 1 she wrote him four times. See ASTO m. 35, fols1r–2bis; fols 3r–6av; fols 7r–9ar; fols 10r–12r; fols 19r–21v. 10 He visited her on October 4 and 23, each time spending the night with her. See ASTO m. 35, fol. 15r, October 5, 1588 where she describes how difficult it was for her to watch him leave that morning. See ASTO m. 35, fol. 44r, October 25, 1588 where she

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letters to Catalina. These letters from 1588 are interesting partially because this was the first time that Carlo left Catalina in charge of the duchy, but also because this is the earliest exchange of letters from the two that we have. This particular epistolary exchange ended with Carlo’s seizure of Saluzzo in November 1588, a conquest which created international consternation and was condemned by all the other major European states, including Spain initially.11 As the above numbers indicate, Catalina wrote the duke constantly, spending a good portion of every day doing so. She often wrote early in the morning, usually as soon as she was dressed, but occasionally while still in bed. Sometimes she wrote a second time in the afternoon when her children were with her playing in the room (as she said on October 6, “The prince and Vitorio are well and are here playing”)12 and she almost always wrote again late in the evening, right before going to bed. She in turn was desperate to receive the duke’s letters, eventually instructing servants to bring them to her even when they arrived in the middle of the night—and noting in her own letters exactly where she was when she received his letters and her despair when none arrived. When a letter did arrive at night, she occasionally slept embracing it.13 Her own letters were uniformly long, several folios back-to-back, usually written in clear handwriting with minimal additions or corrections (seemingly made as she was writing), and giving the impression of not being rewritten or edited. The correspondence from late September to November 1588 sheds light on this key period when Catalina assumed political control of Savoy. In effect, because of Carlo’s extensive military ventures outside of Turin, Catalina would continue to govern the duchy for much of the rest of her life. By a decree of September 30, 1588, Catalina governed as Carlo’s lieutenant, with authority over “everything that occurred” in his territories, including matters pertaining to justice, finances, offices, and favors. She did not serve as regent, a title usually given to someone who ruled when a ruler was underage or infirm.14 Through the lieutenancy, Carlo entrusted Catalina with extensive power to oversee and administer his lands. Catalina’s title and authority were very similar to that of seven medieval queens, who also held the title of lieutenant and who governed the Iberian territories of the kingdom of Aragón.15 By appointing their wives as lieutenants and giving them authority to administer their Iberian possessions, Aragonese kings were able to notes that he left the previous day. Catalina spent November 5–9 (inclusive) with him in Savigliano. 11 On the seizure of Saluzzo, see Gal 133–48; Cano de Gardoqui, passim. For international condemnation, see Rosso 185–7. 12 “El príncipe y Vitorio están muy buenos y aquí jugando.” ASTO m. 35, fol. 21v, October 6, 1588. Catalina and Carlo always referred to their eldest son, Filippo Emanuele, as “el príncipe.” Vittorio Amedeo was their second son. 13 See, for example, ASTO m. 35, fol. 42av, October 22, 1588. 14 See Merlin, “Etichetta e política” 311–12; Earenfight 37. 15 Merlin, “Caterina d’Asburgo” 209.

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manage their far-flung empire.16 In a similar fashion, by appointing Catalina as his lieutenant, Carlo was able to be absent from Turin for long periods of time as he engaged in campaigns to expand the borders of his kingdom.17 The letters certainly reveal that in the duke’s absence Catalina dealt with official or political business decisively and effectively. For example, she met regularly with councilors, ambassadors, and ministers. She detailed efforts to find wagons and oxen to transport the supplies; she told the duke of soldiers being dispatched and when he might expect them; and she worked to acquire the money necessary to buy supplies.18 She also wrote her father as well as the Duke of Terranova, Spanish governor of Milan, in order to gain military support for her husband.19 Occasionally she voiced hesitation or uncertainty about specific actions, asking for the duke’s approval, but on the whole she confidently took charge. The duke reassured her that he approved of her decisions, even saying that others could not have done better. On one occasion he commented that the letter she had written to the Duke of Terranova was “extremely good.”20 She also expressed her opinion, even when it meant disagreeing with the duke. For example, displeased with the actions of one of the duke’s most trusted military commanders, Andrea Provana di Leynì, she told Carlo that she was of “a very different opinion” from those at the front.21 She went on to give her opinion, apologizing for detailing it at length, but explaining that hers (unlike the opinion of those at the front with the duke) was a disinterested, dispassionate view because she was concerned only with serving him and God.22 When Leynì retreated from attacking the castle at Revello, she Aragonese kings were “absent kings,” traveling throughout their Mediterranean possessions, leaving their wives at the royal court in Barcelona to govern in their name. In order to administer their far-flung empire, Aragonese kings of the fourteenth and fifteenth century consistently chose their wives as lieutenants. See Earenfight, especially 33–8. 17 Stéphane Gal argues that Carlo’s military campaigns (as well of those of Carlo’s father, Emanuel Filiberto) can also be understood as defensive campaigns to secure the borders of his vulnerable duchy. See Gal 67–80, 131. 18 See, for example, ASTO m. 35, fol. 17r, October 5, 1588; fol. 18r, October 5, 1588. 19 For example, see Catalina’s letter to the Duke of Terranova, ASTO m. 35, fol. 36r, October 19, 1588. For an analysis of the letters of Catalina to Philip II, see Rió Barredo and Sánchez. 20 “Está en estremo de bien.” See ASTO m. 12, fol. 253r, November 14, 1588, where in addition to saying that her letter to Terranova was very good, the duke says that even Carlo Pallavicino, Catalina’s mayordomo mayor and close advisor to the duke, could not have done better. In a letter from March 28, 1588—outside the chronological parameters of this essay—the duke told Catalina that she should not ask his pardon for how she had negotiated a particular issue because he himself could not have negotiated as well. See AST, M12, fol. 234bv. 21 “Yo tengo tan diferente parecer de los de ahí.” ASTO m. 35, fol. 13r, October 13, 1588. This letter was dated by the archive as October 3, but from its content, I think it is actually from October 13. 22 ASTO m. 35, fol. 13a. 16

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vehemently denounced his actions, writing that Leynì had shown lack of spirit [ánimo] and adding that she would like to have been in his place because even though she was a woman, she would have shown more spirit. As she explained, “It grieves me that Monsieur de Leynì has wished to reveal [how] little spirit [he has]; I wish I were in his place because, although a woman, I would have more [spirit].”23 On this occasion she prefaced her comments by asking the duke to forgive her for expressing her opinion and for giving him advice, but then went on to speak her mind clearly. Catalina occasionally demonstrated frustration with her political duties. Faced with infighting and constant complaints among councilors for precedence in a newly formed council, she said to the duke, “I beg you to relieve me of this work [trabajo] because without you here nothing is done correctly; at least when I am with you I don’t have to see to anything.”24 Catalina’s comments suggest that when the duke was in Turin, she did not have to deal with councilors and political decisions, and that she preferred not to handle these matters. On another occasion she complained that after spending hours signing official documents [siñatura]—which she added was one of the greatest favors she did for Carlo— she had eaten alone with “las viejas” [the old women], and begged the duke to free her of these burdens.25 By viejas, Catalina was probably referring to the older ladies of her household, who accompanied her at meals, on certain outings, or at night. Catalina’s remarks about having to eat with the viejas and sign papers indicate her annoyance with official responsibilities and boredom with court life without the duke. Far from being a feminine ploy to placate male anxiety about a woman in power (after all, Carlo had appointed her lieutenant and trusted her fully), Catalina’s complaints reveal that she genuinely wanted Carlo in Turin, governing the duchy and freeing her of the responsibilities and burdens of the lieutenancy. While Catalina’s letters certainly could be used to analyze her political or official roles, they also document her affectionate relationship with Carlo.26 Catalina missed the duke dreadfully; she referred constantly to her solitude [soledad], especially her solitude in bed. For example, she wrote the duke that she had “dined at 7 and now I have prayed and I will go to bed shortly and with so much solitude in everything and in bed,” noting also that the duke had been 23 “A mí me pesa que ya haya querido M de Leyni descubrir su poco ánimo; yo quisiera estar en su lugar que aunque mujer tuviera más.” ASTO m. 35, fol. 30av, October 13, 1588. 24 “Suplico os que me saquéis de este trabajo que no estando vos aquí nada se hace bien a lo menos no estando yo con vos que no tendré que ver en nada.” ASTO m. 35, fol. 51ar, October 28, 1588. 25 “Suplico os no me dejéis mucho en este trabajo pues es tener dos penitencias estando sin vos.” ASTO m. 35, fol. 21v, October 6, 1588. 26 On Catalina’s political duties, see Merlin, “Etichetta e politica” 311–38 and “Caterina d’Asburgo” 209–34.

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gone one month, though it seemed a hundred thousand years.27 A month later she wrote him: “So as not to detain Loaysa [the bearer of the letter, García de Loaysa, guarda dama and servant of Catalina’s camarera mayor, Doña Sancha de Guzmán] I have not wanted to get dressed before writing you and I write this one to remind you of your promise to see me tomorrow and take me there [to Revello, where the duke was] shortly because if this is not so, I will die of solitude such as I had yesterday and tonight, not having my life [i.e. the duke] in bed, which cost me many tears.”28 She often told Carlo that she spent the night crying, thinking of him, and in turn the duke told her that he also cried and missed her. As Carlo wrote her on November 12, 1588, no doubt in response to her many references to how much she missed him: “I have much greater solitude than you and no fewer tears at night; goodbye my life and remember that no one loves you more than I.”29 In early October 1588, Catalina responded to Carlo after she had finally heard from him after eight days without receiving a letter. She told Carlo that she had feared he had forgotten her, but then had received a letter from him expressing similar fears that she would forget him. Analyzing their mutual anxiety she concluded, “all this comes from loving each other so much.”30 We might question the sincerity of these effusive references to solitude and tears, as well as their calling each other “mi vida” [my life] or “mi alma” [my soul] within the body of a letter and beginning each letter with such terms as señor/señora de mis ojos [lord/lady of my eyes] or señor/señora de mi alma [lord/lady of my soul]. Although these may have been conventional ways of referring to a loved one and describing absence from a spouse, taken in conjunction with other aspects of Catalina’s and the duke’s letters, they indicate a relationship that was rooted in daily intimacy and sensual pleasure. On at least two occasions when she was hoping that the duke would come to spend the night with her, she told him which ladies-in-waiting were sleeping in her bedroom and exactly where they were sleeping. For example, on October 24, 1588, she wrote: “Chicha has also slept in my room and therefore the beds are [arranged] as I have told you and hers is at the foot of my bed and Doña Beatriz’s bed is by the door [puerta del retrete] and that of Doña Mariana is by the two windows. I want to tell you everything because of what you ordered me to do but “Cené a las siete ahora he rezado y me acostaré luego y con tanta soledad en todo y en la cama de mi vida que no lo podré pasar tanto y más que es cumplido un mes que andáis fuera de aquí que aunque no os parezca tanto para mí son cien mil años.” ASTO m. 35, fol. 50v, October 28, 1588. 28 “Por no detener a Loaysa no he querido vestirme antes de escribiros y hago esta para acordaros la promesa de verme mañana y llevarme luego que sino es ansi yo me moriré según la soledad que me quedó ayer y he tenido esta noche no hallando a mi vida en la cama que me costa hartas lagrimas.” ASTO m. 35, fol. 64r, November 20, 1588. 29 “[M]ucho más soledad tengo que vos y no menos hago yo mis ojos en llorar la noche adios mi vida y acordar que no hay ninguno que os quiera más que yo.” ASTO m. 12, fol. 252, November 12, 1588. 30 “[T]odo es de querernos tanto …” ASTO m. 35, fol. 29r, October 12, 1588. 27

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also in case you surprise me, you will know how everything is.”31 Two days later when “Chicha” was sick, Catalina reported the temporary personnel changes in her bedroom, noting that Doña Mariana de Tarsis was now sleeping in the bedroom so that Catalina would not be without a “vieja” or older woman, and she reassured the duke that Mariana was the healthiest of all. These remarks indicate not only that Catalina was providing the duke with specifics about sleeping arrangements in case he paid her an unexpected nocturnal visit, but also that the duke wanted older—perhaps more trustworthy—women guarding Catalina’s bedroom at night. Catalina was seemingly trying to conform to the rules [etiquetas] governing her household, rules which Philip II had given her in Spain and which required that specific ladies-in-waiting sleep in the infanta’s room when the duke was not there.32 (These rules had been developed for the household of Philip II’s fourth wife, Anna of Austria, and were designed to restrict access to the queen and her female attendants in order to safeguard their honor and reputation.)33 In this case, however, Catalina’s comments suggest that Carlo was the one asking her to conform to the rules. Catalina in fact seems initially to have had trouble abiding by some aspects of Spanish court etiquette.34 In 1586, soon after her arrival in Turin, Cristóbal de Briceño, one of her mayordomos [stewards] who traveled with her from Spain to Turin, complained (among other things) that Catalina showed no distinction between her ladies-in-waiting and the women of the cámara, who were beneath them in the hierarchy of the court and therefore not allowed the same privileges. Briceño was horrified by the infanta’s failure to maintain these distinctions, her apparent disregard for her ladies-in-waiting, and her lack of concern with maintaining public decorum. For example, Briceño complained that Catalina and the duke went off by themselves to Mirafiori (their palace outside Turin) without any of the infanta’s female attendants, which would suggest to an onlooker that 31 “Chicha ha dormido también en mi aposento y ansi son las camas como os tengo dicho la suya a los pies de la mía y la de doña beatriz a la puerta del retrete y la de doña Mariana entre las dos ventantas os quiero dar quenta de todo por lo que me habéis mandado y también porque si venís a tomarme de sobresalto sepáis como está todo.” ASTO m. 35, fol. 44v, October 24, 1588. Chicha was one of Catalina’s ladies-in-waiting. 32 For the codification of these rules of etiquette that Catalina took with her to Turin, see Río Barredo, especially 103–12. 33 For these rules, see AGP, Sección Histórica, Caja 49, expediente 3, “Hordenanzas y Etiquetas que el Rey Nuestro Señor Don Phelipe Segundo Rey de las Españas mando se guardasen por los criados y criadas de la Real Casa de la Reyna Nuestra Señora, dadas en treinta y uno de diziembre de mil quiniento y setenta y cinco años y refrendadas por su secretario de estado Martin de Gaztelu.” See also Sánchez, “Privacy” 363–9. 34 Although I refer to this court etiquette as “Spanish,” the rules that governed the household of Spanish queens combined features of the Castilian as well as the Burgundian models of court etiquette. The rules codified in 1575 for Anna of Austria’s household, and that Catalina took with her to Turin, gave pre-eminence to Burgundian elements. See Félix Labrador Arroyo’s essay in this volume.

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Catalina had “little authority.”35 Briceño worried that others would see a daughter of Philip II in public without the requisite number of attendants.36 These breaches in court etiquette, according to Briceño, threatened Catalina’s honor and reputation, and he did not hesitate to report the problems to Juan de Zúñiga, one of Philip II’s closest advisors.37 Perhaps with time Catalina and Carlo decided to follow the rules more closely—most probably because such rules enhanced their status, lending a royal quality to their ducal court. Catalina’s comments about sleeping arrangements in her apartments certainly indicate that she was following Spanish court etiquette closely. Her letters also demonstrate an awareness of the need to rein in her emotions in public—not something specifically governed by the Spanish rules of etiquette for a queen’s household, but rather by her upbringing at the Spanish court, which was known for its formality (Elliott 142–54), as Laura Oliván Santaliestra’s essay on Isabel of Borbón and her difficulty in adapting to it describes so well. In a letter to the duke from early October 1588, written on the morning when the duke had taken his leave after spending the night with her, Catalina wrote: “when you left I did not know how to say goodbye and since then I have regretted not having hugged you even though everyone was there, and I stayed at the window until I saw you leave in the carriage and I do not know if you saw me.”38 On this occasion, Catalina refrained from showing emotion in front of others, recognizing that this was not seemly for a duchess. Even as her comments reflect her attempts to conform to Spanish etiquette and custom, they also indicate that she and the duke shared an emotional, amorous relationship. What did Catalina do in the duke’s absence? As noted above, she assumed political and official duties, occasionally noting that she had spent time “signing” [firmando], but she spent the majority of her day writing letters (mostly to the duke but also to her father and sister in Spain) and attending religious services. These religious services included mass, vespers, completas (compline, or the last hour of the ecclesiastical celebration of the day), confession, and communion. In fact, she told the duke at one point that his long absence was threatening to make her a saint.39 She also occupied her time with traditionally female activities: she did “red” (intricate mesh needlework); “labor,” which suggests other types of sewing or embroidery; and occasionally she sewed something for the duke. For example, the duke seems to have gambled, apparently with dice because Catalina noted that she would love to play, too, though she preferred cards. Catalina sewed a bag for 37 38 35

BPG, CEF, MS 23, Cristóbal de Briceño to Juan de Zúñiga, fol. 439r, June 11, 1586. BPG, CEF, fols 438–40, see especially fols 438v–439, June 11, 1586. On Briceño and his complaints, see Fórmica 15–21. “Bien creeréis que estaba de manera cuando os fuiste que no supe despedirme de vos que después acá me arrepentido de no haberos abrazado aunque estaban allí todos yo estuve a la ventana hasta que os vi ir con el coche mas no sé si me vistes.” ASTO m. 35, fol. 15r, October 5, 1588. 39 ASTO m. 35, fol. 4r, October 1, 1588. 36

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his winnings, purposely making it small, perhaps so that he would not gamble as much or perhaps as a joke, indicating that he would never win much.40 She also had others make things that the duke needed or requested. For example, she had cassocks made for the duke to wear in battle, white or red, sometimes with the cross of the order of St. Maurizio; she often commented that they were not as well made as she would have liked.41 Responding to Catalina’s frequent references to solitude and tears, Carlo counseled Catalina to get outside more and exercise, though she was reluctant to take his advice and instead protested that she was fine inside.42 Catalina frequently asked the duke to send for her so that she could be with him. She suggested that he was willing to do so but that people within her household—perhaps her mayordomo mayor [lord steward], Carlo Pallavicino—discouraged him from sending for her, again showing some frustration with her household. In this respect, it was a personal triumph when she was finally able to leave Turin to visit the duke in early November 1588. Catalina was four months pregnant with her third child at this time, so perhaps there were reasons for her not to travel. This incident reminds us of the greater limitations placed upon women not only by pregnancy but also by protocol. The duke could come and go as he pleased, though obviously his movements depended upon military necessities; Catalina needed permission, his and seemingly the cooperation of her mayordomo mayor, to travel. The duke could gamble and perhaps carouse (as Catalina suggested in one letter in which she warned him not to act as a common soldier43), but Catalina was primarily on her own with her ladies-in-waiting (especially the “viejas”), apparently unable to amuse herself with court festivities. Her only form of entertainment during these two months seems to have been visits to her garden and watching soldiers parading through Turin on their way to meet up with the duke.44 Faced with what seemed to her a long separation, Catalina sought other ways to be visible or present to the duke. She sent him portraits of their three sons and one of herself, noting that these portraits were going to “visit” the duke so that he would more easily remember his wife and children.45 “I have wanted to send you this visit,” she wrote Carlo, meaning that the portraits were the visitors; the portraits have become animated, taking the place of Catalina and her children, who were unable to make the trip themselves. She commented playfully that her ASTO m. 35, fol. 25v, October 9, 1588. ASTO m. 35, fol. 11r, October 3, 1588; fol. 25ar, October 9, 1588; fol. 47, October

40 41

26, 1588. 42 ASTO m. 35, fol. 39av–39br, October 20, 1588. 43 ASTO m. 35, fol. 6, October 1, 1588. 44 ASTO m. 35, fol. 48v–48ar, October 27, 1588. 45 “He querido enviar esa visita porque os acordéis de los que acá estamos aunque a mí me han mejorado tanto que no me conoceréis.” ASTO m. 35, fol. 35av, October 17, 1588. Perhaps the painting of the three boys was an early version of the portrait done by the school of Giovanni Caracca. See Astrua, Bava, and Spantigati 34, figure 10.

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own likeness was not very good, but she still hoped that her portrait would remind him of her, and would cause him to return to Turin to see her.46 When the duke did not soon return, she wrote that she longed to visit him where she could take the place of her portrait.47 In turn, Catalina kept a portrait of the duke always by her side. She told Carlo that writing him was the best consolation for her in his absence, as well as looking at the portrait of him that she carried with her at all times, even if it did not fully capture the duke’s fine expression [tan buen gesto].48 These references suggest that Catalina wrote as she looked at Carlo’s portrait and that portraits, small enough to be portable, served as visible reminders of loved ones, acquiring almost a life themselves. When in early November Catalina traveled to Savigliano to meet with the duke, she remained afterwards by herself in the castle while the duke returned to besieging the fortress of Revello. In the castle she not only looked at the duke’s portrait while writing to him, but she also positioned herself where she could best hear the artillery fire. She explained to the duke that she had gone upstairs to Doña Sancha’s room because the room afforded the best view of Revello, and though she admitted that the fog (and no doubt the distance of twenty-two km or fourteen miles) prevented her from seeing much, she still felt better, adding that she was no longer bothered by a toothache now that she could see where “her heart” was.49 From that room, and especially from its corridor, Catalina wrote the duke and spent hours sewing and doing red. This once again indicates her emotional attachment to the duke, her need to be close to him in any way possible. Catalina and Carlo also exchanged gifts. Carlo sent Catalina flowers and also wrote her poems, encouraging her to write a few verses in return.50 He sent her tablets [tabletas], seemingly for writing, as well as a necklace.51 His gifts also included edibles such as gámbaros azules [a type of small crawfish] and fruit.52 The duke also sent her a rosary and she sent him one as well.53 Catalina also sent Carlo many other gifts: a violet from their garden; a wooden box carved with the names of their children; relics (one of St. Victor sent to Catalina by the nuns of the Descalzas Reales convent in Madrid); a ribbon that she had touched to the Holy Shroud, which she suggested that he wear on the inside of his sleeve, the way she “Que sirva mi retrato de acordaros de mí y de venir.” ASTO m. 35, fol. 37v. On the use of portraits as substitutes for their subject, see Bass 21, 79–82, 112, 131. 47 ASTO m. 35, fol. 39a, October 20, 1588. 48 ASTO m. 35, fol. 27r, October 11, 1588. 49 ASTO m. 35, fol. 63v, November 12, 1588. 50 ASTO m. 35, fol. 76r, November 21, 1588. 51 ASTO m. 35, fol. 22r, October 7, 1588. Catalina apparently used these tablets to write on, because in a letter from the previous year, Carlo sent her some of these tablets and joked that they were for her to write her “memorias,” now that she “governed the world.” ASTO m. 12, fol. 164c, November 2, 1587. 52 ASTO m. 35, fol. 25, October 9, 1588. 53 ASTO m. 35, fol. 2, September 29, 1588. 46

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wore hers; religious icons or images; oranges, melons, artichokes, and preserves, because she knew he loved them.54 She sent him sashes [bandas] that she had had made for him and occasionally items such as the bag for his gambling winnings that she herself had made.55 This brief summary does not include other items, such as the cassocks, standards, ointments, or a small clock, which Catalina sent him because the duke had specifically requested them either for his military campaigns or for his personal use.56 For example, Catalina sent Carlo banners that she had made for him and his men, in colors that the duke chose, and that he returned worn or used to her, apparently so that she would have them repaired or remade. These items were not gifts, but it is clear that Catalina sent him objects regularly. The literature on early modern gift-giving among the élite has emphasized its reciprocal nature: a gift was given with the expectation that it would be returned in some commensurate fashion.57 Moreover, gifts exchanged among the élite were intended to win favor, emphasize status, or cement alliances, and were not necessarily indicative of affection or intimacy. Through gift-giving, the European aristocracy developed and maintained a highly elaborate patronage network. The Habsburg women in particular engaged in an extensive exchange of luxury items. These costly goods, transported throughout the early modern world, included exquisitely carved writing desks; tortoise-shell and mother-of-pearl objects from Asia; corals, feathers, gold and silver objects from the New World; bezoar stones; and countless relics.58 Although we know about these expensive goods exchanged among élite such as the Habsburgs, we still know very little about gifts exchanged between a married élite couple, which makes Catalina’s and Carlo’s correspondence all the more valuable. Catalina’s and Carlo’s letters provide us with a wealth of information about the more mundane gifts exchanged by this married couple who clearly cared greatly for each other. Their relationship, at least at this point in their marriage, when For violet, see ASTO m. 35, fol. 75v, November 21, 1588; for wooden box, see ASTO m. 35, fol. 35ar, October 17, 1588; for relic of St. Victor, see ASTO m. 35, fol. 25, October 9, 1588; for ribbon, see ASTO m. 35, fols 18v–18ar, October 5, 1588; for image, artichokes, oranges, and flowers, see ASTO m. 35, fol. 26ar, October 10, 1588; for preserves (conserva de cidras), see ASTO m. 35, fol. 27ar, October 11, 1588. Catalina wanted to send him almonds, but did not. See ASTO m. 35, fol. 14, October 4, 1588. 55 For bandas, see ASTO m. 35, fol. 4v, October 1, 1588; fol. 12r, October 3, 1588; fol. 17ar, October 5, 1588; fol. 35ar, October 17, 1588; fol. 41ar, October 22, 1588; fol. 77v, November 22, 1588. 56 For cassocks (casaca), see ASTO m. 35, fol. 7r–v, October 2, 1588; fol. 10, October 3, 1588; fol. 25ar, October 9, 1588; fol. 47r, October 26, 1588. For standard (estandarte), see ASTO m. 35, fol. 22v, October 7, 1588. For ointment, see ASTO m. 35, fol. 37v, October 19, 1588. For clock, see ASTO m. 35, fol. 17a, October 5, 1588. 57 On gift-giving among the élite, see Kettering, who argues that gift-giving among the aristocracy was a “euphemism for patronage” (131). See also Warwick 633–46. On the social and cultural significance of early modern gift-giving, see Davis. 58 Pérez de Tudela and Jordan Geschwend 1–127. 54

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they had rarely been apart, was grounded in daily contact and their affection was expressed not only in words (letters, poems) but also in material terms—edible delicacies, flowers, portraits—indicating a physical, even sensual side to their marriage. Catalina’s Habsburg relatives also exchanged these less costly gifts. For example, her cousin, Sor Margaret of the Cross, a cloistered nun in the convent of the Descalzas Reales, received numerous edible gifts such as preserves, almonds, cinnamon sticks, and nougat [turrón].59 The Habsburgs also exchanged family portraits so as to have visible reminders of their relatives, and Catalina’s sister, Isabel Clara Eugenia, described these portraits as if they were animated, much the way that Catalina spoke of them.60 Catalina’s and Carlo’s gift exchange, although therefore certainly not unique, still gives us insight into how affection and intimacy were cultivated among spouses and relatives. Catalina fretted about not being able to take care of Carlo. Regalar was the term she used consistently, the verb form of the noun regalo, which the early modern Castilian lexicographer Sebastían de Covarrubias defined as royal treatment, and regalarse as “to have the delicacies of a king.” Covarrubias described a person who was regalado as “a person who is treated happily and well, particularly with gifts of food.”61 Thus in the late sixteenth century, the word regalo and its derivatives were closely connected to royalty and to edibles, and when Catalina told Carlo that she wanted to be with him in order to regale him [regalarte], she had in mind being able to spoil him with delicacies and dote on him by providing him with other luxuries. These desires are indicative of the physical warmth of their relationship. Catalina’s letters from October and November 1588 are filled with (and accompanied by) expressions of affection and support for the duke as he invaded and seized Saluzzo. This seizure tested Catalina’s loyalties, since in taking Saluzzo Carlo was going against Philip II’s instructions not to engage in aggression against France. At that time (1588) Catalina had been married three years to the duke, had given birth to three children, and was pregnant with a fourth (on October 19, she told the duke that she had felt the baby move in her womb).62 Her letters to the duke make it very clear that her loyalties had shifted from her natal family to Carlo and her children. In her letters to the duke from October and November 1588, she made almost no mention of her father and sister, except to say that she was writing them, often to defend or request military support for the duke’s actions. She worked to gain military and financial assistance for the duke from Philip II’s governor of Milan, the Duke of Terranova, even finding ways to persuade the governor to send AHN, Consejos, Cámara de Castilla, libro de cédulas de paso, libro 635 (1622– 1629), fol. 128r, May 25, 1624; libro 636 (1629–1640), fols 183v–184r, September 22, 1631. 60 Letter from Isabel Clara Eugenia to the Duke of Lerma, May 3, 1610, in Rodríguez Villa 215. 61 “Trato real, y regalarse tener las delicias que los reyes pueden tener …. Regalado, el que se trata con curiosidad y con gusto, especialmente en su comida” (Covarrubias 900). 62 ASTO m. 35, fol. 37v, October 19, 1588. 59

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troops without waiting for specific orders from Philip II.63 Catalina shared Carlo’s dynastic plans, which led him to his numerous military campaigns, and together they tried to secure a royal throne for themselves or their children.64 However, her relationship with Carlo went much further than mutual interest; she also had emotional, affectionate ties to her husband, much more so than to her children, who, though they came to visit her daily, and though she wrote about them regularly to her husband in very endearing terms, she was always willing to leave behind in order to be with the duke. Carlo seems to have welcomed this intimacy, as he said when he was looking forward to Catalina visiting him for several days at Savigliano: “I beg you to come to Sabillon because at least we can relax … and can discuss everything without a thousand spies [overhearing us].”65 Carlo’s comments indicate that he greatly valued Catalina’s advice and company (and that he distrusted some members of the court in Turin). The letters from October and November 1588 document Catalina’s and Carlo’s affectionate relationship and illustrate the many ways in which intimacy could be maintained over time and despite distance. Unlike other early modern Habsburg women, Catalina has left us a mountain of letters chronicling her daily life and marriage. No doubt other Habsburg women wrote regularly to their relatives and perhaps their husbands, but for the most part, their letters have not survived. Catalina seems to have been unusual in forming such an intimate attachment to her husband, and unique in documenting this intimacy. I know of no other case of a royal or aristocratic woman who wrote so frequently and so affectionately to her husband. That Catalina’s correspondence with Carlo has survived, stored all these years in the Archivio di Stato in Turin, may itself be evidence of their affectionate marriage. The correspondence is sometimes concerned with Catalina’s official duties as Carlo’s lieutenant, but the private nature of their letters suggests that they were not meant to be shared with anyone else.66 Each probably kept the other’s letters because of their sentimental value—as keepsakes and tokens of affection—giving further proof of the close bonds between the infanta and the duke. Catalina’s case suggests that although a dynastic union was arranged for political reasons, it could also be a loving marriage of true minds. ASTO m. 35, fol. 33, October 15, 1588. After the death of Henry III, Carlo and Catalina tried to gain the French throne.

63 64

They also hoped that their eldest son would inherit the Spanish throne or that their first daughter would marry a Spanish prince. See, for example, Catalina’s letter to Philip II, ASTO m. 36, fasc. 6, fol. 480, December 29, 1589. See also Carlo’s letter to Catalina after the birth of their first daughter, where he considers that she might one day be queen of Spain. ASTO m. 13, fol. 325r, May 1, 1589. 65 “Suplico os que vengáis a Sabillon porque a lo menos podemos holgarnos allí y negociar todo sin mil espías.” ASTO m. 12, fol. 248, November 3, 1588. 66 I have so far found only one instance in which Carlo read Catalina’s letter to someone else. In this case, he read her letter to the Spanish ambassador in Turin, Don Jusepe de Acuña. See AGS, E1266, Deciphered Letter from Don Jusepe de Acuña to Philip II, fol. 78, August 12, 1589.

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Works Cited Altadonna, Giovanna. “Cartas de Felipe II a Carlos Manuel II.” Cuadernos de Investigación Histórica 9 (1998): 137–90. Archivio di Stato di Torino (ASTO). Lettere Principe Savoia, Serie Ia, Duchi e Soverani. Mazzi 12, 13, 35, 36. Archivo General de Palacio, Madrid (AGP). Sección Histórica, Caja 49, expediente 3. Archivo General de Simancas (AGS). Sección Estado, Leg. 1266. Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid (AHN). Consejos, Cámara de Castilla, libro de cédulas de paso, libros 635 and 636. El arte en la corte de los archiduques Alberto de Austria e Isabel Clara Eugenia: un reino imaginado. Madrid: Sociedad Estatal para la conmemoración de los centenarios de Felipe II y Carlos V, 1999. Astrua, Paola, Anna Maria Bava, and Carla Enrica Spantigati. “Il nostro pittore fiamengo.” Giovanni Caracca alla corte dei Savoia (1568–1607). Turin: Umberto Allemandi, 2006. Bass, Laura R. The Drama of the Portrait: Theater and Visual Culture in Early Modern Spain. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2008. Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland (BPG). Collection Edouard Favre (CEF), MS 23. Bouza, Fernando, ed. Cartas de Felipe II a sus hijas. 2nd edn. Madrid: Akal, 2005. Cano de Gardoqui, J.L. La cuèstion de Saluzzo en las comunicaciones del imperio español (1588–1601). Valladolid: Estudios y Documentos Cuadernos de Historia Moderna, 1962. Condulmer, Piera. “Un matrimonio dinastico ispano-piemontese.” Studi Piemontesi, 6, fasc. 2 (Nov. 1977): 320–29. Covarrubias, Sebastián de. Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española. Primer Diccionario de la lengua (1611). Madrid: Turner, 1984. Dánvila y Burguero, Alfonso. Diplomáticos españoles. Don Cristobal de Moura, primer marqués de Castel Rodrigo (1538–1618). Madrid: Fortanet, 1900. Davis, Natalie Zemon. The Gift in Sixteenth-Century France. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000. Earenfight, Theresa. “Absent Kings: Queens as Political Partners in the Medieval Crown of Aragon.” In Queenship and Political Power in Medieval and Early Modern Spain. Ed. Theresa Earenfight. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005. 33–51. Elliott, John. H. “The Court of the Spanish Habsburgs: A Peculiar Institution.” In Spain and its World, 1500–1700. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. 142–61. Fórmica, Mercedes. La Infanta Catalina Micaela en la corte alegre de Turín. Madrid: Fundación Universitaria Española, 1976. Gal, Stéphane. Charles-Emmanuel de Savoie. La politique du précipice. Paris: Payot, 2012. Kettering, Sharon. “Gift-giving and Patronage in Early Modern France.” French History 2.2 (1988): 131–51.

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Merlin, Pierpaolo. Tra guerre e tornei. La corte sabauda nell’età di Carlo Emanuele I. Turin: Società editrice internazionale, 1991. ———. “Caterina d’Asburgo e l’influsso spagnolo.” In In assenza del re. Le reggenti dal XIV al XVII secolo (Piemonte ed Europa). Ed. Franca Vallo. Florence: Olschki, 2008. 209–34. ———. “Etichetta e politica: L’infanta Caterina d’Asburgo tra Spagna e Piemonte.” In Las relaciones discretas entre la monarquías hispana y portuguesa. Las Casas de las reinas (Siglos XV–XIX). Ed. J. Martínez Millán and Maria Paola Marçal Lourenço. 3 vols. Madrid: Ediciones Polifemo, 2008. Vol. I: 311–38. Osborne, Toby. Dynasty and Diplomacy in the Court of Savoy: Political Culture and the Thirty Years’ War. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Parker, Geoffrey. The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road, 1567–1659: The Logistics of Spanish Victory and Defeat in the Low Countries’ War. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1972. ———. Felipe II. La biografía definitiva. Madrid: Planeta, 2010. Pérez de Tudela, Almudena, and Annemarie Jordan Geschwend. “Luxury Goods for Royal Collectors. Exotica, Princely Gifts, and Rare Animals exchanged between the Iberian courts and Central Europe in the Renaissance (1560– 1612).” Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorischen Museum Wien 3 (2001): 1–127. Raviola, Blythe Alice. “La imagen de la infanta Catalina Micaela en la correspondencia de los gobernadorese piamonteses.” In Las relaciones discretas entre la monarquías hispana y portuguesa. Las Casas de las reinas (Siglos XV–XIX). Ed. J. Martínez Millán and Maria Paola Marçal Lourenço. 3 vols. Madrid: Ediciones Polifemo, 2008. Vol. III: 1733–47. Río Barredo, María José del. “De Madrid a Turín. El ceremonial de las reinas españolas en la corte ducal de Catalina Micaela de Saboya.” In Monarquía y corte en la España moderna. Ed. C. Gómez-Centurion. In Serie de monografías de Cuadernos de Historia Moderna, Anejo 2 (2003): 97–122. ———, and Magdalena S. Sánchez, “Lettere Familiari di Caterina di Savoia.” In L’Infanta. Caterina d’Austria, duchessa di Savoia (1567–1597). Ed. Franca Varallo and Blythe Alice Raviola. Rome: Carocci, 2013. 189-212. Rodríguez Villa, Antonio. La correspondencia de la Infanta Archiduquesa Doña Isabel Clara Eugenia de Austria con el Duque de Lerma y otros personajes. Madrid: Fortanet, 1906. Rosso, Claudio. “Il Seicento.” In Il Piemonte sabaudo. Stato e territori in età moderna. Ed. Pierpaolo Merlin, Claudio Rosso, Geoffrey Symcox, and Giuseppe Ricuperati. Turin: Unione Tipografico Editrice Torinese [UTET], 1994. 172–270. Sánchez, Magdalena S. “Privacy, Family, and Devotion in the Spain of Philip II.” In The Politics of Space: European Courts, ca. 1500–1750. Ed. Marcello Fantoni, George Gorse, and Malcolm Smuts. Rome: Bulzoni, 2009. 361–81. ———. “Sword and Wimple: Isabel Clara Eugenia and Power.” In The Rule of Women in Early Modern Europe. Ed. Anne J. Cruz and Mihoko Suzuki. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2009. 63–79.

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Symcox, Geoffrey. “From Commune to Capital: The Transformation of Turin, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries.” In Royal and Republican Sovereignty in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Memory of Ragnhild Hatton. Ed. Robert Oresko, G.C. Gibbs, and H.M. Scott. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 242–71. Thomas, Werner and Luc Duerloo, eds. Albert & Isabella. Essays. Leuven: Brepols, 1998. Villermont, Marie de. L’Infante Isabelle. Gouvernante des Pays-Bas. 2 vols. Paris: Librairie S. François, 1912. Warwick, Genevieve. “Gift Exchange and Art Collecting: Padre Sebastiano Resta’s Drawing Albums,” Art Bulletin 79.4 (December 1997): 630–46. Wyhe, Cordula van, ed. Isabel Clara Eugenia: Female Sovereignty in the Courts of Madrid and Brussels. Madrid; London: Centro de Estudios Europe Hispánica; Paul Holberton Publishing, 2011.

Fig. 5.1

Ana Dorotea, a Nun at the Convent of the Descalzas Reales, 1628. Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640). N0581. Apsley House, London. © English Heritage.

Chapter 5

An Illegitimate Habsburg: Sor Ana Dorotea de la Concepción, Marquise of Austria 1

Vanessa de Cruz Medina

Madrid’s Monastery of Nuestra Señora de la Consolación or de la Asunción, better known as the Descalzas Reales [Royal Discalced], famously harbored three female members of the Habsburg dynasty at the core of female power in the court of Philip III: Empress María of Austria, who spent her last few years cloistered there; Margarita of Austria, Philip III’s wife, who would visit the convent regularly; and Archduchess Sor Margaret of the Cross, who took vows there in 1585.2 In her groundbreaking work The Empress, the Queen and the Nun, Magdalena S. Sánchez reconstructed their biographies, at once analyzing their role in courtly networks and in the patronage system by unveiling and describing the power mechanisms deployed by them, and displaying the political influence they held during the Duke of Lerma’s rule as the king’s favorite. However, Margaret of the Cross was not the only Habsburg to take vows and reside at the Descalzas Reales during the seventeenth century. At least one other female member of this dynasty entered the convent: Ana Dorotea, Marquise of Austria and the youngest illegitimate daughter of Emperor Rudolph II (1611–1694), traveled to Madrid to enter this institution during the first years of Philip IV’s reign, and would live there until her death in 1694.3 1 Research for this essay was supported by the Postdoctoral Fellowship “Juan de la Cierva” (JCI-2010-07417) at the Fundación Carlos de Amberes and the project “Palabra y poder: escritura, representación y memoria en la Monarquía de los Austrias” (HAR200805529/HIST), both financed by Spain’s Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. 2 The Descalzas Reales was itself founded by a Habsburg, Philip II’s daughter, Juana of Austria. See Cruz, and Jordan Gschwend. 3 Besides Ana Dorotea, two other illegitimate Habsburg daughters professed at the Descalzas Reales: Sor Mariana of the Cross, a daughter of Cardinal-Infante Fernando of Austria, and Sor Margaret of the Cross, daughter of don Juan José of Austria. Further, Catalina d’Este, a daughter of the Princess of Modena and grandchild of the Duchess of Savoy, Infanta Catalina Micaela, also resided there, although she died without professing. Even though its dates are often incorrect, the manuscript “Noticia de la Fundacion del Real Monasterio de las Señoras Descalzas Reales de Madrid y de las personas reales que ha havido en el Religiosas” [Notice of the Foundation of the Royal Monastery of the Royal Discalced Ladies of Madrid and the Royal Persons Inhabiting the Convent] gives an account of the Habsburgs who dwelled there (BNE, ms. 10714, fols 183–4).

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Table 5.1

Genealogical chart, Sor Ana Dorotea de la Concepción Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (1527–76)

Philip II of Spain (1527–98)

[4] Anna of Austria (1549–80)

María of Spain (1528–1603)

Albert VII of Austria (1559– 1621)

Isabel Clara Eugenia (1566– 1635)

Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor (1552–1612)

Ana Dorotea (1611–94)

This study focuses on different periods of Ana Dorotea’s life to prove that the efforts in support of the Habsburg dynasty that her predecessors had initiated both in the convent and at the court in Madrid, and particularly those of her aunt Margaret of the Cross, were continued by Ana Dorotea. In these pages I introduce part of her biography using several documentary and bibliographical sources; in particular, her correspondence, kept in Madrid and Rome. I have also studied the documents archived in the Descalzas Reales that deal with her activities and condition as a nun, and taken into consideration other biographies and hagiographic writings. My approach to the life of Sor Ana Dorotea de la Concepción, the religious name she chose for herself, follows the principles established by Sánchez: I consider the biographies and eulogies written about these three women, but I go far beyond the type of hagiographic, devotional images that biographers and eulogists presented to consider other, less flattering views that contemporaries had of them. In this way, I tackle what I consider to be the greatest obstacle to understanding the political roles these women played: that is, the constant, onedimensional, simplified portrayal of these women as pious individuals for whom prayer was the only avenue for effecting political change. (Sánchez 4)

To date, there is scant information on the birth and childhood of Ana Dorotea of Habsburg. She was a daughter of Emperor Rudolph II but her mother’s identity is still unknown, despite the fact that she issued a medal to commemorate her child’s delivery.4 Although there is no proof, several biographies claim that her mother “This child’s mother even had a medal dry-stamped, in which she appears with a toad on her head (in playful reference to the labor). The medal by Paulus von Vianen shows the portrait of a woman with her breast naked, double chin and a slightly swollen neck” [Auf die Mutter dieses Kindes ist sogar eine Medaille geprägt worden, auf der sie mit einer Kröte auf dem Kopf (wohl eine Anspielung auf die Entbindung) erscheint. Die Medaille des 4

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was Catalina Strada, the daughter of Jacob, the emperor’s famous antiquarian; according to Rudolph’s biographers, she was his most famous mistress and the mother of several of his children.5 Ana Dorotea was born in Vienna either at the end of 1611 or the beginning of 1612, immediately before her father’s death.6 The biography of Margaret of the Cross published by Juan de Palma in 1636 appears to be the only source for her first years of life in Central Europe. This Franciscan author narrates that after the death of Rudolph II his daughter Dorotea—as she was christened—was brought up in the imperial court at the side of her uncle, Emperor Mathias, and his wife Ana, whose name was added to hers at the time of her confirmation.7 Following Mathias’s death in 1619, she was sent to the Augustinian convent of St. Agnes zur Himmelpforte in Vienna, where she resided until September 1622, when she set off for the Descalzas Reales in Madrid. The journey from the Viennese imperial court to the Spanish court was the only one that Ana Dorotea ever made, for she never left the Madrid cloister afterwards. The reasons for this journey, its staging and its interpretation, clue us in on her treatment as a member of the house of Habsburg, of the expectations placed on her, and of the image that was disseminated of her at the time, mainly through Paulus von Vianen zeigt das Brustbild einer Frau mit entblöstem Busen, Doppelkinn und leicht angeschwelten Hals] (Sapper 112). 5 Most of the studies stating that Catalina Strada was Ana Dorotea’s mother are listed in the catalog of the Clausuras exhibition (63). Until the twentieth century there was no consensus on the number of Rudolph’s illegitimate children or on their mothers’ identity. For a fundamental biography of the emperor and his offspring, see Evans 58; 182. See also Sapper. 6 While Sapper (112) and Hernández (234) give Ana Dorotea’s birth date as January 1612, in her petition to profess at the Descalzas Reales on August 1628, she states: “Asked what her name is, whose daughter she is, whence she is a natural, and what her age is […] She declared to be Sor Ana Dorotea, and to be a daughter of His Caesarian Majesty Emperor Rudolph, and to be a natural of Vienna in the Kingdom of Germany, and her age to be of seventeen years” [Preguntada cómo se llama, cuya hija es, de dónde es natural y qué hedad tiene (…) Dijo que se llama Sor Ana Dorotea y que es hija de la Çesárea Magestad del señor Emperador Rodolpho, y que es natural de Biena, en el Reyno de Alemania, y que es de hedad de diez y siete años] (AGP, Descalzas Reales, c. 21, exp. 1, 135). We can then infer that she was born in 1611. This is the date stated in contemporary hagiographies and biographies, such as the one by Méndez Silva on Empress María, which has served as the source for numerous studies published in the twentieth century (Méndez Silva 56–7; Tormo 155–6). 7 Juan de Palma was Margaret of the Cross’s confessor at the Descalzas Reales and afterwards confessor of Isabel of Borbón and Infanta María Teresa. Of Ana Dorotea, he writes: “Emperor Mathias … and Empress Lady Ana, his wife, a lady of rare virtue, as they found themselves without issue, were driven with tender love to bring up this young lady. She was brought to the Palace and confirmed therein, and given the name of Ana …” [“el Emperador Matías, … y la Emperatriz Doña Ana su muger, señora de raras virtudes, como se hallaban sin hijos, se movieron con particular amor a criar esta niña. Trajéronla a Palacio, y en la confirmación, le pusieron el nombre de Ana”] (Palma 155r).

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the press. According to Palma, the young girl was claimed by her aunt Margaret of the Cross who, because of her Christian piety and compassion, insisted that both Philip III and Philip IV request from Emperor Ferdinand II that the nun’s orphaned niece be educated by her, and that she enter the convent (Palma 155v). Nonetheless, it is likely that less religious reasons favored the arrival of Ana Dorotea. We should remember that she was not the only young female Habsburg to enter the Descalzas Reales at that time. In 1621, Catalina d’Este, daughter of the Princess of Modena and grandchild of Infanta Catalina Micaela,8 entered as a novice.9 Margaret of the Cross’s insistence on bringing her niece may have been a response to the need to ensure dynastic continuity at the convent, much in the same way as her Habsburg relatives were themselves obliged to provide heirs to the Imperial and Spanish crowns. The arrival of Ana Dorotea would have been instrumental in reinforcing the presence of the royal family within the institution, and in ensuring that a Habsburg maintain the patronage system and political influence that Margaret of the Cross and her mother, Empress María, had established and built up within the cloister. Emperor Ferdinand II decided that arrangements for Ana Dorotea’s companions and the journey would be carried out by Juan Bonaventura Papazoni, his chamberlain, while she would be welcomed in Madrid by his ambassador Hans Christoph Khevenhüller. It is most remarkable that the young marquise of Austria, following orders both by Philip IV to the Council of Aragón and by Ferdinand II to his ambassador, traveled “with propriety but no ostentation, for she comes secretly” (Sapper 113),10 instead of being accompanied by the large retinue, magnificence, and pageantry typical of the women of the house of Habsburg.11 Ana Dorotea’s traveling incognita may have been due to the complex political and military situation that befell Europe at the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War. We need to consider, however, that it was also a result of her condition as an illegitimate child of an emperor dead ten years earlier, a condition that set her apart from the other female Habsburgs who embarked upon their transnational journeys, and whose travel was intended to secure the typical Habsburg marriage. 8 See the essay by Sánchez in this collection for the connection between Catalina Micaela and Sor Margaret of the Cross. 9 Regarding Catalina d’Este’s journey and arrival in Madrid, see the correspondence of ambassador Giuliano de Medici to secretary Curzio Pichena during 1621 (ASFI, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 4949); in particular, the letter dated in Madrid on April 15, 1621 (fol. 837). My gratitude to Bernardo J. García García for having so generously provided the documents maintained at the Archivio di Stato di Firenze. 10 “con decencia y sin ninguna ostentación porque viene secretamente” (ACA, Consejo de Aragón, leg. 272, No. 36, fol. 1). 11 For the journey of Empress María and her daughter Archduchess Margaret, see Schoder. For that of Queen Margarita of Austria, see Venturelli. Pisa University Press will soon publish the proceedings of the symposium “Il viaggio attraverso l’Italia di Margherita d’Austria, regina di Spagna. 1598–1599,” edited by Maria Ines Aliverti.

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However, in late November 1622, the galley Patrona de la Señoría de Génova in which Ana Dorotea was sailing on the Mediterranean was shipwrecked off the French coast, thereby disclosing her identity and her secret journey to the Descalzas Reales. This unfortunate accident, in which she also lost all her belongings, further reveals that the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, at the time governor-general of the Netherlands,12 kept an eye on her niece as she traversed across Europe,13 sending several of her servants to accompany Ana Dorotea, including the Holtzers, a married couple (Sapper 114). The shipwreck radically altered the journey’s secret mission, since once her identity was known, she was welcomed by the king’s command as a distinguished member of the Habsburg dynasty, by the noblemen and ecclesiastical authorities of the towns through which she passed from Barcelona to Madrid. She received special treatment, with fine attire and other gifts presented to her by political and religious èlites, and she and her companions were hosted with the pageantry reserved for royal personages, as in her reception by the Bishop of Barcelona.14 It is also worth noting that the shipwreck was deployed to surround the figure of Ana Dorotea with the same mystique of sanctity and divine favor bestowed on her aunt Margaret of the Cross. Thus, the Franciscans Juan de Palma and Francisco Díaz—the latter would be responsible for announcing and printing her funeral sermon—turned the accident into an attack by the Turks on Catholic galleys in which God intervened miraculously to prevent the pious and innocent daughter of the house of Habsburg from falling into the hands of the infidels (Díaz 22–8). In short, under the aegis of the Counter-Reformation, the house of Austria’s orb and crown would again be reunited in the figure of Ana Dorotea, thus determining her political responsibilities and her fate as a Habsburg. 12 For a biography of Isabel Clara Eugenia, see the recent volume edited by Cordula van Wyhe. 13 Earlier, the infanta had been interested in the young princess Isabel of Borbón’s voyage to Spain as wife of her nephew, Philip IV. See Oliván Santaliestra’s essay in this volume. 14 On December 22, 1622, the Supreme Aldermen of the Council of Aragón informed Philip IV that “the Bishop of Barcelona posts on the 14th day of the current month that the Marquise Lady Ana Dorotea of Austria rested in that city for five days, and that as to her lodgings he did as told, since she and her family had been left so badly from the shipwreck and the robbery by the French anything seemed acceptable. He claims to have spent five hundred ducats on her attire and that of her retinue, and to have given her a silver service set for her person, and a bed and bedding, and that many noblemen and qualified persons assisted the Bishop and attended the welcome and departure of the Marquise” [El Obispo de Barcelona avisa en carta de 14 de este que la Marquesa doña Ana Dorotea de Austria, se detuvo en aquella ciudad cinco días, y que hizo lo que dijo en su hospedaje, porque como ella y su familia habían quedado tan malparados del naufragio y del robo de los franceses, pareció bien qualquier cosa. En vestirla y a los que la acompañaban dice que gastó quinientos ducados, y le dio un servicio de plata para su persona, y cama con todo lo necesario, que muchos títulos y personas calificadas asistieron al Obispo y acompañaron al recibimiento y partida de la Marquesa] (ACA, Consejo de Aragón, leg. 272, No. 36, fol. 5).

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By the end of December (Simón Díaz 195), or on the first days of January 1623,15 Ana Dorotea arrived in Madrid with an entourage appropriate to the rank of a Habsburg, and was welcomed in the same fashion, although the usual urban receptions and entries were not held in order to avoid ostentation. That may be the reason why no printed account of the entry has been found. From the Marshal’s estate [quinta del Condestable de Castilla] at the outskirts of Madrid, and together with imperial ambassador Khevenhüller, she was accompanied to the Descalzas Reales by the most powerful and influential couple at court, the Count and Countess of Olivares, along with all the Grandees, princes, and courtiers (Sapper 113). At the convent, she was greeted by the Spanish monarchs, Philip IV and Isabel of Borbón and their family, who presented her to her aunt, Sor Margaret of the Cross. She spent her first night in the convent’s palatial quarters, in the rooms which had been occupied by her grandmother, Empress María. The following day, she began her novitiate, entering the convent through the doors that led to the cloister.16 Ana Dorotea’s reception at the convent undoubtedly served as the occasion to introduce her to the Madrid court, where her existence was surely unknown to its members until her arrival, given her condition as an illegitimate child of the deceased emperor. At the same time, this welcome legitimized her as a granddaughter and descendant of Empress María, a member of the Imperial family, and a relative of the Spanish Habsburgs. Despite her foreignness and her having spent her childhood in a Viennese convent, Ana Dorotea behaved as was expected by someone of her rank; according to Ferdinand II’s ambassador, “she became so easily accustomed to royalty as though she had conducted her whole life among them, in a way that inspired admiration in everyone and ensured her everyone’s affection, so her arrival was therefore merry.”17 From that time on, Ana Dorotea’s upbringing was in the hands of her aunt Margaret. Until then, she had been educated in German and might have learned Latin at the Imperial court or during her stay at the Viennese convent. It is quite certain that she could not speak Spanish, which she had to learn in Madrid from those women who spoke German, such as her aunt and Sor Luisa de las Llagas.18 15 She must have arrived before January 5, 1623, since Averado di Raffaello de’ Medici described the arrival of Ana Dorotea to Curzio Picchena in a letter sent from Madrid on that date. ASFI, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 4952, s.f. The original cannot be currently accessed in the reading room, see the online database: http://documents.medici.org/medici_ index.cfm. 16 Since its foundation in 1557 by Juana of Austria, the Descalzas Reales boasted a dual nature that may be appreciated even in its architecture: it was both a palace and a cloistered convent. For the convent’s origins and history, see Tormo’s classic study and the more recent García Sanz et al. 17 [V]on allen … worden.” “Sie, die Freile, … angelangt (Sapper 113). 18 Luisa de las Llagas, one of the nuns from Austria, was the daughter of María Manrique de Lara, a maid of Empress María, and of Wratislav von Pernstein, Great Chancellor of Bohemia. She arrived in Madrid accompanying the Empress María and the Archduchess Margaret, and entered the convent with them. She was abbess of the Descalzas

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Considering her age and condition, like the rest of novices at the Descalzas Reales, she received a spiritual education and continued her training in reading and writing in Spanish and Latin, in an environment of prayer but also of books (López-Vidriero 197). I have so far found the first proof of her Spanish writing in two letters, probably dated 1633, which Margaret of the Cross addressed to Juan de Palma and that were written in Ana Dorotea’s hand as her aunt’s “secretary.”19 Among all the lessons received by Ana Dorotea as a novice, learning to write letters was absolutely essential; it significantly affected her life experience at the Descalzas Reales, as we shall see later. Epistolary writing was a fundamental means for noble women in early modern Spain to carry out the activities assigned to them on the grounds of their legal status and their membership in the privileged social rank. They did so as their relatives’ distant agents and informers; as managers of their households; and as patrons of domestic, political, religious, and artistic networks. Even more so for women who resided within convent walls, letters were almost the only means to reach the world beyond the cloister (V. de Cruz 304–5). It was unthinkable that a female Habsburg would be unable to communicate appropriately in writing, and Ana Dorotea must have learned to do so from her aunt, since whether at home, at court, or in the convent, the most experienced women taught the epistolary art to younger women (V. de Cruz 31–41). Therefore, it must have been as secretary to Margaret that Ana Dorotea perfected her epistolary skills, accessed her correspondence—which she probably read aloud—and simultaneously gained firsthand knowledge of the persons within her aunt’s patronage network. In the convent, Ana Dorotea was educated to emulate a particular female role. According to Rosilie Hernández, one of the books that most influenced her education was the Elogios de mujeres insignes del viejo testamento [In Praise of Illustrious Women of the Old Testament] by Martín Carrillo. This text inspired the wall paintings of one of the chapels commissioned by Ana Dorotea at the Descalzas Reales, that of Our Lady of Guadalupe.20 In his treatise, dedicated to Margaret of the Cross, Carrillo held up the lives of fifty-four biblical women as a mirror for Reales from 1626 to 1634. Her petition of profession can be accessed at AGP, Descalzas Reales, c. 21, exp. 1. 19 These two letters were sent from the Descalzas Reales by Margaret of the Cross, who was blind during the last few years of her life. Although undated, they are bundled with other letters dated 1633. This sentence is included in both: “The secretary is Sor Ana Dorotea” [La secretaria es soror Ana Dorotea] (Álvarez 227–8). 20 “One documented exegesis of Carrillo’s text was carried out by Ana Dorotea … A fervent believer in the Virgin’s exemption from sin, she commissioned the Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the convent, a structure that announced both Ana Dorotea’s devotion and her Habsburg family’s support of the controversial dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Ana Dorotea made use of the Elogios—which was kept in the convent’s library and which she had read with care—to arrange the order and design of the wall paintings in the chapel” (Hernández 226). For the decoration of the chapel and Herrera Barnuevo, the commissioned artist, see Wethey and Wethey.

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female instruction, and for the female Habsburgs in particular. Ana Dorotea chose nineteen examples showing “woman as mother and woman as leader” (Hernández 235–6), to be portrayed in this chapel. The female role encouraged by the Elogios matched the very image of Margaret of the Cross—“a virile woman, nun, and political player”—and set off “precisely those characteristics in biblical women that reinforce many of the same attributes shared and valued by the interpretative community and that it wished to further cultivate within the highly political atmosphere of the court and its extension in the convent” (Hernández 230; 233). At the Descalzas Reales Ana Dorotea was educated to be an “exemplary woman” in spirit and courtly manners, that is, a perfect nun and no less a perfect Habsburg. One of the most defining moments in Ana Dorotea’s life was no doubt when her vows were reaffirmed. The event was extremely noteworthy, given the ceremonies officiated at the Descalzas Reales and the people who attended; at this moment, the dual role that she would perform throughout her life as a religious and a member of the dynasty was made apparent. Ana Dorotea petitioned to take vows on August 16, 1628 in Margaret of the Cross’s parlor, which was located within the High Altar, before the highest ranked ecclesiastic and political personalities at court: the papal nuncio Giovanni Battista Pamphilii (later Pope Innocent X from 1644); Imperial ambassador Hans Christoph Khevenhüller; Inquisitor General and Royal Chaplain Gonzalo Chacón; Gabriel de Ocaña y Alarcón (Privy Councilor of Philip IV and his Lord High Treasurer); and Pedro de Hoff Huerta (Secretary of the Council of Italy). 21 The ceremonials of perpetual profession and the conferring of the veil took place one month later, in the presence of the royal family and other members of the court, as reported by the Florentine ambassador: “On the 19th day of [September] the daughter of Emperor Rudolph professed at the Descalzas, and on the morning of the 20th day the veil was conferred on her. Their Majesties and the infantes attended both ceremonials, except for the queen of Hungary [Infanta María of Austria, the youngest sister of Philip IV and the second wife of the future Emperor Ferdinand III] who could not be present at the veil ceremony.”22 The descriptions of the ceremonies known to this date simply list those in attendance in order to highlight the importance of the novice and the act, but none of them describes the artistic elements that were employed in the ritual, thus leaving out the event’s symbolic content. However, it stands to reason that both parts of the ceremonial—or at least the conferring of the veil—were planned with the intention of magnifying and personalizing Ana Dorotea with the Pietas Austriaca that characterized both Habsburg branches, and which was traditionally AGP, Descalzas Reales, c. 21, exp. 21, fols 135–8. “A 19 di questo la figliuola dell’Imperatore Ridolfo fece la sua professione nelle

21 22

Discalze, et la mattina di 20, riceve il velo. Lor M.Mta. et Infanti furono presenti à tutte due le funzioni, salvo la Regina d’Ungheria, che non potette trovarsi presente al velo” (ASFI, Mediceo del Principato, Filza 4955, fol. 218. Letter from Averardo Medici to Bali Cioli, Madrid, September 25, 1628).

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based on the exaltation of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary and on the sacrament of the Eucharist.23 It is likely that for Ana Dorotea’s profession, some tapestries comprising the series known as The Triumph of the Eucharist were hung in the main chapel of the Descalzas Reales. This series of twenty tapestries was personally commissioned by the governor-general of the Netherlands, the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, from the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens, who designed the cartoons. Both the exact date and the circumstances in which the project originated are still unknown, and 1632 is taken to be their first display at the Descalzas Reales (García Sanz 109–11). We nevertheless know that the first tapestries arrived in Madrid on August, 1628,24 and that Rubens was in Spain on a diplomatic mission in early September, when he also painted a portrait of Ana Dorotea for Infanta Isabel.25 It thus seems reasonable to speculate that some of the tapestries would have decorated the convent chapel for the ceremonies, perhaps those titled The Adoration of the Eucharist, or the tapestry known as The Defenders of the Eucharist, in which Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia herself is portrayed as Saint Clare, both as a patron and as a reminder of her role and official image at this time.26 After Albert of Austria’s death in 1621, the infanta entered the Franciscan Third Order. As Cordula van Wyhe notes in her essay in this volume, joining the order and wearing its habit confirmed the Habsburg widow’s preservation of the body politic as much as her piety, since the infanta’s habit nevertheless maintained “elements of courtly attire” (262). Other reasons justify my theory that some of the tapestries were sent expressly for Ana Dorotea’s profession. First of all, we know that this tapestry cycle was a gift made explicitly for the Descalzas Reales and designed with its architecture in mind, as the building was perfectly familiar to the infanta, since she had lived in it as a child. Secondly, it was well known that the Habsburgs had risen to the defense of the Eucharist, and that this set of tapestries was commissioned to be displayed in the convent’s chapel during the Corpus Christi celebrations For an analysis of the Pietas Austriaca, see Coreth’s classic study, which posits that it was based on the House of Austria’s divine mission to protect the Empire and the Catholic Church. 24 According to Alexander Vergara, “The finished set was shipped to Madrid on July 19, 1628, and must have arrived there during the month of August” (42). It was traditionally believed that the full series of tapestries arrived in 1628, but Ana García Sanz has recently confirmed that they were shipped as each panel was being completed in Flanders, between 1628 and 1633 (García Sanz 110). 25 Vergara states that “The origin of the commission is not documented, but the sitter’s relation to the Descalzas suggests that it was commissioned by Infanta Isabel with the intention that Rubens deliver it to her in Flanders.” Besides, “two or more replicas were painted by the artist, presumably in response to commissions by local patrons” (65). Two copies of the portrait exist, one in the Apsley House Museum, England, and another at the Descalzas Reales. 26 “In 1625, [Rubens] painted a portrait of Isabella dressed in the habit of a poor Clare, which was to serve as her official image” (Vergara 45). 23

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and other special occasions. According to art historian Alexander Vergara, “the spectacular figures and actions taking place in them, provided the Spanish capital with one of its most sumptuous set of images, and must have endowed the religious ceremonies at the Descalzas with considerable magnificence” (43). Finally, it is worth remembering that, at least from the time of Ana Dorotea’s journey in 1622, Isabel Clara Eugenia took a personal interest in the young girl. She was fully aware of how the ceremonies of taking the vows and conferring of the veil were carried out at the Descalzas, since she had acted as godmother at Margaret of the Cross’s own profession in 1584, an event also commented on by van Wyhe in this volume. What better occasion could there be for the inaugural display of the tapestries featuring the infanta’s official image than the ceremonies that took place for Ana Dorotea’s profession? Additionally, in his printed account, the Franciscan Francisco Díaz recorded the testimony of Marcelo de Aponte, an Italian religious who claimed to have seen an apparition of the Virgin at the event: “the Holy Virgin Mary sheltered under Her glorious cloak a young lady ... whom he did not know at the time. This religious later came to Spain and to the court, and having visited the convent and seen Sor Ana Dorotea, knew her to be the one who had been revealed to him sheltered by the cloak.”27 The mystique of sanctity bestowed on Ana Dorotea ever since her shipwreck was therefore reinforced at the ceremonies of her profession. According to Díaz’s account, besides the presence of Virgin Mary and because of her grace, a crown of the most beautiful flowers was miraculously set upon her head, and the news of both miracles did not fail to circulate at court (29). The image that we still have of Sor Ana Dorotea de la Concepción—the name she took when she professed as a nun—was disseminated by the Franciscans who met her. To Juan de Palma, and above all to Francisco Díaz, she displayed the same virtues of Empress María and, especially, of Margaret of the Cross: devoutness and humility, for on entering the Descalzas, Ana Dorotea relinquished all the riches to which she was entitled in order to devote herself only to God. Among the qualities attributed to her, one was outstanding: her silence. According to Díaz, who was the Descalzas’ royal preacher and confessor, Ana Dorotea lived “seeking refuge and retirement from all communication, for she endeavored to remain inward and not at all outward; and she managed that with so joyful a spirit that she achieved a state in which she no longer found amusing her relations with other creatures, and conversations with her sisters encumbered her interiority.”28 The image of Ana Dorotea as a religious who lived in solitude and communicated only with God 27 “A María Santíssima, que debaxo de su glorioso manto amparaba … a una niña, que por entonces no conoció. Después vino a España, y a esta Corte este Religioso, y aviendo entrado en este Convento, y visto a la señora Soror Ana Dorotea, conoció que era la misma que se le avía manifestado amparada del manto” (Díaz 15–16). 28 “[P]rocurando esconderse, y retirarse de toda humana comunicación, porque trabajo mucho en ser toda interior, y exterior nada; y lo llego a conseguir con tanta felicidad de espíritu, que llego a estado, que ni el trato con las criaturas la divertía, ni las conversaciones con sus Hermanas la embaraçaban los empleos de su interior” (Díaz 44).

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was thus perpetuated. Yet the intention behind the emphasis on her “quietness,” in a sermon preached viva voce and printed as early as the end of the seventeenth century, does not seem to present a truthful biography, but instead attempts to create a new model of the conventual female, in opposition to the many enlightened nuns who took up the pen during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.29 In fact, other sources prove that Ana Dorotea lived, as did many other religious women described by Elizabeth Lehfeldt, between the sacred and the secular (Lehfeldt 175–216). She spent her life in continuous communication with the outer world through visits and letters, with the approval of her community and her religious order. Although like her aunt Margaret, she never became abbess of the Descalzas Reales,30 she was appointed vicar, perpetual Discreet and first Discreet [perpetua discreta y primera discreta], which amounted to Sor Ana Dorotea being “extranumerary and prioress in all after the Mother Abbess.”31 She was further granted other exceptional privileges by the general ministers of the Franciscan Order, such as being attended by several servants,32 and allowed to receive visits of all kinds. She could talk to as many people as she wanted, whenever she wanted, without having to ask permission and without any supervision, since she was permitted to have a key to the cloister doors.33 Thus, Ana Dorotea was authorized to perform the same role and to fulfill the same activities and political influence that had previously been deployed by her relatives, the Empress María and Sor Margaret of the Cross. According to Sánchez, both of these women gave daily audiences and were frequently visited by the king, the Imperial ambassadors— especially Hans Khevenhüller—the nuncios and other important ministers and members of the court. Thus “Empress María and Margaret of the Cross were well integrated into the political life of the court, even if they spent most or all of their time in the convent” (Sánchez 145). 29 Since the last decades of the twentieth century, a great number of studies on female religiosity in early modern Spain have been published in English and Spanish (see Sánchez Lora, Cruz and Perry, and Lehfeldt). 30 AGP, Descalzas Reales, caja 78, exp. 34, s.fol. 31 “[E]xtranumeral primera en todo después de la Madre Abbadessa” (AGP, Descalzas Reales, caja 13, exp. 13, fol. 4). 32 AGP, Descalzas Reales, caja 13, exp. 13, fol. 1. 33 “We hereby grant license to the most excellent lady Sor Ana Dorotea, Religious at our Monastery of the Descalzas Reales in the city of Madrid, so that she can, at her discretion, confess, give audience and talk through the grill and opening placed at the back of the High Altar, for which she may own a key for the execution of said offices. And we order the current Mother Abbess or as long as she holds the post, not to hinder in any way our order and command” [Por virtud de las presentes conçedemos liçencia a la Excelentísima Señora Sor Ana Dorotea, Religiosa de nuestro Monasterio de las Descalzas Reales de la Villa de Madrid, para que siempre que fuere servida pueda confesar, dar audiençias, y hablar por la grada y ventanilla que está a las espaldas del Altar Mayor, de la qual podrá tener llave en su poder para el exerçiçio de dichos ministerios. Y mandamos a la Madre Abadessa que del presente es, o por tiempo que fuere no ponga impedimento alguno en este nuestro orden, y mandato. Madrid, 10 de abril de 1656] (AGP, Descalzas Reales, caja 13, exp. 13, fol. 3).

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Clearly, Ana Dorotea maintained constant contact with the members of the royal family since her arrival in Madrid. Apart from her welcome and attending the ceremonies when she professed as a nun, Philip IV and his family visited the Descalzas Reales many times, keeping in this way the custom started by Philip III and Margarita of Austria. Letters were also exchanged along with these visits, and we know from a few of them kept in the convent archives that Ana Dorotea corresponded with Philip IV on family and political matters (Vilacoba), and that one of her couriers was Isabel of Borbón, who collected them during her visits to the convent. In fact, both Isabel and Philip IV’s second wife, Mariana of Austria, exchanged letters with Ana Dorotea; they also visited the Descalzas as part of their religious activities and obligations.34 Ana Dorotea’s relations were not restricted to members of the royal family. Some members of the court and of Philip IV’s government also visited her and exchanged letters with her. Among them was Luis Méndez de Haro, Marquis of Carpio and the king’s favorite after the fall of his uncle, the Count-Duke of Olivares. Some of the original letters addressed by Ana Dorotea to the marquis and to his secretary between 1659 and 1660, along with the drafts of their responses, archived in the Royal Academy of History (Madrid), show the various ways in which she exercised her influence over the king through his favorite. Perhaps the most relevant is the letter sent September 16, 1660 in which, “as his daughter and greatest servant”35 she forwarded the marquis and therefore to the king, two written petitions she had received. One demonstrates that Ana Dorotea maintained correspondence with the high Roman aristocracy, who knew of the political influence she exercised over the king of Spain. Thus, the widow Olimpia AldobrandiniPamphili, Princess of Rossano, did not hesitate to request her intercession in favor of her son the prince. To the second petition that she forwarded to the marquis, she annexed three original letters sent to her by her sister Caroline,36 so the king and the marquis might favor her nephew in a litigation taking place in Flanders, and his appointment as governor of Burgundy.37 Once more, we can then observe how Ana Dorotea followed her grandmother Empress María and her aunt Margaret of the Cross by interceding, as they did, for the Austrian Habsburgs.38 Caroline bears 34 The correspondence between Mariana of Austria and Ana Dorotea is being studied by Silvia Z. Mitchell; see her chapter on Mariana of Austria in this collection. Also in this volume see the chapter on Isabel of Borbón and her role as Habsburg regent by Oliván Santaliestra. 35 “[S]u yja y mayor servidora” (RAH, 9/663, fols 102–3). 36 Caroline, also Marquise of Austria, was the daughter of Rudolph II and Euphemia von Rosenthal. She was the widow of François Thomas Perrenot de Granvelle, Count of Cantecroy, who had been chamberlain and ambassador of Archdukes Albert and Isabel, counselor of Emperor Ferdinand II and Prince of the Empire. On the relationship between the Granvelles and the Habsburgs, see Van Durme. 37 On the litigation involving Caroline of Austria, Béatrice de Cusance (widow of Eugène Léopold of Granvelle), and the count of Saint-Amour (descendant of Hélène Perrenot) from 1637 to 1662, concerning the Granvelles’ inheritance, see the article cited by Van Durme (76, note 308). 38 Numerous recent studies have been published on Spanish royal women’s power and intercession in the medieval period: see Parsons, Earenfight, and Silleras-Fernández.

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witness to this in her letter to Philip IV: “the good and holy Infanta Margaret, my aunt, charged my sister Ana Dorotea several times to be our defender before Your Majesties, so that we could be given this grace.”39 Ana Dorotea often discussed with Méndez de Haro matters related to the nuns at the convent and to the Franciscan order. For instance, she requested that he favor the abbess of the Descalzas by expediting the marriage of her nephew, the Marquis of Palacios, and that Manuel de Nájera be appointed royal preacher.40 Ana Dorotea also petitioned another significant favor from the king. At the time, Mariana, the illegitimate daughter of Cardinal-Infante Fernando of Austria, who had entered the convent at Madrid as a novice in 1646, was being considered for a transfer to the convent of Las Huelgas in Burgos. Ana Dorotea requested that she stay at the Descalzas Reales, expressing her wish that Mariana remain by her side in Madrid. Philip IV responded through his favorite: “His Majesty has resolved to agree with this for its good, knowing not only how well it will suit her to remain in Your Excellency’s company and teachings until she professes, but also recognizing the efforts that Your Excellency wishes to take in her favor, and I have found much joy, as Your Excellency will ascertain, in that this business has concluded as Your Excellency desired.”41 Thanks to this testimony, we can see how Ana Dorotea insisted that another Habsburg woman be brought up and educated at the Descalzas Reales, fulfilling the obligation to continue the dynasty in the same way that her aunt Margaret of the Cross had done through her: by ensuring the profession of another illegitimate daughter at the Madrid convent, and by introducing her to the patronage system from that very moment.42 In this “La Bonne et sainte Infante Margueritte, ma tante, á enchargé plus ceures fois ma Seur Anne Dorothée d’est ce nostre advocate auprès de leurs Magestes pour nous obtener cette mercede” (RAH, 9/663, fols 96–7). 40 This grace was bestowed by Philip IV (fol. 78); Manuel de Nájera, persevering preacher at the Descalzas Reales, became royal preacher thanks to Ana Dorotea (fol. 79) (Negredo 453). 41 “Su Magestad ha resuelto conformarse con ello por byen, conociendo no sólo quán bien le estará el continuar [a Mariana] en la compañía y escuela de V.E. hasta haber profesado, sino quedando también su Magestad con mucha estimación del trabajo que V.E. quiere tomar por favorezerla y yo he holgado quanto V.E. podrá juzgar de que el fin deste negocio aya sido el que V.E. desseaba” (RAH, 9/663, fols 83–4). 42 Sor Mariana of the Cross soon petitioned to profess at the Descalzas Reales on March 28, 1659 (AGP, Descalzas Reales, caja 21, exp. 1, fol. 78). Besides, there is evidence that Ana Dorotea started early to introduce Mariana of the Cross in her correspondence. In fact, in a letter to Méndez de Haro, Ana Dorotea included the gift of an infant Jesus that both women had “composed” as a token of gratitude for his intercession to keep Mariana at the Descalzas (RAH, 9/663, fol. 84). Similarly, we find additional testimony in her correspondence with the royal family and with the popes, cardinals, and Vatican secretaries of state (Vilacoba Ramos; V. de Cruz 288–9). Mariana of the Cross would exercise the role of intermediary at the Habsburg court, and as a defender of the political and religious interests of the dynasty at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries. She defended the works of Sor María de Jesús de Ágreda at the Madrid court and the Vatican in 1684, supporting the interests of Queen Mariana of Austria and her son, Carlos II (V. de Cruz 289–92). 39

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way, she made apparent her intention that the Descalzas Reales remain a center of female power in the courtly environment of the seventeenth century by prioritizing the profession of the female Habsburgs at this convent to the detriment of others further away from court, even if they were also under royal patronage, as was the case with Las Huelgas. Likewise, in addition to the royal family and the Marquis of Carpio, Ana Dorotea was on close terms with the Austrian Imperial ambassadors. The visits she was paid between 1663 and 1674 by Ambassador Francisco Eusebio, Count of Pötting, and the gifts that Ana Dorotea made to his family attest to this (Nieto II: 397). As noted in the diary he wrote during his term of service, Pötting visited the Descalzas Reales several times to hold interviews with Ana Dorotea, both on his own, remaining with her for up to two hours (Nieto II: 143), and accompanied, for instance, by the papal nuncio Visconti (Nieto II: 384). He also recorded the visits to the convent and the interviews held in Ana Dorotea’s parlor by his wife, Marie Sophie de Dietrichstein, one of the most influential women at court;43 she was frequently accompanied by her husband (Nieto II: 313) and by Queen Mariana of Austria and Prince Carlos (Nieto II: 395). Unfortunately, the ambassador did not write in his diary the matters he discussed with members of the court; consequently, we do not find reference to those discussed by the Count and Countess of Pötting with Ana Dorotea, except for one single occasion in which he comments to having admitted Pedro de Arce as superintendent of his house “with the strong recommendation of Sor Ana Dorotea of Austria.”44 Nonetheless, his diary proves that Ana Dorotea maintained a patronage system whose members were recommended for positions and occupations, even at the house of the ambassador. We may suppose, therefore, that their conversations also dealt with issues related to the Austrian empire; most likely, the two issues about which the count came to negotiate urgently: the marriage of the emperor to a Spanish infanta, and financial support for the war against the Turkish army.45 Through Ana Dorotea’s relationship with the royal family, the king’s favorite Méndez de Haro, and the ambassador, the Descalzas Reales remained one of the centers of female power in Madrid’s court, and Ana Dorotea, like her predecessors, was yet another Habsburg woman who mediated and influenced the politics concerning both Habsburg branches. The source that most clearly shows the role played by Ana Dorotea, and which sets her absolutely apart from her image as a religious woman indifferent to the world outside the convent, is the correspondence currently kept at the Vatican: 132 letters from Ana Dorotea addressed to different popes and their nephews [nipoti], cardinals, and secretaries of state between 1642 and 1691 (V. de Cruz 256–89). The topics of this collection of letters are most On the role of Countess Marie Sophie Dietrichstein at the Madrid court, see Oliván Santaliestra, Mariana de Austria (144–52). 44 “[C]on recomendación apretada de la Sor Anna Dorothea de Austria” (Nieto II: 307). 45 Previously, Empress María, Queen Margarita of Austria, and Sor Margaret of the Cross had also mediated between Philip III and Rudolph II, negotiating Spanish support for the war against the Turks in Hungary (1592–1606). See González Cuerva. 43

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revealing, since their nature is in the main courtly46 and not spiritual, as would have been expected from a nun. There are to be found congratulations on appointments, recommendations for people and businesses, requests and displays of gratitude for favors and graces, and just as many official and business letters—an epistolary genre which in the letter-writing manuals of early modern Spain was attributed to women addressing their social equals and members of court, including royal addressees. None of the manuals, however, mentioned women writing to popes or cardinals. Ana Dorotea’s correspondence, therefore, not only did not follow the rules established in these manuals for women’s writing, her letters, like those of another illegitimate Habsburg before her, the governor of the Netherlands, Margaret of Parma, crossed the borders of the Spanish monarchy, and extended her patronage system beyond Habsburg territories.47 Indeed, among Ana Dorotea’s correspondence, we find letters in which she congratulates popes on their consecration, and cardinals on their being raised to new positions. On some occasions, she also makes sure to ask for a recommendation, as in a letter to Camillo Francesco Maria Pamphili in 1645, in which she compliments him two months after his appointment as cardinal by his uncle, Pope Innocent X, and asks him to request from the pope certain benefits to “the son of a gentleman who assists me,”48 a matter for which she had herself written a few days before. Clearly, Ana Dorotea was prolific in sending recommendations to the Vatican. Numerous noblemen, such as Rodrigo Gómez de Sandoval y Mendoza, VII Duke of Infantado when appointed ambassador to Rome in 1649,49 as well as a remarkable number of learned men [letrados] and ecclesiastics from different religious orders—among whom the Franciscans stand out—were all given recommendations by the Descalzas Reales. All these letters prove that Ana Dorotea controlled a wide patronage system, whose members asked her intercession, favor, and endorsement of their requests to popes and cardinals. Additionally, Rudolph II’s daughter privileged those who were in her service or who occupied some office at the Descalzas, such as her chaplain Francisco Basurto in whose favor she wrote on several occasions, interceding for him with King Carlos II for benefices at different churches in the 1680s, since for Ana Dorotea, he was “the only servant whom, at the end of my days, I would like to leave well taken care of.”50 46 Pedro Martín Baños rightly judged as “courtly” the letters included in the epistolary manuals printed in early modern Spain. Although the manuals declared that their collections included “family letters” such as the neo-Latin models and mistranslations of Cicero’s family letters, in reality they included official and business letters that met social obligations. See Martín Baños. 47 For the correspondence of Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Parma, the illegitimate daughter of Charles V who became governor of the Netherlands, see Gachard, Van Veen, D’Onofrio, and Bakhuizen van dan Brink and Thiessen. Patrouch also mentions her in his essay in this volume. 48 “[U]n ijo de un caballero que me asiste” (ASV, Segret. di Stato, Principi, vol. 65, fol. 60). 49 ASV, Segret. di Stato, Spagna, leg. 92, fol. 283. 50 “[E]l único criado a quien después de mis días quisiera dexar acomodado” (ASV, Segret. di Stato, Principi, vol. 65, fols 335–6).

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This documentary corpus also reveals her role as a religious patroness, since Ana Dorotea asked for many licenses to patronize festivities, prayers, and beatifications. Among this type of requests are, for example, the beatification of the Franciscan Nicolás Factor and different prayers and festivities such as those for Our Lady of the Rosary [Nuestra Señora del Rosario] and Our Lady of Refuge [Nuestra Señora del Refugio], which were linked to the defense of the Immaculate Conception and, therefore, to the Pietas Austriaca. Like other women of the Habsburg dynasty, Ana Dorotea used her influence and defended certain spiritual devotions that had political implications and put her in contact with the royal family and different men at court.51 Along with Queen Mariana of Austria, she requested that the festivity of Our Lady of the Rosary, a Marian-Dominican devotion, be celebrated in all the realm’s churches. She wrote to Pope Clement X in 1670 to that effect: “I have learned that Her Majesty the Queen has written Your Holiness begging for a general prayer for Our Lady of the Rosary for all of Spain, and I also throw myself at the feet of Your Holiness to beg for this, for it would be great pleasure to see this prayer.”52 The extension of this devotion was seen as lending royal support to the Dominican order, after the order had progressively relinquished its power the past century by its theological opposition to the Immaculate Conception (Negredo 156–64). In addition, Ana Dorotea did not hesitate to request support to this end in 1670 from Cardinal Federico Borromeo, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, who had been nuncio in Spain for two years and “involved in the issue”;53 he sent her the papal brief towards the end of 1671. In much the same way, Ana Dorotea discussed several pious devotions and other matters with the different apostolic nuncios at the Descalzas Reales, who would visit her immediately upon their arrival in Madrid, as did, for instance, Savo Millini54 and the special nuncio Pedro Alberini.55 In some cases these interviews would further lead to an intense letter exchange, as with Cardinal Francesco Barberini, who met Ana Dorotea on a visit he made to Margaret of the Cross According to Magdalena Sánchez, in the cases of Empress María, Queen Margarita of Austria, and Margaret of the Cross “Piety could have political ramifications for women, and through their pious activities women could exercise power and influence at court. Therefore, the pious deeds of these three women merit study because these activities demonstrate precisely how royal women became politically active. Instead of isolating a woman within a convent, spiritual devotion could actually increase her reputation and bring her into greater contact with the male world around her” (137–8). 52 “Su magestad la Reina e sabido que a escrito a buestra Santidad pidiéndole el reso general de nuestra Señora del Rosario para toda España, i asi io tanbién me echó a sus pies de buestra Santidad pidiéndoselo, porque será mucho gusto el ber este reso” (ASV, Segret. di Stato, Principi, vol. 95, fol. 447). 53 “[A]ndado en el negocio” (AGP, Descalzas Reales, caja 6, exp. 5, fol. 448). 54 A letter from Ana Dorotea to Clement x states that she received the nuncio at the Descalzas Reales on October 16, 1675 (ASV, Segret. di Stato, Principi, vol. 101, fol. 461). 55 A letter from Ana Dorotea to Innocent xi gives an account of the visit to the Descalzas Reales on June 24, 1676 (ASV, Segret. di Stato, Principi, vol. 102, fol. 316). 51

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during his trip to Spain as Legate ad latere in 1626.56 The letters by Ana Dorotea to the cardinal archived in the Vatican Apostolic Library show the relationship they maintained even after 1644, when Barberini stepped down as Secretary of State. The letters reveal a certain familiarity and disclose how both played a role as agents and informants of one another at their respective courts: Ana Dorotea recommended Barberini’s affairs to the king, and the cardinal recommended hers to the pope. They exchanged congratulations, recommendations, requests, and even presents that were delivered both by post and through the mediation of the agents sent to Madrid by Barberini, such as Nicolás Rizzi. This again demonstrates the extensive circle of men who visited her, as her clients’ agents would also hold interviews with her to discuss different affairs. In effect, Ana Dorotea became one of the most powerful and influential women at the Spanish court, as witnessed by her letter to Barberini in 1654: I am truly in favor of executing the affairs of Your Eminence as much as possible, of which I shall inform His Majesty, God keep Him, and the ministers, since I am certain that someone of the highest authority will do what he can in my regard. The gentleman Don Nicolás comes to talk to me, giving me occasion to relate a particular mercy for which I beseech His Holiness, with the favor of Your Eminence; and in order to present the report as personally as it is convenient, I have shown him some papers and informed him verbally of my intentions.57

In conclusion, we have seen how the role played by Ana Dorotea at the Madrid court was completely opposed to the image proffered in the texts of her biographers and hagiographers, who depicted her an “exemplary, silent and most serene religious princess.”58 On the contrary, Ana Dorotea, although an illegitimate daughter of Rudolph II, behaved as a full-fledged Habsburg, maneuvering and influencing the political scene from within the Descalzas Reales. For her, as for the female Habsburgs who lived before her, the convent did not entail seclusion from the outside world or the abandonment of her dynastic obligations, but the transformation of the Descalzas Reales into one more center of power within the Spanish monarchy, where royals, ministers, ambassadors, and nuncios would meet with her, and from where she would dispatch her words and wishes beyond the cloister. 56 Cassiano dal Pozzo, who wrote the Cardinal’s travelogue, wrote down that on May 30, Francesco Barberini visited Margaret of the Cross at the Descalzas Reales and she took “the illegitimate child of the late Rudolph II to kiss the hand of the Cardinal” [llevó a besar la mano del señor Cardenal a la hija natural del que fuera Rodolfo II] (dal Pozzo 118). 57 “Yo estoy con todas veras para executar quanto se pudiere en orden a los negocios de Vuestra Eminencia, que ablaré a su Magestad, que Dios guarde, y a los ministros, que estoi cierta que uno de la maior autoridad ará por mi respeto todo quanto fuere posible. El señor D. Nicolás acude a ablarme, que con esto e tenido ocassión para comunicarle cierta gracia que deseo impetrar de su Santidad, con el favor de Vuestra Eminencia, y para que el informe se pueda hacer con toda la individualidad que conviene, le e mostrado algunos papeles y de palabra dicho le mi intención” (BAV, Barberini, Lat. 8587, 6–7). 58 “[E]xemplar, silenciosa y Serenissima Princesa, Religiosa” (Díaz 23).

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Works Cited Aliverti, Maria Ines, ed. Proceedings of Symposium “Il viaggio attraverso l’Italia di Margherita d’Austria, Regina di Spagna. 1598–1599.” Pisa: Pisa University Press, forthcoming. Álvarez, Arturo. “Curioso epistolario en torno a Sor Margarita de la Cruz.” Hispania Sacra. Revista de historia eclesiástica 24 (1971): 187–234. Archivio di Stato di Firenze (ASFI). Mediceo del Principato, Filza 4952, n.d. Archivio di Stato di Firenze (ASFI). Mediceo del Principato, Filza 4949, fol. 837. Archivio di Stato di Firenze (ASFI). Mediceo del Principato, Filza 4955, fol. 218. Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Roma (ASV). Segret. di Stato, Principi, vol. 65, fol. 60. Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Roma (ASV). Segret. di Stato, Principi, vol. 65, fols 335–6. Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Roma (ASV). Segret. di Stato, Principi, vol. 95, fol. 447. Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Roma (ASV). Segret. di Stato, Principi, vol. 101, fol. 461. Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Roma (ASV). Segret. di Stato, Principi, vol. 102, fol. 316. Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Roma (ASV). Segret. di Stato, Spagna, leg. 92, fol. 283. Archivo de la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona (ACA), Consejo de Aragón, leg. 272, No. 36, fol. 1. Archivo de la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona (ACA), Consejo de Aragón, leg. 272, No. 36, fol. 5. Archivo General de Palacio (AGP). Descalzas Reales, caja 6, exp. 5, fol. 448. Archivo General de Palacio (AGP). Descalzas Reales, caja 13, exp. 13, fol. 1. Archivo General de Palacio (AGP). Descalzas Reales, caja 13, exp. 13, fol. 3. Archivo General de Palacio (AGP). Descalzas Reales, caja 13, exp. 13, fol. 4. Archivo General de Palacio (AGP). Descalzas Reales, caja 21, exp. 1. Archivo General de Palacio (AGP). Descalzas Reales, caja 21, exp. 1, fol. 78. Archivo General de Palacio (AGP). Descalzas Reales, caja 21, exp. 1, fol. 135. Archivo General de Palacio (AGP). Descalzas Reales, caja 21, exp. 21, fols 135–8. Archivo General de Palacio (AGP). Descalzas Reales, caja 78, exp. 34. Bakhuizen van den Brink, R.C., and J.S. Theissen, eds. Correspondance française de Marguerite d’Autriche, duchesse de Parme, avec Philippe II. Utrecht: Kemink en zoon, 1925. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Roma (BAV). Barberini, Lat. 8587, 6–7. Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE). Ms. 10714, fols 183–84. Carrillo, Martín. Elogios de mujeres insignes del viejo testamento. Madrid, 1626. Clausuras. Tesoros artísticos en los conventos y monasterios madrileños. Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, de enero a marzo de 2007. Madrid: Dirección General de Patrimonio Histórico, Consejería de Cultura y Deportes, Comunidad de Madrid, 2007. Coreth, Anne. Pietas Austriaca: Austrian Religious Practices in the Baroque Era. Trans. William Bowman. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2004.

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Cruz, Anne J. “Juana of Austria, Patron of the Arts and Regent of Spain, 1554– 1559.” In The Rule of Women in Early Modern Europe. Ed. Anne J. Cruz and Mihoko Suzuki. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2009. 103–22. ———, and Mary Elizabeth Perry, eds. Culture and Control in CounterReformation Spain. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992. Cruz, Vanessa de. “Cartas, mujeres y Corte en el Siglo de Oro.” Unpublished PhD dissertation. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2010. dal Pozzo, Cassiano. El diario del viaje a España del Cardenal Francesco Barberini escrito por Cassiano del Pozzo. Ed. A. Anselmi. Madrid: Doce Calles, 2004. Díaz, Francisco. Exemplar religioso, propuesto en las funerales exequias, que el gravíssimo, y real convento de Nuestra Señora de la Consolacion, de Señoras Descalças Franciscas, hizo por la muerte de la Excelentíssima señora Soror Ana Dorotea de la Concepción, Marquesa de Austria. Madrid, 1694. D’Onofrio, Giovanna Ines, ed. Il Carteggio intimo di Margherita d’Austria, duchessa di Parma e Piacenza. Studio critico di documenti farnesiani. Napoli: N. Jovene, 1919. Durme, Maurice van. “Les Granvelle au service des Habsbourg.” In Les Granvelle et les anciens Pays-Bas. Ed. Krista de Jonge and Gustaaf Janssens. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2000. 11–81. Earenfight, Theresa, ed. Queenship and Political Power in Medieval and Early Modern Spain. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005. Evans, Robert J.W. Rudolf ii and His World: A Study in Intellectual History, 1576– 1612. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973. Gachard, Louis Prosper. Correspondance de Marguerite d’Autriche, duchesse de Parme, avec Philippe II. Brussels: C. Muquardt, 1867–1881. García Sanz, Ana. “Nuevas aproximaciones a la serie El triunfo de la Eucaristía.” In El arte en la corte de los Archiduques Alberto de Austria e Isabel Clara Eugenia (1598–1633). Un reino imaginado. Madrid: Sociedad Estatal para la Conmemoración de los Centenarios de Felipe II y Carlos V, 1999. 108–17. ———, et al. Las Descalzas Reales. Orígenes de una comunidad religiosa en el siglo XVI. Madrid: Patrimonio Nacional, 2010. González Cuerva, Rubén. “Cruzada y dinastía: Las mujeres de la Casa de Austria ante la larga guerra de Hungría.” In Las relaciones discretas entre las monarquías hispana y portuguesa. Las Casas de las r einas (siglos XV–XIX). Ed. José Martínez Millán and Maria Paula Marçal Lourenço. 3 vols. Madrid: Polifemo, 2008. Vol. II: 1149–86. Hernández, Rosilie. “The Politics of Exemplarity: Biblical Women and the Education of the Spanish Lady in Martín Carrillo, Sebastián de Herrera Barnuevo, and María de Guevara.” In Women’s Literacy in Early Modern Spain and the New World. Ed. Anne J. Cruz and Rosilie Hernández. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011. 225–41.

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Jordan Gschwend, Annemarie. “Las dos águilas del Emperador Carlos V. Las colecciones de Juana y María de Austria en la corte de Felipe II.” In La monarquía de Felipe II a debate. Ed. Luis A. Ribot. Madrid: Sociedad Estatal para la Conmemoración de los Centenarios de Felipe II y Carlos V, 2000. 429–72. Lehfeldt, Elizabeth. Religious Women in Golden Age Spain: The Permeable Cloister. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005. López-Vidriero, María Luisa. “Por la imprenta hacia Dios.” In El libro antiguo español IV. De libros, librerías, imprentas y lectores. Ed. Pedro M. Cátedra and María Luisa López-Vidriero. Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, 2002. 193–218. Martín Baños, Pedro. “Familiar, retórica, cortesana: disfraces de la carta en los tratados epistolares renacentistas.” Cuaderno de Historia Moderna. Anejos: “Cultura epistolar en la alta Edad Moderna. Usos de la carta y de la correspondencia entre el manuscrito y el impreso” 4 (2005): 15–30. Méndez Silva, Rodrigo. Admirable vida, y heroycas virtudes de aquel glorioso blasón de España, fragrante azucena de la Cesárea Casa de Austria, y supremo timbre en felicidades Augustas de las más celebradas matronas del Orbe, la Esclarecida Emperatriz María, hija del siempre Invicto Emperador Carlos v. Madrid, 1655. Negredo, Fernando. Los predicadores de Felipe IV. Corte, intrigas y religión en la España del Siglo de Oro. Madrid: Actas, 2006. Nieto Nuño, Miguel, ed. Diario del conde Pötting, Embajador del Sacro Imperio en Madrid (1664–1674). 2 vols. Madrid: Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, 1990–1993. Noticia de la Fundacion del Real Monasterio de las Señoras Descalzas Reales de Madrid y de las personas reales que ha havido en el Religiosas. Biblioteca Nacional de España. Ms. 10714, fols 183–4. Oliván Santaliestra, Laura. Mariana de Austria. Imagen, poder y diplomacia de una reina cortesana. Madrid: Universidad Complutense, 2006. Palma, Juan de. Vida de la sereníssima Infanta sor Margarita de la Cruz, Religiosa Descalça de S. Clara. Madrid, 1636. Parsons, John Carmi. Eleanor of Castile: Queen and Society in Thirteenth-Century England. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995. Real Academia de la Historia (RAH). 9.663, fols 83–4. Real Academia de la Historia (RAH). 9.663, fols 96–7. Real Academia de la Historia (RAH). 9.663, fols 102–3. Sánchez, Magdalena S. The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun: Women and Power at the Court of Philip III of Spain. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University, 1998. Sánchez Lora, José Luis. Mujeres, conventos y formas de religiosidad barroca. Madrid: Fundación Universitaria Española, 1988. Sapper, Christian. “Kinder des Geblüts: die Bastarde Kaiser Rudolfs II.” Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 47 (1999): 1–116.

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Schoder, Elisabeth. “Die Reise der Kaiserin María nach Spanien (1581–1582).” In Die Epoche Phillipus II. (1556–1598). Ed. Friedrich Edelmayer. Vienna: Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, 1999. 151–80. Silleras-Fernández, Nuria. Power, and Patronage in Late Medieval Queenship: María de Luna. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. Simón Díaz, José, ed. Relaciones breves de actos públicos celebrados en Madrid de 1541 a 1650. Madrid: Instituto de Estudios Madrileños, 1982. Tormo, Elías. En las Descalzas Reales. Estudios históricos, iconográficos y artísticos. Madrid, 1917. Veen, J.S. van, ed. Briefwisseling tusschen Margaretha van Parma en Charles de Brimeu, graaf van Megen, stadhouder van Gelderland, 1560–1567. Arnhem: S. Gouda Quint, 1914. Venturelli, Paola. “La solemne entrada en Milán de Margarita de Austria, esposa de Felipe III (1598).” In La fiesta cortesana en la época de los Austrias. Ed. María Luisa Lobato and Bernardo J. García García. Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León, 2003. 233–47. Vergara, Alexander. Rubens and His Spanish Patrons. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Vilacoba Ramos, Karen María. “Entre Dios y la Corona: Relaciones epistolares de sor Ana Dorotea de Austria y Felipe iv.” In El franciscanismo en la Península Ibérica. Balance y perspectivas. i Congreso Internacional. Ed. María del Mar Graña. Barcelona: G.B.G. Editora, 2005. 643–61. Wethey, Harold E., and Alice Sunderland Wethey. “Herrera Barnuevo and His Chapel in the Descalzas Reales.” The Art Bulletin 48.1 (1966): 15–34. Wyhe, Cordula van, ed. Isabel Clara Eugenia: Female Sovereignty in the Courts of Madrid and Brussels. Madrid; London: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica and Paul Holberton Publishing, 2011.

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Chapter 6

From Castile to Burgundy: The Evolution of the Queens’ Households during the Sixteenth Century 1

Félix Labrador Arroyo

From the thirteenth to the eighteenth century, royal households gave identity to the dynasties of the European monarchies as well as cohesion to the families of their respective kingdoms. The household constituted one of the founding elements that combined to make the court a political power base from which to organize the kingdom. Each prince established his own household, which included his own form of service: his chapel, and the offices of his household, chamber, stables, guard, and the hunt. Yet, although all desired to be original in order to put a particular stamp on their monarchy, most households formed the same departments and structures that, after a period of steady development, took into their service the political, economic, and social èlites.2 Relations between governors and their respective monarchs became much more complex from the fourteenth century on, as one of their principal functions entailed the political and social integration of the leading èlites into a dynastic monarchy. Due to the lack of powerful centralizing institutions to carry out this function, it was important for noble families and urban and ecclesiastical èlites to reside at court and in royal households in order to ensure their loyalty to the dynasty.3 The court became the essential site wherein the terms of any tacit agreement between the crown and the social, political, and economic elites was spelled out. The decisions reached by the royal household (privileges and titles given, etc.), and the changes effected in the household had repercussions across the kingdom, since the monarch was not only head of household, but also of numerous institutions, such as the councils and tribunals, which he governed in the same manner as his house, that is, as pater familias. The house’s order and good government 1 The present work constitutes part of the projects “La evolución políticoinstitucional de la Casa de las Reinas Hispanas,” the Autonomous Community of MadridUniversidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC-CM-2010-CSH-5662) and “La contradicción de la Monarquía Católica la fijación de las ordenanzas y etiquetas de la Casa Real” (HAR200912614-C04-02), Spain’s Ministry of Science and Innovation. 2 See Martínez Millán, “La Corte de la Monarquía hispánica” 17–61. 3 See Costa Gomes 8–43; and Martínez Millán, “Introducción,” in La monarquía de Felipe II: la Casa del rey I: 30–49.

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guaranteed a good king and ruler, since at the time, the latter was taken to mean also a good economist.4 Ascribing to the same order as those of the kings, the households of the queens of Castile represented a focus of power of great importance, as their officers simultaneously occupied administrative positions in the kingdom and influenced monarchical government. This essay analyzes the evolution of the households’ organization and structure from the medieval period to the composition, in 1575, of the household etiquettes of the Spanish queens, emphasizing the constant court struggles over the households’ control. The first recorded references to a household serving the queens in Castile go back to the beginning of the twelfth century, when Urraca (1079–1126) had some thirty officers and counselors at her disposal, besides the officers that served her when she ruled as regent. First among them was the mayordomo mayor [lord steward], at the head of the domus of the Palatium, whose main mission was to administer the royal palace, the villicus palacie. Then there were half a dozen notaries, the economus regine, a few chaplains, numerous knights and a dapifer, in charge of military matters.5 However, we cannot say with any certainty that a household existed specifically for the queen until the end of that century, when Eleanor of Plantagenet (1162–1214), wife of Alfonso VIII, had her own mayordomo [steward or seneschal] in the person of Martín González de Contreras—although still within the overall organization of the royal household6—as well as a number of stewards, reposteros (see below), despenseros [clerks of the larder], judges, notaries, troubadours, and what have been called hombres de crianzón, officers who undertook a variety of minor duties together with the queen’s men,7 or the officers of Eleanor’s daughter, Doña Berenguela (1180–1246),8 who had more specialized offices within her royal household. This household, however, was identified with the bedchamber, as Alfonso X the Wise noted in his law code.9 During the reign of María de Molina (1265– 1331), the wife of Sancho IV, the institutional organization of the Castilian queen’s household—as well as that of the king—was established with her own service of more than 250 officers.10 After her reign, the main lines of the household of the Castilian queens were laid down, a process undoubtedly motivated by the Frigo 25–6 and 203 ff.; and Atienza Hernández 411–57. Fernández de Córdova Miralles 50–53 and Gambra Gutiérrez. For the queens’

4 5

households in the late Middle Ages see Muñoz Fernández and Salazar y Acha. 6 Salazar y Acha 397–8 and González 256. 7 Fernández de Córdova Miralles 53 and, similarly, Cañas Gálvez I: 9–22. 8 Salazar y Acha 398 and Ballesteros-Beretta 102 and 552. 9 Tít XIV, Ley III “Commo deve el pueblo guardar al Rey en las dueñas e en las doncellas e en las otras mugeres que andan en casa de la Reyna” [How the people must guard the king from the duennas, damsels, and other women from the queen’s household] Partida Segunda 132. 10 Gaibrois y Ballesteros, María de Molina 29, Gaibrois y Ballesteros, Historia de Sancho IV, and Coussemacker. See also Salazar y Acha 289.

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multiplicity of court functions, which gave rise to an increase in the number of officers required to attend to their needs.11 The queen’s household was considered to be on an equal footing with the king’s, although subject to his control. It was, however, at times economically independent of the king’s, thanks to the income and lands assigned to the queens under their marriage contracts, which enabled them to maintain both their male and female servants, a special aspect of their household.12 The process of consolidation and institutionalization of the queens’ household was favored by the Trastámara dynasty in Castile, which, as José Manuel Nieto Soria has pointed out, ceremonialized political life,13 giving the queen’s household a new dimension. The result was the introduction and subsequent consolidation of new officers assigned to the queen’s household itself, as well as the institutionalization of others, such as reposteros de estrados, who were responsible for the furniture and care of the room where the queen received visitors; reposteros de plata, responsible for the queen’s silverware; valets of the bed chamber; and reposteros de mesa, responsible for the table and meals. Then there were ballesteros [archers], continos [palace guards], maestresalas [butlers], notaries of the chamber, and secretaries, although no rules and regulations governing the household actually existed.14 Broadly speaking, this administrative structure was retained when a household was set up for the Infanta Leonor of Trastámara (1350–1415), the wife of Carlos III of Navarra15 and for Beatriz of Portugal (1373–1420), the second wife of Juan I of Castile,16 albeit with more offices and more specialized ones. This royal household was organized and structured along the lines of the Castilian model and divided into several sections—although the queen did not have all of them—which aimed to cater to and satisfy the needs of the sovereigns: chapel, chamber, guards, hunting, horses and pack animals. All of this was the responsibility of the lord steward, who was also in charge of running and supervising the services of the kitchen and table.17 Included in the table and kitchen services, to mention a few cases, was the important figure of the despensero mayor [steward of the larder], whose role within the royal household increased in line with the power of the lord steward and the court’s specialization, since he was directly responsible for all expenditures and the queen’s food, purchasing all the foodstuffs necessary for the household and distributing the bouche of court18 to the officers. Another key figure was the cook, an office with considerable responsibility since it Ladero Quesada, “La Casa Real” 327–29. On the queens’ household maintenance, see the essays in Earenfight, Women and

11

12

Wealth.

15 16 17

Nieto Soria, ed. 20–26 and also Nieto Soria, Ceremonias. See Allard. Narbona Cárceles 415. Olivera Serrano 219–32. Ladero Quesada, “Casa y corte” 45. In the case of the kingdom of Aragón, which differs from Castile, see the essays in Earenfight, Women and Wealth, particularly Vanlandingham. 18 Free food and drink at court. 13 14

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concerned the sovereign’s health. As Salazar y Acha has pointed out, his presence is first documented in the list of offices in the household of Juana de Ponthieu (r.1237–1252), the second wife of Ferdinand III.19 The cook was in charge of the kitchen porter, various scullions, regatones who haggled for the lowest prices in the market, bakers, pastry cooks, poultry keepers, water carriers, officers who kept the fires going, and grooms. Together with the cook, there was a surveyor whose office controlled the quality as well as the price of the products served at the royal table. Likewise, the butler was another palace office charged with serving the royal table; his function was to organize the serving of food and monitor the quality and quantity of the food brought to the table. This position appears in the court of Castile at the end of the fourteenth century or beginning of the fifteenth century. In the queen’s household, its presence is documented in the court of Beatriz of Portugal.20 Queens also had a cupbearer whose task it was to serve wine and water at the royal table. The first reference to this office was in Juana de Ponthieu’s household.21 In turn, the ladies were associated with the bedchamber, the most private of spaces, although of great public importance. The main position in this section was the chief lady-in-waiting, the person around whom all domestic life revolved, a figure who represented and was responsible for all the female palace services.22 María de Molina already had various camareras [ladies-in-waiting], although the term mayor, chief, did not appear until the end of the 1410s, with Catalina of Lancaster (1373–1418).23 Under her command were all the officers of the bedchamber, both male and female: ladies-in-waiting and maids of the bedchamber, slaves, laundrywomen, tailors, reposteros, grooms, etc. Other important positions corresponded to the ladies’ governess-cum-chaperone—the person charged with overseeing the good conduct of the ladies-in-waiting and maids in the queen’s bedchamber—and the duennas, widows of nobles with an important position in the bedchamber. Under the supervision of the lord steward, various offices linked with the stables and pack animals were responsible for looking after the animals that the queen and her household used for transport.24 This was the model for the household of Isabel of Castile until her death in Medina del Campo in 1504.25 On the day she died, her household comprised 520 officers, distributed among its different departments, namely: chapel, bedchamber, 21 22 23 24 25 19

Salazar y Acha 287–8. Cañas Gálvez I: 55. Salazar y Acha 278–80. Fernández de Córdova Miralles 144–72 and González Marrero 65–81. Cañas Gálvez I: 63. Salazar y Acha 308–9. Useful for reconstructing Queen Isabel’s household is the Instrucción para el régimen interior de su palacio [Rules for the Interior Regime of (the Queen’s) Palace] by fray Hernando de Talavera, edited by Domínguez Bordona. A manuscript copy from the sixteenth century is preserved in Spain’s Biblioteca Nacional. Talavera’s influence on Isabel’s domestic arrangements was very important and is evident from the fact that, for a while, he was the person responsible for ordering the payment of the officers of the queen’s household. 20

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household or offices, and guard. This number was substantially higher than that of the previous sovereigns, no doubt due to the fact that Isabel was proprietary queen.26 Nonetheless, we must not forget that, throughout this process, the sovereigns of Castile—particularly from the middle of the fifteenth century onwards—were always mindful of the ordinances of the Dukes of Burgundy when they organized their palace services, as can be seen from the translations into Spanish of two works of reference: the ceremonial etiquettes of Philip the Good, from December 31, 1458, and those of Charles the Bold, drafted by Olivier de la Marche in November 1474.27 The Household of Castile as the Model for the Queens’ Service (1504–1516) In 1496, Isabel and Ferdinand set up a household for their son, Prince Juan, in the Castilian style. This was essentially the same form of service as his mother’s, which was developed and institutionalized, as we have seen, by the Trastámara dynasty, keeping in mind the affirmation of monarchic power that had been achieved mainly by the reforms to the bureaucracy and administrative apparatus introduced by Enrique II of Trastámara and Juan I.28 In order to explain the evolution of the household of Castile, it must be stressed that although union with Aragón was carried out in the kingdom of Castile, the less institutionally evolved Castilian household was the one adopted as the mode of service for the new political entity that came into being.29 The premature death of the young prince in 1497 prompted the dissolution of his household and his servants sought accommodation where they could; the result was that Queen Isabel’s was the only established household in the kingdom of Castile. The composition and structure of this household was described years later (1535 and 1547) by the chronicler Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, who had been a page to Prince Juan:30 1. Chapel: The chapel had preachers, chaplains, keyboard musicians, singers, and its capellán mayor [chief chaplain]. 2. Household of Castile: Mayordomo mayor [lord steward], his lieutenant, veedor [surveyor] and contador mayor [chief accountant], despensero [clerk of the larder] and pagador [paymaster], the treasurer of the royal palace of Segovia, and the deputy and clerk of the surveyor’s office and accountant’s office. Also accredited to the queen’s household were the master, arms bearer, glover, courier [messenger], swordsmith, tirador de oro [gold-wire drawer], and the

AGS. CSR, leg. 9, fols 821r–840v. More information about the composition of Isabel of Castile’s household in de la Torre, and in de la Torre and E.A. de la Torre. 27 Robledo Estaire 6–7. 28 Gómez Izquierdo, Domínguez Casas, and Anglés deal indirectly with the subject of the composition of the household. 29 See Sánchez-Albornoz, García de Cortázar and Peña Bocos, and Vanlandingham. 30 I follow the edition listed in the Works Cited. A new edition by Fabregat Barrios appeared in 2006. 26

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physicians, the palace guards of that household, and the monteros de Espinosa [guards] who kept watch over the monarch while she slept, bedchamber porters, and those who resided at the chanceries of Valladolid and Granada; gatekeepers, and widows and daughters of these posts who received a yearly pension. 3. Stables: The stables had jurisdiction over a master of the minstrels, minstrels, trumpeters and kettle drummers and certain pensions for their widows. 4. Bedchamber: The chamber had escuderos de a pie [foot squires or royal messengers] and some of their widows. 5. Hawking and falconry: The hawking and falconry section comprised a cazador mayor [master falconer] and his lieutenant, a chaplain, falconers, mancebos de caza [young hunting grooms], cazadores del búho [owl hunters], catarriberas [falcon and prey retrievers], rederos [those who spread the hunting nets], farrier, aposentador [quartermaster], falconers, rederos de la tierra [ground netters], capirotero [who made the hoods for the falcons], tailor, glover, agent and solicitor, alguacil [bailiff], and some widows with pensions. 6. Big game hunting: This section comprised a montero mayor [master of the hunt]; plus a sotamontero [deputy hunt master], chaplain, alguacil de telas y redes [the officer who carried and set all the toils and snares], monteros de traílla [the huntsmen in charge of the lymer hounds], horsemen, monteros de lebreles [huntsmen who looked after the greyhounds], monteros de ventores [huntsmen in charge of the scent hounds], dog breeders, a bailiff, and some widows.

All these officers were under the jurisdiction of the lord steward and the accountants. However, in contrast to what has traditionally been thought, Fernández de Oviedo did not—nor for that matter, did the accountant Soto Berrio, in the mid-seventeenth century—write down the ordinances and etiquettes used by this household, as they had not yet been created. Instead, he wrote down a description of the functions carried out in the household from memory, which in his case was excellent. This was the model followed by Juana, sworn in as queen of Castile at the 1506 Cortes of Valladolid, from the time her mother created the household for her in 1496 when she left for Flanders to marry Philip I the Fair,31 whose own household service followed the model of the House of Burgundy.32 Juana’s mental instability provided her husband with the opportunity to lay claim, before Ferdinand of Aragón, to his right to govern Castile; he succeeded with the aid of social groups in Castile who dissented from his father-in-law. Castile thus came to be governed by a monarch who followed the Burgundian model, consisting mainly of Flemish èlites, whereas the household of Castile was relegated to serving the queen, who took no part in political life.33 With Felipe I’s sudden death, the Burgundian model disappeared from Castile for a time, leaving Juana with her service. Given her delicate mental state after her husband’s death, her father took over the government AGS. CSR, leg. 96, No. 1–2. The process of establishing the royal households and the political alternatives is studied in Martínez Millán, ed. I: 46–50 and 105–12. 32 Suárez Fernández 470–76. 33 For the significance of the Burgundian household, see Paravicini as well as the earlier but still important documents in Reiffenberg and Ridder. The ordinances of the Burgundy household from 1515 are transcribed in Martínez Millán, ed. V: 137–68. 31

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of Castile. Ferdinand very soon realized that ruling such a powerful kingdom meant having to govern from within his own household, using it as the organizing mechanism. In 1509 he divided Castile’s royal household in two: one half was left with his daughter Juana, whom he shut away in Tordesillas castle; the other half served him along with his own household of Aragón. Some months later, Ochoa de Landa, the king’s notary, informed the monarch of the new set of rules and regulations drawn up in Valladolid on May 16, 1509, concerning the form of service; nonetheless, given the various misgivings and problems that arose, on July 20, the monarch was forced to issue a number of clarifications.34 From that date, the service and structure of the households of all Spanish queens followed those of Castile, which served to implement or justify any subsequent reform, whereas the kings’ household followed the dynasty to which they belonged; from 1517, when Charles V ascended the throne, the household would follow the Burgundian model until the Bourbons ascended the throne in 1700.35 Charles V created the model for the political configuration that would characterize the Habsburg dynasty throughout its history, which consisted, first of all, in respecting the organization of each of the inherited kingdoms that formed part of his royal house and court, and in assigning viceroys as representatives of the monarch in each territory. In this way, the Spanish monarchy was configured as a monarchy divided into courts, over which ruled the royal court, which would in time be located in Castile. Since the Duchy of Burgundy had originated the dynasty, the Burgundian household was maintained as the principal one, although, to avert possible efforts to divide the kingdoms, local elites were slowly introduced in its service, breaking the monopoly held by the Flemish and Burgundians. Thus, the emperor employed officers in his court and household from each of his kingdoms, although he maintained the structure, etiquette, and ceremonies of the Burgundian court, with the sole exception of the queens’ household, at least until the 1560s. Nonetheless, the queens’ household would be constituted later with Spanish officers and in Spanish fashion, given the importance of Castile within his inherited domains.36 The Queens’ Households at the Time of the Holy Roman Emperor When Charles arrived in Castile, he found the Castilian household fully organized, just as it had been left on the death of his grandfather. The Castilians who had AGS. CSR, leg. 96, fols 1–2. On June 21, 1517, before Charles V left Flanders, he organized his household in

34 35

Ghent along the lines of the Burgundian model, even though it had already been reorganized in 1515 (Domínguez Casas 564–75). See also Carlos Morales, “La llegada de Carlos I y la división de la Casa de Castilla” I: 167–76. 36 Although considered the model on which all early modern courts and etiquettes were founded, the influence of the Burgundian tradition on the normalization and structure of the different European royal households was less than what was originally thought. Paravicini 69–102.

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occupied key positions during Ferdinand’s regency hastened to meet him and offer their services; we should not forget that the Spanish kingdoms at the time of Charles’s arrival in Castile in 1517, were in a very chaotic state, as Ferdinand’s political party had removed from power the political party protected by Isabel of Castile and, after her death in 1504, by Philip the Fair. Both parties, therefore, were anxiously attempting to position themselves within Charles’s court to gain his royal favor.37 Charles, however, sent them to Valladolid where the Cortes [parliament] would be held and he was to take the oath as heir to Castile. The Castilians expressed their concern that they could not serve him since he had brought his own household already established with foreigners in the Burgundian style.38 Once the complaints had been heard, Charles hinted that as affairs in the royal households were less than harmonious, it would be necessary to make adjustments. His remark referred only to the household of Castile, which had been divided between his mother and his late grandfather, since in his own mind there was no doubt that his service should be provided by the household of Burgundy. For this reason, after promulgating ordinances amending Queen Juana’s Castilian household at Tordesillas in a way that would dignify it, Charles himself added the other half of the household of Castile to his Burgundian retinue, just as Ferdinand had done, but without giving it a leading role. Indeed, while Ferdinand gave the household of Castile and its officers an important role in political decisions, Charles viewed them as merely forming part of the Burgundian household. This arrangement irritated the Castilian èlites and was reflected in the Revolt of the Comuneros. The comuneros, through their bill, Ley perpetua [Perpetual Law], requested that the emperor set his household in order and make use of those who were native born and that he should “do in everything as the Catholic monarchs, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel, his grandparents and the other kings [and queens], his progenitors, had done. Because, by following them, according to the way and custom of the past monarchs, the immense and pointless expenditures now occurring at his majesty’s table and in his household will cease.”39 On his return to Castile, Charles V took good note of what had happened.40 In January 1523, he sent a memorandum to the Council of Castile in which he submitted his concerns about the organization of his court for their consideration. During the summer of that year, he proceeded to reform Castile’s royal household. Not only did the expenses and stipends of his retinue increase, but Charles also recognized the household’s political significance and role as an integrating mechanism for the Castilian èlites; for this reason, he took action to absorb certain sections, such as the hunt, into his Burgundian household. Giménez Fernández 26–36. Cortes de los Antiguos Reinos IV: 262–82. The subject has been thoroughly studied

37 38

by Carlos Morales, “La llegada” I: 166–8. 39 “[E]n todo como los Católicos señores rey don Fernando y reina doña Isabel, sus abuelos y los otros Reyes, sus progenitores lo hicieron. Porque haciéndolo así al modo y costumbre de los reyes pasados, cesarán los inmensos gastos y sin provecho que en la mesa y casa de su majestad se hacen …” (Sandoval I: 301). 40 RAH. Salazar y Castro, C-71, fol. 29v.

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In addition to the emperor’s reform of the household, his wife and cousin, Empress Isabel of Aviz also brought her service with her. It was structured along the lines of the household of her mother Queen María, Isabel of Castile’s daughter, and therefore in the Castilian style (also maintained by María’s sister Isabel, and Charles’s sisters, Leonor and Catalina),41 apart from some small exceptions relating to differences in salary and mode of service, which immediately became obvious. Fray Antonio de Guevara remarked in a letter to the Marquis of los Vélez: “They serve in the Portuguese style, that is, with three ladies-in-waiting close by the table and kneeling down; one cuts, and two serve, so that men bring the food and ladies serve it.”42 Nonetheless, in case there were any doubts about the model of service, the members of the Castilian party, led by Francisco de los Cobos, the main representative of the emperor’s peninsular policies; Fray García de Loaysa, Prior of the Dominican Order and royal confessor; Cardinal of Toledo Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca; and Archbishop of Santiago and President of the Royal Council Juan Pardo de Tavera, who had slowly assumed power over the different councils and tribunals, all proposed to him in 1528 that his wife’s household should be reformed. They argued that it should be adapted to the one used by the emperor and empress’s grandmother, Isabel of Castile, stating that they were repeating the complaints made by the Madrid parliaments that same year. In reality, the structural reforms were minimal, since the household already resembled Castile’s and the underlying intention was to replace with Castilians the Portuguese servants that the empress had brought with her. Among the most important were the lord steward and governor Rui Teles de Meneses, the chief lady-in-waiting Guiomar de Melo, the chaplain and Bishop of Oporto Pedro Álvares da Costa, and the veedor João de Saldanha, most of whom, under the pretext that they were unfamiliar with Castilian ways of royal service, were replaced by Castilian nobles, clients of Francisco de los Cobos and of Tavera, such as the Marquise of Aguilar, the Countess of Osorno, and Juan Vázquez de Molina, among others.43 In this context, the struggles of the factions and power groups to control the key positions in the royal household, as well as exert control over the system of favors, exactly mirrored the intense infighting between the factions at court to be appointed to positions in the administration, since those who occupied the See Martínez Millán I: 234–50, and Labrador Arroyo, “La emperatriz Isabel de Portugal.” For the Portuguese court, see the important studies by Costa Gomes and, more recently, Jordan. 42 “Se sirve al estilo de Portugal, es a saber: que están apegadas a la mesa tres damas y puestas de rodillas, la una que corta y las dos que sirven; de manera que el manjar lo traen hombres y lo sirven damas.” These criticisms were due to the excessive power held by the Portuguese subjects and members of the humanist faction in the Empress’s household: see March I: 24–5. 43 For other Castilian officers who substituted for the Portuguese, see AGS, E. leg. 26, No. 111–13. For more information see Labrador Arroyo, “La emperatriz Isabel de Portugal.” 41

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household’s principal positions (stewards, equerries, deans of the chapel, and so on) also occupied the key positions of government, the reforms having little or nothing to do with economic reasons. This was evident not only in the king’s household, but in those of the queen and the princes.44 According to the 1539 surveyor’s book,45 the officers forming Empress Isabel’s household included a chief chaplain, who was required to live in the chapel and serve as judge among the chaplains; a deacon; a principal sexton and almoner— offices carried out by the same person—35 chaplains, one of whom occasionally served as chapel treasurer; a chapel master; 15 singers; an organist (the great Antonio de Cabezón); a chamber musician; and an organist, along with 28 grooms of the chapel; a chapel clerk; a repostero or butler [responsible for the contents of the chapel]; and 2 chapel porters. The bedchamber’s officers comprised Guiomar de Melo as chief lady-in-waiting, who had not been removed despite the pressures from the Castilian party, along with 4 accompanying duennas (the Countess of Faro, the Marquise of Lombay, the Marquise of Aguilar, and the Countess of Osorno); a ladies’ chaperone; 41 ladies-in-waiting; 3 maidens of the bedchamber; a minor chaperone; and 2 male bodyguards; as well as 8 women in a variety of offices. Offices also included the Count of Cifuentes as lord steward, Francisco de Borja, Master of the Horse; a lieutenant of the lord steward; Cristóbal de Robles, the repostero de la plata [steward of the silverware]; Miguel de Muriel, the steward of the larder; a lieutenant for the equerry; a notary of the chamber; a household surveyor; Juan Díaz, cupbearer; the surveyor of the officers’ service; and an officer of the lord stewardship, as well as 73 pages. There were in addition, 112 valets of the bedchamber; 6 grooms of the chamber; a surgeon; the grammar master, Bernabé de Busto; a keeper of textiles and tapestries; a guardarropa [officer of the wardrobe]; an equerry; two palace guards; a knight quartermaster and 17 quartermasters; 2 physicians; a waiter to the ladies-in-waiting; a presentador de tablas [officer of the riding boards]; a buyer; a brasero who kept the brazier burning in the queen’s bedchamber; a poultry keeper; and a carver to the ladies-in-waiting with his assistant; 25 litter bearers; Francisco de Arteaga, the merchant; 2 waiters; 10 men of the bedchamber; 29 porters of the bedchamber; 2 gatekeepers; and 2 porters of the ladies-in-waiting; 23 reposteros de estrado [steward of the hall]; 23 grooms of the stirrup; and 18 foot squires. Meanwhile, the kitchen comprised a head cook, 2 cooks, 3 kitchen assistants, a pastry cook, a porter, and a male nurse, as well as 17 menial officers. In comparison, during the year 1534, Queen Juana’s household in Tordesillas comprised 15 chaplains, 8 grooms, 4 clerks of the chapel, a second lady-in-waiting, 15 valets of the bedchamber, 4 stewards of the hall and table; and 3 stewards of the silverware; the latter assisted by 2 yeomen; 2 porters, 2 cupbearers, 48 officers with various duties, 31 women, 8 grooms of the stirrup, several foot squires, 4 Flemish officers, and 24 monteros de Espinosa.46 There is no doubt that her household was For an overall view of this period, see Martínez Millán and Carlos Morales, eds., particularly chapters 2 and 3. 45 AGS, E, leg. 26, No. 124, CSR, leg. 67, 5º. 46 AGS. CSR, leg, 25, fols 1199–204. 44

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quite small and with fewer posts of importance, reflecting the fact that she had been removed from the political scene. The following disbursements were set aside for the upkeep of Juana’s household organized along the Castilian model: Table 6.1

“Budget for Our Lady, the Queen’s Household Expenses and All Her Majesty’s Officers for the Year of 1525” [Tiento de quenta de los gastos de la Casa de la reyna nuestra señora e de todos los ofiçiales de su Mt. para la consignaçión deste año de 1525]47

The annual larder expenses, including the bouche of court; wax and expenses for firewood and pack animals of said larder, as well as other ordinary and extraordinary expenses.

2,400,000 maravedís [mrs.]

Her majesty’s wardrobe and bedchamber expenses and household repairs, medicines and other items.

300,000

Wages and expense allowances of all the queen’s officers.48

5,099,000

The livery usually given to the guards and the captain

150,000

Stipends paid to their majesties’ officers by the emperor, their wages 3,882,555 and expense allowances Total

11,831,555

After that date, the expenses fluctuated minimally until the arrival of Isabel of Valois in 1680; according to the calculations for 1528 (which included all the members of the household of Castile who were in service or on leave, and therefore a higher amount than others we have counted previously), the Tordesillas household comprised 178 people, whose salaries amounted to approximately 5,150,000 mrs.49 In addition, another 42 “officers of our lady the queen, who AGS. CSR, leg. 25, fols 1084–7.

47 48

AGS, CSR, leg. 25, fols 1092–7 notes that the wage bill for the Tordesillas household amounted to 4,650,033 mrs., while Juana’s officers who lived in the court with Charles received 520,000 mrs.; that is, 5,170,033 in total. Another estimate in AGS, CSR, leg. 26, No. 1021–1022, also breaks down Juana’s household into two parts: “los ofiçiales de la Reyna nuestra señora que resyden en Tordesillas …” [Our lady the Queen’s officers who reside in Tordesillas …], which came to 4.431.393 mrs., and “los ofiçiales de su Alteza que residiendo en la corte de su Magt. e algunos estando en sus casas por ser viejos y enfermos por mandamiento de su Magt. y por lo que se proveyó en la reformaçión” [Her Highness’s officers, who reside at His Majesty’s court, and some in their own houses by order of His Majesty because they are old and infirm, and who were provided for in the reform], which amounted to 733,440, totaling 5,164,833 mrs., a slightly higher figure than the ones quoted above. Another estimate, in AGS. CSR, leg. 25, No. 1086 indicates that they totaled 5,160,033 mrs. overall. 49 AGS. CSR, leg. 25, No. 1143–8: Chapel (17 chaplains, 6 grooms, and 4 reposteros de capilla [chapel clerks]); Bedchamber (1 chamberlain, a notary, and 8 men); 15 valets

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[were] residing in this court of his majesty” were included in this section of the Castile household, and served Charles with a total salary bill of approximately 678,800 mrs.50 The Castilian household, both that of the emperor and of Juana in Tordesillas, had during their reign an expenditure of approximately 35,000 ducats, less than that of the Catholic monarchs, while the Burgundian household exceeded 200,000 ducats.51 We should also note that in the empress’s household, payroll expenses oscillated between 6,784,303 mrs. in 1528 and 6,398,310 mrs. for the last two thirds of 1530 and the first third of 1531.52 After the death of the empress, the emperor retreated to the Monastery of Sisla for over a month. In this Hieronymite monastery he deliberated on how to place his wife’s servants and how to organize his daughters’ households. He seriously considering not taking them in, given the great influence they exerted on his children, the prince and the two infantas. Because they had acquired political influence at court, however, he was unable to dispense with them. His solution was to place them in service to his daughters’ households. By royal letters patent on June 4 and August 1, the empress’s servants were accordingly welcomed into the infantas’ household, which retained the structure and organization of their mother’s household, a victory for the Castilian party.53 of the bedchamber, 2 reposteros [clerks], and 2 yeomen of the silver, a cup bearer and his assistant, a king of arms and 2 ballesteros de maza [mace bearers]; Offices (50 people headed by the Marquis of Denia), 12 grooms of the stirrup, 2 foot squires, 9 Flemish officers, 20 women and 2 maidens, and 24 monteros de Espinosa [guards]. The wages amounted to some 3,465,058 mrs., the expense allowances 827,535 and bouche of court 855,300. 50 AGS. CSR, leg. 25, No. 1149–50: there were 20 chaplains, 10 offices, 4 foot squires, and 8 doorkeepers of the chamber, whose wages were some 447,840 mrs., expense allowances 219,200 and bouche of court 8,760. 51 See Carlos Morales, “La llegada de Carlos I y la división de la Casa de Castilla”; “La cuestión de la financiación de la corte y la defensa del modelo de Casa castellana durante las Comunidades”; “Las reformas de las casas reales en 1522–1525”; and “La problemática definición de los soportes hacendísticos de las casas reales” in Martínez Millán, ed. La corte de Carlos V, Madrid 2000, Vol. I: 166–77, 190–97, 221–31, and 251–9, respectively. See also “La evolución de la Casa de Borgoña y su hispanización”; “Castilla y el sostenimiento financiero del Imperio de Carlos V”; “La continuidad de la Casa de Castilla y su presencia en el séquito imperial”; and “Los últimos años de las Casas de Castilla y de Borgoña del emperador” in Martínez Millán, II: 67–77, 77–83, 85–93, 259–66, respectively. 52 The table expenses rose to 2301 mrs. per day in 1528, that is, 839,865 for the year, AGS, CSR, leg. 31, fols, 55, 57, 61. By way of contrast, we can see that sustenance in Prince Philip’s household in 1545 cost 12,000,000 mrs. and the households of the infantas amounted to 7,762,500, while “the payment of the wages and expense allowances of the president and those in the Council, and other wages which are customarily paid in our court” reached 14,250,000 mrs. AGS. EMR, NC, leg. 3, No. 22. We know that during the reign of the Catholic monarchs, household expenses in 1480 were 20,500,000 mrs., while in 1488 they reached 41,000,000 mrs. in 1493 to 1496, 46,000,000 mrs. and in 1500, they reached 50,000,000 mrs. This was no doubt due to having included their children’s household expenses: see Ladero Quesada, La hacienda real 281–317. 53 See Rodríguez Villa. For the infantas’ households, see Ezquerra Revilla.

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Nor were there changes in the household set up for Princess María Manuela of Portugal, Prince Philip’s wife, when she arrived in Castile in 1543. Although some offices and responsibilities were different, there was no clear distinction between the stewards of the table and stewards of the hall, as was the case in Castile, and the number of grooms of the chamber was significantly higher, to cite just two examples.54 The changes would have to wait until the preparations for Prince Philip’s European journey in 154855 and, for changes in the queen’s household, the arrival of Isabel of Valois, when Philip II considered the possibility of drawing up some ordinances for the queen’s household, since the Burgundian influence was making itself felt in the offices that had the highest court profile and the greatest prerogatives. For example, in the stables of Empress Isabel of Aviz, her Master of the Horse, Francisco de Borja made use of the Burgundian influence to endow his position with greater substance and symbolism and to form a service according to the needs of the empress as the image of the monarchy.56 Setting up Specific Ordinances for the Queen’s Household (1561–1575) As we indicated, Philip II decided to postpone the final organization of Isabel of Valois’s household during their stay in Toledo, since he was unsure whether to adopt the Castilian or the Burgundian model. The complexity of palace life required detailed planning of both the structure and the organization of the household. This meant determining the stipends, salaries, and functions of each of the various offices of the household’s departments, as well all the ceremonies associated with palace life in which the king and his family played a leading role. At the parliaments in 1555 and 1558, the Castilian subjects reiterated to the king that the future queen’s household should be established following the Castilian tradition, due to the continuing influence exerted by the Burgundian model over certain offices within the queen’s household.57 Before reaching a decision on the model of household, Philip II faced a significant problem, which was that Isabel brought with her a sizeable retinue of some 162 people appointed by her mother 54 See Labrador Arroyo, “Los servidores de la princesa María Manuela de Portugal” II: 121–5. 55 At this time, the Burgundian model was put in place in Prince Philip’s household. Despite the many discussions over the differences and similarities between the Castilian and the new Burgundian manner of service following imperial orders, as well as of its excessive costs, few historians have noticed that the change brought about the triumph of the “humanist” faction over Castilian tendencies in such an important institution as the royal household. Rodríguez Salgado 70–74. 56 “Relaçión delo de la casa dela enperatriz nra señora y tanbién de algo de lo de la Casa de la reina Isabel que aya gloria”. AGS. E, leg, 26. No. 104–8. See also March II: 396–400 and 401–4, and Oliván’s essay in this volume. For more information see Labrador Arroyo and López Álvarez. 57 In the case of the prince, this petition was repeated in 1579. See Gómez Centurión I: 14–15.

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Catherine de’ Medici. Accordingly, in March and April of 1560, the lord steward, Count of Alba de Liste, entered into negotiations with the French ambassador Limoges, Madame de Clermont, and the Lord of Lansac to settle the final number of French servants, since their presence could keep the queen from the influence of the Castilian court factions as well as limit the number of Castilian officers, who shouldered the economic burden of the king’s foreign policy. We should remember that in 1528, the Castilian party had carried out a similar reform to keep the Portuguese from holding the main offices in the empress’s household.58 Before the queen’s arrival, in November 1559, Philip II issued instructions to Lope de Guzmán,59 headwaiter to the ladies-in-waiting and to the queen, and the true master of ceremonies at the palace, providing him with precise details on the etiquette and behavior that the queen should observe during her travels through the different towns and cities. No doubt the sovereign wished to emphasize the queen’s entries in the general context of expanding her public role.60 It is well known that the king consciously assumed a less important public role in these entries, such as those that took place in Castile, and especially in Alcalá61 and Toledo.62 In Pamplona, the French ceremony was observed, with the queen entering on a litter and under a pallium, although this was attributed to the cold weather.63 Instructions were also given to the lord steward and chief lady-in-waiting and to the offices of the great wardrobe and jewels. In addition, the young queen was allocated a grefier of the king’s household, Luis de Sigoney, who, once in Toledo, took on the role of comptroller (an office in the Burgundy household). Shortly afterwards, while in Toledo, the monarch ordered a rule or etiquette to be drawn up listing the bouche of court that the servants of his wife’s household were to receive. Furthermore, he issued instructions introducing innovations and changes in some departments, such as the supplies needed for the stable.64 These instructions indicated, for example, that the confessor should reside wherever the royal person might be and should take great care to remind and persuade the queen to confess and receive the sacrament every feast day of the year, especially at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. He also stated that in the dean of the chapel’s absence, the lord almoner had authority over the whole chapel, that is, the chaplains, singers, and players of keyboards and other instruments. As for the chandlery, the 58 The complete list of servants that came from France appears in Ruble 341–4. See also González de Amezúa y Mayo I: 79–82, and Rodríguez Salgado. 59 AGS. E, leg. K-1643, No. 47. Reproduced in González de Amezúa y Mayo III: 90–92. 60 See Río Barredo, Madrid, Urbs Regia 38–44. 61 See “El recebimiento que la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares hizo a los Reyes … cuando vinieron de Guadalajara tres días después de su felicísimo casamiento,” in Huarte, ed. I: 157. 62 “Relaçión y memoria de la entrada en esta çibdad de Toledo del rey y reyna, nuestros señores, don Felipe y doña Isabela y del reçebimiento y fiestas y otras cosas, año de 1561,” in Covarrubias 182 and 190. 63 González de Amezúa y Mayo I: 107 and Paris 190, 191–2. 64 AGS. CSR, leg. 383, n.d.

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lord steward was instructed to be careful to take on a wax chandler, whoever he preferred so long as he was the best for the post; he would be paid six plazas65 as extraordinary pay and board. Several offices, however, such as the grooms of the chapel and the minor lady-in-waiting have been left blank.66 In the course of these years, the royal household underwent significant changes, depending on the court factions. This caused a spectacular increase in costs and a considerable growth in the number of officers. In 1563, rules of a general nature were drawn up for Isabel of Valois’s household specifying stipends and bouche of court, although some sections of the household were not fully defined, such as the stables and offices of the knight harbinger, treasurer, and physician of the bedchamber. Table 6.2

“Bouche of court and yearly stipends of ladies-in-waiting, duennas, and maidens”67

What a lady-in-waiting receives Stipends

27,000 mrs.

Personal food

69,350

Maidservant’s food

11,315

Manservant’s food and wages

18,615

In candles

3,253

Total

129,533 mrs.

In addition, fodder for pony, when she had one, laundress and charcoal in winter A duenna The same as a lady-in-waiting but with lower stipends

122,533 mrs.

A maiden of the bedchamber The same, but with lower stipends

Table 6.3

117,533 mrs.

“List of extraordinary and ordinary expenses to be met each month”68 Month of 31 days

Month of 30 days

Month of 28 days

For 2 grooms, 3 plazas each per day

1,860 mrs.

1,800

1,680

For the baker, 8 plazas per day

2,480

2,400

2,160

For a groom to buy fruit, 3 plazas

930

900

840

Bakehouse

67 68 65

66

One plaza was worth 10 maravedís. AGS, CRS, leg. 383, n.d. AGS, CRS, leg. 395, n.d. AGS, CRS, leg. 395, No. 466.

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Month of 30 days

Month of 28 days

930

900

840

2 kitchen porters, 5 plazas each

3,100

3,000

2,800

4 grooms of the kitchen

2,480

2,400

2,160

2 grooms of the salsery, 3 plazas each

1,860

1,800

1,680

2 grooms of the larder, 3 plazas each

1,860

1,800

1,680

Buyer, for the entertainment (maintenance allowance) of a man with a horse to assist him, 6 plazas per day, and for a pack animal to carry the provisions to the larder 3 plazas

2,790

2,700

2,520

Water carriers 12 plazas per day

3,720

3,600

3,360

Water carrier, for what he provides in addition to what he provides daily, 10 plazas per day

3,100

3,000

2,800

1,550

1,500

1,450

Grefier, for paper and parchment

800

800

800

For the grefier, for the stipends of his officer who writes on the roll, 2 plazas

620

600

580

The keeper of the jewels, for a lamp, half a plaza

155

150

145

For Juliana, laundress to the chamber, for firewood and charcoal

1,200

1,200

1,200

For Juliana

600

600

600

For the laundress of the table linen, for firewood and charcoal

3,100

3,000

2,800

Leonor de Alvarado and another woman, with the job of feeding the women of the bedchamber and the ladies-in-waiting’s maidservants and washing their table linen and keeping everything clean, 14 ducats per month

5,250

5,250

5,250

Catalina de Vallejo and María de la Huerta, sweepers, one real per day each and 22 reales per month

3,604

3,536

3,400

For 36 menservants of the ladies-in-waiting, duennas, maidens of the bedchamber, a real and a half per day each

56,910

54,929

51,762

A servant who counts as an extraordinary to the minor chaperon as well as one other

1,581

1,530

1,428

Cellar Groom, 3 plazas Kitchen

Chandlery Groom, 5 plazas Fourrier’s department

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Month of 31 days

Month of 30 days

Month of 28 days

For Sofonisba, a maidservant’s bouche of court to be paid in cash apart from what she already receives

1,581

1,530

1,428

For Angelica de Cavilla, seamstress

1,581

1,530

1,428

For the apothecary’s wife

1,581

1,530

1,428

Two grooms to the guard

1,240

1,200

1,080

One groom to the fourrier’s department, 3 plazas per day

930

900

840

Two grooms to the arras-workers, at 4 plazas each per day

2,480

2,400

2,160

For the officer whose job is to repair and restitch 1,240 the arrases and provide wool, silk, and son, 4 plazas

1,200

1,080

An officer who makes mattresses for the queen, 2 plazas

775

750

700

2 grooms to the sewer to the ladies-in-waiting, 3 plazas each per day

1,860

1,800

1,680

2 menservants of Montana, dwarf

3,162

3,060

2,856

For Montana, to wash his clothes

374

374

374

For the laundresses to the ladies-in-waiting, duennas and maidens of the bedchamber at the rate of 500 mrs. per month for the clothes of each of them. There are 36 of them

18,000

18,000

18,000

For the laundresses for washing the clothes of Preñón and of Doña Luisa, dwarf

500

500

500

For the laundresses for washing the clothes of the 2 maids of the closet

500

500

500

Total

136,284 mrs.

132,669

125,989

The growth in the number of officers and the increasingly complex tasks of their servants made it necessary to budget the costs of their salaries and stipends in order to avert unnecessary increments. However, some sections actually experienced a decrease in officers; for instance, a department as important as the chapel suffered drastic cutbacks. Henceforth, the queens were reduced to a small oratory, making use when necessary of the chaplains, singers, keyboard musicians, and players of other instruments of the king’s Spanish chapel.69 In these rules, the Burgundian influence on the offices of the table and kitchen were more than palpable. By May See Gérard 280. The document “Estado de la reina de España, doña Isabel n[uest]ra s[eñor]a” states that the following were in the chapel: a confessor, Fray Francisco Pacheco; the lord almoner, the abbot of St. Etienne; and the grooms of the chapel Jacques Ledel and Juan López (AGS. CSR, leg. 383, n.d.). 69

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1560, offices associated with the panetería [bakehouse], cava [cellar], sausería [salsery], and guardamangier [larder] had appeared on the payroll of the queen’s household and service;70 these offices were unknown in the Castilian organization. So, in the bakehouse, for example, the posts of sumiller [wine taster]; food bearer; alabardero [yeoman of the guard]; baker; and oblier [communion wafer maker] were added. In the cellar, the post of sumiller, and in the salsery, that of sausier, responsible for supplying vinegars and sauces, were added.71 A further step was taken on March 28, 1564, when the lord steward, Don Juan Manrique, issued a number of ordinances drawn up by the Bureo, an institution of the house of Burgundy that included several officers.72 The ordinances in question regulated the queen’s services of the mouth and table; the aim was to bring order to the special provisions that had been proliferating among these household areas, where the Burgundian model was already a fait accompli. Moreover, the Bureo acquired considerable power with these ordinances, since the opening section stated that it should meet every Friday, that every officer of the household with responsibilities for expenditure or purchases should attend, and that they were obliged to bring their books for inspection every two weeks.73 In 1566–1567, new ordinances were drawn up concerning solemn entries for the queen’s household and others concerning the lord steward.74 In 1569, a year after Isabel of Valois’s death, Philip II commanded that ordinances should be drawn up for his daughters’ household that reflected many of the influences of the Burgundian model; given the ages of the infantas, it was important that they have their own household before he remarried.75 This reign seems to be a time of testing different options when, probably influenced by the changes being made in the king’s household, a specific rule and ceremonial were gradually being developed, while still keeping the Castilian model in mind. We must not forget that in the household as a whole, as well as in the influence and decision to modify the various offices and sections, the interests of the Portuguese Éboli faction prevailed, its power strengthened in Castile on Philip II’s return and the friendship that Ruy Gómez de Silva, Prince of Éboli, and his wife, Ana de Mendoza y de la Cerda, maintained with the queen.76 This court faction, which also included the secretaries Francisco de Eraso and Antonio Pérez, the Marquis of Los Vélez, the Duke of Sessa, and the Duke of Feria, as well as several members of the Mendoza family, slowly displaced from court the members of the Albista faction, formed by the Duke of Alba, Cardinal Granvela, González de Amezúa y Mayo I: 149 and III: 120–21. For biographical information for the posts, see Martínez Millán and Fernández

70 71

Conti, eds. II. 72 On the Bureo, see Benito. 73 AGS. CSR, leg. 383, n.d. 74 BNE, ms. 18.716, No. 38 “Ordenanzas de la casa de las reinas” and No. 39 “Ordenanzas de la casa de la reina.” 75 BNE, ms. 18.720, No. 37 “Ordenanzas de la casa de las Infantas en 1579.” In the end, their household was not set up. AGS. CSR, leg. 398, fol. 743. 76 See González de Amezua I: 184.

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the secretary Juan Vázquez de Molina, and other well-known courtiers, who had held the principal offices toward the end of Charles V’s reign.77 Since control of the queen’s household was essential for a court faction’s political success or failure, as was usual, there ensued a long battle to occupy different offices and thus have access to the queen and, equally as important, to any heirs to the throne. In the event, Isabel died before any general rules could be issued for her royal household. The situation at court in the 1560s had become extremely complex, since besides the king’s and his sister, Juana of Austria’s own households, which were already established, it had been necessary to set up the new queen’s and her two daughters’ households when they became of age, as well as that of the king’s brother, Juan of Austria, who insistently demanded one, and soon afterward, that of the young prince, Don Carlos. Furthermore, the process of confessionalization set by Philip on his return to Spain in 1559 necessitated the transformation of central administrative institutions and the creation of new ones, in this way reconfiguring Philip’s new monarchy. These changes required substantially increasing court expenditures: in 1560, the total cost was estimated at some 385,000 ducats, 250,000 of which corresponded to king’s house of Burgundy (64.80%) and 28,813 ducats to the house of Castile (7.47%). By 1565, the royal family’s households cost 474,500 ducats (220,000 for the house of Burgundy; 24,500 for the house of Castile, 100,000 for the queen’s household; 60,000 for Don Carlos; and 20,000 for Juan of Austria). Another 20,000 ducats each were given to Empress María and to Juana of Austria as part of their maintenance costs.78 When Philip II decided to marry his niece, Anna of Austria (1549–1580), he immediately arranged a set of ordinances for her household to avoid the kind of interference that had occurred in the case of Isabel of Valois. Moreover, he requested his future queen to discharge her own household during the first stage of her progress. At the same time, instructions were issued on the form and manner in which the queen should make her entry into the various cities—a model similar to the king’s—where the queen’s entry would follow the Burgundian pattern, which was the most radical and long-lasting of the innovations.79 The president of the Council of Castile, Cardinal Diego de Espinosa; Antonio de la Cueva, lord steward to the infantas; the mariscal de logis [marshal of lodgings] Luis Venegas y Figueroa; the Marquis of Ladrada; and Martín de Gaztelu—most See Martínez Millán, “Familia real y grupos políticos”; “Grupos de poder”; and Martínez Millán and Carlos Morales, eds. 78 See Carlos Morales, “El sostenimiento económico.” However, financing became more difficult and toward the end of 1565, Castile’s royal treasury had accumulated debts totaling 2,561,000 ducats, of which 159,000 were belatedly owed to Philip II’s palace and household servants. 79 Río Barredo comments on the importance of Burgundian protocol in the progresses of the queens in Madrid, Urbs Regia 39 and 44; also in “Felipe II y la configuración” 677–704. The entry into Madrid in 1570 became a landmark event and the memory of it lasted nearly 30 years: Cruz Valdovinos 451. For the ceremonial for the queen’s entry into Burgos, see AGS, PR, caja 57, doc. 78. More information on the evolution of the queens’ stables between 1559 and 1611 in Labrador Arroyo and López Álvarez 87–140. 77

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of them prominent members of the Castilian party, opposed to the Ébolist party, called “Papist” after the Prince of Éboli’s death80—were commissioned to work on this process of institutionalizing and organizing the household. Early in 1570, the ordinances designed to establish not only the rules that had to be followed in the queen’s service, but also expenditure and staff—whose duties and privileges were regulated in writing—were drawn up minus a few small details involving the table and the minor chaperone to the ladies-in-waiting.81 The progress to Córdoba delayed their approval, as did the infighting at court between representatives of the groups known as Castilians and Papists.82 Compiling the list of officers of the household was no easier, and this problem was the same for the king’s and the infantas’ household. In the first place, costs had to be cut and to achieve this, it was not only necessary to scrutinize the wages paid to the servants of the previous queen very carefully to ensure parity, but the same servants also had to look after the infantas.83 In the second place, the choice of personnel turned out to be more complicated than expected; as usual, when forming a royal household, numerous people applied, invoking services to other prominent figures in the royal family or service in the late queen’s household. Nevertheless, the fiercest dispute took place between those who wanted to control the main posts in the household and, therefore, be able to gain entry for their clients.84 From the earliest moment, there was a clear division into two tendencies or groups: on the one hand, cardinal Espinosa’s, represented by the Marquis of Ladrada, whom he had appointed lord steward, and on the other, secretary Martín de Gaztelu’s. Gaztelu was well aware of his scant influence in imposing his criteria, so he stressed to the king that other people should see the ordinances and enrich them with their opinion: and if I am not mistaken, I believe the right thing would be for more people to see it because some of those from whom the Marquis has sought information speak about some things with less resolution and more sense than necessary, and since this has to be exemplary, I would consider it right and proper. Forgive me, Your Majesty, if it appears that I have exceeded my remit and command what pleases you.85

Since at the time the Castilian faction held power at court and in the organs of government, the ordinances of the queen’s household were drawn up by those who defended the Castilian model of service to the queen. For the political situation surrounding the formation of the queen’s household, see Martínez Millán, “La corte de Felipe II” 164–71. 81 AHN. Consejos, leg. 15.189, doc. 5. Gaztelu to Philip II, January 11, 1570. The king wrote in the margin: “Muy bien me parece este medio y assí, dezis a don Antonio que se haga” [I believe this seems to be a very good way and so, tell don Antonio that it be done]. 82 On both political groups and their struggle for power, see “La recomposición de las relaciones de poder,” in Martínez Millán and Carlos Morales, eds. 133–47. 83 AHN, Consejos, leg. 15.188, doc. 31. 84 For information on the full complement of officers, see Hortal Muñoz. The list of officers in this household can be found in “Casa de la reina doña Ana de Austria (1570– 1580),” in Martínez Millán and Fernández Conti, eds. II: 691–8. 85 “[Y] si no me engaño, creo que sería acertado que la viesen más personas porque algunos de los de quien el marqués se a informado, hablan en algunas cosas con menos 80

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The relations among the household’s principal officers clearly reflect Espinosa’s influence. For instance, besides the Marquis of Ladrada, the lord stewards were Gonzalo Chacón, Pedro Laso de Castilla, and Francisco Zapata; the master of the king’s horse was Luis Venegas, and the treasurer, Juan Fernández de Espinosa. Finally, in late 1575, once the household had been formed—there were secret instructions on April 1, 1574—the first rule defining the queens’ household, a model for royal consorts,86 was set down in writing: The final version of the instructions for the household of our lady, the Queen, has just been produced after the items that the Marquis of Los Vélez mentioned and gave me in writing were amended in the first draft, which he has now seen and approved, and I am sending it so that Your Majesty, being served, may sign it so that it may come out in the new year, which it certainly needs to, for it was begun five [years] and two months ago; it will be dispatched and given to the Marquis and will be entered in the book instead of the draft, for both are the same.87

Up to this point, specific instructions existed only for some officers and sections of this household, as well as regulations and clarification of the functions of each of the posts, mainly for internal consultation.88 The influence exerted by Cardinal Espinosa and the Marquis of Ladrada, the main representatives of the Castilian party, and the link between these regulations and those that governed the household of the Empress Isabel of Portugal,89 prompted the historian Dalmiro de la Válgoma to point out in the speech he delivered on entering the Royal Academy of History that: resolución y más atino de lo que sería menester, y pues esto ha de ser ejemplar, lo tendría por acertado. Vuestra Majestad me perdone si en esto le pareciere que excedo de los límites que debería y mande lo que fuere servido”. AHN. Consejos, leg. 15.189, doc. 71. 86 AGP. Histórica, caja 49, exp. 3. 87 “La instrucción de la casa de la Reyna, nuestra señora, se acabó de sacar en limpio después de hauerse enmendado en la minuta las cosas que el marqués de los Vélez me dixo y dió por scripto, el qual la ha visto agora y le pareçe que está bien, y assí la envío para que Vuestra Magestad, siendo servido, la firme para que salga con el año nuevo, que çierto assí conviene, pues ha cinco y dos meses que se començó a hazer, y luego se despachará y dará al marqués y se assentará en el libro por la minuta, pues todo es una misma cosa”. AHN. Consejos, leg. 15.189, doc. 32. Martín de Gaztelu, Madrid, December 28, 1575. 88 In this case, two examples are those that were issued in 1524 for Queen Catherine’s household service before she set out on the royal progress to Portugal or the information that was provided about some offices of the Empress Isabel’s household at the end of the 1520s. AGS, Estado, leg. 12, fol. 296, leg. 26, fol. 124. 89 “[W]hich was done with many things in the time of the Empress, may she rest in peace, and that which concerns each office and the jurisdiction of each one, which it is right that Your Majesty should keep,” “lo que se hazía en muchas cosas en tiempos de la Emperatriz, que sea en gloria, y lo que toca a cada officio y la jurisdicción de cada uno, questo es muy justo que Vuestra Magestad conserue ….” Gaztelu to Philip II, Madrid, December 13, 1570. AHN. Consejos, leg. 15.188, doc. 87. These rules have recently been analyzed by Sánchez.

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Early Modern Habsburg Women / Labrador Arroyo the palace norm in vogue in the households of Isabels, Annas, and Margaritas [consorts of Philip II, III, and IV] did not turn out, then, to be alien or imported, and if one can fully refer to Burgundian rule in our Austrian court, the elucidation should be made explicit that, over and above these extraneous, rigorous formalities at court, imposed, indeed, by Charles of Ghent, it also encouraged the most absolute and loyal Castilian concern in everything related to those households, whose deep-seated guiding principle was utterly Spanish.90

Nonetheless, the impact of Burgundy on these rules was extremely significant, especially in services such as the table and mouth, the stables, and the chapel. Although Philip II respected the Castilian model of service, as reflected in these rules, he assumed the formal influence of the House of Burgundy. It was during these years that the official model of the household became associated with the dynasty (the House of Burgundy), instead of the kingdom (the House of Castile).91 We must not forget that, shortly after establishing the rules of Anna of Austria’s household and before setting off on the progress to Portugal, Philip II first of all ordered the Duke of Alba, and then Juan de Sigoney to reintroduce the ordinances of the House of Burgundy.92 This process, inevitably, gave rise to significant protests, such as those by Fray Prudencio de Sandoval and Antonio Osorio, to mention just two, who later complained of “the outrageous substitution of the uses and customs in the court of the kings of Castile by those of the court of Burgundy, as if the latter were worthy of more esteem than the former.”93 The general provision that Philip II made for his wives’ households was, with slight alterations, the basis of the instructions and ordinances of the palace service issued during the successive reigns of the Spanish queens, as well as those of the infantas who married foreign princes. Examples are the household established for the infantas on July 1, 1579 and the one set up on June 13, 1585, following the order given by the secretary, Juan de Idiáquez, in Barcelona for the Infanta Catalina Micaela on the very day of her departure for Turin to marry the Duke of Savoy. Apart from the royal secretary, Don Cristóbal de Moura, the king’s confidante after 90 “[N]o resultó, pues, ajena, importada, la norma palatina en boga por la morada de Isabelas, Anas y Margaritas, y si puede hablarse cabalmente de Etiqueta borgoñona en nuestra corte austriaca, debe quedar puntualizada la aseveración, explicando cómo, por encima de esos foráneos rigorismos áulicos, entronizados, efectivamente, con Carlos de Gante, alentaba también, imperiosa y fiel, la más castellana preocupación en todo lo relacionado con aquellas casas, cuya honda directriz era por completo española” (Válgoma 10). 91 See Martínez Millán, “La Casa de Castilla.” For the European context, see Visceglia’s fundamental study. 92 These ordinances are published in Martínez Millán, ed., La corte de Carlos V V: 179–211. 93 “[L]a afrentosa mudanza de los usos y costumbres en la corte de los reyes de Castilla por las de la corte de Borgoña, como si éstos fueran más estimables que aquéllos.” Quoted in Varela 15–16. More information in Nader.

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the annexation of Portugal, and Juan de Zúñiga, state counselor and as of October 1584 Prince Philip’s guardian and chief steward, also had a hand in drawing up the regulations, as both had perfect knowledge of the Castilian court system.94 Conclusion The conflicts that still existed after the etiquette rules were imposed on the queen’s household, and the differences that arose in 1579–1580 among the Duke of Alba, Mateo Vázquez, and the comptroller Juan de Sigoney regarding the ordering of the king’s household, clearly demonstrate the significant problems occurring in the ceremonies and forms of service at the heart of the royal household. Similarly, the changes reveal the alterations they provoked in the various court factions, as well as to the means of gaining access to the king and queen, which ended by imposing the Burgundian over the Castilian model. From 1559, with the arrival of Isabel of Valois, to the beginning of Philip IV’s reign in 1621 with his first wife Isabel of Borbón, the queens’ household experienced a total of eleven different rules, ordinances and instructions, either general or partial, of varying scope and reach. As we have seen, however, the most important revision was the one carried out in 1575 for Anna of Austria and copied with the slightest of changes in 1603 for Margarita of Austria, as noted by the Count of Salinas.95 The Burgundian influence is patently obvious, especially in the chapel, stables, and the offices of the table and bouche, even though the rules were drawn up invoking both Isabel of Castile’s Castilian household and the Empress Isabel’s. What are most evident are the arguments of the different court factions in attempting to control the queens’ households.96 Nonetheless, throughout the seventeenth century, the association of the Burgundian model with the queen’s household is total, as Philip IV writes to his sister, María Ana of Austria, in a secret instruction, before her progress to the Empire: “I ask Your Majesty affectionately to endeavor with particular care and attention to keep your service in the style of the House of Burgundy, which we esteem so much here and wish our infantas not to forget anywhere.”97 94 “La orden que es nuestra voluntad que guarden los criados y criadas de la Serenísima Infanta doña Catalina, mi muy cara y muy amada hija, en lo que toca a su servicio, uso y ejercicio de sus oficios” [Our order, which is our wish, for the servants of the most serene Infanta Doña Catalina, our dear and beloved daughter, to obey in regard to the service, use, and exercise of their offices] (BP, II/3127, fols 59–155). These instructions, except for a few slight modifications, such as those concerning the post of mayordomo mayor [lord steward], were identical to those issued by Philip II to Anna: Río Barredo, “De Madrid a Turín” 102. 95 BNE, ms. 20.214, No. 37. Carta de don Diego de Silva y Mendoza. 96 See López-Cordón 68. 97 “[C]on pedir a V. V. afectuosamente que procure con desvelo y atención particular conservar en su servicio el estilo de la Casa de Borgoña, que tanto estimamos acá y deseamos que nuestras infantas en ninguna parte lo olviden.” The instructions can be found in BNE, ms. 2362, fols 19–22 and have been transcribed by Aldea Vaquero 316–22.

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However, at critical moments during his reign, attempts were made to break this identification of the queens’ household with Burgundy. In his will dated September 14, 1665, Philip IV urged his successors to love and cherish the kingdoms of Spain and ensure that all the kingdoms kept: their laws, charters and privileges and not allow any innovation to be made in the government of them. And let the councils, chanceries, tribunals, courts and assizes be kept as I leave them, without alteration, nor order in any of my kingdoms anything that touches the government, and take great care that the posts, offices, and benefices are given to natives [of the particular kingdom], and bear in mind what Queen Isabel disposed in this and other cases; because as they were not kept, the result was the damage that everyone knows.98

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Suárez Fernández, Luis. Política internacional de Isabel la Católica. Estudios y documentos. Vol. 5. Valladolid: Universidad, 1970. Torre, Antonio de la. La Casa de Isabel la Católica. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1954. ———, and E.A. de la Torre. Cuentas de Gonzalo de Baeza. Tesorero de Isabel la Católica. 2 vols. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1955–1956. Válgoma, Dálmiro de la. Norma y ceremonia de las reinas de la Casa de Austria. Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 1954. Vanlandingham, Marta. Transforming the State: King, Court and Political Culture in the Realms of Aragon (1213–1387). Boston; Köln: Brill, 2002. Varela, Javier. La muerte del rey. El ceremonial funerario de la monarquía española (1500–1885). Madrid: Turner, 1990. Visceglia, Maria Antonietta. Riti di corte e simboli della regalità. I regni d’Europa e del Mediterraneo dal Medioevo all’età moderna. Roma: Salerno Editrice, 2009.

Part III Birthing Habsburgs

Fig. 7.1

Marten’s head. Enamel, gold, rubies, garnets, and pearls. 8.4 cm. Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, No. 57.1982.1.

Chapter 7

Giving Birth at the Habsburg Court: Visual and Material Culture 1

María Cruz de Carlos Varona

One of the most beautiful pieces of jewelry now in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore was fashioned in Italy in the mid-sixteenth century. In the shape of a marten’s head (Figure 7.1), it is nearly identical to the piece seen in Portrait of Countess Livia da Porto Thiene and her Daughter Porzia, painted by Paolo Veronese circa 1551, which hangs in the same museum.2 The painting shows Livia and her daughter Porzia when Livia was pregnant. Livia carries a marten fur over her right arm; the fur touches a gold chain hanging from her waist, on the end of which is a golden marten’s head. The piece has considerable symbolic importance regarding women’s maternal role throughout the early modern period, since the marten represented fertility, as I will elucidate further. At this time, jewels like these were considered especially suitable for pregnant women or potential mothers and often were incorporated into portraits of royal and noble women to draw attention to their reproductive role.3 Both royalty and the aristocracy regarded motherhood as the most esteemed status for women who had not taken religious vows. Though clearly the birth of children was as important to men as it was to women, bringing children into the world was perceived as essentially women’s work.4 Because births took place This article has been written as a part of the project “Feminine culture at the Spanish Court: Rituals, representations and transferences to other European courts (1560– 1650)” (HAR2008-0944), financed by Spain’s Ministry of Science and Innovation. A longer version in Spanish was published as “Representar el nacimiento: imágenes y cultura material de un espacio de sociabilidad femenina en la España Altomoderna,” Goya 319 (2007): 231–45. 2 Veronese, Portrait of Countess Livia da Porto; see also Ajmar-Wollheim and Dennis, At Home No. 5 and 7. 3 Aside from this Veronese and the Spanish paintings we will discuss in this article, there are many others, e.g., Lorenzo Lotto’s portrait of Lucina Brembati; see also AjmarWollheim and Dennis, At Home No. 158. 4 As an example, in August 1617, Lope de Vega wrote to the Duke of Sessa about the problems his mistress, Marta de Nevares, had undergone during the birth of their daughter, Antonia Clara; he explained his absence after the baby’s birth by saying “men do not belong in these bloody matters of women.” For this and other literary references, see Colón Calderón, “Hacia una visión lírica” 73–81. 1

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in the most private of spaces, the birthing spaces offer an excellent opportunity for studying female sociability. In this chapter, I analyze how maternity was reflected in public representations of Habsburg women through portraits that often incorporated symbolic elements related to procreation. I then turn my attention to women’s ideas and feelings about the birth of their children, focusing on their reasons for commissioning certain images and their vision, as mothers, of these visual representations. Visual sources are thus an ideal starting point to understand early modern notions of the birth process. In some cases, we know with certainty that they were commissioned by women soon before they delivered their children; in all cases, the works exclusively featured women, reflecting the distinctiveness of women’s space. The works commissioned by women show their concerns about childbirth and how it played an important role in the development of female patronage. Of the scenes in which women are protagonists, most do not depict real births but rather sacred scenes, especially the birth of the Virgin, or they represent the moments immediately following the biblical event in contemporary Spanish domestic interiors. Any social analysis of maternity using visual sources must rely in part on Jacqueline M. Musacchio’s research of Italian renaissance art.5 Though I am indebted to her work, my study, rather than analyze the public aspect of births, concentrates on the private female spaces where births took place, which not only provide historical information, but contribute to an idealized image of childbirth. As a complement to visual representations of the female imaginary, I will also refer to two textual sources by women: a treatise on issues concerning the birth of children by Luisa María de Padilla, Countess of Aranda (c.1590–1646); and an inventory [memoria] of objects sent by Holy Roman Empress Eleonora Gonzaga in February 1624 to Philip IV’s wife, Isabel of Borbón, when the latter was about to give birth.6 The text by the Countess of Aranda is included in her book, Nobleza virtuosa [Virtuous Nobility]. In this treatise on how the nobility should comport themselves, she devoted several passages to instructing her children on the birth of their heirs.7 Relying on Juan Luis Vives’s Instrucción de la mujer cristiana [The Instruction of a Christian Woman],8 the countess provided her oldest son and oldest daughter with a model they could follow when their own children were born. Although both 5 For visual approaches to the study of early modern births, see Musacchio The Art and Ritual, Musacchio, “Conception” 124–36, and Riché and Alexandre-Bidon. For a methodological approach to the analysis of images similar to the one I use in this chapter, see Westerman xix–xxi. 6 For other texts by mothers or women otherwise involved with childbirth, see King 382–4. On Isabel of Borbón and her relationship to her mother, see Oliván Santaliestra’s essay in this volume. 7 See Pérez and Ihrie 453–4 for bibliographic information on the Countess of Aranda. 8 According to Egido 9–41.

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had died before she wrote this imaginary dialogue, the fact that she addressed the daughter shows that the countess believed women’s instruction to be important and was aware of the necessary differentiation between what her son and her daughter should know. The countess’s advice to her daughter for both pregnancy and childbirth was based on the current scientific knowledge of doctors and midwives; she advised her not to depend on ignorant women who “endanger your health and life in these occasions; they often rely on superstitions about childbirth and, as we said, you must always flee from these” (Nobleza 282). Equally important were the religious practices associated with the female gender, both during pregnancy and childbirth. The countess recommended that her daughter recite the Nativity matins as they were recited in Madrid’s Alcázar palace when the queens gave birth.9 Although our sources limit us to élite women at court, it is not difficult to imagine that these women’s pleas to their favorite images to grant an uncomplicated birth were echoed by women of other social classes. Birth and Material Culture at the Early Modern Spanish Court As noted in Veronese’s portrait of Livia da Porto, many works of art produced at the Spanish Habsburg court alluded to regal maternity either directly, through representations of the birth of the Virgin, or symbolically to the queens’ crucial role in royal succession. The symbolism of the marten’s head in the context of fertility was also understood in the world inhabited by Spanish queens. Medieval bestiaries often depicted martens as animals that conceived through the ear and gave birth through the mouth.10 In early modern Europe, martens were associated with the Incarnation’s conceptio per aurem; its representations, therefore, were powerful talismans for motherhood, which explains the animals’ physical contact with pregnant women or potential mothers.11 One example of this is Juan Pantoja de la Cruz’s portrait of Isabel of Valois, a copy of a painting by Sofonisba Anguissola dated circa 1561–1565, soon after Isabel’s marriage to Philip II in Guadalajara on January 31, 1560 (Figure 7.2).12 The very young queen’s first child, Isabel Clara Eugenia, was born in 1566, after the queen miscarried the previous year and nearly died. The correspondence between Isabel of Valois and her mother, Catherine de’ Medici, who sent her all sorts of medical advice and recipes for potions to help her become pregnant, points

Padilla, Nobleza 305. On the recitation of the Nativity matins in the Alcázar, see de Carlos Varona, “Entre el riesgo y la necesidad” 269. 10 See Musacchio, “Weasels and Pregnancy” 180–81. 11 See Musacchio, “Conception” 130, although she erroneously associates the marten with the Immaculate Conception. For conceptio per aurem, see Schreiner 40–43 and Steinberg 25–44. 12 For recent research on this painting, see Ruiz, El retrato, No. 6. 9

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to the hopes and expectations surrounding her pregnancy.13 It is not surprising that under these circumstances everything in the queen’s life would be oriented toward the arrival of the hoped-for child; in Isabel’s portrait, a gold chain is tied around her waist; at one end we again see the marten’s head lying against her belly, just as in Veronese’s portrait of Livia. The importance of procreation for Habsburg women can be seen in the anonymous portraits of Isabel’s younger daughter, Catalina Micaela, in Belgium’s Royal Museums of Fine Arts14 and in the Lázaro Galdiano collection in Madrid.15 Just like her mother, Catalina Micaela was depicted posing with a marten’s fur and head. This portrait was made soon after she married Carlo Emanuele of Savoy in 1585, an event whose importance Magdalena Sánchez analyzes in her essay in this volume. That same June, before Catalina Micaela left Barcelona for Italy, Isabel of Valois divided her possessions between her two daughters, and Catalina Micaela received the marten’s head that appeared on her mother’s portrait by Sofonisba and later copied by Pantoja (Figure 7.2): A marten’s head made of gold with forty-one diamonds of various sizes and two rubies for eyes and with four little pieces of gold, each with three little diamonds, two of them flat and the other in the shape of a triangle, and the marten has feet, and the piece was valued at one million two hundred and seventy thousand maravedíes.16

It is possible that the piece went to her and not to her sister, Isabel Clara Eugenia, who did not marry until 1599, because it was considered especially appropriate for women of child-bearing age. This would seem likely if we consider the case of a similar piece worn by Margarita of Austria, wife of Philip III. In an inventory conducted after Margarita’s death in childbirth in 1611, among her possessions 13 For example, in a letter dated February 1561: González de Amezúa y Mayo II: Part 1, 57–8. In a letter to her ambassador in Madrid dated May 17, 1562 the French queen includes this personal note: “Je vous envoy heune resète que ballerés au médecin de la Royne ma fille, de quoy je me suys trovée fort byen pour avoyr des anfans, a fin qu’I luy fase fayre, car c’est la chause de set monde que je désire le plus” [I am sending you a prescription to give to the queen my daughter’s doctor; I took great advantage of it to have children, so that it might help her get pregnant, as this is what I most wish for her in the world]. See also Gómez Nieto 173–87. 14 Portrait de l’archiduchesse Isabelle Claire Eugénie? [1666-1633] fille de Philippe II roi d’Espagne, c.1585, Spanish School. See also Catalogue inventaire 1840 n° 20, p.343, where the sitter, as in the museum, is identified as Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia. 15 On this portrait, copied from the Brussels portrait, see Arte y poesía 255, No. 24. 16 “Scriptura firmada por las Señoras Ynfantas Doña Ysabel y Doña Catalina que se otorgó en Barcelona a 11 de junio de 1585 sobre la división y partición que se hizo de los bienes y hazienda que quedó de la Reyna doña Ysavel su madre.” [Deed signed by the Infantas Lady Isabel and Lady Catalina, issued in Barcelona June 11, 1585 on the division and partition of the goods and property left by the Queen, Lady Isabel, their mother] González de Amezúa y Mayo III: Part 2, 419.

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Fig. 7.2

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Isabel de Valois. Juan Pantoja de la Cruz, copy of an original by Sofonisba Anguissola (c.1561–1565). Oil on canvas, 119 x 84 cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Album/Art Resource, NY.

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was a sibylline marten that, judging by its description, must have been most impressive.17 Margarita had inherited it from her predecessor and mother-in-law, Anna of Austria, Philip II’s fourth wife, whose marriage to Philip was intended to furnish the kingdom with a male heir. Infanta María, the only daughter of Philip II and Anna, died as a child in 1583, and perhaps that is why this remarkable object was given to the next queen. Both this case and that of Catalina Micaela demonstrate that these pieces were particularly appropriate to be owned by the Habsburg women, especially at times in their lives when they were expected to become mothers. Allusions to motherhood in portraits of women are especially meaningful in the case of Margarita of Austria. She and her sisters, including Maria Maddalena, the subject of Maria Galli Stampino’s chapter in this volume, exchanged portraits of themselves while pregnant, and she commissioned several portraits of her children to be sent to relatives. For example, we have the “little portrait en naype of the Prince, our lord,” a portrait the size of a playing card [naype] of the future Philip IV “the first in which his arms were free [of swaddling], dressed in white,” mentioned in July 1605 (Aguirre 19). Portraits of the pregnant queen Margarita of Austria, such as that of Pantoja’s December 1603 portrait, and her children were sent to the Countess of Barajas, one of the queen’s closest friends (Aguirre 18). The countess received other portraits of the queen, of Infanta Ana wearing the dress she wore when she acted as her brother’s godmother in Valladolid, of Prince Philip dressed as a priest and riding in a toy carriage, and of Infanta María with her dijes, or talismans, on a velvet cushion and another of her after her death (Aguirre 20). Thus, many of these images of the maternity that would ensure the royal succession were created with specifically feminine audiences in mind. Margarita’s case is also exceptional as concerns her patronage of works directly linked to maternity.18 Examples are Pantoja de la Cruz’s Virgen de la Expectación [Virgin of the Expectation] painted after the birth of Prince Philip in 1604, and his Anunciación [Annunciation] (1605), today in Vienna, showing both the queen and her oldest daughter, Ana of Austria.19 But the most meaningful example is Pantoja’s Nacimiento de la Virgen [Birth of the Virgin] (Figure 7.3).20 17 The piece comprised two marten pelts attached to one another. The animal’s golden head was covered with 353 diamonds, with two rubies for eyes. More diamonds, alternating with pearls, were found on the animal’s collar and claws; each of the claws had nine diamonds and eighteen pearls. The piece, valued at 4,640 ducats, was stored in a black velvet box wrapped in white taffeta that Philip III had given to his wife. (AGP Administrativa, leg. 902, n.d.). 18 Marías 111. 19 Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, No. 2516. There is a close connection between both the Annunciation and the Incarnation and fertility and maternity. Of all the relics in the Chartres Cathedral, the favorite among those without children was the blouse that the Virgin supposedly wore at the moment of the Annunciation. See Warner 362. 20 Recent bibliographic references can be found in the catalogs El linaje del Emperador, No. 3.7, and El mundo que vivió Cervantes, No. 287.

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Fig. 7.3

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Nacimiento de la Virgen [Nativity of the Virgin], 1603. Juan Pantoja de la Cruz. Oil on canvas, 260 x 172 cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Photo: Joseph Martin. Albers Foundation/Art Resource, NY.

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This scene represents the holy event with figures from the queen’s own family. We can identify her mother, Maria Anna of Bavaria, and two of her sisters, the princesses Eleanor and Catherine Renata, among the women helping the midwife bathe the newborn. If we ignore the upper part of the painting, reserved for the divine realm, the scene could well depict the moments just after the birth of one of Margarita of Austria’s children. In the foreground, Maria Anna of Bavaria looks at the viewer, but the midwife, her sleeves still rolled up after the recent birth, is absorbed in what she is doing. She shares her privilege with Maria Anna; her usual assistants have been replaced by the queen’s sisters, who approach with a basketful of linens and, probably, swaddling clothes for the infant. The midwife’s prominent position in Pantoja’s painting points to her leadership in everything that takes place in the birthing chamber, as she oversaw the birth and coordinated the actions of the women who assisted her throughout the delivery.21 Following Juan Ruyzes de Fontecha’s instructions, which were reflected in Pantoja’s painting, women were the protagonists in birth scenes. The Countess of Aranda, in fact, told her daughter to keep men from entering the chamber and specifically instructed her not to allow men (except her husband or father) to assist her during childbirth by bracing her.22 It was only in difficult cases that doctors—or, in the worst of cases, surgeons [cirujanos]—were summoned. Men might also be used to brace the woman as she went into labor, as Ruyzes de Fontecha’s treatise explains: The midwife will be prepared with her remedies, her warm oils, sponges, woolen cloths, pin cushions, tourniquets, and incense, and once the moment arrives, she will seat the expectant mother in the chair, if one has been prepared for her … like the one Hippocrates depicted [wrote about] in De Superfetatione … I say, if the chair is there, because I have never seen such a chair, and more likely there will be a gentleman behind her, with his arms around her neck, helping her out that way. (Ruyzes de Fontecha 144)23

The layette in Pantoja’s painting was probably similar to those used when princes and infantes were born at the Spanish court in this period. Six years after the painting was finished, for example, the accounts for the future CardinalInfante Ferdinand of Austria’s birth include the purchase of straw baskets for the newborn’s blankets, white Valencia linen for the swaddling, and red silk for the canopies on the baby’s and governess’s beds.24 Other objects in the painting remind us of the items sent by the Empress Eleonora Gonzaga, wife of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II (and Philip IV’s aunt), to See Ruyzes de Fontecha 159v, which elaborates on midwives’ rule over the birthing chamber. 22 Padilla, Nobleza 305. 23 Nuñez, Libro del parto 16v, includes a xylograph of the birthing chair Ruyzes de Fontecha refers to and states that it was used by midwives in France, Germany, and Italy. 24 AGP Administrativa, leg. 902. Similar accounts exist for 1607 (the birth of Infante Carlos) and after 1609 (Infantes Margarita Francisca and Alonso). 21

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Queen Isabel of Borbón in February 1624, when the queen was approaching her delivery. The jug and basin used to bathe the baby may be compared to the inventory’s description of “a silver-plated ebony basin for the baby like those used in Germany … [and] a silver jug for pouring water into the basin.”25 The inventory specified numerous objects sent for their utilitarian value; and were probably examples of items that women gave each other to make the postpartum period, when they had to remain in quarantine, easier to bear. The cases studied by Musacchio in Italy are different; there, postpartum gifts largely were chosen by the head of the family and thus were more an expression of his obligation toward the newborn’s father than of his affection for the newborn’s mother (Musacchio, Art and Ritual 46). So, along with the cradle and the traditional silver items used to care for the newborn, the empress’s shipment included a series of objects whose only purpose was to help the queen during her lying-in period. Examples include “two stools of ebony and gold brocade with a little table for playing chess and other games, made of ebony with many figures”; sewing and writing implements; a clavichord made of ebony and ivory; and mirrors, nail files, combs, and devices for curling her hair, all of which were designed for the queen’s personal use and care. Other items, such as a large silver relief object adorned with figures, perhaps were designed to commemorate the birth along the lines of the Italian birth trays called deschi and tafferie da parto. The latter objects were ceramic or of painted wood and they had a practical purpose as well, for they served as trays to present women their food after they gave birth. Decorated with nativity scenes, they afterward were kept as decorative objects to remember the event. The shipment to the queen contained just one religious object, a silver and ebony crucifix. These objects were displayed in semi-dark interior rooms, the atmosphere recommended by Ruyzes de Fontecha (264v), an example of which we see in the room in Pantoja’s painting, a space of female sociability centered on mother and child. It is likely, as has been noted, that Margarita of Austria deployed Pantoja’s Nacimiento de la Virgen as a way of having her relatives with her during such a crucial moment as childbirth, both in her role of mother and as of queen. The portraits of her family members probably were taken from miniature portraits in her possession.26 The scene is peaceful; danger, at least immediate danger, was now distant, and the mother rests calmly in her bed, comforted by the women in her service who also take care of the infant. To contemplate such a scene and the domestic atmosphere in which it took place, full of elements similar to those of her own deliveries, no doubt comforted the queen as she gave birth to eight children. AHN Consejos, libro 635, fols 106r–107v. I am grateful to José Juan Pérez Preciado for showing me this document. 26 Among the items inventoried after her death was “a tin cañón inside of which there are portraits of two siblings of the queen, our lady, in glory be, valued at twenty-four reales … [and] thirteen portraits de naype of members of the household of the queen, our lady, in glory be, valued at forty reales apiece.” AGP Administrativa, leg. 902. 25

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Maternal Vows The images we have looked at so far are linked with royal maternity, either symbolically or by incorporating those objects and people into biblical scenes of nativity that formed part of the queen’s daily life. Equally common were works commissioned by women as votive acts, either to ensure a safe delivery or to give thanks afterward. We only know for sure that one such piece, a sculpture commissioned by the Countess of Olivares, Inés de Zúñiga y Velasco (1584– 1647), the wife of Philip IV’s powerful favorite, the Count-Duke of Olivares, was a votive offering related to childbirth, but the formal characteristics of Francisco de Zurbarán’s Nacimiento de la Virgen [Birth of the Virgin] lead us to believe that this, too, was a work with similar intentions. History has focused almost entirely on her husband, so we know very little about the Countess of Olivares, about whom the historian Karl Justi had very harsh words.27 From 1623 until the count-duke’s disgrace and fall twenty years later, the countess occupied some of the most important positions in the queen’s household: governess to the princes and infantes and principal lady-in-waiting to Isabel of Borbón.28 As governess she had responsibility over everything related to the birth and upbringing of the royal offspring; the latter job, shared with the chief steward, gave her responsibility over the organization of the queen’s household. As Laura Oliván Santaliestra’s essay in this volume avers, Isabel’s relations with the count-duke were fraught with tension, so the countess’s position in the queen’s household signified political control over her charge as well. Of the countess’s three children, only one, María (born in 1609), survived infancy.29 On January 9, 1625 María married the Marquis of Toral, an undistinguished nobleman from León whom Olivares wanted to present as the true head of the Guzmán household (Olivares was a Guzmán), whose future lay in this marriage.30 Yet María died in childbirth in July 1626, a tragedy for her parents, who suffered not only her loss but also the knowledge that their noble house would have no succession.31 In the months preceding her daughter’s death, Inés had established a Discalced Franciscan convent in the ducal town of Olivares to 27 The only historian to fully describe Inés was Marañón 265–75. Justi had the following to say: “Don Gaspar [her husband] made his hunchbacked wife a lady-in-waiting [for Isabel of Borbón]. [Inés] became her guardian as well as her husband’s procuress. For twenty years she [Isabel] patiently put up with the countess’s indiscretions. This evil creature controlled her movements and utterances to such a degree that [the queen] was the object of general compassion” (203). 28 AGP Expedientes personales, cª 754, No. 30: “On 1 September 1623 she was named governess of the child to be born to the queen. On October 7, 1627 she was promoted to be the queen’s chief lady-in-waiting.” 29 Marañón 340. 30 Elliott and de la Peña 137. 31 All historians who have written about the count-duke have remarked on the change he underwent as a result of the deep depression he suffered after his daughter’s death. Inés’s last testament, twenty years after María’s death, ordered that masses be said “for the soul of my beloved daughter, the Marquise of Liche …” RAH Salazar 9–995, 4r; cited in Marañon 510.

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ensure her daughter’s health during the delivery. The convent’s patroness was Our Lady of the Expectation, an appropriate choice given the foundation’s purpose.32 A chronicle of the Discalced Franciscans tells us something about the foundation and suggests that it was María de Guzmán herself who chose the patroness: The marquise was pregnant, and as a devoted Christian who knew the inevitable dangers she would face in childbirth, she grew even more fervent in her contemplation of the Queen of Angels. As she wished to give thanks for her compassion so the Virgin would help her in what was to follow, the marquise asked her parents the dukes to consecrate a temple in honor of the Mystery of the Expectation for Discalced Franciscans. The dukes kindly agreed, and they decided the foundation would be in their town of Olivares, as it was in the center of our province. (Fr. Francisco de Jesús María 599)

According to the chronicler, the countess kept the memory of her daughter alive through the foundation even though the project halted after María’s death. But it was certainly under way in late 1625, when the countess asked Francisco Pacheco to polychrome an image of the patron, the Virgin of the Expectation, which the Seville painter and writer described in his treatise (Figure 7.4), crediting Inés with having founded the convent. She gave him two months to finish the project, which probably was commissioned as soon as it was known that María was pregnant, in November 1625.33 Father Francisco de Jesús María described the sculpture, which stood in the convent’s main retable: [It is] in the first register of the altarpiece … She looks devout, on bended knee, her beautiful and proportioned face illuminated in sovereign Ecstasy, close as she was to the Divine Birth; and through the very fine glass of a monstrance in her purest of wombs one can see the Baby Jesus lying inside, so full of tenderness that no one could adore him without melting away. (602)

Today this sculpture can be seen in a side retable of the parish church of Santiago in Castilleja de la Cuesta, outside Seville.34 It is life size and shows the Virgin obviously pregnant; inside her belly we can see the infant Jesus, though the infant is not the original. It is very well preserved; the seventeenth-century polychromy has survived and the quality is good, though, unfortunately, the piece was mutilated at the bottom to make it fit into its current retable.35 In one respect, the piece is 32 Amores Martínez states that the church was not consecrated until 1702, as the count-duke and his wife abandoned the project after their daughter’s death (442). 33 Pacheco 463. 34 Zahira Véliz identified it as the work mentioned by Pacheco (Artists’ Techniques, 62; fig. 18). The identification is persuasive because the object fits the descriptions by Pacheco (though there are differences in the polychrome) and by Francisco de Jesús María, and also because many of the other objects in the Expectación convent ended up in the Santiago church in Castilleja. 35 Véliz, Artists’ Techniques 62, points out the disagreement between the present polychromy of the sculpture and Pacheco’s text, suggesting that the present polychromy might be a later seventeenth-century layer.

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Virgen de la Expectación [Virgin of the Expectation], 1625. Attr. Francisco de Ocampo (sculptor) and Francisco Pacheco (polychrome), 93 cm. Castilleja de la Cuesta (Seville), Parish Church of Santiago, Spain. Photo: Francisco Javier Tovar.

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noticeably different from other Virgins of the Expectation from this era in that she is kneeling; generally, the Virgin was represented in a standing position. However we do know from documentation of another example that, similarly, presides over a retable in a kneeling position: this was the piece in the queen’s chapel in the Alcázar palace in Madrid, where the Expectation festivities, mentioned in Isabel of Borbón’s postmortem inventory of 1644, were held. The description we have leads us to think it was very similar to the sculpture in Castilleja.36 Inés was very familiar with the Alcázar piece, since she, along with the other women who served the queen, generally participated with her in prayers and other rituals designed to ensure the queen’s safe pregnancy and delivery. It is likely that Inés requested Pacheco to sculpt a similar image. The fact that in both cases the Virgin is on her knees, her hands held together in prayer, and that both sculptures are life size, would make it more likely that the Virgin would intercede on their behalf. Mary was praying with them for a safe delivery, though hierarchy demanded that the sculpture be above them. However there is yet another explanation for the Virgin being on her knees, which has to do with the Virgin’s own experience of childbirth and with the liturgical use of the sculpture during the Expectation festivities. It was known that St. Bridget of Sweden (d.1373) had visions of Mary giving birth to Jesus on her knees and then adoring him. Her visions influenced works of art such as the Nativity by Robert Campin (d.1444), today in Dijon.37 The liturgy of the Virgin of the Expectation lasted for eight days before Christmas and was centered on images such as this one. On December 24 the Christ child literally was born, and the little sculptures inside the Virgin were placed at her feet to be the object of adoration by the faithful.38 So it is possible that the sculpture commissioned by the countess had two functions: to commemorate María’s delivery and also to represent the Virgin on her knees adoring Jesus on Christmas Day. The Countess of Olivares was well aware of the risks her daughter would undergo in childbirth, and her worst fears were met. Although the countduke in his last will and testament in 1642 stated that he had not given up hope for a successor, he and his wife finally had to place their hopes on Olivares’s illegitimate son, the Marquis of Mairena (Marañón 286). Inés, as Marañón pointed out, was fond of the marquis and in her will she referred to him as “the son of my husband, not only because he is, but because, even if he were not, I adopt him as my own son” (RAH Salazar 9–995, 6r). Almost at the same time, the Countess of Aranda commented on the matter of illegitimate children when it sometimes became necessary to guarantee the succession of noble houses. She believed that the practice should be used only as de Carlos Varona, “Entre el riesgo” 278. Warner 244. 38 The sculpture in Castilleja has a small door at the back that allows the removal of 36 37

the infant Jesus. Usandizaga refers to a Christmas Eve celebration in Tenerife in which the priest placed the figure of the recumbent Virgin on the altar, and at midnight, through the opening, he extracted the figure of the Christ child so the faithful could adore it (62).

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a last resort. In her opinion, one of the worst things that could happen to a woman was her inability to give her husband children and thus the necessity to accept his bastards. It was also possible that she might have to accept them even if she did have her own children, but she must at all costs avoid that they be in the presence of her own children (Padilla, Nobleza 295). The death of the Marquis of Mairena in 1646 led the Countess of Olivares to add a codicil to her will on September 5, 1647 beseeching Philip IV to protect her grandson, the young marquis. Four days later she added yet another codicil, this time mentioning a girl named Aguedilla who lived in her house, asking that she be admitted to the Dominican convent in Loeches, where she would be educated as a lay sister. It is likely that at the end of her life the countess devoted to these two children all the maternal love she was unable to give her own children. Despite all her efforts and cares, the Countess of Olivares died before the succession of her house could be assured. It is easy to imagine her worry at not having heirs. Throughout her life, Inés had sought supernatural assistance during her pregnancies through intermediaries such as the royal confessor Simón de Rojas, a strong supporter of the Virgin of the Expectation and famous for having assisted at several difficult births in Madrid during this time.39 She also appealed to the Virgin of the Expectation to intercede on her behalf, both regarding court duties and in her personal life.40 In January 1625, in the founding deed of the Dominican convent in Castilleja de la Cuesta, the countess had specified that the nuns should celebrate the octave of the Expectation.41 When her daughter María became pregnant at the end of that year, Inés not only funded the celebration of the feast day, but also established a votive foundation so as to ensure a safe delivery. Those actions, along with the sculpture of Our Lady of the Expectation that she ordered as the titular image, illustrate the involvement of women’s patronage in areas that interested them and that were intimately linked to their condition as women. On Father Rojas and the Virgin of the Expectation, see de Carlos Varona, “Una propuesta” 83–103. The investigation for his beatification included two testimonies concerning the Countess of Olivares. According to one of them (article 6, concerning the gift of prophecy), “Furthermore, as the Countess of Olivares was pregnant, the said Servant of God Father Simón visited her, and she asked him to recite the Gospel, and after reading them to her the said Servant of God said, ‘Let us read another Gospel to the child because he is in great need,’ which after a short while appeared to be true because the countess miscarried, and the child was baptized and rose to Heaven, as witnesses informed of the truth described in more detail” (Biblioteca Nacional de España, 3-14126). 40 She established two chaplaincies at Madrid’s Royal Convent of the Encarnación to perpetually celebrate the feast days and octaves of both Santiago and the Expectation so as to protect the health of Prince Baltasar Carlos. The countess trusted that this intercession would help her in her most important duty in the palace, supervising the upbringing of Philip IV’s only heir to the throne (Sánchez Hernández 98). Three years later, Philip IV himself ordered that the amount spent on the celebration of the Expectation be increased. Among other things, he ordered that another sculpture be placed on the main altar (RAH 9-1615). 41 AHPM, Prot. 2039, fols 15–39; Herrera García 153–4. 39

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Fig. 7.5

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Nacimiento de la Virgen [Birth of the Virgin], c.1627. Francisco de Zurbarán. Oil on canvas, 141 x 108.6 cm. The Norton Simon Foundation, Pasadena, California (F.1970.13.P).

Other representations lead us to believe that the Countess of Olivares was not an exception. Many early modern women commissioned images with votive functions, either before a delivery or afterward, in thanksgiving. For example, although many art historians have said that Francisco de Zurbarán’s Nacimiento de la Virgen (Figure 7.5)42 comes from a retable devoted to the life of the Virgin in the Trinidad Calzada church of Seville, no one has confirmed this. Martin Soria has stated that Zurbarán was inspired by Albrecht Dürer’s Birth of the Virgin (c.1505); yet, despite similar elements, such as the figure of St. Anne and the midwife in the foreground holding the infant girl, the canvas is quite different from the engraving. Zurbarán instead sought an intimate scene: the Virgin’s mother appears exhausted after the labor; two women approach offering her food, a cup of broth, and a plate See Soria No. 10, fig. 4; and, more recently, Caturla and Delenda No. 18.

42

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with sweets. In the foreground, the principal midwife begins wrapping the baby in the cloths that her assistant has taken from the basket. On the far right of the painting, a woman stands out from the rest and looks at the viewer, demonstrating that this is a portrait. The woman wears seventeenth-century garb: a wide dress loose at the waist that, along with her noticeable belly, indicates she is pregnant. In her left hand she holds a basket with eggs. Beneath her right arm is a wooden bench, where she plans to sit while she visits the new mother and, perhaps, entertain her with games similar to those that Empress Eleonora Gonzaga sent to the queen of Spain in 1624.43 Like Pantoja, Zurbarán transforms the sacred nativity into a domestic scene whose protagonists are four separate groups of women. St. Anne could be any seventeenth-century woman receiving visitors and being cared for after giving birth. In the middle distance, two of these women offer her food, as does the woman in the right foreground. But this latter woman is different from the other two, who are not wearing contemporary clothing; her position, her clothing, her gaze all separate her from the second group. Finally, we have the midwives in the foreground, who appear absorbed as they tend to the newborn. The woman on the right introduces important symbolic elements relating to maternity. The fact that she is pregnant indicates either that she really was pregnant when the painting was commissioned or that she wished to be pregnant and wanted a safe and happy childbirth, like St. Anne had, in which case the painting would be a votive with this intention. Aside from being pregnant, the lady is wearing a pearl necklace and earrings, elements that could be seen as amulets or decorations and that “imbue the woman with fertile energy, protecting her from evil forces or bad luck.”44 The woman carries a basket of eggs in her left hand, also closely connected to maternal symbolism but at the same time useful, as eggs frequently were fed to women during pregnancy and after labor, recommended as a nutritional source of new energy while being mild on the stomach. Women whose amniotic sac would not break were given raw eggs to drink, and women who lost consciousness were given cooked eggs served with aromatic herbs. Eggs also were recommended as an aid in expelling the placenta, a crucial step given that failure in this regard could lead to serious infection and death.45 Experts also recommended the consumption of white meat such as capons, chickens, and other fowl in the days prior to the birth as a way of encouraging the baby’s expulsion from the womb without harming the stomach. Chicken broth, probably like that being offered to St. Anne in the painting, was the best cure after labor, as it also helped in expelling the placenta.46 All these items were generally present during childbirth, both as food and as offerings, as we can see in Zurbarán’s painting. We can confirm this from the inventory sent by the empress AHN Consejos, libro 635, fols 106r–107v. Oysters and shells have a similar function. The pearl inside the oyster shell also is

43 44

associated with the fetus inside the mother. For those reasons, these elements are present in many religious initiations and agricultural rites connected to fertility. See Eliade 140 and 143. 45 Ruyzes de Fontecha 123v–126v; Núñez 13v. 46 See Musacchio, “Pregnancy” 39. For other studies of nourishment during pregnancy, see Weiss-Amer.

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Fig. 7.6

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Nacimiento de la Virgen [Birth of the Virgin], c.1560–1570. Luis de Morales. Oil on canvas, 69.2 x 93.2 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Photo: Joseph Martin. Albers Foundation/Art Resource, NY.

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to Queen Isabel of Borbón in 1624. The shipment included two silver egg cups, a silver egg and spoon, and “a silver oval for women who have given birth,” along with four silver capons (AHN Consejos, libro 635, fols 106r–107v). The silver “oval” must have been an object in the form of an egg, a frequent gift to women after childbirth. In presenting silver eggs and fowl, the empress symbolically gave the queen the usual properties for these occasions, unable to bring them personally. The very fact that a woman gave another woman gifts of silver objects simulating these foods indicates their real and symbolic importance in early modern childbirth. If we look now at another Nacimiento de la Virgen, in this case a recently discovered panel by Luis de Morales,47 we can reach some conclusions regarding our analysis of images related to maternity (Figure 7.6). Like the works of Pantoja de la Cruz and Zurbarán, this work is centered on St. Anne’s bed, where the women, happy that all went well, attend to the needs of mother and daughter. Once again we have a space occupied by women, ranging from those closest to Anne who helped during childbirth to those who are visitors bringing various objects. The woman on the right looks out at the viewer and once again shows her offering, in this case a basket of fruit.48 Women who worked for a living in the realm of childbirth also were present in this space of feminine sociability. Morales shows us a wet nurse feeding the baby; she has an outstanding place in the painting, which may indicate how common it was for upper-class women not to nurse their children. The Countess of Aranda joined with moralists and churchmen in declaring that mothers should care for their own children; the countess recommended to her daughter that she nurse her child (Nobleza 307). Only when that was impossible should a wet nurse be sought, she wrote; and in that case, the woman must be an Old Christian (i.e. with no Jewish or Muslim blood), capable and serious in her job, and, in general, neither fond of drinking nor of sleeping too much. Doctors would inspect the quality of her milk. She would live in the home of the mother starting four or five months before the birth so her eating habits could be supervised and “the child would not undergo nutritional changes or differences from what he ate in the womb” See Ruiz, “Luis de Morales” 43. The painting was in private hands at least since the nineteenth century. It was auctioned at Sotheby’s in London on July 10, 2003 (lot 41). The panel is unique among Morales’s works, as no other depiction by him of this theme is known, not even within retables or groups of paintings about the life of the Virgin. The initial provenance of the piece is unknown. However there is documentation of a painting of the birth of the Virgin in a retable in the chapel devoted to Antonio Bravo de Jerez in the San Benito de Alcántara convent (Cáceres), painted by Morales sometime after February 1560. That retable was devoted to the Virgin’s Assumption and Birth and also included scenes from Mary’s childhood that also were by Morales. See Martín Nieto 48–60. 48 If not as explicit as the basket of eggs, fruits and flowers also represent fertility. For a study of representations of saints with flowers in their lap, see Gélis. Other maternal symbols may well be present, such as the decorative figure on the left on the pilaster encircling the scene: a feminine figure with a half moon on her head alluding to Lucina, Roman goddess of birth. This would not be unusual in a work by Morales, since the figure of Lucina was well known in early modern Spain; she is represented in Michele Parrasio’s Allegory of the Birth of Infante don Fernando, Son of Philip II (c.1575, Madrid, Prado). See also Colón Calderón. 47

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(Nobleza 307–8). In Morales’s panel, the baby girl is wrapped in swaddling that is different from the swaddling usually seen in the Mediterranean world, where babies were wrapped like mummies. Rather, the painter depicts the practice usual in France, England, and Germany, which consisted of using two pieces of fabric that were crossed both behind the baby and on its stomach, immobilizing the arms and legs while leaving the fabric visible below.49 There is an important difference between these representations of the birth of the Virgin, or, rather, the labor of St. Anne, and the sculpture commissioned by the Countess of Olivares. The Virgin Mary might have been the most privileged of intercessors, but her experience of childbirth, with no pain and her virginity intact, made it difficult for many women to relate to her. But in her mother, in the figure of St. Anne, women found a model with whom they could identify. Like them, she knew the discomfort and danger of childbirth. In Zurbarán’s painting, Anne is exhausted and in pain after the effort of her labor, and this is even more visible in Morales’s painting, where she seems to wince as she appears to move her hand toward her belly beneath the linens. Pantoja, Zurbarán, and Morales present Mary’s birth as a common scene of childbirth, in contemporary interiors, with everyday objects, a scene of calm and happiness centered at the mother’s bedside. These paintings illustrate the public projection of women as mothers, which became a leading element in female representation. In these works, women, who would remain in the background in public life, are the only protagonists, and at times they gaze directly at the viewer. To some degree, then, they signal their control over what was perhaps the only space that almost entirely belonged to them. These visual representations of maternity, along with the Countess of Aranda’s writings, reflect women’s feelings and desires regarding ideal childbirth. Anyone who has read accounts of what childbirth was really like during that period knows these scenes do not correspond to reality despite the presence of everyday objects; they are ideal representations of the happy childbirth that all women wished to have. Mother and child survived thanks to the good work of midwives; friends and relatives visited the birthing room with presents, from fruits and eggs to silver objects. And women who had children, from the Habsburg women such as Queen Margarita of Austria to the anonymous woman in Zurbarán’s painting, looked upon those scenes wishing to experience them themselves when the feared day of childbirth arrived, looking upon them with empathy surely lacking in any other viewer. Swaddling was the responsibility of the midwife in charge of the birth. According to Núnez, “arms and legs should be well swaddled in their place and in an orderly fashion, not crooked, not just once a day but several times, and for many days. Because just as when plants are replanted, they can be put into the soil crooked or straight, and they will stay that way when they grow, so too with newborn babies” (61r). See also Riché and AlexandreBidon 65–7. The same piece of linen used in swaddling could also cover the baby’s head like a hood, though Morales depicts the baby’s head covered with the thinnest of veils. Other examples, such as The Birth of St. John the Baptist, by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (H. 1655; Norton Simon Foundation, Pasadena, California [F.1973.38.P]) show the little basket in the foreground with swaddling material used in Italy and Spain. 49

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Works Cited Aguirre, Ricardo de. “Documentos relativos a la pintura en España. Juan Pantoja de la Cruz.” Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursiones (1922): 17–22. Ajmar-Wollheim, Marta, and Flora Dennis, eds. At Home in Renaissance Italy: Exhibition Catalogue. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2006. Archivo General de Palacio (AGP). Administrativa, leg. 902, n.d. Archivo General de Palacio (AGP). Administrativa, leg. 902: “Cuentas de lo librado a Hernando de Espejo para prevenir lo necesario para el parto de la reina en el año 1609.” Archivo General de Palacio (AGP). Expedientes personales, cª 754, No. 30: “Zúñiga y Velasco, Inés de, Condesa de Olivares.” Archivo Histórico Nacional (AHN). Consejos, libro 635, fols 106r–107v: “Memoria de todo lo que la emperatriz embia a la Reyna de españa para su parto” (El Pardo, February 4, 1624). Archivo Histórico de Protocolos, Madrid (AHPM). Prot. 2039, fols 15–39. January 1, 1625. Amores Martínez, Francisco. “Una obra de Francisco Pacheco para la Condesa de Olivares.” Actas del Symposium Internacional Alonso Cano y su época. Granada: Junta de Andalucía, Consejería de Cultura, 2002. 437–44. Arte y poesía. El amor y la guerra en el Renacimiento. Catálogo de exposición, Biblioteca Nacional de España (noviembre 2002–enero 2003). Ed. Paloma Flórez Plaza and Rosario González Martínez. Madrid: Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales, 2003. Carlos Varona, María Cruz de. “Entre el riesgo y la necesidad: embarazo, alumbramiento y culto a la Virgen en los espacios femeninos del Alcázar de Madrid (siglo XVII).” Género e imaginario religioso. María y las mujeres (siglos XIII a XVII). Ed. Ángela Muñoz Fernández. Monographic issue. Arenal. Revista de Historia de las Mujeres de la Universidad de Granada 13.2 (2006): 263–90. ———. “Una propuesta devocional femenina en el Madrid de comienzos del siglo XVII. Simón de Rojas y la Virgen de la Expectación.” In Usos y espacios de la imagen religiosa en la Monarquía Hispánica del siglo XVII. Ed. María Cruz de Carlos Varona, Pierre Civil, Felipe Pereda, and Cécile Vincent-Cassy. Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 2008. 83–103. Catalogue inventaire de la peinture ancienne. Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique: Brussels, 1984. Caturla, María Luisa, and Odile Delenda. Francisco de Zurbarán. Paris: Wildenstein Institute, 1994. Colón Calderón, Isabel. “Hacia una visión lírica de la realidad. La invocación a Lucina.” In Estudios sobre tradición clásica y mitología en el Siglo de Oro. Ed. Isabel Colón Calderón and Jesús Ponce Cárdenas. Madrid: Ediciones Clásicas, 2002. 73–81. Egido, Aurora. “La Nobleza Virtuosa de la Condesa de Aranda, doña Luisa de Padilla, amiga de Gracián.” Archivo de Filología Aragonesa 54–5 (1998): 9–41.

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Eliade, Mircea. Imágenes y símbolos. Trans. Carmen Castro. Madrid: Taurus, 1992. El linaje del Emperador. Catálogo de exposición (24 de octubre, 2000 - 7 de enero, 2001). Cáceres: Iglesia de la Preciosa Sangre, 2001. Elliott, John H., and José F. de la Peña. Memoriales y cartas del conde duque de Olivares. Tomo I. Política interior (1625–1627). Madrid: Alfaguara, 1978. El mundo que vivió Cervantes. Catálogo de exposición. Del 11 de octubre de 2005 a 8 de enero de 2006. Ed. Carmen Iglesias. Madrid: Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales, 2005. Gélis, Jacques. “Ouvrir ou fermer le corps: saintes et saints de la délivrance dans l’Espagne du XVIe et du XVIIe siècle.” Le corps comme métaphore dans l’Espagne des XVIe et XVIIe siècles. Du corps métaphorique aux métaphores corporelles. Ed. Augustin Redondo. Paris: Presses de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, 1992. 163–79. Gómez Nieto, Leonor. “Catalina de Médici e Isabel de Valois: ocho años de comunicación epistolar (1560–1568).” In La voz del silencio. Fuentes directas para la historia de las mujeres (siglos VIII–XVIII). Ed. Cristina Segura Graiño. 2 vols. Madrid: Asociación Cultural Al-Mudayna, 1992. 173–87. González de Amezúa y Mayo, Agustín. Isabel de Valois, Reina de España (1546– 1568). Estudio biográfico. 3 vols. Madrid: Ministerio de Asuntos ExterioresGráficas Ultra, 1949. Herrera García, A. El estado de Olivares. Origen, formación y desarrollo (1535– 1645). Sevilla: Diputación Provincial, 1990. Interrogatorio: Ave Maria. Interrogatorio por donde se han de examinar los testigos que huvieren de dezir y deponer acerca de la santidad, excelencia de vida, virtudes, fama, y milagros que la Divina Magestad ha obrado, y obra cada dia por la intercesion del Venerable Siervo de Dios el Reverendissimo Padre Maestro Fray Simon de Rojas, Confessor que fue de la Reyna nuestra Señora doña Isabel de Borbon, Provincial, y Vicario General, y dos vezes visitador de la Orden de la Santissima Trinidad de Redempcion de cautivos, conforme al rotulo, y letras remissoriales, concedidas por la Santidad de nuestro muy Santo Padre Urbano Papa VIII a instancia de los Padres Presentado Fr. Diego de Monçon, Fr. Iuan Romero, y Fr. Alonso Montejano, Comisarios de esta causa (s.l., s.d., s.i.) (Biblioteca Nacional de España, 3-14126). Jesús María, Fray Francisco de. Primera parte de las Chronicas de la Provincia de San Diego en Andalucia, de religiosos descalzos de N.P. San Francisco. Sevilla: En el convento de San Diego, 1724. Justi, Karl. Velázquez y su siglo. Madrid: Istmo, 1999. King, Margaret L. “Concepts of Childhood: What We Know and Where We Might Go.” Renaissance Quarterly 60.2 (2007): 372–408. Lotto, Lorenzo. Lucina Brembati, c.1518. Oil on wood panel, 52 x 44 cm. Bergamo, Accademia Carrara, Pinacoteca di Arte Antica, Inv. 900-1882. Marañón, Gregorio. El Conde-Duque de Olivares (La pasión de mandar). 7th edn. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1980.

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Marías, Fernando. “Juan Pantoja de la Cruz: el arte cortesano de la imagen y las devociones femeninas.” In La mujer en el arte español. VIII Jornadas de Arte. Departamento de Historia del Arte “Diego Velázquez.” Centro de Estudios Históricos. Madrid: Editorial Alpuerto, 1997. 103–16. Marten’s head. Enamel, gold, rubies, garnets, and pearls. 8.4 cm. Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, No. 57.1982. Martín Nieto, Dionisio A. “Luis de Morales y Lucas Mitata en el Sacro Convento de la Orden de Alcántara. Nuevas aportaciones documentales.” Revista de Estudios Extremeños 58.1 (2002): 31–92. Morales, Luis de. Nacimiento de la Virgen, c.1560–70. Oil on canvas, 69.2 x 93.2 cm. Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, P07859. Musacchio, Jacqueline M. “Pregnancy and Poultry in Renaissance Italy.” Source 16 (1997): 3–9. ———. The Art and Ritual of Childbirth in Renaissance Italy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999. ———. “Weasels and Pregnancy in Renaissance Europe.” Renaissance Studies 15.2 (2001): 172–87. ———. “Conception and Birth.” In At Home in Renaissance Italy: Exhibition Catalogue. Ed. Ajmar-Wollheim, Marta, and Flora Dennis. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2006. 124–36. Núñez, Francisco. Libro del parto humano, en el qual se contienen remedios muy utiles y usuales para el parto dificultoso de las mugeres, con otros muchos secretos a ello pertenecientes, y a las enfermedades de los niños. Zaragoza: Pedro Verges, 1638. Ocampo, Francisco de (attributed) (sculptor), and Francisco Pacheco (polychrome). Virgen de la Expectación, 1625. 93 cm. Castilleja de la Cuesta (Seville), Iglesia Parroquial de Santiago. Pacheco, Francisco. Arte de la pintura. Ed. Bonaventura Bassegoda. Madrid: Cátedra, 1990. Padilla, Luisa de, Condesa de Aranda. [Pseud. Fray Antonio Enrique Pastor]. Nobleza virtuosa. Zaragoza: Juan de Lanaja, 1637. ———. [Pseud. Fray Antonio Enrique Pastor]. Noble perfecto y segunda parte de la nobleza virtuosa. Zaragoza: Juan de Lanaja, 1639. ———. [Pseud. Fray Antonio Enrique Pastor]. Lágrimas de la Nobleza y parte tercera de Nobleza Virtuosa. Zaragoza: Juan de Lanaja, 1639. ———. Idea de nobles y sus desempeños en aforismos. Parte quarta de Nobleza Virtuosa. Zaragoza: Hospital de Nuestra Señora de Gracia, 1644. Pantoja de la Cruz, Juan. Copy of an original by Sofonisba Anguissola, Isabel de Valois (c.1561–1565). Oil on canvas, 119 x 84 cm. Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, P. 1030. ———. Nacimiento de la Virgen, 1603. Oil on canvas, 260 x 172 cm. Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, P. 1038. Pérez, Janet, and Maureen Ihrie. The Feminist Encyclopedia of Spanish Literature: N–Z. New York: Greenwood, 2002.

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Portrait de l’archiduchesse Isabelle Claire Eugénie? [1666-1633] fille de Philippe II roi d’Espagne, c.1580. Spanish School. Oil on canvas, 204 x 125 cm. Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Inv. 418. Real Academia de la Historia (RAH). Salazar 9–995, fol. 6r. Riché, Pierre, and Danièle Alexandre-Bidon. L’enfance au Moyen Age. Paris: Seuil-Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 1994. Ruiz, Leticia. “Luis de Morales. El Nacimiento de la Virgen.” Museo Nacional del Prado. Memoria de Actividades, 2003. Madrid: Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, 2004. 32–3. ———. El retrato español en el Prado. Del Greco a Goya, Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 2006. Ruyzes de Fontecha, Juan A. de los. Diez Previlegios para mugeres preñadas, compuestos por el Doctor Iuan Alonso y de los Ruyzes de Fontecha, natural de la villa de Daymiel, cathedratico de Visperas, en la facultad de Medizina, de la universidad de Alcala. Con un diccionario Medico. Dirigidos a los inclitos señores Doña Iuana de Velasco y Aragon, duquesa de Gandia, y Don Gaspar de Borja, su hijo. Alcalá de Henares: Luys Martinez Grande, 1606. Sánchez Hernández, Maria Leticia. El monasterio de la Encarnación de Madrid. Un modelo de vida religiosa en el siglo XVII. El Escorial: Ediciones Escurialenses, 1986. Schreiner, Klaus. María: Virgen, Madre, Reina. Barcelona: Herder, 1996. Soria, Martin. The Paintings of Zurbarán. London: Phaidon, 1953. Steinberg, Leo. “‘How Shall This Be?’ Reflections on Filippo Lippi’s Annunciation in London. Part I.” Artibus et Historiae 8.16 (1987): 25–44. Usandizaga, Manuel. Historia de la obstetricia y ginecología en España. Santander: Aldus, 1944. Véliz, Zahira. Artists’ Techniques in Golden Age Spain: Six Treatises in Translation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Veronese, Paolo. Portrait of Countess Livia da Porto Thiene and her Daugter Porzia, c.1551. Oil on canvas, 208.4 x 121 cm. Baltimore, The Walters Art Museum, No. 37.541. Vives, Juan Luis. Instrucción de la mujer cristiana. Obras completas. Vol. I. Madrid: Lorenzo Riber, 1947. Warner, Marina. Tú sola entre todas las mujeres. El mito y el culto de la Virgen María. Madrid: Taurus, 1991. Weiss-Amer, Melitta. “Medieval Women’s Guides to Food during Pregnancy: Origins, Texts and Traditions.” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History 10 (1993): 5–23. Westermann, Mariët. “Introduction: The Objects of Art History and Anthropology.” In Anthropologies of Art. Ed. Mariët Westermann. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2005. ix–xxii. Zurbarán. Catálogo de exposición. Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 1988. Zurbarán, Francisco de. Nacimiento de la Virgen, c.1627. Oil on canvas, 141 x 108.6 cm. The Norton Simon Foundation, Pasadena, California, F.1970.13.P.

Fig. 8.1

Mariana de Austria, c.1670–1675. Juan Carreño de Miranda. Oil on canvas, 211 x 125 cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Album/ Art Resource, NY.

Chapter 8

Habsburg Motherhood: The Power of Mariana of Austria, Mother and Regent for Carlos II of Spain Silvia Z. Mitchell

“It is not clear if Salic Law has conserved the greatness of France or mostly prevented it,”1 the Duke of Medinaceli commented with a tinge of sarcasm during the State Council deliberations on the marriage of Carlos II of Spain (ruled 1665–1700), while making the point that no diplomatic or territorial gains could be expected if the Spanish king married a French princess.2 Although it was an offhand remark and not central to his main discussion, Medinaceli’s observation implicitly acknowledged that, unlike the French, the Spanish monarchy had been built on the principle of female inclusion. Habsburg women, with their substantial rights to inheritance and succession and as political partners with their husbands, children, or relatives were central to the establishment, consolidation, expansion, and survival of Habsburg rule in Spain. Members of the State Council had been pointedly reminded of this dynastic strategy: since 1674 they had met numerous times to debate the marriage between Carlos II and his niece, Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria (1670–1692), who was not only a potential royal bride, but the heiress to the Spanish throne.3 At the time, another Habsburg woman by birth and 1 “Demas que aquella Ley Salica que no es facil determinar si ha conservado la Grandeza de Franzia o estorvadosela mayor.” Juan Francisco de la Cerda, VIII Duke of Medinaceli (1637–1691), State Council deliberations, April 24, 1676. AHN Estado, leg. 2799. All translations are mine. 2 Salic Law refers to the juridical principle that women were excluded from inheriting the throne. Although scholars now agree that Salic Law was an “invention” of early modern jurists, it was in use nevertheless in France. See Viennot and Hanley. Salic Law was introduced in Spain by Philip V (ruled 1700–1746), a Bourbon by birth, although it was never fully accepted, and Isabel II inherited the throne in 1833. 3 They met to consider Maria Antonia and other potential brides on December 30, 1674, June 4, 1676, June 16 and 18, July 8, August 2 and 15, and November 26, 1677, and January 7, 11, 19, 21 and April 3 and 13, 1679. Maria Antonia remained a focus of the discussions until the very end, precisely because of her rights to the succession. She became the heiress to the Spanish throne after the death of her mother, Empress Margarita of Austria (1651–1673), who had been named second in the line of succession after her brother Carlos in Philip IV’s testament. The topic was extensively debated, and several ministers suggested that whether or not she married the king, the little archduchess should be reared in Spain in

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marriage, the king’s mother, Queen Mariana of Austria (1634–1696), dominated the political stage for more than a decade both during and after her son’s minority. Table 8.1

Genealogical chart, Mariana de Austria Philip III of Spain (1578–1621)



[1] Isabel of Borbón (1602–44)

Philip IV of Spain (1605–65)

Carlos II of Spain (1661–1700)

Margarita of Austria (1584–1611)

Maria Anna of Spain (1606–46)

Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor (1608–57)

Ana of Austria (1601–1666)

Louis XIII of France (1601–43)

[2] Mariana of Austria (1634–96)

In spite of her preeminent political role during Carlos II’s reign, scholars have either ignored or portrayed Mariana’s regency in a negative light, given the chaotic events of her rule:4 the spectacular rise of two unpopular favorites, her confessor, the Jesuit Everard Nithard (1607–1681), and her protégé, the courtier Fernando Valenzuela (1630–1692); their equally dramatic fall from power in 1669 and 1676, respectively; the queen’s exile in 1677; and her substitution at court by a strong masculine figure, Carlos II’s older half-brother, Don Juan of Austria (1629–1679), from 1677 to 1679. Not surprisingly, Mariana has long suffered from her own black legend, and her rule been often misunderstood. Historians writing in the 1980s, for example, assumed that Mariana had no real power and what little she had, she willingly surrendered to her favorites. They unanimously considered her unfit to rule a vast Empire and uninterested in politics, with a few even venturing that she was ignorant.5 A new generation of scholars is gradually rendering obsolete these dismissive and largely unsubstantiated notions through perceptive gender analysis and rigorous archival research.6 Indeed, several recent studies suggest that Mariana’s power should be considered as part of a culture that sustained multiple forms of female authority. Her regency was sanctioned by her order to Castilianize her in case she inherited the monarchy. See for example, the opinions of the duke of Osuna, the admiral of Castile, the duke of Alburquerque, and the constable of Castile during the State Council deliberations of 1674 and 1676 (AHN E., leg. 2799). 4 See for example, the important study by Maura y Gamazo. 5 Tomás y Valiente 19; Domínguez Ortiz, ed., “Introducción,” Testamento de Felipe IV xxxiii; Lynch 258; and Kamen 329. 6 Oliván Santaliestra, Mariana de Austria and “Mariana de Austria” and Llorente. See also Campbell and Goodman.

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husband, Philip IV’s (r.1621–1665) testament,7 which was in turn based on wellestablished Iberian and Habsburg political traditions,8 in line with the obvious preference among the aristocracy to choose mothers as guardians of heirs,9 and endorsed by a culture and a society that viewed widows and mothers as powerful figures.10 Fittingly, Mariana assumed her reign as regent with undisputed legitimacy and extensive authority. Even though factional struggles abounded, during her son’s minority, opposition to Mariana was directed against her favorites, rather than directly against her, and she completed her tenure in office as stipulated in the king’s testament. A political crisis soon erupted, first timidly and then to the point of civil war, just as Carlos came of age on his fourteenth birthday, when her juridical status significantly changed. At this critical transition of power neither was the mother ready to surrender authority, nor the son prepared to take it from her. The political discourse that circulated in Madrid during this crossroads in Mariana’s and Carlos’s political trajectory offers an ideal opportunity to probe into the nature and extent of her power. In what follows, I investigate specific aspects of Mariana’s power to shed light on the queen and the politics of the court during her reign, and identify the wide range of possibilities, as well as the dangers, of female authority in early modern Spain. “With the Same Authority as the King” According to the terms of Philip IV’s testament, Mariana reigned with the titles of “tutor” and “governor” from September 17, 1665, the day the king died, until November 6, 1675, the day of Carlos II’s fourteenth birthday.11 During this time, Mariana’s signature possessed the same weight of that of a sovereign ruler and can be found in hundreds of state documents, a significant number of which she evidently examined personally. Mariana’s hand-written and dictated commentaries on many of these, her communications with several secretaries, her private correspondence, and her direct intervention in diplomatic affairs strongly suggest that the queen participated actively in the government of the monarchy. The nature and effectiveness of her policies certainly need to be studied and evaluated further, although it is by now clear that she resolutely exercised authority.12 Domínguez Ortiz, ed. Testamento de Felipe IV. For Iberian traditions see Earenfight, “Partners in Politics” and The King’s Other

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Body. The Habsburgs often named female relatives during minorities and absences. Female governorships, for instance, were particularly common in the Spanish Low Countries, ruled by women for much of the sixteenth century. 9 See Coolidge. 10 For instance, see Nader and Fink De Backer. 11 Domínguez Ortiz, ed. Testamento de Felipe IV, clause 21, 40–43 (see below for the text). 12 For a concise study of Mariana’s foreign policy see Sánchez Belén.

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Philip IV set up a unified regency for Mariana, giving her guardianship rights as the king’s “tutor” and political authority as the monarchy’s “governor.”13 He established a Regency Council to function as an advisory board during her reign. This new government body acted in a strictly consultative capacity, and even though Philip required Mariana to consider their opinions, she was not obligated to abide by them.14 Philip secured Mariana’s authority repeatedly and unequivocally in clauses 21 and 35 of the testament by making the following statements: “I name the queen, doña Mariana, governor and tutor … with all the faculties and power that I can give her … she can begin governing from the day of my death in the same manner and with the same authority that I do… it is my will to communicate and give her [the authority] that I have, and all that is necessary … I do not withhold anything … she has the entire government and direction of all my kingdoms in peace and war15 … I do not hold back any of the faculties that I have and that she assumes as tutor, curator, and governor, including issuing or revoking laws … I give her as much power as it resides in me for everything that is necessary and convenient … she is entitled to use the greatest prerogatives and royal power that belong to the dignity [of kingship] … she can do her will in everything that may be necessary and convenient.”16

The transition of power from Philip IV to Mariana and Carlos took place without incidents; contemporaries accepted her position matter of factly: ministers of the Council of Aragón, for example, recorded in the minutes of September 17, 1665 that Mariana assumed the rule of the monarchy with “ample powers,” 13 Tutorship and governorships rights were not necessarily held by the same person during a regency. In France, for example, female regents often (although not always) shared political authority with a council. See Crawford. 14 Philip IV’s decision to institute a Regency Council has been used as evidence to argue both that Mariana’s sovereignty was limited and that her husband doubted her capacity to rule. Legal historian María del Carmen Sevilla González, has convincingly argued that Philip IV had no such doubts and in fact did not limit Mariana’s authority with the establishment of a Regency Council. 15 “Nombro por governadora de todos mis reynos, estados y señoríos y tutora de el Príncipe mi hijo o hija, que me huviere de suceder, a la reyna doña Mariana mi muy cara y amada muger, con todas las facultades y poder que … le puedo dar … [para que] pueda desde el día que Yo fallezca entrar a governar, en la misma forma, y con la misma autoridad que Yo lo hago … mi voluntad es, comunicarle y darle la que Yo tengo, y toda la que fuere necesaria, sin reservar cosa alguna, … para que tenga todo el govierno y regimiento de todos mis reynos en paz y en guerra” (Domínguez Ortiz, ed., Testamento de Felipe IV, clause 21, 40–43). 16 “Y no reservo de la facultad que como a tutora, curadora y governadora le compitiere, nada de de lo que a mí me toca, aunque sea hacer y promulgar leyes de nuevo, o revocarlas … le doy quanto poder en mí reside para todo lo necesario y conveniente y para que use de las maiores prerogativas y regalías que tocan a la Dignidad;…y haga y obre su voluntad en quanto conviniere y fuere menester” (Domínguez Ortiz, ed., Testamento de Felipe IV, clause 35, 50–53.)

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without having to “submit anything to referendum,” and “with the same authority as the king.”17 Philip IV envisioned an active role for Mariana after the regency as well and named her “curator” of her son. He defined the prerogatives of the office in clause 34: “Once [the king] reaches his fourteenth birthday, [he] will begin governing completely, utilizing the advice and assistance of his mother and the majority opinion of the Regency Council.”18 Although Philip IV defined Mariana’s entitlement after the regency rather vaguely, the importance of the curatorship cannot be underestimated, as Mercedes Llorente indicates in her essay in this volume.19 The title, in fact, was mentioned in clause 35 and was included in some of the official documents dispatched during the minority.20 According to Grace E. Coolidge, who has studied female aristocratic guardians in early modern Spain, curatorship was a form of custody established for young males from the ages of fourteen and twenty-five, and for girls from twelve to twenty-five, or until marriage for both, if it took place before (22). It was not as restrictive a form of guardianship as a tutorship, and wards of a curator, for example, could reject or nominate their own candidates for the office (Coolidge 21–2). Mariana’s juridical status, therefore, changed considerably after Carlos’s initial emancipation at the age of fourteen and she had to negotiate her subsequent political role. As we will see, Mariana decisively and successfully invoked her familial ties as mother of the king, her dynastic capital as a Habsburg in her own right, and her position as former ruler as governor of the monarchy for more than a decade in order to assert and claim political power. From Ruler to Advisor The court prepared for the transition from Carlos II’s royal minority to royal emancipation with an act that had profound repercussions: seven months before Carlos II’s fourteenth birthday, on April 14, 1675, Mariana established the 17 “Governadora con clausulas amplisimas … dandole la misma autoridad q[ue] tiene el Rey sin referenciar coza alguna y tutora del Rey asta tener 14 cumplidos,” in Council of Aragon minutes recorded on September 17, 1665, the day of Philip’s death and after the testament was read publicly (AHN, Consejos, leg. 7259). The president of the Council of Aragón, Cristóbal Crespi de Valdaura, also recorded the conditions of Mariana’s rule stating in his diary that the Regency Council, of which he was a member, had consultative powers and that the queen was not obligated to submit to their votes (BNE, ms. 5742 fols 362v–363r). 18 “Y en llegando a catorce años, entrara a governar enteramente, valiendose de los Consejos y asistencia de su Madre, con el parecer de la maior parte de la Junta” (Domínguez Ortiz, ed. Testamento de Felipe IV 50–51). 19 Particularly important is Llorente’s discovery of the inventory of 1686, which coincides with Carlos II’s twenty-fifth birthday, the age limit for curatorships. Mariana’s transition from tutor and governor to that of curator is also evident in the portraiture. 20 BNE ms. 5742 fol. 363r.

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king’s household “served exclusively by men,” a step that foreshadowed the son’s assumption of a political identity independent from his mother’s.21 As was typical of the Spanish Habsburg court, the new living arrangements opened the door to intrigues and shifts of political loyalties.22 Efforts to monopolize the king’s attention and direct it away from his mother and her supporters began immediately. The king greeted his coming emancipation with plans of his own, reaching out in late October to Don Juan of Austria, his older half-brother and a highly controversial figure. Don Juan, who was the only one of Philip’s illegitimate children to have been legitimized, gained a well-deserved reputation as a great military figure and effective administrator. Philip IV, likely in order to protect his wife’s authority, excluded Don Juan from the succession and the regency government in the testament and, as a symbol of his exclusion, did not permit him to be present at his death.23 The king’s actions contributed to the power struggles between his illegitimate son and his wife. Indeed, as soon as the regency began, Don Juan attempted to impose his presence on Mariana’s regime, while the queen did everything in her power to keep him at bay. Conflicts escalated and in 1669 Don Juan pressured Mariana to dismiss her confessor and favorite with the threat of violence.24 The queen caved in to his demands initially, sending Nithard to Rome as an ambassador, but shortly afterwards responded with one of the most controversial and bold moves of her reign: she established a permanent 3,000-men regiment in the seat of the court.25 The regiment, controversial as it was, protected Mariana’s authority, became an important source of royal patronage, and delivered an effective political blow to Don Juan.26 A period of relative peace followed, during which it is evident that Mariana had gained control of the power structures of the court. As the minority came to an end, however, factional struggles resumed and culminated in the events partly described here. The court offices of Carlos II’s royal household were allocated on November 26, 1674. Carlos, however, did not move into his own chambers and, most importantly, was not served by his own officials until April 14, 1675. Thus, the later date marks the formal establishment of Carlos II’s household (AGP, Reinados, caja 92, expedientes 2 and 3). 22 For instance, see the political transitions to and from the rule of Philip III in Feros and in Elliott. 23 Philip’s exclusion of Don Juan was done by default (Domínguez Ortiz, ed., Testamento de Felipe IV, clauses 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14). 24 Maura y Gamazo I: 434. 25 The regiment was informally known as La Chamberga: see Sánchez Gómez. The Council of Castile bitterly protested Mariana’s move, which amounted to the establishment of a standing army in a city that prided itself on its liberties. Mariana circumvented the council with the help of Guillén Ramón de Moncada, the IV Marquis of Aytona (1615–1670), who became one of the queen’s closest collaborators. Aytona’s papers, housed in the private archive of the Medinaceli family, reveal the difficulties Mariana encountered in bringing the project to fruition and how controversial the move was (ADM, Histórica, leg. 68). 26 It is not surprising that the first measure Don Juan took when he succeeded in taking over the government was to dismiss the regiment. 21

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“On the sixth [of November], I come into the government of my states,” Carlos wrote to Don Juan, “I need your services to assist me in my duties, since I plan to say farewell to my mother.” He instructed his older brother to report to his chambers on Carlos’s birthday and keep the whole matter secret.27 It is not clear to what extent Mariana knew about her son’s plans to exclude her from the new government. She anticipated any potential challenges, however, with a controversial move that precipitated a showdown between mother and son. On November 4, the queen and her Regency Council submitted a formal request to Carlos to extend his minority for an additional two years, a request that amounted to keeping his mother at the reins of the government as if nothing had changed.28 Carlos refused to sign the document, appearing resolute in his decision to install Don Juan at the helm of government, and informed his mother of his intentions. On November 6, Don Juan arrived in Madrid. Publicly acclaimed at court, he met with the king privately, and by noon was on his way to the Palace of the Buen Retiro on the outskirts of Madrid, as a first step in assuming his new role in the monarchy. In the meantime, Carlos, surrounded by his courtiers, attended the religious rituals in celebration of his birthday. Conspicuously absent during the festivities, his mother purportedly remained in her quarters with one of her recurrent migraine headaches. Although Carlos’s plans seemed to go smoothly, things changed after the king met privately with his mother. The queen’s anger and authority were unleashed on the young sovereign. Carlos reportedly came out of the private meeting giving signs he had been crying. He quickly lost his nerve and acquiesced to his mother’s demands that Don Juan be told to leave immediately.29 Carlos had also been admonished by others, who invoked Mariana’s position as royal mother and regent, not to act, under any circumstance, in matters of state without her knowledge.30 The king and his mother reached an agreement: Carlos extended the Regency Council for another two years without, however, prolonging his minority.31 Mariana relinquished her official duties on November 6 and ordered that all the official documents be addressed and submitted 27 “Dia seis Juro y entro al govierno de mis Estados, necesito de vuestra persona a mi lado para esta funcion, y despedirme de la Reyna mi s[eñor]a y mi Madre, y assi Miercoles a las diez y tres quartos os hallareis en mi antecamara, y os encargo el secreto. Dios os g[uar]de. Yo el Rey.” Carlos to Don Juan, October 30, 1675 (BNE, ms. 12961.21). 28 I follow Maura y Gamazo’s account of the events here and the next paragraph: II: 236–42. Laura Oliván Santaliestra has clarified some important aspects of what transpired on November 6, with the discovery of new documents (“Mariana de Austria en la encrucijada política,” chapter 5). I have drawn my own conclusions. 29 After learning that the king changed his mind, Don Juan demanded proof that Carlos was acting of his own volition. Carlos issued a royal decree the same day ordering Don Juan to leave Madrid at once. To add insult to injury, he instructed his brother to proceed to the Kingdom of Sicily as his mother had initially ordered. Maura y Gamazo II: 236–42. 30 Oliván, “Mariana de Austria en la encrucijada política” 278–9. 31 This point has been clarified by Oliván Santaliestra and is confirmed by my own archival findings.

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to Carlos.32 Mariana’s position, therefore, transitioned from that of a ruler with full sovereign rights to that of an advisor with vaguely defined prerogatives. As a royal matriarch and acting ruler during her son’s minority, Mariana certainly felt entitled to demand Don Juan’s immediate dismissal. He had been, after all, a sworn enemy of her regime. The episode, however, had political implications that went well beyond factional and familial struggles. In forcing the king, as young as he may have been, to reverse a decision that he had made publicly only a few hours earlier, she committed a grave tactical error. Mother versus Monarchy Although Mariana’s swift and total suppression of her son’s initiative gave her the upper hand, it also signaled to all that the king was far from achieving emancipation from his mother’s influence. Mariana, in fact, continued to rule with an iron fist. She exiled, dismissed, and replaced those involved in the coup against her regime. Although Carlos signed documents and dispatched secretaries, his political involvement was undoubtedly timid and Mariana persisted in directing Spain’s foreign policy and ruling over court politics as if nothing had changed. Tensions escalated to dangerous levels. If conspiracies had proliferated the year before, in 1676, factions now abounded in the open. The rise of low-born courtier Fernando Valenzuela to Prime Minister and grandee of Spain provoked widespread opposition, even from those loyal to the queen.33 Mariana’s power as mother emerged at this particular juncture as a prevailing topic in the political discourse that circulated in private, political, and public circles. It has been assumed that Carlos was dominated by his mother due to his personality and physical weaknesses, a notion that fits well with the narrative of a dynasty and monarchy in the midst of their “decline” from their former position as a powerful empire.34 A careful reading of contemporary texts produced during this period, including official documents, manuscripts, and correspondence, however, reveals that the influence Mariana exerted over Carlos was within conventional cultural and social norms. Carlos’s initial inability to limit his mother’s authority was expected and understood by his subjects. It reflected values shared by them and, I will argue, was considered a normal aspect of a young person’s development. Perhaps more so than his fourteenth birthday, the separation from his mother marked a milestone in Carlos’s coming of age. This was a crucial step in achieving adulthood, and claiming a masculine role, as well as a precondition for fully assuming his role as king. See for example, AGS, Estado España, leg. 2700 and 2701. Valenzuela rose to a position of trust with the queen through his wife, doña María

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Ambrosia de Uceda y Prada, who entered Mariana’s service in 1655 (AGP, Personal, caja 1049, exp. 6). His spectacular rise provoked the nobility’s contempt, to a large extent due to his humble social origins. 34 The idea of Spain’s “decline” has been debated at length by historians. More recently, Christopher Storrs has chosen to investigate Spain’s “resilience” instead of its decline.

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The plans regarding Carlos’s future marriage offer an ideal opportunity to observe this complex process at work, and most importantly, Mariana’s role in the arrangements. The Imperial ambassador to Spain, Ferdinand Bonaventure I, Count of Harrach,35 proposed Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria as Carlos’s bride when the king turned thirteen years old.36 The State Council in consultation with physicians determined that Carlos had not developed sufficiently and concluded that the consummation of any marriage would have to wait at least another two or even three years.37 In 1674, given the worry that Carlos did not have a younger sibling and was unable to procreate until he reached puberty, the marriage was then considered a temporary solution, since Maria Antonia would have become a queen consort with succession rights to the throne. Because the archduchess herself was only six years old, however, and in light of Carlos’s incipient maturity the summer of 1676, the Council hesitated to confirm the matrimonial alliance with the Empire.38 The following year, concurring unanimously that the king was at that point completely capable of cohabitating with a wife, the Council again proceeded to consider marriage options.39 By late 1677, Carlos’s “strength” [robustez] and “good health” [buena salud] at sixteen convinced the ministers that he should not delay his marriage to an adult bride any longer.40 Let us see how Mariana handled the situation. Despite the State Council’s opinion, Carlos’s marriage to the little archduchess was announced in September 1676 with official letters to princes of Europe.41 Mariana was the force behind this decision, which had profound implications for the monarchy. It was a clear political strategy on her part designed to cement a politico-military alliance with her brother, Emperor Leopold I, and coincided with a change of policy at the Viennese court.42 Dynastic considerations and, as suggested in the State Council, the queen’s own personal feelings worked in the archduchess’s favor, since Maria Antonia was Mariana’s granddaughter. Mariana’s decision, nevertheless, meant that, in theory, the consummation of the marriage should be postponed until Carlos was eighteen years old, but in reality, until he was even older, as the archduchess was not expected to give birth at twelve years old.43 Mariana, therefore, continued Harrach served as Imperial Ambassador from 1674 to 1677. The marriage was proposed on November 25, 1674. The discussions began on

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December 30, 1674. A copy of the marriage proposal can be found in AHN, E. leg. 2799. 37 December 30, 1674. AHN, E. leg. 2799. 38 AHN, E. leg. 2799; State Council deliberation of June 4, 1676. 39 In particular see the deliberations that took place July 8, 1677 (AHN, E. leg. 2799). 40 State Council deliberation of November 19–20, 1677 (AHN, E., leg. 2799). A month later, Carlos informed Leopold I that it was impossible for him to ratify the marriage to the young archduchess due to the age difference between the couple. 41 AHN, E. eg. 2799. 42 See Spielman 76–82. 43 While the law allowed girls to marry at twelve years of age, State Council ministers believed that Maria Antonia would not be able to procreate until she was fifteen or sixteen years of age, as “was the custom in Spain” (AHN, E. leg. 2799, Deliberation of November 25, 1674).

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to direct Spain’s foreign policy by confirming a marriage alliance with the Austrian Habsburgs. Perhaps more problematic for the ruling élite was the fact that by endorsing a bride that was merely six years old, she extended Carlos’s childhood and prolonged the absence of a successor for several years. Obeisance to fathers and mothers was an integral part of the culture and, not surprisingly, one of the foundational concepts Mariana emphasized in her program for Carlos’s education, for which she was responsible as the king’s “tutor.” In the educational treatise Nudrición Real that Mariana commissioned in 1671 from Pedro González de Salcedo, “reverence to parents” is placed high in the hierarchy of moral concepts to be inculcated to the young king, second only to “fear of God,” and above “love to subjects.”44 An entire chapter is devoted to explaining how “Royal parents should teach their children the natural dictum of loving and fearing them.” Children should venerate their parents, “as if they were gods on earth.”45 Violating this important precept was a “horrendous crime” that brought about both divine and earthly judgments, provoking “divine indignation” from the heavenly court, and “loathing and contempt” from men.46 As a mother, a widow, and an older woman, the queen mother was a powerful figure, and Salcedo often referred to Mariana as “the Supreme Royal Maternity.”47 Notions about powerful motherhood had evidently influenced the ruling élite’s expectations about Carlos’s demeanor towards his mother. In describing the twohour meeting in which Mariana convinced Carlos to ask Don Juan to leave Madrid, after he had personally called him to the city, a gazetteer explained that his mother “triumphed with tears and persuasions over the young king, barely fourteen years of age.”48 In a private memorandum, the president of the Council of Castile wrote persuasively to Carlos that “because Your Majesty is under the influence of the reverential fear of your mother, it is clear that Your Majesty is overwhelmed and cannot govern by himself” (my italics).49 The very moral precept that was an integral part of a king’s education was also an obvious impediment to the exercise of sovereignty. As a young king, Carlos was thus put in a very difficult position. How was he to observe the expected reverential fear of his mother and at the same time emancipate 44 Pedro González de Salcedo, Nudrición Real (Texto impreso). Reglas o preceptos de como se ha de educar a los Reyes Mozos, desde los siete a los catorce años …. A la Reyna Nuestra Señora (BNE R5175). 45 “Que deven los Padres Reyes enseñar a sus hijos en el Precepto natural de amarlos, y temerlos” Salcedo 54. 46 “[Q]ue los que no aman, y temen a sus Padres, están condenados en dos juizios, en el Consejo sumo de Dios, y en el Tribunal de los hombres, padeciendo en aquel justos castigos de la indignacion Divina; y entre los hombres, aborrecimiento, y menosprecio” (González de Salcedo 54–5). 47 “Suprema Maternidad Real” (González de Salcedo, n.p.) 48 “[A]cavada la fiesta de la capilla volvió S[u] M[agestad] a ver a su madre cuias persuasiones y lágrimas triunfaron de 14 años escassamente cumplidos” (BNE, ms. 10129). 49 “[Y] que trascendiendo a V[uestra] M[agestad] esta influencia con el miedo reverencial con que atiende a su Madre, se saca la consequencia, de que V[uestra] M[agestad] está violentado, y no govierna por sí” (ADM, Histórica, leg. 159).

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himself from her power? Those close to him understood Carlos’s predicament. Shortly after he took over the office of Prime Minister, Don Juan commissioned a text that may offer some answers. It recorded a supposed encounter between him, Carlos, and a Franciscan friar: “The true relation of a colloquy that for the space of one hour took place between Don Carlos II, of 16 years of age, … Don Juan of Austria, of 48 years of age, and a friar and theologian, of 67 years of age … in the royal palace on April 4, 1677.”50 Written by the friar, who had the compounded moral authority of age and religion, the text captures Carlos’s dilemma. The author, for example, praised Carlos’s potential, but also indicated that the king was still too young: “Sir, I cannot ignore my duty to inform you that even though your royal talent is in conformity with your sovereign greatness, you have no experience; Your Majesty is still a child.”51 Yet, Carlos’s recent decision to separate from his mother demonstrated that the king was exhibiting clear signs of maturity: It is true what God said, that in getting married, the man leaves his father and mother to be with his wife for the rest of his life. And your Majesty is now married to the Monarchy. How could one otherwise explain the impetus and strength Your Majesty received to wean yourself from your mother’s breast, and separate from your Saintly Mother, the Queen, who gave you life, bore you, nourished you, and educated you, so that Your Majesty is better able to assist, govern, and defend your wife, the monarchy[?]52

Mother and monarchy emerge as two female figures competing against each other for Carlos’s love. The king appears torn between the hold each have on him: one dominates, the other submits. Indeed, the language used to describe Mariana brings to light powerful cultural, social, and political images of motherhood in general, “Historia Verdadera del coloquio que por espacio de una hora se hizo entre el serniss[imo] señor Don Carlos 2º, Monarca de las españas, de edad de deciseis Años y El S[eño]r Don Juan de Austria de edad de 48 y un Relig[ios]o sacerdote Teologo, y su, Vasallo, De hedad de 67; de religioso 57, de la orden de N.P. S. Franc[isc]o Estando Todos tres enpie en Un triangulo a 4 de Abril en el año 1677, en su Real Palacio luego escritta del mesmo Religioso para memoria delos Venideros y consuelo de sus Vasallos, y para dar muchas gracias a Dios de averles dado tal y tan Gran Rey y señor detanta Real Capacidad. Y para esperar de Dios por su Medio muchos favores, y la restauracion de su Catholica Monarchia” (RAH, ms. 9-5135). If the date of the text is correct, Carlos was 15 years old. He had entered however, the sixteenth year of his life, another way to denote chronological age during the period. 51 “Señor, no puedo dejar de dezirle, que aun que su Real talento es conforme al solio tan soberano; No por esto tiene lo experimental en ello, siendo V[uestra] Ma[g]esta[d] niño” (RAH, ms. 9-5135). 52 “Es cierto lo que Dios dixo, que en casandose el hombre, dexara a su Padre y Madre; y se estara siempre con su muxer ya V[uestra] Mag[esta]d sea casado con su Monarchia; pues digamos señor quien dio a V[uestra] Mag[esta]d tanto balor en destetarse, y apartarse de su santa Madre la Reyna, que le dio el ser con la xenitura, parto, Crianza, y educazion, para asistir, governar, y defender a su Mujer la Monarchia de mexor” (RAH, ms. 9-5135). 50

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and queen mothers in particular. It was obviously terribly difficult to separate from the queen, “Your Saintly Mother, who gave you life, bore you, nourished you, and educated you.”53 Carlos II’s allegorical wife, on the other hand, willingly submits to her husband. Yet, by doing so, she poses a claim on him just as powerful as that of the mother: he must assume the responsibility of defending and protecting her. The passage, therefore, conforms to those cultural values that emphasize respect and reverence for mothers, but strongly suggests that Carlos’s separation from his mother was also an inescapable precondition to his ability to become a husband to his wife, the Spanish monarchy. In this text, Marriage embodied both social and political concepts. First, as one of the benchmarks used to determine legal emancipation, it presented the king as an adult male.54 But also, Carlos’s marriage to the monarchy described an essential aspect of Spanish political culture: the submission of the wife to the husband spoke of that of subject to ruler, and the duty of the husband to the wife also referred to the ruler’s obligation to “assist, govern, and defend” his subjects. This responsibility was powerful enough to help Carlos take the huge step of separating from his mother. The author suggested that nothing less than the strength of an entire monarchy provided the young king the “impetus” to wean himself [destetarse]. The ability for a son to wean himself from his mother was crucial to the assertion of maturity and even masculinity, both of paramount importance for a ruler. Sebastián de Covarrubias, author of the popular seventeenth-century dictionary, Tesoro de la lengua española o castellana, refers to a proverb in his definition of niño [male child]: “There are youths that are such mama’s boys that although they are old, they do not know how to free themselves from their mother’s lap; these turn out to be either greatly stupid or vicious rogues.”55 Being a “mama’s boy,” indeed, provoked scorn, resulted in character flaws, and prevented a youth from reaching adulthood. For Carlos, the stakes were even higher. The Politics of Motherhood As soon as Mariana prevailed over her son’s decision to call Don Juan to court in such a public and decisive manner, the court was engulfed in a political crisis that was to a large extent a crisis of kingship. Having his own royal household and signing government papers was not enough for Carlos to fully assume his place as king. A crucial aspect of his coming of age had to be demonstrated in relationship to his mother, who up to that point had too much control over the young sovereign, infantilizing and perhaps even emasculating him. In a missive he wrote to Cardinal Pascual Aragón as the conspiracies against Mariana increased, the Duke of Alba, RAH, ms.. 9-5135. Young Spanish males could become of age at twenty-five years old, when they

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married, or if their fathers died, at the age of fourteen (Coolidge 22). 55 “[H]ay algunos muchachos tan regalones que con ser grandes no saben desasirse del regazo de sus madres; salen éstos grandes tontos o grandes bellacos viciosos” (Covarrubias 778).

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one of the leading rebellious nobles, encapsulated the situation perfectly: “So long as the queen mother continues to be close to the king, we will not obey in anything, because it will not be the king who orders us, but his mother.”56 Indeed, in late 1676, twenty-four members of the upper nobility formed a confederation and demanded not only Valenzuela’s fall and his substitution by Don Juan, but most importantly, the permanent separation of Carlos from Mariana.57 The confederation’s document bluntly identifies the king’s mother as the “root of all troubles.”58 Her “bad influence” on the king has “produced all the malaise, losses, ruins, and disorders, that we have experimented of late, particularly, the execrable elevation [of Valenzuela].” The best service to the king, the grandees wrote, was to “separate completely and permanently the mother from the son.”59 These strong words reflect the utter control Mariana had over her son and the monarchy structures, and the perception that her maternal power was dangerous to the body politic. At this point Carlos was forced to choose between loyalty to his mother and the well-being of his monarchy. A short note that Carlos wrote to Medinaceli illustrates his dilemma: I was with my mother and she told me that I should be aware that she did not wish to be involved in this mess, but I can see that she did not really want to get out of the situation. She told me that if I thought it was appropriate to force her out of there, that I should do what I thought best. I told her that I was going to consider [the state of affairs] and I was going to give her an answer tomorrow; so I order you to see what we can do about all of this, so that we can get out of this mess as soon as possible.60

“[M]ientras estubiere la Reyna madre al lado de su hijo, no obedeceremos nada que nos mande: porque no sera el Rey quien nos mande, sino su madre” (BNE, ms. 18655.25. Duke of Alba to Cardinal Aragón, n.d.). 57 Confederación del S[eño]r Don Juan de Austria, y los grandes de España (BNE, ms. 18211). 58 Confederación del S[eño]r Don Juan de Austria, y los grandes de España (BNE, ms. 18211 fol. 19r). Twenty-four members of the higher aristocracy signed this important document, including Don Juan. It should be also noted that five were women, at least four of whom were heads of their respective lineages. 59 “Por causa de las malas influencias y asistencias al lado de S[u] M[agestad] dela Reyna su Madre, dela qual como primera raiz se han producido, y producen quantos males, perdidas, ruinas, y desordenes experimentamos, y la mayor parte de todas, la execrable elevación [de Fernando Valenzuela] … evidencia que el mayor serbicio que se puede hacer a S[u] M[agestad] …. es separar totalmente, y para siempre, cercanía de S[u] M[agestad] a la Reyna su Madre” (BNE, ms. 18211 fol. 19r). 60 “Estube con mi madre y me dijo que bien podia creer que ella deseaba salir de este cuento y yo bi que tenia gran gana de no salir de alli pero me dijo que no obstante yo biera si era bien hechalla de alli pero que no obstante todo esto yo yciera lo que tubiera por bien yo con estos la dije que lo beria y la responderia mañana y asi te mando que beas lo que te parece que agamos en esto para salir quanto antes de este enrredo” (ADM, Histórica, leg. 160, No. 73. Holograph note by Carlos to the duke of Medinaceli, n.d.). 56

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Mariana probably knew at this point that she had become a political liability; yet, as the content of the letter indicates, she expected her son to protect her interests at all costs. Her outlook, besides being the result of her strong personality, was rooted in social and cultural norms that invested Spanish matriarchs with tremendous amount of authority. As the possibility of popular revolt loomed over the city during the dangerous weeks of early January,61 Carlos actively discussed his options with some of his ministers and asked one of them to write down the points that had been made to him orally [a boca]. Carlos’s request gave way to a seminal text, written by Don Pedro Núñez de Guzmán, Marquis of Montealegre and Count of Villaumbrosa. This talented minister, who ended up playing a crucial role in the events of early 1677, had been appointed by Mariana as president of the Council of Castile, a post that gave him automatic membership in the Regency Council. Villaumbrosa’s text was intended for the king, but circulated widely and was mentioned in several gazettes.62 It provides eloquent evidence of the central role played by Mariana’s power, in this case stemming from her role as mother, in the political crisis that led the court to the brink of civil war in early 1677. After counseling the king on the imperative to act with moderation in order to avoid a civil war, Villaumbrosa addressed what he considered the “main purpose” of his exposition and the motivation behind Don Juan’s actions, “Your majesty must separate from the queen, our lady, and she must relinquish the government.”63 “It is understood,” Villaumbrosa stated eloquently, “that so long as the queen is in the government, Valenzuela will continue playing the part he has played thus far; and because your majesty is under the influence of the reverential fear of your mother, it is clear that your majesty is overwhelmed and cannot govern by himself.” 64 Villaumbrosa’s text was so eloquent because it put into words the political consensus of the court: Mariana impeded Carlos’s ability to assume the office of king. Maura y Gamazo II: 327–8; BNE, ms. 9399 fol. 62r. Copies can be found in several archives. I am using the one found with the

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Medinaceli papers: ADM, Histórica leg. 159. The text was dated January 13, 1677. Carlos moved out of the palace on the following day, January 14. 63 “El punto mas arduo de esta materia … siendo el que Juzgo es el principal que trae el Señor D[o]n Juan en su empeño: Este es, el que se aparte de V[uestra] M[agestad] la Reyna nuestra Señora, y que deje el gobierno” (ADM, Histórica, leg. 159). The idea that Don Juan’s main purpose was to remove Mariana from the court was repeated in other texts that circulated in Madrid. For instance, a gazetteer reported that after the separation, Carlos and his companions “had to consider the very delicate issue of how to get the queen mother out of the court, which was, after all, Don Juan’s major effort [entrose despues en el dificil punto de sacar la Reyna Madre de la Corte, que era lo que don Juan mas esforzava]” (BNE, ms. 9399 fol. 64r). 64 “Que practicamente se entiende que estando la Reyna nuestra Señora en el gobierno ha de tener el Marques la parte que ha tenido hasta ahora, y que transcendiendo a V[uestra] M[agestad] esta influencia con la fuerza del miedo reverencial con que atiendo a su Madre, se saca la consequencia, de que V[uestra] M[agestad] esta violentado, y no govierna por si” (ADM, Histórica, leg. 159).

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Villaumbrosa then proceeded to outline a plan so that the king could separate from his mother, without neglecting to observe the appropriate reverence and respect due to a royal matriarch like Mariana. His preoccupation suggests that Carlos and his ministers found themselves in a difficult position as they attempted to remove Mariana from the court. “If the queen has resolved to leave the government, as I understand it,” he proposed, “your majesty should publish it with royal decrees sent to the councils, with the most affectionate words and with the esteem appropriate of those of a son to a mother” (my italics).65 Then, the king should move to another residence. If Carlos lived for a time in the Palace of the Buen Retiro, Villaumbrosa suggested, the queen could stay in the Alcázar. This temporary solution would give her the chance to move out of the palace at her own leisure. In Villaumbrosa’s plan, the separation of mother and son was to take place placidly and harmoniously. While Carlos began to assume the government of the monarchy, assisted by Don Juan, “the queen would be able to live in the quiet and peacefulness of her state, taking a breath from the amount of work and difficulties that she suffered while at the reins of the government, venerated and assisted by your majesty with all the appropriate decency, convenience, and affection” (my italics).66 Villaumbrosa’s suggestion was based on traditions that encouraged women to observe a secluded life once they became widows.67 The Habsburg dynasty also subscribed to the idea of “retirement,” an example set by Emperor Charles V when he abdicated the throne in 1556.68 Cultural expectations were at times in direct opposition to the practical realities of early modern Spanish widows, who played an active role in the economic, social, and cultural lives of their communities.69 Many Habsburg women continued to participate in dynastic and political matters in widowhood.70 Yet aristocratic and Habsburg women often adopted the monastic habit once they became widows, suggesting that they accepted the idea of seclusion.71 By invoking these traditions, Villaumbrosa justified Mariana’s exile, masking it as a retirement, and paved the way for the queen to exit the political stage in a dignified manner. 65 “Y quedaba solo la causa de la Reyna nuestra Señora, que el Señor D[o]n Juan, y todos han de atender con toda veneracion, y respeto …. y es que si la Reyna nuestra Señora esta resuelta a apartarse del gobierno (como lo tengo entendido) V[uestra] M[agestad] lo publique con Decretos a los Consejos con las palabras de mas cariño, y estimacion que sean propias de tal hijo a tal madre” (ADM, Histórica, leg. 159). 66 “La Reyna nuestra Señora vivirá en la quietud de su Estado, respirando del trabajo, y contratiempos que ha padecido en su gobierno, venerada, y asistida de V[uestra] M[agestad] en todo cuanto tocare a su decencia, conveniencia, y cariño” (ADM, Histórica, leg. 159). 67 See Vives, Instruction, Book III: “On Widows,” 299–326. 68 Many women of the dynasty followed this tradition, either professing in a religious institution or adopting the Franciscan monastic habit. 69 For aristocratic widows, see Coolidge; for urban widows in Toledo, see De Backer. 70 For an example, see the political role played by Empress María of Austria (1528– 1603) in the court of Philip III studied by Sánchez. 71 See Wyhe’s essay in this collection for a more detailed explanation as well as Llorente’s discussion of Mariana’s appearance in the regency portraits.

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Carlos moved out on January 14 under the utmost secrecy. Reportedly, the king was “more obedient to necessity than to the mother,” a comment that reinforces the idea of the young sovereign having to choose between his mother and the monarchy.72 Although for the modern observer, the way Carlos took the big step is reminiscent of a comic-drama, it was evidently no laughing matter for those involved.73 After everyone had retired for the night, at about ten in the evening, Carlos, who had gone to bed earlier, got up and dressed again, helped by Medinaceli, the summiller de corps. “With great demonstration of cleverness,” reported a gazette, the king and Medinaceli locked up the servants in attendance in a room in the Alcázar so that they would not report the king’s absence.74 They proceeded through the palace, going across the gardens quickly in order not to be discovered. They met the Master of the Horse in the back of the palace, who was already waiting with the royal carriage to transport them to the Palace of the Buen Retiro, where they arrived after midnight. Carlos was accompanied by a handful of people, four noblemen and three servants.75 The sneaking manner used by the ruler of the largest empire in the Western world to separate from his mother reveals the nature and extent of Mariana’s power perhaps as much as Philip IV’s testamentary clauses. Once the king left her side, Mariana’s position weakened substantially, and soon she ran out of recourses to win this political battle. She began to actively stage her comeback soon after, however. During her exile, which began on March 2, 1677 and lasted for two and a half years, Mariana gradually established a dynamic written and oral communication network between Madrid and Toledo, her new place of residence. By 1678, there is evidence that a number of people have taken the role of mediators between mother and son, including her beloved court dwarf, Nicolás Pertuso; her Grand Master of the Household, the Marquis of Mancera; Carlos’s summiller de corps, Medinaceli (whose participation reveals that Mariana was gaining political support among those who had opposed her); and several other figures.76 All of these people brought information back and forth (sometimes twice a day) of a personal, political, and administrative nature. They conveyed information to the queen about Carlos’s health and well-being, which reinforced her maternal role and at the same time reminded the king of his mother, whom he reportedly missed a lot. In her letters to Carlos during this period, Mariana emphasized her motherly love with all the political weight that it carried. She signed all of her letters “Your mother who loves you best” [Tu Madre que más te quiere], spoke often of her “consolation” at receiving news of her son’s health, cheered all of his activities, and urged her son to write to her more often. For Carlos’s sixteenth birthday, she sent him a portrait of herself set in a splendid frame decorated with eight large diamonds.77 BNE, ms. 9399 fol. 62v. The descriptions of these events have been taken from Maura y Gamazo II: 334,

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and BNE, ms. 10129. 74 BNE, ms. 10129. 75 BNE, ms. 10129 fols 7v–8r,. and Maura y Gamazo II: 334. 76 AHN, E. leg. 2729. 77 Maura y Gamazo II: 403.

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The significance of this gift cannot be underestimated, considering the affective and otherwise symbolic functions of portraits in early modern society. Although she was in exile and supposedly excluded from the government, Mariana asserted her rights to participate in the political life of her son and monarchy. She kept a hefty diplomatic correspondence with the Count of Harrach and the Imperial court, acting behind the scenes in support of Carlos’s marriage to her granddaughter.78 She had no qualms about requesting State documents for her examination, and Carlos had no choice but to comply, often sending his mother copies of official papers to her secretary.79 The important issue of Carlos’s marriage, however, brought the queen to the political forefront again, as she was asked to intercede on behalf of Spain and her son with the Emperor. After intense deliberations in 1677 and 1678, the little archduchess was unanimously rejected by the State Council in favor of the French princess, María Luisa of Orleans (1662– 1689), who was of sufficient age to provide an heir immediately and offered at least hope of a lasting peace with the French.80 In early 1679, Carlos and his ministers faced the prospect of having to inform the emperor about the final decision, risking a break of diplomatic relations with the Empire, and Mariana appeared as the only person capable to help them out of their predicament. Her political weight as the former ruler of the monarchy, the king’s mother, and the grandmother of the rejected bride gave her extraordinary authority with the emperor, who was also her brother. It seems quite appropriate to wrap up this snapshot of Mariana’s trajectory in the Spanish court with another opinion by Medinaceli recorded in the State Council’s deliberations on January 11: The great love that the queen, our lady, has towards your majesty and that which she has always shown to this monarchy will always prevail in her judgment …. She would certainly be the most natural and convenient person to make the emperor understand that ultimately she is the only one who has the right to force your majesty alter what has already been decided.81

Mariana’s intervention, as Medinaceli predicted, proved crucial in solving the delicate diplomatic situation. Carlos was grateful to his mother, writing on May 4, 1679: “I am certain that you had the main part in ensuring the good way in which Oliván Santaliestra, “Mariana de Austria en la encrucijada política” 410–16. There are about 25 letters between Mariana and Harrach, from March 9 to August 10, 1677. I thank Dr. Oliván Santaliestra for providing this information, e-mail communication April 29, 2010. 79 For some examples: April 8, 13, 14, and 19, May 21, July 23 and 25, and December 20, 1678, and July 21, 1679 (AHN, E. leg. 2729). 80 AHN E. leg. 2796. The marriage was decided immediately after the Peace of Nijmegen, in January 1679. 81 “Creiendo el que vota, que en el sumo amor de la Reyna n[uest]ra S[eño]ra a V[uestra] Mag[esta]d y el con que a mirado siempre a esta Monarchia prevalecera en su alta conss[ideraci]on … siendo el medio mas natural y mas conven[ien]te Su Mag[esta]d para dar a entender al S[eño]r Emperador que solo ella puede obligar a V[uestra] Mag[esta]d a alterar lo que tenia deliverado” (AHN, E. leg. 2796). 78

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my uncle took the news of this business and his recognition that I cannot postpone getting married.”82 Mariana’s role in solving Carlos’s problem, opposition to Don Juan’s regime, and a healthy distance between mother and son contributed to Mariana’s reemergence as a political figure in her own right. By the summer of 1679, Mariana’s restitution at court was imminent and widely expected at court and in diplomatic circles.83 Don Juan’s death on September 17 accelerated the event, which took place a week later. The queen entered Madrid “received by the hearts of everyone with such acclamations and general applause that it is hard to comprehend or explain,” reported a gazette.84 The Venetian ambassador commented that it was “a triumph and a very rare lesson in Divine Justice.”85 Although Mariana’s extensive power proved to be dangerous at the end of her regency and led to her exile, it ultimately facilitated her return and subsequent political involvement at court and in the European stage, which continued uninterrupted until her death in 1696. Mariana’s power was formal and informal, based on legal structures and cultural values, rooted in familial, dynastic, and political networks, and social and psychological in nature. With all of these attributes working at unison, Mariana expressed a conspicuous and powerful case of Habsburg motherhood. Works Cited Archivo Ducal Medinaceli, Seville and Toledo (ADM). Sección Histórica leg. 68. Archivo Ducal Medinaceli, Seville and Toledo (ADM). Sección Histórica leg. 159. Archivo Ducal Medinaceli, Seville and Toledo (ADM). Sección Histórica, leg. 160, No. 73. Archivo General del Palacio, Madrid (AGP). Reinados Carlos II, caja 92, expediente 3. Archivo General del Palacio, Madrid (AGP). Personal, caja 1049, expediente 6. Archivo General de Simancas (AGS). Estado, España leg. 2700. Archivo General de Simancas (AGS). Estado, España leg. 2701. Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid (AHN). Estado, leg. 2729. 82 “Y estoi bien cierto q[ue] abras tenido la principal parte en q[ue] la buena forma en q[ue] mi tio a tomado este neg[goci]o y en q[ue] reconozca lo preciso y conben[ien]te q[ue] es para todo el no perder ora de tiempo q[ue] yo tome estado …” Carlos to Mariana, May 4, 1679. AHN E. leg. 2729. 83 This is abundantly documented. For example, see Marquis of Villars 28–9. He was the French Ambassador in Madrid. 84 “Al tiempo que el Rey tomaba ya los coches acompañado delos desterrados para ir a Toledo con tal celeridad que mostro bien la violencia y opresion en que estaba, y bolbiendo poco despues a la corte, le siguió la Reyna que hizo su entrada rezibida delos corazones de todos con aclamazion y aplauso tal, que no puede comprehenderse ni esplicarse” (BNE, ms. 9399, fol. 85r). 85 “Il ritorno fu trionfo ed un ammaestramento ben raro della giustizia divina” Federico Cornaro, Venetian ambassador to Madrid (1678–1681). (Barozzi and Berchet 446).

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Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid (AHN). Estado, leg. 2796. Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid (AHN). Estado, leg. 2799. Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid (AHN). Consejos, leg. 7259. Barozzi, Nicolò and Guglielmo Berchet, eds. Relazioni degli Stati Europei lette al Senato dagli Ambasciatori Veneti nel secolo decimosettimo. Raccolte ed annotate. Serie I; Spain. Vol. II. Venice: Pietro Naratovich, 1860. Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE). Ms. R5175. Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE). Ms. 5742. Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE). Ms. 9399. Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE). Ms. 10129. Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE). Ms. 12961.21. Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE). Ms. 18211. Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE). Ms. 18655.25. Campbell, JoEllen M. “Women and Factionalism in the Court of Charles II of Spain.” In Spanish Women in the Golden Age. Ed. Magdalena S. Sánchez and Alain Saint-Saëns. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1996. 109–24. Coolidge, Grace E. Guardianship, Gender, and the Nobility in Early Modern Spain. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010. Covarrubias, Sebastián de. Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española. 2nd edition. Ed. Felipe C.R. Maldonado. Madrid: Castalia, 1995. Crawford, Katherine. Perilous Performances: Gender and Regency in Early Modern France. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004. Domínguez Ortiz, Antonio, ed. Testamento de Felipe IV. Madrid: Editora Nacional, 1982. Earenfight, Theresa. “Partners in Politics.” In Queenship and Political Power in Medieval and Early Modern Spain. Ed. Theresa Earenfight. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005. xiii–xxviii. ———. The King’s Other Body: María of Castile and the Crown of Aragon. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010. Elliott, John H. The Count-Duke of Olivares: The Statesman in an Age of Decline. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1986. Feros, Antonio. Kingship and Favoritism in the Spain of Philip III of Spain, 1598– 1621. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Fink De Backer, Stephanie. Widowhood, Autonomy, and Power in Early Modern Spain. Leiden and New York: Brill, 2010. González de Salcedo, Pedro. Nudrición Real (Texto impreso). Reglas o preceptos de como se ha de educar a los Reyes Mozos, desde los siete a los catorce años…. A la Reyna Nuestra Señora. Madrid, 1671. BNE, ms. R5175. Goodman, Eleanor. “Conspicuous in Her Absence: Mariana of Austria, Juan José of Austria, and the Representation of Her Power.” In Queenship and Political Power in Medieval and Early Modern Spain. Ed. Theresa Earenfight. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005. 163–84. Hanley, Sarah. “The Family, the State, and the Law in Seventeenth- and EighteenthCentury France: The Political Ideology of Male Right versus and Early Theory of Natural Rights.” The Journal of Modern History 78 (June 2006): 289–332.

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Kamen, Henry. Spain in the Later Seventeenth Century, 1665–1700. London: Longman, 1980. Llorente, Mercedes. “Imagen y autoridad en una regencia: Los retratos de Mariana de Austria y los límites del poder.” Studia histórica. Historia moderna 28 (2006): 211–38. Lynch, John. Spain under the Habsburgs. Vol. II. New York: New York University Press, 1981. Maura y Gamazo, Gabriel. Carlos II y su corte. Ensayo de Reconstrucción biográfica. 2 vols. Madrid: Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos, 1911 and 1915. Nader, Helen, ed. Power and Gender in Renaissance Spain: Eight Women of the Mendoza Family, 1450–1650. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2004. Oliván Santaliestra, Laura. Mariana de Austria. Imagen, poder y diplomacia de una reina cortesana. Madrid: Editorial Complutense, 2006. ———. “Mariana de Austria en la encrucijada política del siglo XVII.” Ph.D. dissertation, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2006. Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid (RAH). Ms. 9-5135. Sánchez, Magdalena S. The Empress, the Queen and the Nun: Women and Power at the Court of Philip III of Spain. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. Sánchez Belén, Juan Antonio. “Las relaciones internacionales de la monarquía Hispánica durante la regencia de doña Mariana de Austria.” Studia histórica. Historia moderna 20 (1999): 137–72. Sánchez Gómez, Rosa Isabel. “Formación, desarrollo y actividades delictivas del regimiento de ‘la Chamberga’ en Madrid durante la minoria de Carlos II.” Torres de los Lujanes 17 (Jan. 1991): 80–96. Sevilla González, María del Carmen. “La Junta de Gobierno de la minoridad del Rey Carlos II.” In Los validos. Ed. José Antonio Escudero. Madrid: Dykinson, 2005. 583–616. Spielman, John P. Leopold I of Austria. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1977. Storrs, Christopher. The Resilience of the Spanish Monarchy, 1665–1700. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Tomás y Valiente, Francisco. Los validos en la monarquía española del siglo XVII. Madrid: Siglo XXI de España, 1982. Viennot, Eliane. La France, les femmes et le pouvoir: L’invention de la loi salique (Ve–XVIe siècle). Paris: Perrin, 2006. Villars, Pierre, marquis de. Mémoires de la cour d’Espagne sous le règne de Charles II, 1678–1682. London: Trübner & Company, 1861. Vives, Juan Luis. The Education of a Christian Woman: A Sixteenth-Century Manual. Ed. and trans. Charles Fantazzi. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Part IV Visual and Sartorial Politics

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Chapter 9

Mariana of Austria’s Portraits as Ruler-Governor and Curadora by Juan Carreño de Miranda and Claudio Coello Mercedes Llorente

A mi madre

Mariana of Austria played an important role in the history of the Spanish monarchy in the seventeenth century. Born in Neustadt on December 23, 1634, María Anna of Austria was the daughter of Emperor Ferdinand III and the Infanta María, who was the sister of Philip IV. Mariana was to have married Prince Baltasar Carlos, Philip IV’s son, but when her cousin the prince died, she instead married his father, her uncle, the king. The new queen consort arrived in Madrid in 1649; in Spain she was called Mariana, and this is the name by which she has come to be known. She gave birth to five children but only two survived to adulthood, the Infanta Margarita and King Carlos II. After the death of Philip IV, Queen Mariana became regent, guardian-tutor, and guardian-curadora of her son, the child-king, and in his name ruled the monarchy.1 It was the first time for nearly two hundred years that Spain had a regency, and during that time, Mariana had both to invent her role and create a new image for herself as governor. When King Carlos II reached his majority, Queen Mariana continued to play an important role as guardiancuradora. It was only when Carlos II married María Luisa of Orleans that a new period began for Mariana as queen mother, indeed the first queen mother in the Spanish monarchy since medieval times. She became a key figure in factional struggles concerning the future succession to the Spanish throne; Carlos II was to be the last Habsburg king of Spain.2 Mariana died on May 16, 1696 in Madrid. Mariana played different and important roles never before seen in the life of a Spanish Habsburg queen. The regency witnessed a series of struggles between Queen Mother Mariana of Austria and certain aristocratic factions. There were also conflicts between Mariana and Don Juan José of Austria, Carlos II’s ambitious half-brother. It was in this context that the regent had to find ways to strengthen her position, something Mariana achieved with some success. As a female regent was hitherto unknown 1 As king, not prince, since on October 8, 1665 flags flew over Madrid and other Castilian cities for Carlos II. 2 See Mitchell’s essay in this collection.

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in the history of Spain, Mariana’s regency set a benchmark for Philip V (House of Bourbon) and Carlos III (House of Habsburg) during the War of Succession, and the organization of their own regencies. In other words, Mariana’s regency became the blueprint for all subsequent regencies.3 It is therefore not surprising that new and special circumstances required a new image of the queen. Mariana had to invent her role and image, both of which would determine the way in which she was depicted. I hope to reveal in this essay—for the first time—the complex interplay between Mariana’s person and her portraits. It should be remembered that it was not at all uncommon for female members of the Habsburg dynasty to undertake the role of regent. These women held the rights of regent over their own children, even over a male heir, although the role was often held jointly with a male co-regent or a male council of regency with wider, supervisory powers. In practice and by tradition, the Habsburgs went further than other royal houses in acknowledging Habsburg female rule, because according to the Privilegium Maius, its right to rule inhered in the blood and was not, therefore, restricted by sex. The regent was deemed to belong to a higher order, and the sovereign quality which he or she possessed was his or her own. It was not a delegated function contingent on another person or power; whether male or female. A regent of Habsburg blood was, therefore, better suited to take the place of the king or the emperor than was a mere viceroy, who only ruled in lieu. Part of my Ph.D. research consisted in the analysis of Mariana’s roles during the regency period through her portraits: those of Mariana as a ruler, as tutor, and as curadora, the new roles that Philip IV gave her. Mariana of Austria’s legitimacy derived from her dual role as Philip IV’s widow and mother of the new king. During the regency, the queen’s image was constructed in relation to these two roles. Mariana was portrayed in action, signing papers, amid her daily routine, something not previously seen in the portraits of the Spanish king. At other times, she is portrayed in her role as her son’s guardian-tutor. However, here the inclusion of the image of the child-king seems necessary to the assertion of Mariana’s vicarious authority. Although few in number, there are images of Mariana carrying out the functions of ruler in the absence of her son, an indication that she was perfectly aware of the source of her power. In this essay, I analyze the portraits of Mariana of Austria as a ruler-governor and curadora, two of the three functions that Philip IV’s testament bestowed on her.4 In particular, when Philip V appointed Queen María Luisa of Savoy regent in 1707 so that he could be in the field of battle or when Archduke Carlos had to absent himself from Spain in 1711 to be crowned and left his spouse, Queen Elisabeth Christine von Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Wolfenbüttel, as regent in Barcelona. In both instances, Mariana’s regency (between 1665 and 1675) served as model. See AHN Estado, leg. 8686, where there are papers describing the members of Mariana of Austria’s Junta de Gobierno, with sound thoughts on the political conduct of the Inquisitor-general Nithard. 4 Two versions of this essay were previously published in Spanish as “Imagen y autoridad en una regencia. Los retratos de Mariana de Austria y los límites del poder”; and “Mariana de Austria como gobernadora.” 3

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Mariana Teaches Her Son How to Dispatch the Duties of His Office After the deaths of the court artists Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo and Sebastián Herrera Barnuevo, the painter Juan Carreño de Miranda (1614–1685) became the new portraitist of the royal family. He was promoted to Chamber Painter to the king on September 27, 1671. According to Antonio Palomino de Castro y Velasco, Carreño “carried out his duties as painter much to the approval of his employers; he made numerous and excellent portraits of their Majesties.”5 The most representative portrait of Mariana executed by Carreño is the one where she is seated and placed in the Alcázar’s Salón de los Espejos [Salon of Mirrors].6 There are several versions of this painting, all of which were painted as companion pieces to the portrait of Carlos II in the same room: Doña Mariana de Austria (1670–1675), Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (Madrid); Doña Mariana de Austria (1673), Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao; Doña Mariana de Austria (1670–1675), Museo Nacional del Prado; Doña Mariana de Austria, Masaveu Collection; Doña Mariana de Austria, Museo Nacional de San Carlos, México; Doña Mariana de Austria, San Lorenzo de El Escorial, part of the Patrimonio Nacional; and Doña Mariana de Austria (1673), Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota. There is also a drawing in the British Library. The NelsonAtkins Museum (Kansas City, Missouri) has a three-quarter length version, Doña Mariana de Austria. In order to date the paintings, I consulted a petition7 confirming 1671 as the year when the first paired portraits of the queen and the king were executed. In this document, Carreño demands payment for several works.8 These are the paintings he did for the Convent of the Encarnación in Madrid, along with sixteen royal portraits executed between 1671 and 1677, and several miniatures about which there is no information. The petition also reveals the destination of the paired royal portraits: one pair for the French court (1671); two for the ambassador Archbishop of Toulouse; two for the emperor (taken to the Viennese court by Count Poetting; Poetting had to delay his departure, due to lack of money, until the winter or spring 5 The painter Antonio Palomino de Castro y Velasco (Cáceres, 1655–Madrid, 1725) was author of Museo pictórico y escala óptica. On September 27, 1669, he was appointed Pintor del rey and on June 2, 1671, Pintor de Cámara. “Ejerció con gran aprobación la plaza de Pintor de cámara; hizo muchos y excelentes retratos, así de sus Majestades” (Palomino de Castro, Vidas 288). 6 See the catalogue of the exhibition held in the Palace of Villahermosa, from January to March 1986: Carreño, Rizi, Herrera y la pintura madrileña de su tiempo (1650–1700) and Pérez Sánchez. See also Mayer, Justi, Marzolf, Angulo Iñiguez, Orso “A Lesson Learned,” and Sebastián. 7 Archivo General Palacio Real de Madrid (AGPRM), Sección Administrativa, Personal de empleados, Caja 207/14. 8 Quoted in Marzolf and Pérez Sánchez. In fact, the Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias portrait of Carlos II bears this date of 1671.

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of 1674); four for the Valladolid Palace and Huerta del Rey [King’s Garden] in 1673; two for the priory cell of El Escorial; another two for the emperor, taken to him by the Count of Harrach, and two more destined for the French court and entrusted to the French ambassador, the Marquis of Villars. According to a later document dated 1682 in the same palace archive, Carreño continued to request payment: “Juan Carreño de Miranda, Chamber Painter to HM, has presented several requests for the payment of fifty-four thousand three hundred reals of vellón for paintings and portraits done at his expense in the service of HM which he has been requesting since 1677 … several demands of payment.” This is confirmation that Carreño submitted his first demand in 1677. These sixteen royal portraits, therefore, can be dated between 1671, and the time when the queen mother was driven out of Madrid and went first to Buen Retiro and then, in early 1677, to Toledo. Carreño painted eight portraits of Mariana and eight portraits of Carlos II, sixteen portraits in total, with two distinct images of Mariana: one as ruler (Figure 9.1); and the other as queen consort mother.9 The first representation corresponds to the portraits of Carlos II in the Salón de los Espejos with its companion piece, Mariana as ruler, portrayed sitting at a table in the same room. The first five pairs of portraits were painted between 1671 and 1674 when Carlos II turned fourteen and was given his own household.10 The second representation corresponds to Carlos II in the same room, paired with a portrait of Mariana as queen consort mother, taking up once more the portraits created by Velázquez in 1638 and 1652.11 In 1671 Carlos II was ten years old. The terms of Philip IV’s testament have a particular relevance, since he orders that when his son turns ten, he should begin to learn the paperwork of his office in order to become acquainted with his duties as king. This is the meaning of the double portraits of Mariana and Carlos II. The king learns what is expected of him: he is guided by Mariana through the daily paperwork, and at the same time, he is surrounded by the portraits of his Habsburg ancestors, Charles V, Philip II, Philip III, and Philip IV, which provide examples of good conduct. The paintings in which Mariana is represented as a ruler are based on her portraits by Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo and Herrera Barnuevo.12 She is portrayed in her capacity as ruling queen of the realms of the Spanish monarchy, performing the duties of the monarch. Surrounded by papers, quills, and inkwells, 9 I discuss these paintings in chapter 3 of my dissertation; “The Image of the Catholic Queen” 156–64; and in my article “Imagen y autoridad en una regencia.” 10 The king’s birthday was November 4. The date for a change in his representation would be his coming of age, indicating that Mariana had ceased to fulfill the role of ruler. That date fell in November 1674. 11 Two paintings belonging to this group are in Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum and two more in the Harrach Collection, Vienna and in Ambras Castle, Innsbruck. For further information about these two prototypes, see Justi, Marzolf, and Pérez Sánchez. 12 See Llorente, “Imagen y autoridad” and “Queen Mariana of Austria as Regent” as well as my dissertation chapter “The Image of the Catholic Queen,” 89–120.

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Doña Mariana de Austria, c.1670–1675. Juan Carreño de Miranda. Oil on canvas, 198 x 148 cm. Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid.

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she sits at a work table dealing with her advisors and the Junta de Gobierno, and with private petitions. Although the official period of mourning is behind her, Mariana is shown in widow’s dress, a reminder to the spectator that she derives her authority from her marriage to the deceased king. Indeed, Mariana continued to wear mourning until her death.13 This was seen not only as a token of fidelity and loyalty to her dead husband, but it underscored her claim to authority. The setting for Mariana’s portrait is again the Salón de los Espejos in the Alcázar, but unlike the earlier paintings, this time we do see some of the contents of the room. In the background, on the other side of the door, we see one of the marble tables supported by lions and just above it, the ebony framed Venetian mirrors supported by bronze eagles. Here, lions and eagles represent royalty, and, in fact, they were symbols of the Habsburg dynasty. Above them, there is a large canvas by Tintoretto, Judith and Holofernes, along with an allegorical portrait by Titian of Philip II celebrating the Spanish victory over the Turks at Lepanto and the birth of his son Fernando.14 According to Palomino, the queen was familiar with this room because when, under Velázquez’s supervision, the Pandora scenes were being painted on its ceiling, “the king would go up every day, and sometimes the queen, our lady Doña María Ana of Austria, and the lady Infantas also, to see the state of the painting.”15 The Pandora scenes were seen as “illustrating women’s central role in civilization”—a positive role, if we are to believe Calderón’s La estatua de Prometeo.16 Queen Mariana was well acquainted with the paintings in the room and indeed, with what the paintings signified. This is evident from the fact that as soon as the period of mourning was over, she commissioned her first two mythological dramas from Calderón, La estatua de Prometeo [The Statue of Prometheus] and Fieras afemina amor [Love Tames Wild Beasts],17 whose subject matter clearly relates to the 13 For widows’ clothing worn by Mariana see Llorente “Imagen y autoridad” 211–38; Llorente “Queen Mariana of Austria as Regent” 24–40; and the essay by Cordula van Wyhe in this collection. 14 In the painting by Titian, Philip II offers up his son just as Abraham did. 15 “El rey subía todos los días, y algunas veces la reina nuestra señora Doña María Ana de Austria, y las señoras infantas, a ver el estado que llevaba esta obra” (Palomino, El Museo Pictórico). 16 Margaret R. Greer maintains that in the seventeenth century, Pandora was not seen in an unfavorable light as a pagan Eve. Greer finds more parallels between Christ and Pandora than between Pandora/Eve; insofar as Pandora represents the perfect combination of everything, she represents a positive good for humankind. For some scholars, she represented the acquisition of the arts (through the discovery of fire) and the necessary skills to develop a civilized way of life. More importantly, for the Neoplatonic ideas of Plotinus and Ficino, she embodied divine beauty in material form. This positive assessment is in line with Boccaccio’s notion, which Pérez de Moya echoes, of a second Prometheus whose creation of Pandora represents the “re-creation” of man as a civilized being. The meaning that the Pandora fresco conveys to Greer is that of the creation of a supremely gifted beauty, the notion of the perfect earthly civilization that is associated with the rule of the Spanish Habsburgs. See Calderón de la Barca 121–7. 17 Calderón de la Barca 127, and Greer.

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paintings, that, besides the ceiling frescoes, were displayed in the Salón de los Espejos. These paintings depict the story of Pandora by Francisco Carreño, Juan Rizi, Agostino Mitelli, and Angelo Colonna, and Artemisia Gentileschi’s Heracles and Omphale.18 We have seen how the queen used the symbols of power of the Habsburg dynasty to assert her authority. The Salón de los Espejos served this purpose well. According to Alfonso Rodríguez G. de Ceballos, “the Pieza Ochavada and the Salón de los Espejos … were predominantly masculine spaces where the king granted audiences to the grandees of the realm, the heads of the different councils, and his ambassadors, audiences at which the queen his consort did not attend” (213–14). The two spaces implied power; it was from these rooms that the king ruled his vast empire, greeted his ministers and ambassadors, and signed, sealed, and delivered the decrees they submitted to him. The queen chose to be portrayed in this room in order to underline the fact that it was she who ruled until her son came of age. Furthermore, on those walls hung paintings that portrayed the Habsburg monarchs as virtuous princes whom God had chosen to defend the true faith. At the same time, as Steven Orso points out, “the great portraits of the Salón de los Espejos portray Philip IV and his ancestors carrying out the duties of their office” (Philip IV 90). These, of course, were the duties now being performed by the queen. According to Christian moral doctrine, it is the practice of virtue that leads to perfection and eventual redemption.19 Monarchs were considered supreme Christian examples and paradigms of devotion: they must be virtuous, and must be seen to be virtuous. The image of the virtuous king was an integral part of the discourse that worked to legitimize the monarchy as a system of government. In order to receive divine assistance, monarchs must serve God and it was royal virtue that justified the existing political order. Through their devotion, kings obtained great things for their subjects; in turn, subjects owed obedience to the monarch precisely because of this royal virtue. In his treatise on painting, the artist Vicente Carducho recommended that paintings capable of inspiring princes to virtuous actions be displayed in the Salón de los Espejos. As a result, the room was a veritable catalogue of royal virtues in order to glorify the physical and moral superiority of the Habsburgs.20 Of the queen herself, it was said that “everyone marveled to hear her talk of the singular qualities that shone in the greatest Calderón de la Barca 128–9. Another reason to choose this subject for the Calderón commission may be found in the opera Benche vinto, vince amore. Ò il Prometeo that Emperor Leopold I sent to the Spanish court from Vienna in 1670. 19 Virtue is an internal disposition of the soul, which expresses itself outwardly before the community through honest actions consistent with the teachings of the Church. Virtue is a typically Baroque topic for meditation. See Rodríguez de la Flor. 20 “The Prince’s Room of Virtue had been used to glorify the superior physical and moral qualities of the sovereign. It was also used to underline the dynasty’s antiquity, thus underpinning the sovereign’s right to the throne, and to set an example of royal conduct to his successors … The decorations … followed three different means of expression allegory, analogy, and narrative” (Brown and Elliott 155). 18

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kings, her most glorious ancestors; they imagined they were rare things she had knowledge of, and revelations of her own experience.”21 This knowledge was considered gleaned from the paintings, which proved that the Habsburg dynasty was an ancient one, and set an example for all successors. Historical family events were portrayed through narrative, whereas the moral attributes were represented by symbols and references to heroes from classical antiquity. The queen’s purpose in choosing Tintoretto’s large canvas Judith and Holofernes was to suggest that the virtues portrayed in this painting reflected her own. This biblical character was also a figure of a strong woman, a virtuous widow, and, hence, a role model for all widows.22 The attributes of her virtue included prayer, abstinence, penitence, wisdom, strength, honesty, and beauty. Because of these virtues, God elected her to save her people from the Assyrians, and putting her own life in peril, she carried out a “manly act” that no man was brave enough to attempt. Judith was therefore more than merely a chaste widow, she was capable of acting like a man while at the same time maintaining her virginal purity. Treatises on women praised those who were able to cast off their feminine fragility and when appropriate make manly virtues, such as reason and courage, their own. Therefore, when a woman was said to be virile, as in Judith’s case, what was meant was that she was able to overcome her femininity and acquire masculine qualities. Saint Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, admonished “cast aside your feminine mind and feelings and cloak yourself in strength and virility. For no males or females are admitted to the kingdom of heaven, but all women who have pleased the Lord by leading a saintly life occupy men’s places.”23 The duties that the ruler queen had to perform were also virile virtues and she, like Judith before her, strove to deliver her kingdom from its enemies and to defend the true faith. This is why she wielded political power, as had the Habsburg monarchs before her, whose portraits hung in the Salón de los Espejos. In contrast to the paintings of Charles V, Philip II, Philip III, and Philip IV, who were portrayed as Christian princes, Queen Mariana is shown performing her official daily duties (Figure 9.1). She is seated at a table, a rarity in paintings of Spanish royalty, as typically the monarch would be shown standing next to a table.24 The chair is of singular importance, it would be used regularly to suggest that the queen holds the powers of the king during her son’s minority.25 A distinctive 23 24

Fr. Manuel de León, Segunda oración fúnebre. See Carducho. Cited in Cuadra and Muñoz 296. Crespi describes in his Diary how the Queen received them: “The chair and the bureau were on a black velvet carpet, and the velvet covered in the same, with an ebony inkstand and a silver hand bell …. They say that the Queen, our Lady, should not be waiting for us, but that we should be waiting for her in that room, as was the custom when the King summoned the Council of State, and also on Fridays, with the Council of Castile” (cited in Maura Gamazo, Carlos II 154). 25 See Llorente, “Imagen y autoridad” 211–38; “Queen Mariana of Austria” 24–40; and “The Image of the Catholic Queen” 102–4. 21 22

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piece of furniture in the culture, chairs signified high status and the queen had been granted the right to sit on one.26 Spanish women traditionally sat cross-legged on the floor, following Moorish custom, and before her widowhood the queen was no exception. The use of the chair in this painting serves to underline and signify Mariana’s new duties. The chair together with the table lends her the qualities of majesty and justice. The chair and table further symbolize—along with the paper she holds in her left hand, the quill, and the inkwell—her activities and personal duties as ruler of the realm, emulating Philip IV, but especially, Philip II.27 The daily routines and business of government—to deal with advisors, secretaries, petitions—seem to want to draw attention to this painting. Highlighting the fact that power now rests with Queen Mariana and that she is the person responsible for teaching her son the daily duties of what will, in due course, become his office. At the same time, the portraits of her ancestors, virtuous Habsburg princes, serve as further examples to the king.28 Their virtues and their deeds would guide the child Carlos II’s future actions. Mariana of Austria’s representation in this painting, closely linked to the power struggles of the time, portrays her as ruler performing her duties and reveals a conscious effort by the queen and her household to reinforce her authority through the image projected by the portrait. Mariana as Ruler Both Carreño and Claudio Coello portray the queen performing her duties as rulergovernor. We have to consider three different representations that have their origin in the Salón de los Espejos portraits by Juan Carreño de Miranda and Herrera Barnuevo. The following paintings belong to the first group of portraits: Doña Mariana, Museo Nacional del Prado (Figure 8.1 in Mitchell); Doña Mariana de Austria, Museo Romántico, Madrid (Figure 9.2);29 Doña Mariana de Austria, Hospital de Gállego 218–21. “But those seeking to restore a body afflicted by a wasting disease cherish the

26 27

image of a healthy state sometime in the past. There was no clear agreement as to when the organism had attained its highest point of perfection. The men who came to power in 1621 believed it was under Philip II” (Elliott 241–62). 28 See Davies. 29 It is possible that the painting in the Museo Romántico of Madrid is a copy of the San Carlos de México version of the Salón de los Espejos portrait. This is due to similarities in representations of the face of Mariana, the position of the hands, the widow’s costume, and the carpet. However, the tasseled drape resembles that of the Salón de los Espejos´s Prado version that bears inventory No. 644. From the elements portrayed, it is arguable that the Museo Romántico portrait is a transition painting between the Salón de los Espejos and the Neutral Room’s portraits. It retains a number of noteworthy elements such as the queen in full length, the carpet, and the tasseled curtain. My thanks to Sr. Antonio Grande, curator of the Museo Romántico of Madrid, for all his help in allowing me to study this painting.

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Doña Mariana de Austria. Juan Carreño de Miranda. Oil on canvas, 2,178.5 x 115 cm. Museo Romántico de Madrid.

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Tavera, Toledo (Figure 9.3);30 and Doña Mariana de Austria, private collection, Madrid, a half length.31 In these portraits, which most closely resemble that of the Salón de los Espejos, the only notable difference is that the queen is portrayed in a neutral room dealing with government papers.32 The second group of portraits also has the queen sitting for her portrait in a neutral room, but in this instance she is signing official papers.33 It is therefore a more active image. There is one portrait in the Poznan National Museum (Poland) on loan from the Warsaw National Museum.34 In his testament, Philip IV left Queen Mariana clear instructions on how to rule following the example of his ancestors: [T]he diversity and seriousness of the numerous businesses as are offered in my monarchy demand your utmost attention. First, I ask you to keep the Councils as I will leave them, and as my father and grandfather had them before me …, taking special care in the choice of ministers … meet often with the Councils, and let their decisions and those of the Juntas and of ministers, and the letters, petitions and whatsoever papers on whatsoever subject, or rights, or claims, as well as matters of justice, grace and governance, war and peace treaties, confederation and alliance treaties, as well as any other businesses and chance matters of whatsoever kind, be referred to the Junta de Gobierno which it is my will should be created. (Cited in Maura Gamazo 197) 30 My thanks to the Fundación Medinaceli and to Señora Susana Bernal Freyre for their help in allowing me to study this painting. The Hospital Tavera portrait measures 206 x 123 cm and the Prado version 116 x 100 cm. This painting used to hang in the Convento de San Juan Extra Muros, in Toledo: see Marzolf 167. The Prado painting (inventory No. 5,763) and the Hospital Tavera version (inventory No. P310) also belong to the Neutral Room image. Both portraits follow the Ringling Museum version as far as the position of the queen’s hands is concerned—the right hand holds a paper by its lower half, between index finger and thumb, while the left hand rests on the arm of the chair. The right arm and sleeve lack definition. The part of the widow’s costume that covers the legs is not well done either, which is not the case in the Ringling Museum. The carpet, so distinctive in the Salón de los Espejos portraits, and still present in the Museo Romántico portrait, has disappeared in these works. A new architectural element appears—a wall that divides the space in two rooms that lend dynamism to the composition. The drape is present in both paintings. In the Hospital Tavera version, it runs from left to right, framing the queen. In the Prado version, it is limited to the left side of the composition, and the painting is smaller. 31 The small copy of this private collection is mistaken: it is not Juana of Austria who is portrayed in this painting, but Queen Mariana. It is possible that this copy once belonged to the Torrecilla collection. 32 Llorente, “Mariana de Austria como gobernadora,” 1777–1810. 33 In order to better understand the office of the Spanish monarch, see Bouza Álvarez, Corre manuscrito, and Escudero. 34 Inventory No. 42503. Given by Maria Mokrzycka in 1922; see B. Gembarowicz, Muzeum Narodowe: Wybór i opis cenniejszych zabytków: dział sztuki, Kraków 1926, No. 288; and J. Starzynski and M. Walicki, Katalog Galerii Malarstwa Obcego, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, Warszawa 1938, No. 98. Mariana’s step-sister was the queen of Poland at the time.

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Doña Mariana de Austria. Juan Carreño de Miranda. Oil on canvas, 206 x 123 cm. Fundación Casa Ducal de Medinaceli, Palacio Tavera, Toledo, Spain.

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The king stated that Mariana must listen to the advice of the Junta de Gobierno before making a decision, but that the final decision would be hers. The testament continued accordingly: “These ministers are to meet every day in the room of the Palace that the queen shall determine.” The Junta met every day at eleven o’clock in the Ruby Room (Maura Gamazo, Carlos II 197). The testament went on to state that [T]he queen will convey to them all the decisions and papers touching on any business with the secretary who when I should die shall be in my service and who will head the dealings of the Despacho Universal, and who will enter with the papers of the Junta and will take part in it and give account of all the matters that he shall take to such a Junta and with those same papers and votes of the Junta he shall go to the queen who will deal with them with the aid of the secretary, who will then go back to the Junta and convey and announce thereunto the queen’s resolutions.35 And when this is done, the secretary will refer the resolutions to whomsoever Council, Junta or minister is charged with their execution. … The dispatches that I now sign, the queen will sign on the same place as I do now; and the resolutions that she shall take in consultation, in matters of peace, as well of governance, grace and justice, and the orders that she should give shall be executed in the same way as they would be if I were alive and had given them myself.36

In these paintings (Figure 9.2; Figure 9.3; and also the Poznan National Museum portrait), Mariana is shown dealing with papers or signing dispatches as ordained by the king’s testament, but as has already been pointed out, without the presence of the secretary or member of the Junta de Gobierno to serve her. This kind of portrayal continues and imitates working practices followed by Philip IV and before him, Philip II. Interestingly, we do not have a portrait of either of them at work dealing with matters of state, although there are numerous written references. A letter written by Philip IV to his religious confidante, Sor María de Ágreda, provides us with further insight into the meaning of these portraits: 35 Every afternoon, at five o’clock, Don Blasco de Loyola, who, as senior secretary had become secretary of the Despacho Universal, would take papers from the Junta and the councils to the queen’s chambers (Maura Gamazo, Carlos II 111 and 197). 36 “‘La Reyna les remitirá todas las dichas consultas y papeles tocantes a cualquier negocios con el secretario que al tiempo que Yo muera me sirviere y tuviere a su cargo la negociación del Despacho Universal, el qual entrará con los papeles en la Junta y asistirá en ella y hará relación de todo lo que a la dicha Junta se llevare y con los mismos papeles y votos de los de la Junta irá a la Reyna, la qual los despachará, asistiendo el secretario, el qual bolverá las resoluciones que tomare la Reyna a la Junta y se publicarán en ella. Y hecho esto, el secretario remitirá las resoluciones al Consejo, Junta o ministro a quien tocare para que se execute’. Prosigue el rey ‘… Los despachos que Yo suelo firmar ha de firmar la Reyna en el mismo lugar que yo lo hago; y las resoluciones que tomare en las consultas, assí en materia de paz, como de gobierno, gracia y justicia y órdenes que embiare, se han de ejecutar de la misma manera, que si Yo viviendo las resolviera’” (Domínguez Ortiz, ed., Testamento 43–53).

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Sor María, please believe there is no work I am unwilling to undertake. As anyone can tell you, I am always here, sitting in this chair, dealing with papers, quill in hand, reading and studying the heap of enquiries that I receive from the councils, together with dispatches from abroad. I take immediate decisions on the most urgent matters, striving in every case to match my decision to the dictates of reason. Those weightier and more complex matters that have to be considered with more care I send to various ministers to learn their opinion so that I can adopt the best policy. But in the end, the decision is taken by me alone, for I acknowledge and understand that this duty belongs solely to me.37

The “statement” that these paintings make is that the queen alone, unaided by any favorite, is responsible for the good governance of the realm. Mariana dedicates endless hours to the duties of her office; hence she is portrayed signing papers herself, not leaving such responsibilities to other people. It is she who reads each document and decides what action to take. Diego de Saavedra Fajardo (Empresas políticas, in his Empresa 49, 323) states in relation to the prince: What his hand can sign shall not be signed by another. What he can see with his own eyes, he shall not see with those of others. What pertains to tribunals and councils, let it go to them, and he will later make his decision talking to their chairmen and secretaries whose accounts will acquaint him with the matter and his decisions will thus be briefer and more correct, having conferred with those who have created the business. This is how popes and emperors conduct themselves, as did the Spanish kings until Philip II, who being fond of writing, introduced written consultations: a style which was later seen (for Philip III, Philip IV, Mariana, and Carlos II).38

This way of dealing with official matters “by word of mouth” is reflected in Raphael’s portrait of Pope Leo X with cardinals Giuliano de’ Medici and Luigi de’ Rossi, and also in Titian’s Pope Paul III with Cardinal Alessandro Farnese and Duke Ottavio Farnese, both of which are good illustrations of Saavedra Fajardo’s contention that the popes decided matters in verbal consultation with the cardinals responsible for them. By contrast, Mariana’s portraits emphasize the fact that official business is dispatched in writing which, as Saavedra remarks, only became a feature of the Catholic monarchy during the time of Philip II. By the time Mariana became queen, the archetypal image of the “Prudent King” was already well established. Philip II set the rules for good governance Philip IV to Sor María de Ágreda, January 30, 1647, in Ágreda 92. “Lo que pueda dar a firmar su mano no lo ha de dar a firmar la ajena. No ha de ver

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con otros ojos lo que puede ver por los propios. Lo que toca a los tribunales y consejos corra por ellos, resolviendo después en voz con sus presidentes y secretarios, con cuya relación se hará capaz de las materias y serán sus resoluciones más breves y más acertadas, conferidas con los mismos que han criado los negocios. Así lo hacen los papas y los emperadores, y así lo hacían los reyes de España, hasta que Felipe II, como preciado de la pluma, introdujo las consultas por escrito: estilo que después se observó (por Felipe III, Felipe IV, Mariana, Carlos II)” (“Empresa 49” in Saavedra Fajardo 323).

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and became the example to follow for other monarchs.39 Among the many virtues that Philip displayed was his penchant for dealing meticulously with paperwork. This was considered proof of his prudence, which is why “he would stop to study dispatches, because to be suspicious and a predisposition not to believe and not to trust were the pillars of his prudence”40 and Philip II himself used to say that “in writing it is possible to reflect more profoundly and effectively than in the midst of a cloud of words which partake of a person’s art and of deceit.”41 The dedication that Philip II showed to his office was highly praised, for he was known to work tirelessly in his study. It should be remembered that when Philip IV and the Count-Duke of Olivares came to power, Philip II’s reign was taken up once again as a model of prudence in the governance of a vast territory. The portraits that Mariana had in her study hark back to those ideals and stress her personal application and dedication to her duties. They also serve to highlight the fact that it was she, and not a favorite or even the Junta de Gobierno, who made the government’s decisions.42 What is emphasized is Mariana’s prudence in government, which, as we have mentioned, was one of the fundamental virtues of every good prince. The portrayal of a monarch in his study typically showed him holding an audience, as Juan de Zabaleta aptly states in his Error XI: Can there be someone who does not love one who looks after him and defends him? When we see him portrayed holding an audience, with petitions on his bureau next to his right hand, letting it be known that in his house other people’s needs get more attention than his own person, we prize him like God’s treasure, who delivers his goods with his own hand. Who, then, would not love one from whom he expects goods?43

The schedule that Fray Pablo de Mendoza prepared for Felipe II in 1583 was as follows: he had to be wakened at six, and stay in bed until eight thinking about all the business that he was to dispatch throughout the day. After getting up and attending mass, he would dedicate an hour and a half to God and say his prayers. From nine-thirty to eleven, he could listen to the ministers of the Councils that he chose to see. He would lunch at eleven, and then rest until one. Between one and two, he was free to listen to and to dispatch the businesses that he pleased to do with government. From six to nine in the evening, the King might read and write documents, followed by supper and a short rest until eleven when he was to examine his conscience and then go to sleep (Hammen y León, n.p.). 40 It is also worth noting that Philip II used to carry with him a bag of papers, and dictated resolutions on matters of state and public finance, creating work for secretaries and law courts, because for things to turn out well, “proper discourse and consideration aforethought were needed” (Hammen y León, n.p.). 41 “entre un escrito se puede meditar más profunda y eficazmente que en medio de una nube de palabras, en las que interviene el arte de la persona y el engaño” (Cierva 47). 42 From the beginning of the regency, the Junta was criticized for opposing the sovereignty of the queen, the laws, and the political traditions of the realm. See Maura Gamazo, and Oliván Santaliestra. 43 “¿Y quién hay que no ame al que mira como a su amparo y defensa? Cuando le vemos retratado en audiencia pública, con los memoriales sobre su bufete a su mano derecha, dando a entender que da en su casa mejor lugar que a su persona a las necesidades 39

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This portrayal of the king by Zabaleta makes reference to two symbols of government: the papers or petitions to his right signify his bureaucratic duties, and the bureau symbolizes his office as most senior giver of justice of the realm. Philip IV’s portraits by Velázquez exemplify this treatment, although both Titian and Antonio Moro had preceded him in this kind of depiction.44 Mariana is not portrayed in the same way, because it is the king, though still a child, who has to be represented in this way. As Julián Gállego states, there are two kinds of tables: working tables with objects that, besides indicating reading or writing, point to the authority of the sitter and his or her intellectual activity;45 and the tables of justice, next to which the king stands. For Gállego, this table of justice stands in for the royal throne. This is how it appears in Antonio Moro’s portrait of Empress María, sister to Philip II, where María, who at the time was regent of Spain, is portrayed standing next to what Gállego refers to as a table-throne. Other precedents can be found in Titian’s portrait of Eleonora Gonzaga della Rovere (1536–1538) where she is sitting with a table, a little dog, and a tower clock. The engraving of Isabel of Portugal where we see the empress sitting by a table on which her right hand rests, while her left hand holds a flower and the imperial crown can be seen in the background on a window sill.46 We might also compare this treatment to an Alonso Sánchez Coello workshop portrait of Juana of Austria (late sixteenth century) where Juana is standing and her hand rests on a bureau. In Herrera Barnuevo and Carreño de Miranda’s portraits of the queen, she is portrayed standing by a working table in order to underline her bureaucratic duties and her role as giver of justice in the daily dispatch of government business. In the Polish painting, the role of the queen as ruler is brought to the fore, since she is portrayed signing documents. Mariana as Curadora Philip IV’s testament bestowed on Mariana a third function: that of curadora or guardian.47 The role of guardian (tutor and curador) was an important one in Spanish society, especially if the ward was destined to control extensive territory when he ajenas, le atendemos como a tesoro general de Dios, que reparte sus bienes por su mano ¿Quién, pues, dejará de querer bien a aquel de quien espera bienes?” (Zabaleta 85). 44 See Ortiz, Pérez Sánchez, and Gállego as well as Gállego 218–21. 45 We can find examples of this kind of table in the portrait of Pope Leo X by Raphael at the Uffizi, that of Saint Ildefonso by El Greco in Illescas, of Saint Jerome in his study, and in the portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. 46 Empress Isabel of Portugal’s engraving was made by Pieter de Jode. It is a copy of the lost portrait executed by Titian in 1544–1555; see Lozano, 145–63. 47 Guilarte Martín-Calero 31–45. The legal concept of guardianship was interpreted differently according to whether it was to be exercised over males or females, as the latter always had to have a guardian if they were not married and were orphans. See Coolidge, and Calvi.

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came of age. It is important to understand what this means in order to differentiate the new image of Queen Mariana as curadora from the earlier paintings discussed earlier. As stated above, in 1674, King Carlos II was given his own household, separate from that of his mother.48 This was one of the reasons for the expulsion of the queen from the court in 1677; the members of the king’s household had gained more control over Carlos II than his mother or her household. The Junta de Gobierno lasted until 1676, at which point Mariana began to exercise her new function as guardian-curadora. In theory, this role should have continued until 1686, when the king turned twenty-five. Philip IV had ordained in his testament that “on turning fourteen, [his son] would take over the full administration of the government, aided by his mother’s counsel and assistance” [my emphasis].49 Until now, no one has analyzed this legal concept—curatela—in detail, whether in relation to Queen Mariana’s role, or to that of Don Juan José of Austria, Philip IV’s illegitimate son. The curadora image represents Queen Mariana in a neutral room of the Alcázar. She sits at a table and holds in her right hand a petition and in her left hand, what might be a prayer book, her index finger pointing to the page she was reading when interrupted. Here, the clock is a tower clock, which is always present in those paintings that portray Mariana as queen consort or queen consort mother. The clock in the Escorial portrait is very similar to the clock in the portrait in the Harrach Collection, a “tower clock, with two dials, pear-shaped ornament in each corner, and a capital of staged cylinders. It is very similar to the one portrayed in the paintings by Velázquez that hang in the Prado and the Louvre, and it must have its origins, like the latter, in a Northern country, probably Holland” (Hernández Pereda 55–6). The clock in the Prado portrait is a “golden tower clock, with two dials and an alarm bell, ending in the shape of a small vase” (Hernández Pereda 64). These two elements reinforce the idea that, despite the petitions, the queen is not being portrayed as a ruler. There are two paintings that come from Claudio Coello’s circle that belong to this third group: the Patrimonio Nacional portrait (inventory No. 7480) in the Monasterio de El Escorial, and a copy in the Museo Nacional del Prado (inventory No. 665) (Figure 9.4).50 Some scholars maintain that the Prado version is of a 48 “On the king, my son’s fourteenth birthday on the sixth day of the current month when (in observance of what the king our lord, may God rest his soul, ordained in his testament) he will come into full possession of his kingdoms and domains, and when all queries, papers and representations are to be referred to him, which he will dispatch in that capacity, and I being (as I am) in full accord and fully approve of the way the Junta has acted and of the good judgment which has marked its actions in the royal service whatever was done or came under its command: I wanted to say so and thank it for its application and care which has pleased me particularly and which I will always bear in mind, for it is fair that I should do so” (AGS Casas y Sitios Reales, leg 316. Madrid, November 5, 1674). 49 Domínguez Ortiz, Testamento, Clauses 34 y 35, 51–3. 50 See Pérez Sánchez. This Prado portrait, executed by Claudio Coello’s circle, belonged to the Count of Arco who gave it to Philip V. It was also part of Isabel de Farnesio’s collection in the Granja de San Ildefonso.

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higher quality than the Escorial painting.51 However, a closer comparison suggests that quite the opposite is true.52 This category may be seen as a combination of the two previous Carreño contributions: that of Mariana as a ruler in a neutral room, and the figure of the virtuous queen dating from the end of the 1670s. This takes us to the early 1680s, coinciding with Claudio Coello’s appointment as the king’s painter in 1683. So this could be the first portrait of the queen executed by Claudio Coello before his royal appointment. One of the problems that both paintings pose is the youthful appearance of the queen who looks younger than a woman in her late forties or early fifties. Thus it seems likely that Mariana was not painted from life, but from an earlier portrait and that reinforces the suggestion that Claudio Coello was the painter. In this portrait then, we see the queen in an active role, even after the end of the regency. Several elements associated with her tenure as ruler are still present: petitions, quill, bell, desk, and chair. Next to them, we see the tower clock, a symbol associated with her role as queen consort, as first portrayed by Velázquez and Carreño. Curador: A Legal Term The legal concept of curatela or guardianship has its origins in Roman times, in the Cura minorum (Guilarte Martín-Calero 31–45). Although a thorough See Sullivan. Palomino’s description of the queen’s portrait is as follows: “the Queen Doña Mariana de Austria was also painted, with better results.” He does not give dates or any detailed description of the painting. The only thing that Palomino makes clear is that after finishing La Sagrada Forma (1685–1690), Claudio Coello went back to practicing his trade. Madrazo (Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1873) explains that this painting was in the royal collection at La Granja during the reign of Carlos III and was considered to represent an anonymous nun. It had, however, been attributed to Coello during the reign of Philip V and also formed part of the collection of Isabel de Farnesio. It has been in the Prado catalogue since 1843. In 1865, Cruzada Villaamil classified it by Carreño (No. 85), Madrazo (Prado catalogues 1873 through 1920) listed the painting in Claudio Coello’s style. Sanchez Cantón considered it an anonymous work, influenced by Coello (Prado Catalogue 1933, No. 665). In 1945, the attribution was challenged, and the work was considered an autograph painting by Claudio Coello. Salas (Prado catalogue 1972, No. 665) notes that Allende Salazar believed the painting to be by the Flemish artist François Duchatel (1616/25–1676/94). See Gaya Nuño. 52 The anatomy and overall modeling of the queen’s body is represented far more convincingly in the Escorial portrait, especially in regard to the proportions of the sitter’s legs. The queen’s right arm, holding the petition, which looks awkwardly disembodied in the Prado version, is better here and the texture of the dress is treated more subtly. The face of the young queen is rather flat in the Prado picture, with individual features isolated and little sense of a whole achieved. In the Escorial picture, the features are synthesized into a plausible, three-dimensional whole. The light that falls on the room from the right of the queen gives depth to the Escorial painting, and the perspective of the table and chair is well-constructed. It is therefore difficult not to regard the Prado as inferior in quality to the Escorial painting. The Prado portrait is clearly not by Coello; it could, however, be the work of a member of his circle. 51

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Doña Mariana de Austria, c.1674–1683. Claudio Coello. Oil on canvas, 205 x 103 cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.

historical examination of the concept in Spain is beyond the scope of this study, it is important to gain some understanding of what the term might have meant at the time of Mariana’s tenure as curadora or guardian. According to the medieval king Alfonso X the Wise’s Leyes de Partida, guardianship could take one of three forms: tutela or tutorship; curatela or guardianship; or the intervention of the courts. Tutela and curatela had different functions depending on the status

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and condition of the ward. Tutela covered prepubescent orphans, while curatela applied to minors and the mentally handicapped. Tutores acted in loco parentis and curadores in lieu of the handicapped person. The Fuero Viejo de Castilla [Castilian Old Laws]; Fuero Real de España [Spain’s Royal Laws]; and Alfonso X’s Siete Partidas [Seven Laws], have this to say in relation to the role of the curador: “The title of Curadores is given to those who take care of people older than fourteen, but younger than twenty-five, being in agreement. And even older people, being mad or absent-minded” (Ley 13ª, Título XVI, Partida VI). Curatela is defined thus: “the authority of protection, created by law for the management of those goods and persons who for whatever reason are not capable of doing it themselves.”53 When Philip IV wrote his testament, he knew that his son had mental and physical difficulties and that Carlos would need assistance in his coming role as monarch. There are some differences between tutor and curador. The tutor played the same role as the parents, protecting the minor in all kinds of ways. The curador’s role, however, was to protect the ward’s property in the first instance, while the protection of the ward’s person was of secondary importance (Guilarte Martín-Calero 31–45). The curador had the following duties with respect to the person: to look after the ward’s physical, moral, and intellectual education; to feed him or her and to act as his or her guardian ad litem. In the patrimonial sphere, the curador must manage all the property and businesses, as would any good father. Both forms of guardianship then, entailed a series of duties. Those incumbent upon a guardian before taking up his or her position included the inventory, the bond, and the oath (Guilarte Martín-Calero 31–45). On the matter of the inventory, the Partidas stipulate that guardians “before doing anything, have to make a list of the property of the youngsters certified by the local judge, and drawn up by the hand of some public scribe …. And if he did not, the judge can take away his or her guardianship … as to a suspicious man, except that he will be shown good reason why he could not”54 (Ley 15,Título XVI, Partida VI). The inventory was a solemn, detailed, and irrevocable document. 53 Tutor is “la persona destinada a la educación, crianza y defensa; y accesoriamente para la administración y gobierno de los bienes del que, por muerte del padre, quedó en la menor edad, hasta que cumpla los catorce años” [the person in charge of the education, upbringing, and defense; and by extensión of the administration and care of goods of the person, who is underage at the time of the father’s death, until he reaches fourteen years of age]; Curador is “la persona que cuida de alguno, u alguna cosa y procura su bien y provecho. El que cuida de un menor de los catorce años a los veinticinco” [the person who looks after someone or some thing, intending its wellbeing. He who looks after a minor from the age of fourteen to twenty-four] (Diccionario de Autoridades, Madrid, 1728). See also Llorente, “Imagen y autoridad” 227; and Llorente, “The Image of the Catholic Queen” 108. 54 “[A]nte que otra cosa fagan deben facer escrito de todos los bienes de los mozos con otorgamiento del juez del logar, e sea fecho por mano de alguno de los escribanos públicos …. E si el guardador non ficiere este escrito, puedele el juez toller la guarda … como á ome sospechoso, salvo que le mostraran razón derecha porque non le pudo hacer” (cited in Guilarte Martín-Calero 39).

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Mariana’s role as tutora commenced on the very date of Philip IV’s death, September 17, 1665, without any need to go through established procedures because his will had been expressed in clause 21 of his testament: “If God wills that I should die before the Prince, my son, or any other male heir who is to succeed me has attained fourteen years of age … I appoint ruler of all my realms, estates and domains and Guardian of the Prince … the Queen doña Mariana my beloved and dear wife, … so that by virtue of this appointment alone, without the need for any further act or diligence or oath, nor granting of the guardianship, she may commence to rule in the same way and with the same authority vested in me from the day of my death.”55 Although an inventory was drawn up in 1666, this concerned the king’s wish to keep all his estate under the Crown so as to prevent its dispersal. The inventory, therefore, was drawn up at that time in order to establish which goods belong to the Crown.56 In 1674, when Carlos II turned fourteen, he was given his own household. It was then that the inventory should have been drawn up, but as already mentioned, the Junta’s work was extended against King Carlos II and his father’s last wishes for two more years.57 In 1677, Philip IV’s illegitimate son, Don Juan José of Austria came to power thanks to a revolt by the nobility; the queen was driven from the court, withdrawing to Toledo. In order to understand the mechanism that enabled Don Juan José of Austria to take power, it is useful to know that once past the age of fourteen for boys, and twelve for girls, they had the right to name as curador whomever they wished, provided that the person had the legal capacity to represent them in court. It was this right that made it possible for Don Juan José to seize power and force Mariana to the margins of politics for two years (1677– 1679). King Carlos II wrote to his half-brother and as a direct consequence of this letter, his mother was driven from the court. The fact that Carlos II had his own 55 “Si Dios fuere servido que Yo muera antes que el Principe, mi hijo u otro qualquier varon que me aya de suceder tenga catorce años, … nombro como governadora de todos mis reynos, estados y señorios y tutora del Príncipe … a la reyna doña Mariana mi muy cara y amada muger, … con solo este nombramiento, sin otro acto ni diligencia ni juramento, ni discernimiento de la tutela, pueda desde el día que Yo fallezca entrar a governar, en la misma forma, y con la misma autoridad que Yo lo hago” (Domínguez Ortiz, ed., Testamento, Clause 21, 41). 56 According to Philip IV´s testament, clause 67: “all paintings, bureaus and porphyry vases and various gems that on the day of my death be left hanging and standing in my rooms of this Royal Palace of Madrid be kept together as part of the Crown of these realms, and they be not disposed of, nor parted from the Crown, neither as a whole, nor in the least part. By virtue of the power that as King and Lord I possess, I incorporate them and link them to this Crown, so that nothing can cause them … to be parted from it … and all shall be inventoried” (Domínguez Ortíz, ed., Testamento 79). 57 The series of events in 1674 were very similar to what happened in 1677. However, the king’s household had just been formed and Queen Mariana still retained sufficient power to deal with this conflict.

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household, independent of his mother’s, made all this possible. After Don Juan José of Austria’s death, Mariana returned to court and apparently resumed her role as curadora until the king turned twenty-five. But a ward who marries ceases to be a ward. We would therefore have to suppose that in 1680, when Carlos II married María Luisa of Orleans, the guardianship came to an end. As regards the curatela, we now have two new important sources that had not been studied before and that are very useful for this new approach. These are the 1686 inventory and an attached document which reads Careo delas Pinturas y Adornos que ay de menos, y de mas delo ymbentarado el año de 1666 [Inspection of the paintings and ornaments to determine what is missing and of what has been added to the 1666 inventory].58 The importance of these documents is clear—they mark the end of the guardianship, the curatela, when Carlos II turned twenty-five. As we have seen, at the end of the guardianship, the curadores had to account for and return all the goods entrusted to them. The document attached to the inventory is a comparison between the inventories of 1666 and 1686 in order to determine what was missing, what had been acquired, and to track any changes to where goods were kept. After January 1, 1686, the treasurer conducted a new audit of the queen mother’s household accounts.59 The above documents bear witness that someone still played the role of curador until 1686. This third representation of Queen Mariana suggests that her role was that of curadora and advisor to her son and that she deliberately chose to be portrayed as such. These works borrow elements from her portraits as ruling queen and also those depicting her as queen consort. The presence of the table, chair and petitions typifies the portraits of Mazo, Herrera Barnuevo, and Carreño during her regency (1655–1674), stressing the political role that the queen continued to play as advisor to her son. Other elements consist of the book, which points to the queen’s Christian virtues, and the tower clock, which probably symbolizes the king himself, for at that time, the clock was viewed as the king of instruments. As we have seen, it was used by Velázquez to portray Mariana as queen consort, and later by Carreño in his portraits of Mariana as queen consort mother. The new royal iconography applies to visual solutions developed by other painters including Velázquez, solutions that Juan Carreño de Miranda and Claudio Coello had learned (Orso 24–34). What is new is the presence of a woman, Queen Mariana, exercising power. This was an unprecedented turn in royal portraiture, one that helped reinforce the new functions that the queen invented for herself in order to secure her place on the political scene.

AGPRM, Se. Administrativa, leg. 768, Relación de las Pinturas y otros Adornos que ay de menos en los quartos Rs de el Rey nro Señor del Alcazar y Palacio de Madrid este año de 1686. 59 AGPRM. Account submitted by the Queen Mother’s treasurer, Don Franco Cruzado y Aragón, from 1 January 1686 to the end of April 1688 when a new audit system was introduced. 58

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Works Cited Ágreda, Maria de Jesús de. Correspondencia con Felipe IV. Religión y razón de Estado. Ed. Carlos Seco Serrano. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, 1958. Alfonso X. Siete Partidas. Madrid: Manuel Prado Sánchez, 1867. Allende-Salazar, Juan, and Francisco Javier Sánchez Cantón. Retratos del Museo del Prado. Identificación y rectificaciones. Madrid: Julio Casano, 1919. Angulo Iñiguez, Diego. Pintura del siglo XVII. Ars Hispaniae. Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1971. Archivo General Palacio Real de Madrid (AGPRM). Se. Administrativa, leg. 768, Careo delas Pinturas y Adornos que ay de menos, y de mas delo ymbentarado el año de 1666. Archivo General Palacio Real de Madrid (AGPRM). Se. Administrativa, leg. 768, Relación de las Pinturas y otros Adornos que ay de menos en los quartos Rs de el Rey nro Señor del Alcazar y Palacio de Madrid este año de 1686. Archivo General Palacio Real de Madrid (AGPRM). [Account submitted by the Queen Mother’s treasurer, Don Franco Cruzado y Aragón, from 1 January 1686 to the end of April 1688 when a new audit system was introduced.] Archivo General Palacio Real de Madrid (AGPRM), Sección Administrativa, Personal de empleados, Caja 207/14. Archivo General Simancas (AGS). Casas y Sitios Reales, leg. 316. Madrid, November 5, 1674. Archivo Histórico Nacional (AHN). Estado, leg. 8686. Bouza Álvarez, Fernando. “La majestad de Felipe II. Construcción del mito real.” In La corte de Felipe II. Ed. José Martínez Millán. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1994. 37–72. ———. Corre manuscrito. Una historia cultural del Siglo de Oro. Madrid: Marcial Pons Historia, 2001. Brown, Jonathan, and John H. Elliott. A Palace for a King: The Buen Retiro and the Court of Philip IV. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. Calderón de la Barca, Pedro. La estatua de Prometeo. Ed. Margaret Rich Greer, With a Study of the Music by Louise K. Stein. Kassel: Edition Reichenberger, 1986. Calvi, Giulia. “Widows, the State, and the Guardianship of Children in Early Tuscany.” In Widowhood in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Ed. Sandra Cavallo and Lyndan Warner. New York: Longman, 1999. 209–19. Campbell, JoEllen M. “Women and Factionalism in the Court of Charles II of Spain.” In Spanish Women in the Golden Age. Ed. Magdalena S. Sánchez and Alain Saint-Saens. Westport: Greenwood, 1996. 109–24. Carducho, Vicente. Diálogos de la pintura: su defensa, origen, esencia, definición, modos y diferencias. Madrid: Ediciones Turner, 1979. Carreño, Rizi, Herrera y la pintura madrileña de su tiempo (1650–1700). Catálogo Exposición. Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura, 1986.

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Catálogo del Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 1972. Cierva, Ricardo de la. Yo, Felipe II. Las confesiones del Rey al doctor Francisco Terrones. Barcelona: Planeta, 1989. Coolidge, Grace E. “Choosing Her Own Buttons: The Guardianship of Magdalena de Bobadilla.” In Power and Gender in Renaissance Spain: Eight Women of the Mendoza family. Ed. Helen Nader. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2004. 132–52. Cruzada Villaamil, Gregorio. Catálogo provisional … del Museo Nacional de Pinturas. Madrid: Manuel Galiano, 1865. Cuadra, Cristina, and Ángela Muñoz. “¿Hace el hábito a la monja? Indumentaria e identidades religiosas femeninas.” In De los símbolos al orden simbólico femenino (ss. IV–XVIII). Ed. Ana Isabel Cerrada Jiménez and Josemi Lorenzo Arribas. Madrid: Asociación Cultural Al-Mudayna, 1998. 285–316. Davies, David. The Anatomy of Spanish Habsburg Portraits. The Ramón Pérez de Ayala Lecture. London: Embajada de España, 1998. Diccionario de Autoridades. Madrid, 1728. Domínguez Ortiz, ed. Testamento del rey Felipe IV. Madrid: Editorial Nacional, 1982. ———, Antonio, Alfonso E. Pérez Sánchez, and Julián Gállego. Velázquez. Catálogo del Museo del Prado 23 de enero al 31 de marzo. Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 1990. Elliott, John H. Spain and its World 1500–1700. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. Escudero, José Antonio. Felipe II: El rey en el despacho. Discurso leído el día 3 de marzo de 2002 en el acto de su recepción pública por el Excmo. Sr. D. José Antonio Escudero y contestación por el Excmo. Sr. D. Miguel Artola. Madrid: Editorial Complutense, 2002. Gállego, Julián. Visión y símbolos en la pintura española del siglo XVII. Madrid: Cátedra, 1972. Gaya Nuño, Juan Antonio. Claudio Coello. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1957. Gembarowicz, B. Muzeum Narodowe. Wybór i opis cenniejszych zabytków: dział sztuki. Kraków 1926, No. 288. Goodman, Eleanor. “Conspicuous in Her Absence: Mariana of Austria, Juan José of Austria, and the Representation of Her Power.” In Queenship and Political Power in Medieval and Early Modern Spain. Ed. Theresa Earenfight. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005. 163–84. Greer, Margaret R. The Play of Power: Mythological Court Dramas of Calderón de la Barca. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991. Guilarte Martín-Calero, Cristina. La curatela en el nuevo sistema de capacidad gradual. Madrid: McGraw-Hill, 1997. Hammen y León, Lorenzo van der. Don Felipe el Prudente, Segundo deste nombre, Rey de las Españas y Nuevo Mundo. Madrid: Viuda de Alonso Martin, 1625.

Hernández Pereda, Jesús. La pintura española y el reloj. Madrid: Roberto Carbonel, 1958.  Justi, Carl. Velázquez y su tiempo. Madrid: Istmo, 1999. León, Fray Manuel de. Segunda oración funebre, en las exequias de la Reyna Madre nuestra señora, Doña María-Ana de Austria. Que celebró la Real Congregación de San Francisco Xavier, sita en el Collegio de San Jorge. Madrid, 1696. Llorente, Mercedes. “Imagen y autoridad en una regencia. Los retratos de Mariana de Austria y los límites del poder.” Studia Historica 28 (2006): 211–38. ———. “Mariana de Austria como gobernadora.” In Las relaciones discretas entre las Monarquías Hispana y Portuguesa. Las Casas de las Reinas (siglos XV-XIX). Ed. José Martínez Millán and Maria Paula Marçal Lourenço. Madrid: Polifemo, 2008.This 1777–1810. page has been left blank intentionally ———. “Queen Mariana of Austria as Regent and the Boundaries of her Power in Mazo’s Portrait.” Object 12 (2010): 24–40. ———. “The Image of the Catholic Queen. Queen Mariana of Austria: Consort, Regent and Queen Mother.” Unpublished Diss. University College London, 2010. Lozano, Jorge Sebastián, “Choices and Consequences: The Construction of Isabel de Portugal’s Image.” In Queenship and Political Power in Medieval and Early Modern Spain. Ed. Theresa Earenfight. Burlington, VT: Ashgate 2005, 145–63. Madrazo, Pedro de. Catálogo de los cuadros del Museo del Prado. Madrid: Imprenta de la Biblioteca de Instrucción y Recreo, 1873. ———. Catálogo de los cuadros del Museo del Prado. Madrid: Tip. Artística Cervantes, 1920. Marzolf, Rosemary. Life and Work of Juan Carreño de Miranda (1614–1685). University of Michigan, Diss. Ann Arbor: UMI, 1961. Maura Gamazo, Gabriel. Carlos II y su corte. Ensayo de reconstrucción biográfica. 2 vols. Madrid: Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos, 1911 and 1915. ———. Vida y reinado de Carlos II. Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1942. Mayer, August L. Historia de la pintura española. Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1947. Moro, Antonio. La emperatriz María de Austria, esposa de Maximiliano, c.1550. Oil on canvas, 181 cm x 90 cm. Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado. Oliván Santaliestra, Laura. “Discurso histórico, jurídico, político: apología de las reinas regentes y defensa del sistema polisinodial, una manifestación de la conflictividad política en los inicios de la regencia de Mariana de Austria.” Cuadernos de Historia Moderna 28 (Madrid, 2003): 7–34. Orso, Steven N. “A Lesson Learned: Las Meninas and the State Portraits of Juan Carreño de Miranda.” Record of the Museum Princeton University 41.2 (1982): 24–34. ———. Philip IV and the Decoration of the Alcázar of Madrid. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984. Palomino de Castro y Velasco, Antonio. El Museo Pictórico y escala óptica. Madrid: M. Aguilar, 1947.

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———. Vidas. Madrid: Alianza, 1986. Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E. Juan Carreño de Miranda (1614–1685). Avilés: Ayuntamiento, 1985. ———. “En torno a Claudio Coello. ” A.E.A 250 (1990): 129–56. Raphael. Portrait of Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de’ Medici and Luigi de’ Rossi, c.1518. Oil on wood, 154 x 119 cm. Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi. Rodríguez de la Flor, Fernando. “Eros barroco: Placer y censura en el ordenamiento contrarreformista.” In Barroco. Representación e ideología en el mundo hispánico. Madrid: Cátedra, 2002. 355–402. Rodríguez G. de Ceballos, Alfonso. “El cuarto de la reina en el Alcázar y otros sitios reales.” La mujer en el arte español. Madrid: Departamento de Historia del Arte “Diego Velázquez” Centro de Estudios Históricos, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1997. 213–14. Saavedra Fajardo, Diego de. Empresas políticas. Ed. Francisco Javier Díez de Revenga. Barcelona, Planeta, 1988. Sánchez Cantón, Francisco Javier. Museo del Prado: catálogo. Madrid: Blass, 1933. Sebastián, Santiago. “La emblematización del retrato de Carlos II por Carreño de Miranda.” Goya: Revista de Arte 226 (January/February 1992): 194–9. Starzynski, J., and M. Walicki. Katalog Galerii Malarstwa Obcego. Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, Warszawa 1938, no. 98. Sullivan, Edward J. Baroque Painting in Madrid: The Contribution of Claudio Coello with a Catalogue Raisonné of His Works. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1986. Tintoretto. Judith and Holofernes, c.1577. Oil on canvas, 188 x 251 cm. Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado. Titian. Eleonora Gonzaga della Rovere, c.1538. Oil on canvas, 114 x 102 cm. Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi. ———. Pope Paul III with his Grandsons Alessandro and Ottavio Farnese, 1546. Oil on canvas, 210 x 174 cm. Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte. ———. Philip II Offering Don Fernando to Victory, c.1570. Oil on canvas, 325 x 274 cms. Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado. Tomás y Valiente, Francisco. Los validos en la monarquía española del siglo XVII. Madrid: Siglo XXI de España Editores, 1982. Zabaleta, Juan de. Errores celebrados. Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1972.

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Fig. 10.1

Queen Elizabeth Bourbon (or Elizabeth of France). Anonymous, 17th century. Oil on canvas. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Album/Art Resource, NY.

Chapter 10

Isabel of Borbón’s Sartorial Politics: From French Princess to Habsburg Regent Laura Oliván Santaliestra

The Body Politic of Isabel of Borbón Behind my title “sartorial politics” lies the brief history of a body: the body politic of a French princess who was continuously transformed until she was converted into a Habsburg queen. There is no question that bodies took on greater significance in the sixteenth century, when treatises on civility flourished and etiquette became an instrument for modeling the behavior of kings, princes, and nobles. As part of this game of appearances, the body of the queen began to be given prominence as the means of procreating royal heirs. As happened often, however, the queen was also a symbol of the nation she represented. Because Isabel (1602– 1644) was not born a Spanish Habsburg, but a French Bourbon, in this study I focus my attention on the experiences that led to her transformation into a Hispanicized princess, queen consort, and regent. Born in 1602 at the castle of Fontainebleau, Isabel of Borbón was the first daughter of King Henri IV and Marie de’ Medici. She was the second of six siblings: Louis (1601–1643), future king of France; Christine (1606–1663) future Duchess of Savoy; Nicolas Henri (1607–1611); Gastón, Duke of Orleáns (1608– 1660); and Henrietta Maria (1609–1669), who became queen of England. Table 10.1

Genealogical chart, Isabel of Borbón

Henri IV of France (1553–1610)

Marie de’ Medici (1573–1642)

[1] Isabel of Borbón (1602–44)

Philip III of Spain (1578–1621)

Margarita of Austria (1584–1611

Philip IV of Spain (1605–65)

Maria Theresa of Spain (1638–83)

Louis XIV of France (1638–1715)

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Although Isabel had been destined to marry the Prince of Wales, the course of events in French history was to change her fate: when Henri IV was assassinated in 1610, Louis, her eight-year-old brother, ascended to the throne. His mother Marie de’ Medici was confirmed as regent, completely changing the direction of French politics. The queen regent strengthened the alliance with the Habsburgs, who had been her husband’s enemies. Deciding to solidify relations with Spain, in 1612, Marie de’ Medici announced the double betrothal of Louis to Ana of Austria, daughter of the Spanish king Philip III, and of Isabel to Prince Philip, Philip III’s heir.1 The petition for Isabel’s hand in marriage took place that same year. In 1615 Isabel crossed the French-Spanish border and after Philip III’s death six years later, she became queen consort of Spain (1621–1644). Isabel of Borbón serves as a paradigm of how a queen consort was expected to behave. She underwent numerous transformations that took her from her birth as a French princess in a newly formed Bourbon dynasty to her role as a member of one of Europe’s most enduring lineages, that of the Habsburgs. After completing what would be a process of “Hispanicization” at the Madrid court, she consolidated her power within the Habsburg dynasty. Nevertheless, despite her evident political merit, it is only toward the end of her life, while regent during the War of Catalonia (1624–1644), that Isabel has traditionally been given a place in history. Her heroic work at the helm of government and her competence at managing the war are often highlighted in historical accounts, which also attribute to her the fall from power in 1643 of her husband, King Philip IV’s favorite, the Count-Duke of Olivares. These eulogies stand in sharp contrast to the criticisms of the earlier years of her life.2 Some scholars have even gone so far as to deny the power she eventually attained in her later regency, maintaining that the high opinion of her governance held by her contemporaries was in response to a propaganda campaign led by those opposed to the Count-Duke of Olivares, whose power she was said to resent (Negredo del Cerro 465–81). While it is indeed the case that anti-Olivares propaganda played an important part in elevating the queen to almost saintly heights, this alone does not explain the high opinion of her held by historians. Her efforts were rewarded some time before she assumed the regency, for Isabel was the first queen consort of the Spanish monarchy who was portrayed on horseback during her life, an iconographic privilege until then reserved exclusively for kings (Oliván Santaliestra).3 When studying archival documents more closely, we find sufficient evidence to balance the two conflicting views maintained by traditional historiography—her prudence versus her indolence—and to refute the current argument that all the acclamations for the governing queen were merely a means to conceal the intention of bringing about the court favorite’s downfall. As we shall see, a more thorough For Habsburg marriage strategies, see Patrouch’s essay in this volume. For a recent view of her years as queen consort, see Sicard. See also Pérez Cantó,

1 2

Mó Romero, and Oliván Santaliestra. 3 Diego Velázquez and others, La reina Isabel de Borbón a caballo, 1634–1635, oil on canvas, 301 x 314 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid (Oliván Santaliestra).

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analysis of the sources (both written documents and images) uncovers instead the political actions of a woman who, although considerably restricted by the legal constraints of the day, played her role as queen consort with dignity and composure, revealing the depth to which both her body and spirit had become Hispanicized. A French Princess Dressed in the Spanish Style (1612–1615) On June 12, 1612, Louis XIII, who at the time was just eleven years old, sent his nursemaid Madame de Montglat the following piece of news: Isabel, his tenyear-old sister, had started to dress in Spanish style, after being sent a dress from the Archduchess Isabel Clara Eugenia. This gift from the governess of the Low Countries, who was also Isabel’s godmother, was not an innocent gesture; neither was it devoid of political intentions. Rather, it was motivated by a carefully devised and powerful strategy to remodel the body and will of a princess-goddaughter who was to marry her nephew, a prince of the Habsburg dynasty and heir to the Spanish throne. The Spanish-style costume had arrived at a crucial moment: two months before the signing of the marriage contract to the future Philip IV, but more importantly, just a few days before June 7, the day that her marriage instructions were to be read in public at the Paris court (Phelypeaux de Pontchartrain 82). It is very likely, therefore, that her godmother’s present was intended to be worn by Isabel precisely for this ceremony. There is no doubt that, in keeping with the prenuptial atmosphere that pervaded the Louvre, this court costume concealed a powerful dynastic message: Princess Isabel should relinquish the “grace” of the French court and adapt herself to the “solemnity” of the prestigious ceremonial of the Spanish Habsburgs. This process of adjustment to the ways of what would become her new dynasty had to be initiated before the official signing of the marriage contract, a key moment for introducing the body of the princess to Spanish diplomacy. The fact that Princess Isabel wore the Spanish costume at the Louvre court before the signing ceremony meant a clear political triumph for the Habsburgs in the etiquette struggles that held sway over court life at that time.4 The dress sent by Isabel Clara Eugenia had great potential for changing courtly conduct and attitudes, as it perfectly fulfilled the functions for which it had been made, namely, to represent the composure and enhance the nobilitas of its wearer.5 The conquest of the body politic by means of costume was the first step in the conquest of equally political intentions, a concept that the French court would be well aware of when Isabel’s daughter, María Teresa, would later be sent to marry Louis XIV.6 Spanish attire, with its lechuguilla or closed neck ruff and complicated verdugado or farthingale, was designed to restrict bodily movement and even For etiquettes at the court of Madrid in the sixteenth century, see Labrador’s essay in this volume. 5 On court costumes, see Arizzoli-Clémentel and Gorguet Ballesteros. 6 On dressing and body politic at the court of Louis XIV, see Zanger. 4

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breathing. This facilitated the solemn, measured, and almost imperceptible gestures demanded by the somber etiquette of the House of Austria, which, as Félix Labrador explains, had been instituted by Philip II for his fourth bride, Anna of Austria. By contrast, French costume, with its plunging necklines, encouraged the light, graceful, and spontaneous movements that Isabel would be obliged to abandon. The young king’s testimony to Isabel’s acceptance of the Spanish dress suggests that she wore it frequently: “Madame has been dressing Spanish style a day or two after receiving the clothes the Archduchess has sent her.”7 Louis XIII tells us that no sooner had she received the dress than she put it on and wore it for several days. But would she continue to do so? Would she renounce French attire? The intimate nature of Louis XIII’s note indicates that Isabel immediately adopted the costume “voluntarily.” Nevertheless, we should observe that behind Isabel’s behavior stood her mother, the regent Marie de’ Medici, whose own body politic had, in her own youth, also undergone similar transformations by means of formal attire and who now encouraged her daughter to transform hers. Her experience, however, had been the reverse; it had taken place at a different time of life and in a different political climate, since she had adopted French-style dress motu proprio when she gave birth to the Dauphin of France in 1601. At that time, she was obliged to undergo this transformation because of the need to legitimize the new Bourbon dynasty on the French throne. Fully aware of the role played by costume in the diplomatic language of the court, the new regent Marie de’ Medici wasted no time in encasing her daughter’s body within the politicized gift from the Archduchess Isabel Clara Eugenia. Nevertheless, the question still needs to be asked: Did the costume succeed in conditioning and molding the princess’s spirit? As a member of the Spanish contingent to the royal wedding, the Duke of Pastrana arrived in Paris on Monday, August 13, 1612 for the signing of the marriage contract. The young Louis XIII, Marie de’ Medici, and her ladies-in-waiting all received the Spanish delegation with their faces covered by the traditional masks worn in the French court.8 The official reception for the delegation was held the next day. According to the chronicles of the Spanish delegation, Marie de’ Medici “looked very beautiful” [estaba muy hermosa] and was dressed in French style, with her “breasts exposed” [pechos afuera].9 By contrast, Princess Isabel was dressed in the Spanish style and “wearing a ruff” [estaba con lechuguilla]; the chronicler added that she was “very pretty” [muy linda] and “extremely beautiful” [hermosísima].10 The Duke of Pastrana encountered a Bourbon princess dressed “in 7 “Madame est abillée a lespagnole de puis un jour ou dez des abis que larcheduchesse luy a anvoiee.” Bibliothèque Nationale de France [hereafter BNF], manuscrits français [hereafter mss. fr.] 3798, fol. 35. All translations are mine unless otherwise noted. 8 Biblioteca Histórica de Santa Cruz, Valladolid, ms. 511, “Jornada que el Duque de Pastrana hizo a Francia a las capitulaciones de la Reyna de Francia y Princesa de España,” fol. 99. On the use of the mask at the Paris court see Dubost 239–40. 9 This was the expression used to describe the low neckline of French court dress (Biblioteca Histórica de Santa Cruz, Valladolid, ms. 511, fol. 99). 10 For the established conventions on beauty typical of the period, see Vigarello, Histoire de la beauté.

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Spanish style” [a la española] who ate her food “eagerly” [con muy buen enfado],11 meaning either that the princess had a good appetite or that her behavior was not in accordance with the expected Spanish solemnity. In Paris, he found an Isabel of Borbón half won over and in the process of transformation: her body still exuded charm and graceful French manners, yet it was already corseted in Spanish attire. Once the marriage contract was signed, Isabel officially became a Spanish princess. She moved her place of residence to the solemn Louvre palace, where her mother and her brother the king resided. In this way, the princess joined the most privileged circle of the French Bourbon dynasty, yet in her new position she would continue dressing in Spanish style, a style that distinguished her hierarchically from her sisters.12 A portrait by Frans II Pourbus dated 1615 shows Isabel of Borbón wearing a costume that could be the one sent to her by Archduchess Isabel Clara Eugenia in 1612.13 She is standing in front of a curtain in a controlled and solemn pose, her left hand resting on a chair and her right hand holding a white handkerchief symbolizing the official courtship to which she was subjected. A visual reading of the portrait shows that her training in Spanish gravitas began with the constraints imposed by the dress, which was a metaphor for the Burgundian solemnity required at the Madrid court. But beyond the dress, it seems that the instructions given the princess had no further effect. With the closed neck ruff and tight bodice pressing against her chest, it is possible that Isabel began to behave in a slightly Spanish fashion, but at heart her ethos—approachable, affable, and spiritually sociable—continued to respond to French ceremonial (Sabatier 111, 24) and, of course, to her youth. This is demonstrated in her everyday activities at the French court: games of cards with her brother and other various forms of amusement, such as making jams and marzipan, horseback riding, and plenty of outdoor exercise, all of which cast doubt on the adaptation of her body to her new dynastic status, which demanded a much more constrained behavior. Undisputed proof of her scant emotional and corporal preparation for the Madrid court is seen in her rather indecorous farewell to her brother at Bordeaux. The tears and embraces of Louis XIII and Isabel of Borbón were so moving that everyone present was affected; everyone, that is, except the Spanish ambassador. Having witnessed this display of affection between brother and sister, Don Íñigo de Cárdenas strongly reprimanded the young princess for her deplorable behavior, so out of keeping with her new condition. “Come, come, Princess of Spain,” were his words of reproach for the unacceptable attitude shown by the future queen of Spain.14 Biblioteca Histórica de Santa Cruz, Valladolid, ms. 511, fol. 101, August 20, 1612. See Léonard Gaultier, The Regency of the Queen and Her Prudent Government of

11

12

the King and Children of France, engraving, 1613, 233 x 306 mm, plate, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 13   Frans II Pourbus, Portrait of Elisabeth of France, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes, oil on canvas, 102 x 180 cm, 1615. 14 “Allons, allons, princesse d’Espagne” (Foisil 2322).

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Yet the fact that the Spanish ambassador detected more grace than gravity on Isabel’s part does not necessarily mean that she totally lacked the capacity to develop a more solemn attitude. The princess probably received Don Íñigo’s recriminations with a mixture of fear and expectancy. Would she be capable of embodying the gravitas of the Madrid court? Once settled in the Alcázar, her fears would abate as she realized that the arduous task of keeping her composure in the Spanish manner was not at all complex. “I am doing quite well”:15 From French Grace to Spanish Solemnity (1615–1621) When Isabel wrote these words in one of her letters destined for Paris, she had already been subjected to a series of court challenges. The first of these had been the rivalry of the two courts as both Philip III’s daughter, Ana of Austria, who would soon marry Louis XIII, and Isabel prepared their weddings. The crossing of the Bidasoa River dividing the two countries thus represented not only peace between France and Spain, but the need for their courts to outshine one another.16 The second challenge was the pomp of her royal entry. She entered Madrid dressed French style on the back of a white palfrey (Céspedes y Meneses 4). This was to be the last time she would wear such dresses, as the next day she exchanged them for Spanish ones, to the delight of the entire court.17 Thus began her real training in Spanish ways, an arduous exercise that was strongly criticized by the French ambassador in Madrid, the Marquis of Senecey, who looked on helplessly as the body of his Bourbon princess was gradually transformed into that of a Habsburg. This odd process of corporal conquest is revealed in both the French diplomat’s letters and those of Isabel.18 She wrote to her sister Christine, who was one year younger: “I would like to be a small bird so I could fly and go there [Saint Germain en Laye].” 19 In some way, she missed her life in Saint Germain en Laye, the gardens and rural places where she had spent her childhood and where Christine still lived. The princess’s displays of consent did not mean that she easily adapted to the ceremonies of the House of Austria. Dressed in Spanish style because the Spaniards had “won her favor” [granjeado su voluntad], according to the Duke of Lerma,20 she was required to stay in the Alcázar and forbidden to do physical exercise, such as playing ball games, as she was accustomed to doing in France. The rigidity of this rule was so bitterly criticized by Senecey that eventually a special area was discreetly set aside for her in the gardens of La Priora where she could finally play ball and other games “modestly” [con recato].21 She was 17 18 19 20 21 15 16

“Je me porte fort bien” (BNF, mss. fr., 3815, letter 32, Madrid, April 18, 1616). For crossing borders see Zanger 68–97. Perceval, “Épouser une princesse étrangère” 69. BNF, mss. fr, 3815 and 3818. “Je voudrois estre petit oiseau pour pouvoir voler la” (BNF, mss. fr, 3818. fol. 46). Archivo General de Simancas [hereafter AGS] Estado, Francia, K. 1471. AGS, Estado, Francia, K. 1471.

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also not allowed to consummate her marriage with Prince Philip, as the Spanish court alleged that neither of them had attained the necessary maturity. In Isabel’s case, this was true, since she had not yet started to menstruate. The princess’s gentle nature was much appreciated by the Duke of Lerma, who praised her stoic behavior with these words: “my lady the Princess is an angel and very virtuous and a true Christian, may God preserve her, who proceeds admirably in everything, and God has granted us a great favor in giving us such a princess and a lady.”22 Apart from adapting to Spanish etiquette, Isabel of Borbón behaved like the young princess that she was: she played with the court dwarfs as if they were dolls23 and wrote regularly to her siblings Louis, Christine,24 and Henrietta Maria. There is a curious annotation in these letters that reveals her accommodation to ceremony: Isabel wrote her letters sitting on a cushion on the floor, inclined over a small board, which she describes in a letter sent to Christine.25 In this, Isabel followed the custom of the ladies of the Spanish court, who sat on large floor cushions in Moorish fashion, since only queens could sit on chairs on certain occasions. In addition to this particular seating when she wrote her letters, there was another gesture that showed how she came to terms with the forms of representation of the House of Austria. The young Isabel asked her sister Henrietta Maria, seven years younger, to send her a portrait of herself wearing a closed ruff. Isabel wanted to keep close to her heart the image of a little sister of whom she was very fond. The portrait she probably requested was a miniature or jeweled portrait made expressly to be carried in the hand or worn on the dress as an adornment (Colomer 65). Such a request, with its exclusively personal and intimate undertones, seemed only natural, given the affective ties between the siblings. However, everything points to this commission exceeding the limits of sisterly intimacy when we consider that Isabel begged her beloved sister to appear in the portrait wearing the closed ruff: “I ask you to send me your portrait, but it must be with a closed collar.”26 In other words, the queen asked her sister to dress in the attire of the Spanish court. This was no trivial matter: by letting herself be portrayed with the closed collar, which would later be banned by Louis XIII at the Paris court, Henrietta was not only showing her sister affection and admiration, but demonstrating her submission to the Habsburg monarchy that her eldest sister now represented. The shocking fall of the Duke of Lerma, Philip III’s favorite, in June 1618 surely contributed to Isabel’s awakening to court politics and her maturation: “La princesa mi señora es un ángel y muy virtuosa y gran cristiana guardele Dios que procede en todo admirablemente bien y ha hecho Dios grandísima merced a estos reinos en darnos tal princesa y señora” (AGS, Estado, Francia, K.1471). 23 BNF, mss, fr. 3815, letters No. 39 and 41. 24 BNF, mss, fr. 3815 and 3818. 25 BNF, mss, fr. 3815, letter No. 39. 26 “Je vous prie de manvoier vostre portrait mais qui cest avect une fraise ou un rabat ferme” (BNF, mss, fr. 3815, letter No. 39). 22

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a letter from Philip III to his daughter Ana of Austria described her as becoming “a complete woman” [mujer del todo].27 The nuptials of Prince Philip and Isabel took place at the Pardo Palace on November 22, 1620 and it was there that the marriage was consummated. Now wearing “her chapines,”28 the only complement that had so far been missing from her outward Habsburg appearance, Isabel entered the Madrid court just as a grave political crisis was brewing, a crisis that affected the goal she represented: Spain’s peace with France. Lerma’s fall and Philip III’s death on March 31, 1621 presupposed a “before” and an “after” to her recently initiated political life. Lameness, Lack of Decorum, and Anger: The Queen’s Difficulties in Becoming Hispanicized (1621–1629) The new monarchs, Philip IV and Isabel of Borbón, began their reign in an atmosphere of heightened political instability. The power group headed by Don Baltasar de Zúñiga and his nephew, the Count of Olivares, began an ascendancy riddled with the uncertainties that typified changes in government, while the Sandoval clan, represented at the time by the Duke of Uceda, Lerma’s son, began its collapse. During the first year of mourning over Philip III’s death, the court witnessed the disintegration of this group. The political storms that changed the course of government not only raged against those opposed to Zúñiga and Olivares; the queen, bastion of peace with France, was also seriously affected. The swing towards military interventionism in Europe led by Zúñiga and Olivares provoked a change in the perception of the queen’s former image. Isabel of Borbón, who stood for peace with France, found her persona used by two different power factions: those who supported Olivares or Zúñiga and those who supported the deposed favorite, Lerma. The first group spread the rumor that the queen had been unfaithful to the king. From the embodiment of gentleness and beauty, and a symbol of moral pulchritude, the queen came to represent—to this group of power—evil, ugliness, and betrayal, made manifest in her supposed lameness, which could also be interpreted as a lack of solemnity proclaimed by the court poet Francisco de Quevedo, supporter of this ascendant group. The other group (who defended the peace in foreign policy) maintained instead that it was the queen herself who was a victim, because the king, spurred by Olivares, would go out nightly to seduce other women. Isabel’s negative image came from the power faction that demanded interventionism. Her role as princess of peace had not been questioned while her Martorell Téllez-Girón 46. Lerma’s fall, attributed to his son and the court upstart, the Count of Olivares, most likely prepared Isabel for her own political battles with the count. 28 Chapines were raised footwear with uppers that commonly covered only the front of the foot, which might today be called slippers or mules; see O’Malley 47. Chapines were worn only by married women: see Perceval, “Jaque a la reina” 43. 27

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father-in-law was alive, but now, in the midst of a political crisis, for the first time she was obliged to face an environment hostile to her diplomatic efforts. Until Philip III’s death, the image that had prevailed of Isabel was that of an angel. Her father-in-law had been a defender of peace between the two monarchies, but after his death, there began a clamoring for a break with France. The queen’s image was likewise compelled to change. Because she symbolized peace with France through her marriage to Philip IV, if seen to be unfaithful, then by analogy Olivares could also be unfaithful to the peace that Philip and Isabel represented. Any problems between the royal couple were interpreted as political enmity between France and Spain. The royal couples’ every gesture and movement were subject to their servants’ scrutiny, and any disagreement between them translated into politics and the impossibility of achieving peace with France, the goal that had motivated their marriage (Perceval, “Jaque a la reina” 55–6). Specifically, the courtiers close to Olivares, who was attempting to establish his power against his uncle Zúñiga, spread two defamatory rumors, which no doubt caused Isabel much pain: an insistence on her supposed lameness, and the suspicion that she was having an affair with her gentleman-in-waiting, the court poet Juan de Tassis, Count of Villamediana. The writer and poet Francisco de Quevedo who, at that time, was a “creature” of the Count-Duke’s making, played a part in circulating the first rumor about Isabel’s alleged physical, and therefore moral, defect. The anecdote takes place the latter part of 1621, when Quevedo was attempting to ingratiate himself with Olivares (Jauralde Pou 452). At court one day, Quevedo bet his friends that he could approach the queen in public and mention her lameness, a disability that nobody dared bring up out of respect for her majesty. The ingenious poet went up to the queen and held out two pretty flowers. With great elegance, he uttered his famous pun: “Between the carnation and the rose, you choose, your Majesty.”29 Quevedo’s play on words has been interpreted as confirming the enmity perceived at court between Isabel and Olivares (represented by Quevedo) and, of even greater concern, the worsening personal and political relations between the queen and Philip IV, which legitimized the foreign policy defended by Olivares against France’s interests. Whether Isabel was in fact lame and whether Quevedo actually pronounced these words does not matter; what does matter is how this somewhat melodramatic story was very successfully construed. According to Platonic criteria on beauty, sin manifested itself through ugliness or physical defects (Vigarello, Histoire de la beauté 34). In the body of a queen, lameness, which implied inharmonious and ungainly movements, was an outward sign of interior evil. For this reason, accusing Isabel of being lame went far beyond mere insult; it was the equivalent of declaring her lack of virtue, and therefore, the lack of virtue of her native country, France. The second rumor that circulated late spring or early summer of 1622 did not focus on the queen’s appearance, but on a much thornier issue, since it dealt with 29 “Entre el clavel y la rosa su majestad escoja.” The untranslatable pun plays on the homonym “escoja” [you choose] and “es coja” [you are lame].

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marital infidelity. Isabel was labeled unfaithful because of her alleged flirtation with the Count of Villamediana. Assuming it indeed took place, as some authors maintain (Cotarelo y Mori 167–206), such flirtatiousness was probably no more than the conventional praise of the queen’s beauty that formed an integral part of court life. Probably, as I believe, it was Olivares who propagated the rumor to denigrate the queen’s image. The rumor originated due to various vested interests, including the change of direction in foreign relations with France, and the possible confrontation in the Valtellina, the important passageway through the Alps, demanded by Olivares’s supporters, who had sought his consolidation in power after Philip III’s death. Villamediana was murdered on August 21, 1622 (Cotarelo y Mori 28), at a time when Olivares was engaged in a bitter struggle for power with his uncle, Baltasar de Zúñiga (Elliott 124–59). That very month, he had successfully created a reform committee or junta grande without Zúñiga’s acquiescence. In this family struggle, Villamediana had taken sides with Zúñiga, who had apparently warned the poet of the danger he was in. As Villamediana’s enemy and in order to avoid the political consequences of his implication, Olivares set to work to further incite the king’s jealousy. Despite the extremely remote possibility that the queen might respond to Villamediana’s audacity, legend has it that the rumor took on shades of reality precisely at the king’s jealous instigation. It was thought that by ordering the rash poet’s stabbing (and it was indeed likely that Olivares ordered Villamediana’s murder), the king reinforced his political decisiveness and his hold of the monarchy, cementing his support for Olivares’s political project against the French, who were seen to be represented by Isabel. Such a story, about a jealous king who murders the lover of his unfaithful queen, could only benefit Olivares, who aspired to be court favorite, and perhaps a king eager to demonstrate his power. Indeed, this romantic legend makes sense only if the political reasons behind it are revealed, since any seeds of dissension in the royal marriage supposedly sown by Villamediana would benefit Olivares, intent as he was on entering the Council of State, against his uncle’s wishes. Olivares’s position in power was secured by Zúñiga’s unexpected death in October 1622. Philip’s recognition of his favorite put an end to the rumors about the queen’s betrayal and deformity. Since the queen was no longer an obstacle to Olivares’s ascent, it was not necessary to invent new rumors about her. Isabel of Borbón came through the crisis emboldened. At first humiliated by the rumors spread by those who supported Olivares, and having lost the battle as the representative of peace with France, she now defended the interests of the Spanish monarchy in order to supplant the favorite in his new position as advisor to Philip IV. Her first reaction to the vagueness of her political role occurred at the Pardo Palace. It was in this rural setting, while making the most of the king’s and Olivares’s absence on a hunting trip, that Isabel of Borbón broke with Spanish gravitas. On May 2, 1625, in the early months of her second pregnancy, she decided to rest in the former chambers of her mother-in-law, Margarita of Austria, who had died in 1611. These rooms were decorated with depictions of the history of Queen Esther

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and the cycle of strong women from the Old Testament (Lapuerta). The heroic deeds of women like Judith may have inspired her, in a way quite out of character, to refuse to receive the wife of the French ambassador who wished to pay her a courtesy call. She made it clear she would “neither receive nor listen to her” [ni la recibiría ni la oiría], alleging two reasons for such a display of discourtesy: “the rumors about Italy and the actions of the king of France” [por los rumores de Italia y los procedimientos del rey de Francia] (AGS Estado, Francia K, 1433). Her reaction was due to the confrontation between France and Spain in the Valtellina, as well as to the marriage that Louis XIII was about to seal between Henrietta Maria of France and the Prince of Wales. With this outburst of anger, Isabel of Borbón showed how much she disapproved of her French brother’s policies. The king and Olivares returned from the hunt to be met with an awkward situation provoked by the queen. Olivares rushed to calm the French ambassador, who accepted his apologies. The favorite could understand Isabel’s intentions to defend the Spanish monarchy, but the manner in which she had done so was extremely risky. To Olivares, it was clear that she had to be controlled more effectively by involving her, at least symbolically, in the defense of those interests that fit with the court’s established political program. An opportunity arose in spring of 1625, when the crown had won a series of victories.30 In May, Pope Urban VIII canonized Isabel of Portugal, a thirteenth-century sovereign who had gained prominence for her work as a peacemaker. Saint Isabel perfectly fit the ideals of peace and mediation that Isabel of Borbón aspired to represent. Of use to Olivares, however, was that through her origins and marriage ties (princess of Aragon, queen of Portugal, and mother of a Castilian king), Saint Isabel represented the union of the Spanish kingdoms, which was nothing less than the spirit of the Union of Arms, a political project that the favorite was devising at that time. In the celebrations for the canonization of Isabel of Portugal, the figure of the saint appeared transfigured as Isabel of Borbón herself (Vincent-Cassy 57–72). Identifying the two queens together pleased the court, especially Olivares, who for the first time saw the possibility of using the queen consort’s image as propaganda in his favor. In January 1626, Isabel assumed the regency while Philip IV and Olivares were away on a trip to the kingdom of Aragón. The queen made use of this opportunity to encourage closer ties between France and Spain over the Valtellina dispute. As regent, she wrote to her mother and to Cardinal Richelieu asking for a solution to the conflict (Richelieu, Memoires 331–2), a ruse that proved successful since the Treaty of Monzón was signed on March 5.31 Although this put a temporary stop to the confrontation, the peace soon proved insufficient. Cardinal Francesco Barberini, nephew of the Francophile Pope Urban VIII, visited the Madrid court to mediate between the two monarchies and secure a lasting peace in the Valtellina. 30 For these victories, which included the surrender of Breda and the recapture of Bahia, see Elliott 263–81. 31 The treaty gave equal rights of the Valtellina to France and Spain.

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Aware of the cardinal’s support for France, Philip IV put all his diplomatic (and visual) arsenal on display in order to present himself to the papal delegation as an innocent monarch who had not been involved in initiating the hostilities. The persuasive weapon that Philip IV used on this occasion was a portrait that depicted Isabel and Ana of Austria crossing the Bidasoa River, in which Isabel appeared as a symbol of peace with France. The Exchange of Princesses32 hung in the Great Hall of the Alcázar, and it was in front of this painting that Cardinal Barberini was kept waiting before being called to his audience with Philip IV (Río Barredo 172). Isabel, Queen Mother: A Renewed Body Politic (1629–1635) The Valtellina was not the only Italian territory to be disputed by both crowns. In December 1627, the war of succession broke out in Mantua, a duchy to which both monarchies claimed rights. Isabel of Borbón lost her mother’s trust during the conflict, but subsequently regained it after she gave birth to a male heir. Because a queen consort fulfilled the essential role in hereditary monarchies of providing heirs to the throne, maternity gave her power and honor. As in the cases of the Habsburg queens discussed in this volume, she might be capable of showing blind loyalty to the monarchy to which she was destined, of writing long letters to her relatives in favor of peace, or of projecting a saintly image in governing her husband’s court. If, however, the essential quality was missing—that of being a mother—she would not be fully recognized by her subjects and her position at court would be dangerously compromised. Maternity, therefore, was the rite of passage that established a queen consort in power. A succession of miscarriages and early infant deaths during the first years of her reign had led to Isabel’s weakened position at court. Her loss of influence was particularly noticeable in the sphere of foreign relations, as when Marie de’ Medici stopped writing to her when the Mantuan Wars broke out (BNF, mss, fr. 3816, fol. 12). Her mother’s rejection caused Isabel much suffering, and it took the birth of a male heir, Prince Baltasar Carlos, in 1629 to bring about their diplomatic reconciliation. The much talked-about failure of Olivares in the Mantuan Wars also helped to enhance the queen’s value at court (Elliott 454–5). The signing of the Treaty of Cherasco in 1631, after a long and bloody campaign that had taken its toll on the state coffers, exalted the figure of Isabel as a maternal counterpoint to the shadow of the failed favorite. It is no coincidence that at the beginning of the 1630s the queen’s beauty was a prominent feature in the chronicles of the time; certainly, there is no trace in contemporary accounts of the lameness ascribed to her ten years earlier. According to the accounts, at a party held in 1631 by CountDuke in honor of Philip IV and Isabel, where imminent war with France was forgotten amid the jesting, dancing, and merriment, Isabel, dressed in full regalia, looked stunningly beautiful: “adding to that natural and wonderful kindness and 32 Intercambio de princesas entre las cortes de España y Francia, oil on canvas, 163 x 232 cm. Anonymous. Madrid, Monasterio de la Encarnación.

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beauty of hers an air of gentility, without any loss of majesty, that is no less special than all the other admirable virtues and perfections that shine in her.”33 By the year of her second regency, 1632, her supporters had transformed her beauty into a political virtue. Between April and June 1632 the queen once more represented the absent king: this time, her power was directly related to her eminent position. On Philip IV’s orders, the sessions of the junta attended by the queen were to have exactly the same ceremonial as the meetings of the Council of State: “the same must be kept in any meetings held in the presence of our lady the Queen as is discussed in Councils of State attended by His Majesty.”34 Official recognition of the political role of Isabel as queen consort came three years later, in 1635, with the inauguration of the Hall of Realms in the Buen Retiro palace (Brown and Elliott 150). In this gallery of princely virtues, among depictions of battles and portraits of her husband and son, was hung the finest of her images: the equestrian portrait that is now in the Prado Museum. As a symbol of the throne and a reminder of her royal entry into Madrid, the horse she rides in the painting was an iconographic confirmation of her high political status as sovereign consort in the Court of the House of Austria. War, Regency, and Death of a Habsburg Queen (1635–1644) The outbreak of war between Spain and France in 1635 forced the queen to redefine her body politic. Peace had gradually eroded with time, although it had held up in the early 1630s. With the declaration of war on France, the symbolism of the Exchange of Princesses finally ceased to be operative. Thus, the painting that Cardinal Francesco Barberini had had to contemplate in 1626 was taken down from the Grand Hall of the Alcázar and banished to the downstairs summer room where obsolete works of art were stored (Orso 47–8).With this change, Isabel took refuge in Marian cults and resorted to prayers for universal peace.35 However, this comfortable devotional role was to come to an end in 1642. Between 1642 and 1644 Isabel assumed two brief regencies. The first of these was from May 1642 to January 1643, when the king departed to the war of Catalonia. During this time, Isabel presided over the sessions of the Council of State. Any consultations arising from these sessions were then sent from Madrid to 33 “[A]ñadiendo al natural y a la maravillosa gentileza y hermosura suya todo el aire y bizarría sin perder ninguna parte de majestad, en que no es menos señalada que en las demás admirables virtudes y perfecciones que resplandecen en ella.” Relación de la fiesta que hizo a sus majestades y altezas el Conde-Duque la noche de San Juan de este año de 1631 (cited in Mesonero Romanos 258, appendix 5). 34 “Haviendose de guardar en las juntas que se han de tener en presentia de la reyna ns lo mismo que se platica en los consejos de estado en que concurre su majestad” (AHN, Estado, leg. 2812 [1], exp. 7). 35 Memorial Histórico Español, XIV: 11.

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wherever the king happened to be. He was assisted by another council that stood in for the Council of State. The consultations (formal papers presented in the sessions of the Council of State) were signed by the monarch and sent back to Madrid where they were ratified by the queen. This system, involving the sending back and forth of papers that in the final instance were reviewed by Philip IV, did not entirely nullify the queen’s formal influence; the frequent and extended notes she wrote in the margins of the consultations show her concern for a satisfactory outcome to the war as well as her knowledge of the affairs of state,36 and her signature was common in documents of State or Treasury. Praise for Isabel’s political activities may be found in sources that were not opposed to Olivares. For instance, a Jesuit priest wrote in a letter of October 1642, “Our lady the queen held another meeting [junta]37 on Thursday afternoon which she also attended and presided over and they say she spoke in the meetings with great good sense.”38 She also endeavored to raise funds for the war effort. The decision to melt down all the palace silver was probably made by Philip IV but it was popularly attributed to her, perhaps because she had gained the confidence of ministers such as the Count of Castrillo, president of the Council of the Treasury. Isabel of Borbón made magnificent use of visual resources during her 1642 regency (Cartas de algunos Padres 282). Together with her son—her main instrument of legitimization—she regularly reviewed the troops, a figure of majestic beauty and dignity, a living incarnation of her equestrian portrait in the Hall of Realms. She also resorted to piety as a propaganda tool: after the fall of Monzón on June 10, 1642, she made a solemn visit to Our Lady of Atocha, which she vowed to repeat every Tuesday until the end of the war (Cartas de algunos Padres 384–5). The favorable view of her governance perhaps contributed to the third legend involving the queen during her lifetime: the conspiracy of women that put an end to the Count-Duke of Olivares’s position of favorite in January 1643. In pamphlets circulating at the time, the leading role in the plot to unseat the favorite was attributed to Isabel (Domínguez Ortiz 71–117). Once more, doubts were cast over her real participation in Olivares’s much talked-about fall. Isabel’s possible influence on the decision to expel the favorite from the court comes as no surprise; after all, in the eyes of her subjects, she had been his greatest enemy after her recent success as a regent striving against France, her own country. After the fall of Olivares, the queen behaved discreetly during the months the king was at court and awaiting another journey to Aragón. She did not show too much attachment to any particular court figure, possibly a strategy to avoid being accused of supporting new favorites. AGS, Consejo de Hacienda y Juntas de Hacienda, leg. 840, 864, and 852. AGS, Estado, España, leg. 2666. 37 Junta: meeting formed by some selected ministers. 38 “Tuvo la Reina nuestra señora el jueves por la tarde otra junta, en que también asistió y presidió y dicen que habló en las juntas con la mayor cordura del mundo” (Cartas de algunos Padres 476). 36

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Isabel became regent once more in the summer of 1643, this time with new powers and more freedom of movement, “with a stronger hand than before” [con más mano que la vez pasada], granted by her satisfied husband (Memorial, XVII, 147). The queen could resolve urgent consultations without having to forward them to the king. Everything suggests that she did not make exaggerated use of these prerogatives but only availed herself of the clause that gave her greater power to act for dealing with specific matters, such as those concerning provisions for the troops (AGS, Estado, España, leg. 2668). All other consultations were sent to Aragón, where the king continued to dictate resolutions in the presence of a representative of the Council of State. Beyond these controls, the queen shone with her own light when it came to ceremonial and propaganda, essential weapons in politics. Throughout this final period of governance her image was impeccable. She continued to gain followers, as the justice she meted out during the king’s absence was exemplary. Isabel was well aware that Madrid perceived his absence as a time of disorder; her antidote to these excesses was a forceful response to any act she considered abusive or violent. Her hand never trembled when she signed the death sentence for one of the servants to her son, Baltasar Carlos (Memorial, XVII, 236). Piety once again began to play an important political role in 1643, when she ordered the Virgin of the Miracle to be taken from the oratory of the Convent of the Descalzas Reales and into the street. As luck would have it, the day after the image had been taken out, news of the relief of Oran reached the court (Memorial, XVII, 237). This coincidence enhanced her political fame. Similarly, shortly before the capture of Tarragona, Isabel had ordered masses, confessions, and communions to be celebrated and the Holy Sacrament to be displayed before the people of Madrid. When Philip IV’s armies reached the Tarragona town square a week before planned, no one doubted that the success of the venture was primarily brought about by the queen’s devotions (Memorial, XVII, 498). Isabel of Borbón died in October 1644 while still carrying out her dynastic duties as regent. The skin disease known as Saint Anthony’s fire that was to prove fatal was preceded by an unfortunate miscarriage that all her panegyrists strove to ensure the world would remember. The circumstances of her death, involving as it did a struggle for procreation, contributed to her glorification, something that further masked, if that were possible, the true nature of her political role at the Madrid court. While it is true that the queen’s last two brief regencies were intermittent and limited at the institutional level, the fact that her formal authority was restricted does not mean that she lacked power. Before and after Olivares, Isabel knew how to establish her place at court and consolidate her position as queen consort. In the last year of her life (the one most remembered by historians), when she was no longer under the long shadow of the Count-Duke, the regent made full use of her image. She took advantage of the rigorous ceremonial that had refashioned her body politic, and brought it into step with her own interests, which were to show herself to the Spaniards as a trustworthy queen. Indeed, she penetrated the monarchy’s complex bureaucratic structure, which enabled her to

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enter into direct contact with the most prominent figures in government. Isabel acted as an agent for unifying dissatisfied constituencies, a value that to a large extent was acquired through maternity, and one that her successor, Philip IV’s second wife, Mariana of Austria, would know only too well.39 Only a queen mother could effect a change to a court free of favorites without awakening the suspicion that she aspired to that coveted position herself. Isabel of Borbón’s body remains a paradigm of the flexibility and political initiative demanded of queen consorts in the early modern period. Through her transformation into a Spanish queen, both as emblem and reference, she assumed an iconic role for her female successors to the Habsburg throne. Works Cited Archivo General Simancas (AGS). Estado Francia. K. 1471. Archivo General Simancas (AGS). Estado Francia. 1433. Archivo General Simancas (AGS). Estado España, legajo 2668. Archivo General Simancas (AGS). Consejo de Hacienda y Juntas de Hacienda, leg. 840. Archivo General Simancas (AGS). Consejo de Hacienda y Juntas de Hacienda, leg. 864. Archivo General Simancas (AGS). Consejo de Hacienda y Juntas de Hacienda, leg. 852. Archivo Histórico Nacional (AHN). Estado, España, leg. 2666. Archivo Histórico Nacional (AHN). Estado, España, leg. 2812 (1), expediente 7. Arizzoli-Clémentel, Pierre, and Pascale Gorguet Ballesteros. Fastes de cour et cérémonies royales. Le costume de cour en Europe 1650–1800. Paris: Editions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2009. Biblioteca Histórica de Santa Cruz, Valladolid. Ms. 511, Jornada que el Duque de Pastrana hizo a Francia a las capitulaciones de la Reyna de Francia y Princesa de España, fol. 99. Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF). Manuscrits français, 3815, letters 32, 39, 41. Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF). Manuscrits français, 3816. Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF). Manuscrits français, 3818. Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF). Manuscrits français, 3798. Brown, Jonathan, and John H. Elliott. Un palacio para el rey. El Buen Retiro y la corte de Felipe IV. Madrid: Alianza, 1981. Cartas de algunos Padres de la Compañía de Jesús sobre los sucesos de la Monarquía entre los años de 1634 y 1638; October 25, Madrid 1642. Vol. IV. Madrid: Imprenta Nacional, 1862. Castiglione, Baldassare. El cortesano. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 2009. See Mitchell’s essay on Mariana de Austria in this volume.

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Céspedes y Meneses, Gonzalo de. Historia de don Felipe IIII Rey de las Españas. Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas, 1634. Colomer, José Luis. “Uso y función de la miniatura en la corte de Felipe IV: Velázquez miniaturista.” Boletín del Museo del Prado 38 (2002): 65–83. Cotarelo y Mori, Emilio. El conde de Villamediana. Madrid: Visor, 2003. Domínguez Ortiz, Antonio. Historia de la caída del conde-duque de Olivares. Un manuscrito del siglo XVII. Madrid: Algazara, 1992. Dubost, Jean François. “Le corps de la reine, objet politique: Marie de Médicis.” In Femmes et pouvoir politique. Les princesses d’Europe XV–XVIII siècle. Ed. Isabelle Poutrin and Marie-Karine Schaub. Paris: Éditions Bréal, 2007. 235–66. Édouard, Sylvène. Le corps d’une reine. Histoire singulière d’Elisabeth de Valois. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2009. Elliott, John H. El conde-duque de Olivares. El político de una época en decadencia. Barcelona: Grijalbo Mondadori, 1998. Erasmo de Rotterdam. De civilitate morum puerilium. Valencia: Universidad de Valencia, 1996. Foisil, Madeleine, ed. Journal de Jean Héroard. Médecin de Louis XIII. Vol. II. Paris: Fayard, 1989. Gaultier, Léonard. The Regency of the Queen and Her Prudent Government of the King and Children of France, 1613. Engraving, 233 x 306 mm, plate, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Intercambio de princesas entre las cortes de España y Francia. Anonymous. Oil on canvas, 163 x 232 cm. Madrid, Monasterio de la Encarnación. Jauralde Pou, Pablo. Francisco de Quevedo (1580–1645). Madrid: Castalia, 1999. Lapuerta, Magdalena de. “Los programas iconográficos que decoran las estancias de la reina Margarita de Austria. Retrato alegórico-moral de la Reina, espejo de virtudes.” In Las relaciones discretas entre las Monarquías Hispana y Portuguesa: Las Casas de las reinas (siglos XV–XIX). Ed. José Martínez Millán and María Paula Marçal Lourenço, 3 vols. Madrid: Polifemo, 2008. Vol. II: 1121–48. Martorell Téllez-Girón, Ricardo. Cartas de Felipe III a su hija Ana de Austria. Madrid: Imprenta Helénica, 1929. Memorial Histórico Español. Vol. XIV. Madrid: Imprenta Nacional, 1862. Memorial Histórico Español. Vol. XVII. Madrid: Imprenta Nacional, 1863. Mesonero Romanos, Ramón de. El antiguo Madrid. Paseos histórico-anecdóticos por las calles y casas de esta villa. Vol. II Madrid: Oficina de la Ilustración Española y Americana, 1881. Negredo del Cerro, Fernando. “La gloria de sus reinos, el consuelo de sus desdichas. La imagen de Isabel de Borbón en la España de Felipe IV.” In La Reina Isabel y las reinas de España. Realidad, modelos e imagen historiográfica. Ed. María Victoria López-Cordón and Gloria Franco. Madrid: Fundación Española de Historia Moderna, 2005. 265–81. Oliván Santaliestra, Laura. “Minerva, Hispania y Bellona: cuerpo e imagen de Isabel de Borbón en el Salón de Reinos.” Chronica Nova 37 (2011): 271–300.

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O’Malley, Michelle. “A Pair of Little Gilded Shoes: Commission, Cost and Meaning in Renaissance Footwear.” Renaissance Quarterly 63 (2010): 45–83. Orso, Steven N. Philip IV and the Decoration of the Alcázar of Madrid, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986. Perceval, José María. “Jaque a la reina. Las princesas francesas en la corte española, de la extranjera a la enemiga.” In Les cours d’Espagne et de France au XVIIe siècle. Ed. Chantal Grell and Benoît Pellistrandi. Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 2007. 41–60. ———. “Épouser une princesse étrangère: les mariages espagnols.” In Femmes et pouvoir politique. Les princesses d’Europe XVe–XVIIIe siècle. Ed. Isabelle Poutrin and Marie-Karine Schaub. Paris: Bréal, 2007. 66–77. Pérez Cantó, Pilar, Esperanza Mó Romero, and Laura Oliván Santaliestra. Rainhas de Portugal e Espanha. Margarida de Àustria. Isabel de Bourbon. Lisboa: Círculo de Leitores, 2012. Phelypeaux de Pontchartrain, Paul. Journal de la régence de Marie de Médicis 1610–1615. Paris: Éditions Paleo, 2007. Richelieu, Armand du Plessis. Mémoires du Armand du Plessis Richelieu (1584– 1642). Paris: Honoré Champion, 1908–1931. Río Barredo, María José del. “Imágenes para una ceremonia de frontera. El intercambio de las princesas entre las cortes de Francia y España en 1615.” In La historia imaginada. Construcciones visuales del pasado en la Edad Moderna. Ed. Joan Lluís Palos and Diana Carrió-Invernizzi. Madrid: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica, 2008. 153–82. Sabatier, Gerard. “Le roi caché et le roi soleil: de la monarchie en Espagne et en France au milieu du XVIIe siècle.” In L’âge d’or de l’influence espagnole. La France et l’Espagne à l’époque d’Anne d’Autriche 1615–1666. Ed. Bartolomé Bennassar and Jean Pierre Dedieu. Mont-de-Marsan: Éditions Interuniversitaires, 1991. 111–24. Schulte, Regina, ed. The Body of the Queen: Gender and Rule in the Courtly World, 1500–2000. New York: Berghahn Books, 2006. Sicard, Frédérique. “Une reine entre ombres et lumières ou la pouvoir au féminin: le cas d’Isabelle Bourbon, première femme de Philippe IV.” Genre & Histoire (2009): 1–15. http://genrehistoire.revues.org/index736.html. Velázquez, Diego and others. La reina Isabel de Borbón a Caballo, 1634–1635. Oil on canvas, 301 x 314 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Vigarello, Georges. Histoire de la beauté. Le corps et l’art d’embellir de la Renaissance à nos jours. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2004. ———. Histoire du corps. 1. De la Renaissance aux Lumières. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2005. Vincent-Cassy, Cécile. “Coronada en la tierra y canonizada en el cielo: Santa Isabel de Portugal y la reina Isabel de Borbón.” In Vírgenes, reinas y santas. Modelos de mujer en el mundo hispano. Ed. David González Cruz. Huelva: Universidad de Huelva, 2005. 57–72. Zanger, Abby E. Scenes from Marriage of Louis XIV: Nuptial Fictions and the Making of Absolutist Power. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.

Chapter 11

The Making and Meaning of the Monastic Habit at Spanish Habsburg Courts 1

Cordula van Wyhe

In life or death, the monastic habit was an integral part of the attire of male and female members of the Habsburg dynasty, as princes and princesses were traditionally buried in a monastic shroud. This tradition was by no means specific to the Habsburgs, but had been a widespread practice among the burgher and aristocratic élites since the Middle Ages.2 Nevertheless, the adoption of the monastic habit by members of the house of Habsburg was widely publicized in contemporary chronicles, funeral accounts, and biographies, as well as state portraits and engravings. As such, it forms an important topos of the Pietas Austriaca. The radical change of appearance from magnificent court costumes to the somber habit of a Franciscan nun or monk was vital for the desired conflation of the courtly and monastic sphere and by extension for the idea of sacralized Habsburg rule. The religious dress signifies that its wearer has entered the monastic state, or ordo sacer, through religious profession. Solemn profession is always perpetual and denotes the total embrace of the religious life through the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.3 The religious garb is, therefore, a holy garment that possesses the sacred power to regenerate its wearer at the moment of consecration. 1 This essay is a revised version of “The Making and Meaning of the Franciscan Habit at Spanish Habsburg Courts,” in José-Luis Colomer et al., ed., Dressing the Spanish Way: Prestige and Usage of Spanish Attire at the European Courts in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica, (Madrid, 2010), 1–40. I thank Maria Haywood, Textile Conservation Centre, University of Southampton, for her kind help in identifying the material of Infanta Isabel’s monastic habit and Beatrix Bastl, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, for her helpful advice regarding the widow’s garb of Mariana of Austria. Thanks are also due to Sebastián Bianchi, Churchill College, Cambridge, for his generous help with the Spanish primary sources and Sister Marie Joseph from the convent of Discalced Carmelite nuns in Brussels for showing me Infanta Isabel’s Franciscan habit and allowing me to handle the fragile mourning veil. I also thank Father Pasquale Mugro for his help in photographing the habit of Saint Francis in the lower church of the basilica of Saint Francis, Assisi, as well as Mía Rodríguez Salgado and Annemarie Jordan for their kind help with questions concerning Isabel of Valois and Juana of Austria. 2 See Brückner 259–77; Orso 105–13; Lehfeldt 32–3; and Bale 329. 3 A simple profession, on the other hand, can be temporary; see “Religious Profession,” Catholic Encyclopedia.

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In this way, it expresses inward purification and cleanliness.4 Given the sacred powers of the religious garb, legends about its salvific force abounded since medieval times. The wearing of the monastic garb, therefore, can procure divine benefaction and protection, while putting it off in favor of secular attire could mean apostasy (Brückner 268). This inherent sacred quality of monastic habits endows them with powers similar to that of holy relics. The Franciscan order has a particularly well developed tradition of venerating medieval habits believed to have been worn by Saint Francis himself or his followers.5 However, this practice was not confined to the Franciscans alone. The Teresian nuns in the convent of Saint Teresa and Saint Joseph in Antwerp, founded in 1615, venerated a veil that had once belonged to Saint Teresa of Ávila, and the habit of Ana de Jesús, Teresa’s spiritual co-worker and later prioress of the order’s convent in Brussels, was given to Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia in 1621. The infanta, founder and patroness of the Brussels convent, subsequently sent the scapular to her niece, the queen of France, Ana of Austria (Anne de Saint Barthelmy 172; Manrique 856). The loving relationship of the nun or monk with Christ had been described using nuptial metaphors. In particular, the investiture of nuns was considered a wedding ceremony in the proper sense, initiating the novice into the state of holy matrimony with Christ. The veil (velum, velamen) is a traditional symbol of female purity and its wearer’s unassailable faithfulness to Christ. The Christian tradition of the female veil may directly originate in the suffubula, the rectangular, white veils worn by the Roman vestal virgins during sacrifices.6 Hence, the religious garb was also described as a wedding dress; because it also is shaped as a cross when the wearer’s arms are outstretched, the religious dress takes on the form of a crucifix and its wearer becomes a living, walking Christ on the cross. This association of the religious garb with the cross was intensified by the introduction of the scapular as part of the clothing during solemn profession in the later Middle Ages. Accordingly, several religious orders, among them the Carmelites, stipulated that the scapular must be worn day and night (Teresa of Ávila III: 222). In this way the monastic habit was a sacred object of meditation and mortification for its wearer. It was also understood as the “unauslösliche Siegel” [indelible seal] of the “conversion” (Brückner 268). This key role of the monastic habit is also apparent in terms such as “demander l’habit” [petitioning the habit] or “prendre l’habit” [taking the habit], which are used synonymously in early modern documents with the solemn, monastic profession; see Relation des vertus signalées 1–25. 5 In addition to these habits, the order also venerates the habits of Saint Giovanni da Capestrano (1386–1456) in the Chiesa Nuova (Assisi), and of Saint Joseph of Cupertino (1603–1663) held in the basilica of Saint Francis (Assisi). Tunics believed to have been worn by Saint Francis are also preserved in the Casa di Frate Elia (Cortona), the Dome of Pisa, the Church of Ognissanti (Florence), and the death shroud of Saint Francis in the basilica of Saint Clare (Assisi). For more information, see Rossetti 51–82. 6 “Religious Veil,” Catholic Encyclopedia. Perhaps not directly related to the veil of a nun is the medieval and early modern European tradition of devotional literature, in which the veil is also referred to as the flesh of Christ and hymen. 4

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Indeed, the religious garb as a meditative object had a long tradition. Saint Francis is believed to have meditated on his habit when temptation beckoned. In these moments, according to Saint Bonaventura, the saint tore off his habit and shouted “There, brother ass … that is your place, to be scourged like that. The habit is a sign of the religious state and an indication of a good life; a lustful person has no right to it. If you want to go another road, off with you!” (Habig 665). Not surprisingly, the monastic habit was also universally termed the protective “armor of the gladiators of God against vice and sinful behavior” (Wadding 264–5). The metaphor of the Christian as a warrior or knight, the Miles Christianus, whose unfaltering faith is likened to an armor protecting him from temptation, was a widespread trope in political and theological treatises in the early modern period. Not only monks, but also nuns were frequently portrayed as soldiers of God’s army living a spiritual “military service” (Wang 26). There was an overwhelming preference for the reformed and mendicant orders at the Spanish Habsburg courts with regard to the choice of convents that princesses entered or their choice of burial dress.7 It was in particular the Franciscan Observants who were favored on the grounds of their superior heed to the primitive ideal of absolute poverty.8 Carlos Eire has shown that this tendency is reflective of early modern Spain at large, where the Franciscan shroud was requested by as many as 59% of testators in the 1540s and continued to be in constant demand throughout the sixteenth century, while the habits of other orders declined in popularity as burial dresses (105–7). The custom was so widespread that not only adults, but also children were laid to rest dressed as Franciscan nuns or friars.9 The Franciscan habit represented to a greater extent than other monastic attire the monk’s radical contemptus mundi, or renunciation of the world. The Habsburg princes and princesses who wore the seraphic habit evidenced their radical humility and perfect love of God; they acquired the mark of sanctity, which was essential to elicit the personal intercession of Saint Francis and to gain entry into heaven. While these practices promoted the Habsburgs’ proximity to the divine and their support for the monastic ideal, the Protestant reformers derided Catholic rituals of dying. For example, Erasmus (1466/9–1536) dedicated three colloquies, namely his “Fundus,” “Franciscani,” and “Exequiæ Seraphicæ,” to the Catholic practice of dying and burial in the Franciscan habit. Erasmus criticizes it as a duplicitous avowal of piety made out of fear or force. In Erasmus’s view this rite of securing eternal salvation by putting on a Franciscan habit at one’s dying For the Brussels court see, for example, Terrier app.2. v–vii. In the first half of the sixteenth century, the Franciscan order split into two distinct

7 8

families of Conventuals and Observants or Zoccolanti. The dividing line between the two branches was their differing adherence to the primitive ideal of poverty. The Conventuals accepted revenues by papal dispensation, while the Observants lived exclusively on casual alms; see Nimmo and Moorman. 9 See, for example, the painting of a dead girl dressed in a Franciscan shroud in Rodríguez G. de Ceballos 23.

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hour is surely only a second baptism “planned for sinners, so they won’t perish; in other words, live unto Satan and die unto Christ!” (1004). Erasmus’s critique influenced Martin Luther (1483–1546), who equally ridiculed this practice as a perfidious fashion fueled by the mendicant orders, which exploit the fear of death for their personal gain: It is worth remembering that the discalced monks persuade people in such a way, that knights and earls let themselves be buried in their habits, believing that whoever is laid to rest in their dress, cannot be lost. What would the Apostle Paul have said against such despicable abuse, if this would have happened in his times? But the devil is never too ashamed for any lie.10

Indeed, the etiquette of death may have provided the Franciscans with a considerable income given that the burial shrouds were manufactured by the friars themselves (Eire 108–9). Nevertheless, lay burial in a monastic shroud was an ancient custom integral to the fabric of Catholic life. The poverty of Christ was, as Malcolm Lambert put it, “the key idea of the whole Franciscan movement” (59). Saint Francis believed that the highest Christi was irrevocably bound to radical asceticism, which he believed to be the true mission of the gospel. In this context, the image of the naked Christ, as exemplified by the crucifixion, symbolized the fundamental concept of the Franciscan spirituality (Lambert 61–2). The mendicant garb therefore stands for the total spiritual and material denudation of its wearer.11 The Franciscan theologian Lucas Wadding explicitly states that the colorlessness of the Franciscan habit is a sign of its penitential quality: “He wished that in accordance with the founding principle of his order the brothers should display penitence in their habit itself and the color of their habit. He wished the material of the habit to be humble and cheap: he did not wish the color of their clothing to be patterned and vain” (242–3). The medieval habit, now kept in the basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi, is a typical example of this ideal (Figures 11.1 and 11.2). It is made of dark grey wool, yet owing to the diverse color palette of undyed wool the shades range from light beige to dark maroon. This variation in color and texture was augmented by a continuous process of patchwork mending with re-used and old pieces of wool, so that the habit in 10 “[D]och ists auch vor Innerung werdt, das die parfussen Monnche dahin die Leuth uberredt, das Ritter unnd grauen sich haben In Iren kappen lassen begrabenn, dafur gehaldten, wer mit der kappen Innß grab keme, konnt nit verloren werdenn. Was wurde woll der Apostel Paulus wider solchenn schenndlichen mißbrauch gesagt habenn, wann es zu sein Zeitten geschehenn? Aber der Teuffel schemet sich zu kainer lugenn” (Luther, XXX; II, 255). 11 The term “denudation” is borrowed from Lambert 49. Its application to dress is my own interpretation. Significantly, Bonaventura writes that St Francis was only persuaded to die in the monastic habit and not entirely naked, as he initially had wished, when he was told that the Franciscan habit is merely a borrowed item and not a personal possession (Habig 739).

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Fig. 11.1

Medieval Franciscan habit believed to have been worn by St. Francis. Basilica of St. Francis, Lower Church, Assisi. Photo by the author.

Fig. 11.2

Detail of the area below the left-hand sleeve of Figure 11.1. Photo by the author.

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its current state consists of thirty-one pieces in total and six different kinds of wool.12 Yet there is evidence that the colors grey and brown were also consciously chosen. For example, the Tertiary orders traditionally wore grey dress, while the chapter of Assisi from 1547 dictated that grey should be the dominant color of the Franciscan habit in imitation of the Observants’ branch (Hélyot 287–310).13 The tunic was held together at the waist by a white cord with three knots signifying the monk’s three vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty. Neither the bulls nor the constitutions prescribe the knots, yet early biographies of Saint Francis state that he girded himself with a rough cord in imitation of the cords with which Christ was bound during flagellation (Habig 247). This association of the cords with Saint Francis’s radical Imitatio Christi also made them popular mortification devices. The habit of the second order of Saint Francis, an enclosed, contemplative female order, founded by Saint Clare of Assisi (1194–1253), is closely modeled on that of the friars. The rule of Saint Clare, officially approved by Cardinal Rainaldo di Segni in 1252, merely states that novices before probation are allowed “three tunics and a mantle,” while “small cloaks [mantellula] for convenience and propriety in serving and working” may be supplied by the abbess (Francis and Clare 212–13). The rule leaves decisions about proper clothing largely to the abbess; Saint Clare’s only binding prescription is that the sisters “always wear the poorest garments” (Francis and Clare 213). The habit, now kept in the basilica of Saint Clare in Assisi and believed to be that of the saint herself, may be regarded as the earliest surviving example of a female Franciscan habit (Figure 11.3). It is almost identical to that of the friars with regard to its cut and material, except for the dark grey mantellula, which was longer than the half-length cloak the monks wore. Usually, the sisters worked and slept in the same habit all week long and were only given a clean set of clothes once a week by “Mother Clothier” [la mère Robiere], who was also responsible for mending them.14 This freed them from the daily chore of dressing and undressing and, as a seventeenth-century nun describes, gave them an “esprit libre des embarras de ceste vie puis facilement se porter aux choses celestes et en savourer les delices” [a spirit free from the travails of this life (in order to) more easily take on heavenly things and savor The habit has also a pocket for the storage of received alms at the upper right arm. Interestingly, some of the mending was done with patches cut from the backside of Saint Clare’s cloak (Figure 11.7). These repairs were done with particular care and it is believed that St. Clare herself may have restored St Francis’s habit after his death when it had already become a relic (Flury 46–50). 13 See also “Padre Pio the Franciscan.” Father Philippe Yates (Franciscan International Study Centre, Canterbury) suggested that the color of Franciscan habits generally changed from grey to brown in the sixteenth century. In an email to the author from March 26, 2008 Father Philippe pointed out that the earliest mass produced cloth was beige. Thus the Franciscans would have chosen this cheap, mass produced fabric for their habits. 14 See Wyhe, ed. The Spiritual Diaries of Sister Margaret (forthcoming). 12

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Fig. 11.3

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Medieval tunic and mantle believed to have been worn by St. Clare. Reliquary Chapel, Basilica of St. Clare, Assisi. Photo by the author.

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their sweetness].15 Franciscan friars, on the other hand, seem to have shared a communally owned pool of habits rather than having worn a specific one. The numerous Franciscan garbs, venerated today as relics of Saint Francis, are likely to have this association with the saint owing to the friars’ practice of swapping and exchanging habits (Flury 49–50). On January 25, 1584 the court in Madrid celebrated the profession of Archduchess Margaret (1567–1633) as Sor Margaret of the Cross in Madrid’s Monasterio de la Consolación de Franciscanas Clarisas, known as the Convent of the Descalzas Reales [Royal Discalced], founded in 1557 by Margaret’s aunt, Juana of Austria (1535–1573). Despite her premature death, eleven years before Margaret’s investiture, the convent’s founder was and remained an important role model of feminine piety at the Spanish Habsburg court.16 In her religiosity and devotion Juana remained grounded in the secular tastes and worldly spheres of the court, which expressed itself in her continued usage of court fashion. In contrast, Margaret’s decision to become a cloistered nun was one of the most widely celebrated acts of womanly piety at the court of Philip II, making the young archduchess into a popular exemplar of female conduct in her own right. Her newly adopted monastic habit and the practices associated with it during her profession were the core constituent of her ideal femininity. At the orders of Philip II, the investiture was to be celebrated with the “authority, decency and the pomp and circumstance that were appropriate to the wedding of one of the most important ladies of the earth with the King of Kings and Lord of the Heavens.”17 Margaret’s wish to leave the luxury and comfort of court life and to espouse a cloistered life of radical poverty was regarded as the noblest form of Christian virtue, because the more elevated a person’s place in society, the greater is the sacrifice. These women therefore gained a reputation for sanctity and the court often mounted efforts to bring about a beatification after their deaths. The lengthy biography of Margaret written by her Franciscan confessor, Father Juan de Palma, may have served this very purpose. The chapter on her investiture is one of the longest and most detailed in the entire book. It is clearly geared towards promoting the holiness of the dynasty that had nurtured such an unparalleled act of piety. Palma dramatizes Margaret’s change of attire by juxtaposing thorough descriptions of her beauty and her rich courtly garment with the humbleness and poverty of the Franciscan habit she voluntarily adopted. Laura Oliván Santaliestra and María Cruz de Carlos Varona show in their essays how events such as marriage, pregnancy, and childbirth motivate a change in attire. Political calculations motivated Isabel of Borbón, for example, to adopt Relation des vertus signalées, Bibliothèque Royale Albert 1er, Brussels, ms. 14149,

15

12; see also Palma 88v–89r. 16 Chinchilla 21–33; see also Cruz. For portraits of Juana of Austria, see Jordan Gschwend “Los retratos” 42–65. 17 “Dispuso el Rey, que esta fiesta se hiziesse con suma autoridad y decencia, y con la pompa, y aparato conueniente al espiritual desposorio de vna de las mayores Señoras de la tierra, con el Rey de los Reyes, y Señor de los Cielos” (Palma 64).

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Spanish attire after her marriage to the future Philip IV of Spain was publicly announced in 1612. Jewelry symbolizing fertility and impending maternity such as the golden chain with a marten’s head worn by Isabel of Valois in a portrait painted after her marriage to Philip II in 1559 is another example of these sartorial changes. Margaret’s change of appearance should be seen in the same context. Monastic profession is a nuptial rite in that the nun becomes married to Christ. The consecration of Margaret of the Cross, as documented by Palma, exemplifies therefore the wider cultural practice of expressing a new societal status and bodily condition through clothing and accessories.18 In the morning of January 25, Margaret was taken by her mother, Empress María of Austria (1528–1603); Philip II; his daughters; and all eminent personalities of the court, to her mother’s oratory in the convent. Empress María had entered the Descalzas Reales already in 1581, when she returned to Spain after her husband, Emperor Maximilian II, had died in 1576. Margaret’s dress, according to Palma, was richly embroidered in gold and encrusted with figurative ornaments of great artifice, precious pearls and jewels, all of which had been particularly designed for the occasion. On her breast, she wore the diamond brooch of the Imperial Eagle that her mother had received from her father, Charles V. Palma underlines the beauty of her long, golden hair “agreeably scattered over her back” and her crown in the form of a garland decorated with valuable stones and hand-crafted flowers “to show her husband, crowned with thorns.”19 The engraving accompanying this chapter shows Margaret in her royal attire being guided by a large procession of courtiers and court ladies from the oratory after the celebration of the Mass to the entrance of the convent chapel to receive the habit of Saint Clare (Figure 11.4). Margaret, wearing an older style low-cut garment, is led by the Infantas Isabel Clara Eugenia and Catalina Micaela dressed in the fashionable high-necked Spanish court attire. Margaret is visually highlighted by being placed directly in front of a large column that divides the scene spatially, but also conceptually. Margaret is about to leave the courtly sphere on the left, while the nuns await her at the convent door on the right. This transition is further emphasized by the contrast between the richly attired Margaret and her religious garb with the girdle that a courtier carries on a ceremonial cushion in front of her. The representation of the veiled nuns holding up the crucifix and two burning candles further accentuate the contrast between court and convent, visibility and invisibility, and by implication Margaret’s own impending death to the world beyond cloistered walls.20 The inscription “Come, bride of Christ, receive the crown which the Lord has prepared for you” was one of the actual chants sung after the consecration of the habit and is a fitting glossary to this image (Metz 442). The citation of this chant also receives See also de Cruz Medina’s essay on Sor Ana Dorotea in this volume. “[V]na guirlanda en forma de corona, de piedras de gran valor, y flores

18 19

marauillosamente labradas … para dexarla à vista de su Esposo, coronado de espinas” (Palma 64v). 20 The nuns are veiled, because according to the Rule of Saint Clare, the nuns are not allowed to show their faces to men; see also Palma 88v.

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Fig. 11.4

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The Monastic Profession of Archduchess Margaret of Austria, P. Perete escul. Matriti. In Juan de Palma, Vida de la serenissima infanta Sor Margarita de la Crvz: religiosa descalça de S. Clara, Madrid: con preuilegio enla inprenta Real, 1636. © Cambridge University Library, Cambridge.

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a particular inflection here, because Margaret had rejected the royal crown her uncle Philip II had offered to her through his proposal of marriage. Margaret, as Juan de Palma puts it, gained the “eternal crown” of heaven instead. Once the procession had entered the convent church the religious garb was placed in front of the altar and the nobility reverently took their seats. Palma states that Margaret’s burning desire to take the habit of Saint Clare manifested itself in the resoluteness with which she herself took charge of her own investiture. The sacred moment approached when Margaret, standing in front of the altar, waited for everything to become quiet. Then, she started to take off her precious garments and jewels. Palma, however, stresses that she was not merely “leaving them aside, but rather throwing them away, with much disdain, as if they were contagious”21 Her resolve, according to Palma, moved the audience to tears and “it was not possible to hear but cries and tears” including those of Philip II, Empress María, and the infantas.22 Margaret, however, remained unperturbed in her attention to conducting the ceremony. Although the prioress had ordered four nuns to help her undress, Margaret herself helped them and gave them orders what to do. Then “she held and received with the utmost veneration and love the humble and poor Habit of the Order of Saint Clare, in the same way and manner that is worn by the other Discalced Sisters.”23 After the act of dressing, the prioress commenced to cut her hair. Yet again, unable to contain the passion with which she divested herself of all worldly vanity, Margaret herself assisted by “applying her devout hand to that hank of gold that covered her back with admirable beauty, offered it to her Priestess, so that she would mystically cut with it all the thoughts and care of the century.”24 After her head was covered with the head scarf (the form fitting coif with the shoulder wimple) and the white veil of a novice, she picked up all strands of her hair. Although her hair had been promised by her mother to her sister, Princess Isabel, in Germany, Margaret had insisted on offering it to her new spouse: “She approached the ivory Christ that she had carried in the procession, and after venerating him, made a devout knot on his feet, leaving those loving tokens of servitude to hang over them, just as a coil is hung in the Temple.”25 “Quitòse la Corona de la cabeça; depuso el abanino; apartò de si con santo desprecio las joyas, y sortijas, como si fueran pedazos de contagio, no las dexaua, sino que las arrojaua” (Palma 66). 22 “[N]o se veîa en la pieza, ni se oìa sino sollozos, y lagrimas, enternecidos de ver arrojar de si à pedazos el mundo, la que apenas le conoció” (Palma 66v). 23 “[A]braço, y recibiò con suma veneracion, y amor el Habito humilde, y pobre de la Orden de Santa Clara, en la misma forma, y materia que los traen las demas Religiosas Descalças” (Palma 66v). 24 “aplicando su deuota mano à aquella madexa de oro, que con admirable hermosura, cubria sus espaldas, la ofreciò à su Prelada, para que misticamente le cortasse en ella, todos los pensamientos, y cuidados del siglo” (Palma 67). 25 “[Y] assi como se vio ya Esposa de Iesus, tomò los cabellos que la auian cortado; y juntandolos entre si, y componiendolos con mucha gracia, se acercò al santo Christo de marfil, que auia traido en la procession; y despues de auerlo adorado, le hizo en los pies vna deuota lazada con ellos, dexando alli pendientes aquellas amorosas prendas de seruidumbre, qual se cuelga el Templo la mortaja” (Palma 67). 21

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With this act, Margaret became a second Mary Magdalen, who had washed and dried Christ’s feet first in life and then below the cross with her own hair as an expression of her penitence and divine love. Palma, however, stresses that Margaret is a “devout Magdalen free of sin,” who ties “the feet of the Savior Christ with shackles of the soul, so that her beloved would not leave her, expressing with that loving bond that she had severed the sorrowful shackles of life by means of his grace.”26 According to Margaret’s wishes the precious dress she wore for this day was donated to the Virgin of Guadalupe and her jewels to the building of an infirmary in the Descalzas Reales (Palma 69). The second engraving of Palma’s biography shows the Archduchess Margaret, now Sister Margaret of the Cross, fully clothed in the habit of a Poor Clare (Figure 11.5). She also wears the long choir cloak; in her right hand, she holds her celestial spouse in the form of a crucifix, and in her left a rosary, a standard attribute of the Franciscan habit since the fifteenth century. Indeed, Palma points out in another passage that Margaret made particular use of the image of the crucifix and the rosary in her daily devotions, the praying of the rosary having begun early in childhood (4v). Just visible below her right wrist is the traditional undergarment, which may also be the hair shirt she is known to have worn as a form of mortification (Sánchez 147). She is framed by the two primary virtues of the monastic life. On her right, a traditional personification of prayer is swirling upwards, while on the left, a figure of poverty with a torn and frazzled tunic is trampling down on the symbols of worldly power and riches. The banner floating above the objects of worldly riches reading “From all these she made steps for herself to glory” is a paradox in that these items only became Margaret’s conduit to heaven through her rejection of them. Sister Margaret, therefore, stands solidly in the center of the composition towering above the transience and ethereality of these worldly vanities. Similarly, Palma states that Margaret’s internal crown shone forth through the devotion with which she beheld the poor habit of Saint Clare, while the great Lords next to her realized the pity of their worldly greatness. Sister Margaret was therefore living proof that, as Palma writes, “the highest greatness is to be perfect, and that he who has more goodness holds more greatness.”27 Sister Margaret is thus an exemplar of superior spiritual nobility dependent on the allencompassing pursuit of divine love in surroundings severed from the external world and lacking in material comfort. In Palma’s view, it is Margaret’s “saintly “[A]tar los pies de Christo Saluador, con vinculos del alma, porque no se le fuesse su amado, explicando con aquel amoroso laço, auer con su gracia salido de los penosos laços de la vida; procurò en esto su Alteza la mas dichosa imitacion de la santa pecadora, ofrecien[n]do cortados los cabellos à los pies de Christo, que la santa ofreciò assidos” (Palma 67). 27 ‘Ya nauegada aquella ilustre hermosura, y essenta de los penosos accidentes de la vida; pues quando el tiempo desluciesse lo visible, hallaua assegurado lo eterno. Mirauan los Señores, y Grandes de España desengañada su grandeza, en este glorioso sucesso, dandoles à conocer con luz de tan noble desengaño, que la grandeza mayor es ser perfectos; y que aquel es mas grande, que es mas bueno” (Palma 68–68v). 26

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Sister Margaret of the Cross with Personifications of Holy Poverty and Prayer, P. Perete escul. Martriti. In Juan de Palma, Vida de la serenissima infanta Sor Margarita de la Crvz: religiosa descalça de S. Clara, Madrid: con preuilegio enla inprenta Real, 1636. © Cambridge University Library, Cambridge.

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habit” that is the main symbol of her exalted rank, but also the object of her pious meditations. For instance, when Margaret retired to her cell at the end of the day, she took the habit in her hands and revered it “with great devotion and happiness … she shed tender tears, thanking God that she saw herself dressed up in Religion, dispossessed of the world, in a humble costume.”28 According to Rodrigo Méndez Silva’s biography, it was in particular Margaret’s mother, the great patroness of the Franciscan order, Empress María of Austria, who had nurtured her daughter’s piety from a very tender age (33). For his part, Palma recounts that the empress gave her young daughter the habit of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, which stimulated in the child an ardent desire to do penitence in honor of Our Lady (Palma 8).29 Later, the young Margaret herself and those of her servants who intended to follow her into the convent, rehearsed and prepared their vocations secretly by wearing religious dresses and the white veils of novices during private acts of worship and processions (Palma 10). Indeed, the playful use of the monastic habit by young girls is also documented for the Brussels court, where the young ladies-in-waiting of Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, inspired by the great popularity of the Discalced Carmelite order, dressed up in Teresian habits in order to imitate the nuns. For several of them, these games of dressing up and “playing nuns” later led to a proper vocation (Wyhe, “Piety and Politics” 475). Empress María did not enter the second, but the Third Order of Saint Francis (Figure 11.6) (Palma 91v). The origins of the tertiary order and their vestments are complex and are not fully understood. It is generally believed that its original branch (also known as the secular branch or Brothers and Sisters of Penance) was founded by Saint Francis in 1221 in order to allow men and women, whose marital or worldly obligations prevented them from entering the first or second order, to nevertheless live according to the principles of Franciscan spirituality.30 Consequently, Empress María merely made a public profession rather than taking solemn religious vows; she was not bound to live in the community or declare poverty. Thus, Empress María had her own quarters in the Descalzas Reales where she received ambassadors and foreign dignitaries and was waited upon by her own servants (Sánchez 145). Margaret of the Cross, by contrast, took full vows and therefore had no servants, sharing with her abbess and fellow sisters all household chores from cooking to cleaning (Palma 88v, 89). Saint Elizabeth of Hungary (1207–1231) is also credited with having founded the Franciscan 28 “[M]irauase vestida de aquel santo sayal; tomaualo en las manos con veneracion, y con alegria del alma lo adoraua: vertia tiernas lagrimas, dando gracias à Dios, que se veîa vestida de Religion, despojada de mundo, en trage humilde … donde cada passo es vna jornada del cielo” (Palma 68). 29 The colors of the Immaculate Conception were traditionally light blue and white (Hélyot IV: 100, 354–62). 30 The third order is mentioned for the first time as an organized body in a document of Pope Honorius III; see Bordoni.

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Empress María of Austria. Juan Pantoja de la Cruz. Oil on canvas. Convent of the Descalzas Reales, Madrid. © Patrimonio Nacional.

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tertiary movement in 1228. She is believed to have established a tradition for a grey tertiary habit after Saint Francis had instructed his followers shortly before his death to send his grey cloak to Elizabeth in gratitude for her assistance with the foundation of the first Franciscan monastery in Eisenach, Germany. This cloak still survives in the Capuchin provincial curia in Paris (Hélyot VII: 292).31 From these beginnings various fraternities and congregations developed over the centuries, each with its own particular constitutions. Consequently, the customs of their habits are complex owing to the lack of prescriptive rules.Empress María, however, wears widow’s weeds and not a habit that signifies membership of a specific congregation of the tertiary order. Widows’ garbs were sartorially related to monastic habits. Unless a widow remarried, she shared the nuns’ dedication to celibacy, seclusion, and modesty. For many Habsburg widows, this expression of their marital devotion was an important means of promoting themselves as their husband’s political heir. The public display of widows’ weeds therefore aided the preservation of the body politic despite the disruption effected by death (Wyhe, “Court and Convent” 419–24). Widows’ weeds evolved into an independent piece of garment in the fourteenth century, although the material and tailoring increasingly became an expression of social status in the sixteenth century (Taylor 65–92). The distinctive items of widows’ weeds was the pleated barbe, a long piece of vertically pleated linen encircling the chin with pendant cap or hood and long, black coverchief (Norris 107). Empress María wears a traditional “Habsburg” version of this headcover (Figure 11.6). Her pleated cap and long black veil were already worn by aristocratic widows since the fourteenth century (Taylor 74, fig. 27; 84, fig. 34). Yet, her barbe is paneled rather than pleated and may be understood as a fashionable alteration (Hamann 297).32 The combination of black (representing penitence and mourning) and white (representing purity, joy, and heaven) in widows’ apparel was particularly suitable to commemorate a deceased husband, yet Empress María’s portrait very subtly registers her ongoing concern with worldly affairs. For example, the richly paneled pattern of her white undergarment would have violated proper monastic simplicity, while the imperial crown to her left indicates her royal status, contrasting with the rosary in her hand, which she seems to recite attentively. Her white handkerchief, a customary attribute of royalty in women, is folded over her arm and thus resembles a liturgical rather than a fashion item. Furthermore, her long, black veil is folded chastely across the lower part of her body, yet the delicate manner in which her left 31 The evidence for this is Saint Bonaventure’s statement that she “Grisaum habitum induit, & habitus susceptionem, voti emissione solemnizauit” [She put on a grey habit and solemnized the adoption of the habit by the uttering of a prayer]. For a brief discussion and photo of this cloak, see Rossetti 83–91. 32 The same habit is also worn by the woman in the background of Velazquez’s Las meninas. Mourning attire for unmarried women at the Spanish court, on the other hand, was of an overall black color; see, for example, Infanta Margarita Teresa of Spain in mourning dress by Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo.

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Juana of Austria, 1557. Alonso Sánchez Coello. Oil on canvas, 180 x 112 cm. © Schloss Ambras, Innsbruck; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

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hand holds the hem bespeaks the courtly aspects of this quasi-monastic portrait. By contrast, María’s sister, Juana of Austria, chose a fully worldly variant of widows’ weeds in commemoration of her deceased husband, the Infante Juan of Portugal (d.1554) in her portrait by Alonso Sánchez Coello from 1557 (Figure 11.7). She wears a fashionable high-necked Spanish court dress, while the column and the large hunting dog to her right and left retrospectively are reminiscent of Titian’s state portrait of her father, Charles V, from around 1530 (Jenkins 14, fig. 20). Like her sister María, Juana also wears the traditional, pleated widow’s cap. Juana’s cap, however, made of a silky, shimmering fabric and fringed with an embroidered ribbon, is fashionable and fully exposed. This inherent variability of widow’s weeds gave women the opportunity to carefully design their apparel dependent on whether an austere religious or more worldly appearance was desired. The widow’s weeds adopted by Mariana of Austria (1634–1696) after the death of Philip IV in 1665 may be regarded as an intriguing hybrid of the severe religiously inspired widow’s garb of Empress María and the secular version chosen by Juana of Austria. Mariana opted for the monastic “look” with several fashionable updates (Figure 11.8). The conservative, pleated cap and the long, black mourning veil remain, yet Mariana chose a modish, voluminous black, looped-back skirt (visible in other portraits that are not reproduced here) covered to three-quarters by a close-fitting white upper garment. Above, she wears a long “Mantuan” stomacher, which had become fashionable in widows’ mourning dress at the end of the seventeenth century (Norris 107). The sleeves are also intricately tailored. They are “hanging sleeves” billowing out with a deep curve at the upper arm and narrowing to the wrist. Despite this intersection of worldly and religious ideals, Mariana’s life was regulated by her religious patronage and the observance of Catholic devotions, gaining her a reputation for sanctity that spread far beyond the borders of Spain. Tales of miracles began to circulate soon after Mariana’s death. It was specifically sleeping on the white corsage of the queen’s widow’s garb that was believed to have cured an old nun, who had attended the queen during her life time, from a life-long paralysis (Calvo Poyato 88–9). Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, eldest daughter of Philip II, who governed the Spanish Netherlands along with her husband, Archduke Albert of Austria, eleventh child of Empress María of Austria and Emperor Maximilian II, became a tertiary nun of the Franciscan order after her husband’s death in 1621. The infanta also attained the mark of holiness on her death in 1633: attendants at her funeral are reported to have plucked relics from the body of this “divine Infanta” while the chaplain of her oratory, Philippe Chifflet, embarked on authoring a hagiography of the deceased infanta (Miræus 28).33 Perhaps owing to the prospect of a beatification, one of her Franciscan habits was preserved in the convent of The beatification was supported by Monsieur Gaston d’Orléans, brother of King Louis XIII of France (Puget de la Serre 92–3). Puget de la Serre also calls the infanta “divine Infanta” (94). Chifflet never completed his hagiography. The draft is preserved in the Bibliothèque Municipale Besançon, Fond général, ms. 1600. 33

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Mariana of Austria, c.1687. Claudio Coello. Oil on canvas, 104.7 x 84.1 cm. © Durham, The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle.

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Discalced Carmelite nuns in Brussels, founded by the infanta herself in 1607 (Figure 11.9).34 The choice for the tertiary order was forced upon the infanta by the extensive governmental affairs she continued to administer during her widowhood despite the restriction of her powers by Madrid (Esteban Estríngana). Isabel’s adoption of the Franciscan habit was publicized widely; in 1627 Anthony van Dyck produced a similar, yet slightly altered version of Rubens’s original state portrait of the widowed infanta from 1624 (Figure 11.10). The infanta’s habit in this portrait is that of a Franciscan Tertiary nun of the Observants’ branch (Hélyot VII: 294–312). The habits for female regulars of the third order are almost identical to that of the Poor Clares with regard to fabric and tailoring, with the full-length scapular added. The infanta’s habit deviates from the proper Franciscan habit in that the traditional shoulder-length black veil is replaced by the full-length, black mourning veil typical of widows’ weeds. The infanta’s choice to enter the Observants’ branch of the Franciscan order may have been motivated by her longstanding confessor, Andrés de Soto (1552/3–1625), who was a friar minor of the Observance. In this way, Isabel’s religious garb shows her perfect obedience and spiritual sisterhood to her confessor, a standard topos in royal panegyrics to promote the piety of Habsburg women (Wyhe, “Court and Convent” 411–24). It was the particular privilege of Austrian princesses, such as Mariana of Austria, to retain their customary Jesuit confessor although Spanish etiquette required her to take a Franciscan. Austrian princesses, therefore, may have been less bound in the particular choice of their widow’s garb than the Infanta Isabel. In any case, the Infanta Isabel presented herself as a nun proper in widowhood. She therefore opted for the most severe form of widows’ weeds. Nevertheless, the infanta’s habit preserves elements of courtly attire (Figure 11.9). Indeed, this is a simple, yet finely tailored tunic of excellent quality. The cut is loose fitting with arms and the lower part being of a generous width allowing for uninhibited movement and concealment of its wearer’s anatomical shape. The habit is made of greyish/brown wool woven in a very fine herringbone pattern resembling serge,35 typical of a habit of the tertiary order, its scratchy quality responding to the 34 This habit was previously examined by Janssen. Her findings and the complete measurements of the habit are published in El arte; 266–5. For the royal convent of Discalced Carmelite nuns, see Wyhe, “Piety and Politics.” The following note, written in a seventeenth-century secretary hand, is attached to the habit with a wax seal: “Habitus Tertii Ordinis Sti Francisci quem serenissima Infans Hispanarum Isabella-Clara-Eugenia assumpsit et sine quo, juxta traditionem, in publico non apparuit amplius” [The habit of the Third Order of St Francis which the most serene Infanta of the Spains, Isabella Clara Eugenia, assumed and without which, according to tradition, she appeared anymore in public]. The wax seal shows a galero [cardinal’s hat] that may be that of Cardinal Alfonso de la Cueva-Benavides y Mendoza-Carrillo, Marquis of Bedmar. Cueva was ambassador extraordinary and counselor of Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands at the time of Infanta Isabel’s death. 35 Dr Paul Garsdie, Textile Conservation Centre, University of Southampton, confirmed that the habit is made of wool after investigating a sample using transmitted light spectroscopy and FTIR (Fourier Transform Infra-red spectroscopy). A sample from

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Franciscan habit of the Infanta Isabela Clara Eugenia, 1621–1633, wool. © Convent of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns, Brussels. Photo: Patrimonio Nacional.

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demand for penitence. The garment’s v-shaped neckline would have been sufficient to put the habit on and take it off unassisted, but the tunic could be laced tightly like a corsage for the regulation of width in the upper part. Contrary to proper monastic modesty, this required the assistance of a servant. Moreover, the large opening at the back also allowed that the habit could be “stepped into” and be pulled upwards rather than over the head. This must have been more comfortable for the infanta, who was already fifty-five years of age when she adopted the Franciscan garb. We can observe traces of courtly attire in the sleeves each of which has a c.30 cm long slit lined with light brown linen, visible with the movement of the arms. This tailoring was fashionable in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century courtly garments, which revealed the luxurious fabric of the undergarments or a contrasting lining. Furthermore, there are slits in the side seams on either side of the habit stretching from below the arm to the hip. These openings allowed the infanta to cross her arms in front of her chest tucked away under her habit. Seventeenth-century prayer instructions stipulated that when meditating, a person should cross the arms in front of the chest with the hands resting on the girdle (Jesús María 39). The slits allowed the infanta to adopt this position during prayer, while also providing the hands comfort and warmth during winter. The voluminous mantilla or mourning veil is made of the finest translucent black silk and consists of four to five pieces.36 The head and hair were covered by the triangular headscarf (Figure 11.11, longest side: 144 cm; depth: 55 cm). A large trapezoidal panel (Figure 11.12, longest base side: c.287 cm; shorter base side: c.163; width 88 cm) was worn across the head with the longer base to the front.37 Two ribbons (length: 145 cm; width: 3 cm) are likely to have been pulled through the loop (7 x 14 cm), which is sewn onto the fabric at the longer base of the panel in order to secure the veil onto the head. A large, rectangular panel (length: c.3 cm; width: 88 cm), also kept in the archives of the Discalced Carmelite convent in Brussels, may have been a second veil or the back part of the trapezoidal panel. The mourning veil would have covered three-quarters of the infanta’s body length. The portrait of the widowed infanta by Anthony van Dyck (Figure 11.10), however, shows that she tied the ends of the veil onto the cord of her habit, so that the fabric ended just below her elbows. In this way, the diaphanous material of the veil did not get wrinkled or torn. This practical and even slightly careless aspect of the infanta’s garb heightens the immediacy of her presence, yet the veil is not only treated informally, but symbolically. She subtly displays the veil to the viewer by holding the ends in front of her. This gesture, which appears to be unstudied the yellow/green colored tape used to line the hems was heavily degraded, which made it harder to identify. However, it is definitely cellulosic and definitely a bast fiber. It is most likely to be of linen. Van Dyck’s portrait shows the infanta in a grey habit. The brownish appearance of the actual habit in Brussels may be due to the ageing and soiling of the fabric. 36 Owing to the fragile state of the veil fully accurate measurements could not be taken. All measurements are therefore approximate. 37 The fact that the veil was three quarters long is also shown in the full-length depiction of the infanta in Nicolaas van der Horst’s painting “The pilgrimage of the Infanta Isabelle to Laken in 1622.”

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Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, 1627. Anthony van Dyck. Oil on canvas, 190 x 89 cm. © Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

and almost unconscious so as not to unbalance the overall sense of artlessness and naturalness, clearly foregrounds the veil, Isabel’s primary expression of mourning. By implication, the infanta may be understood to hold Albert’s memory in her hands. Indeed, Isabel Clara Eugenia’s monastic attire was carefully chosen to bolster her role as the guardian of Albert’s legacy. It was vital for the infanta to consolidate her authority during the crucial power shift that occurred at the highest governmental

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Fig. 11.11 Headscarf that was part of the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia’s mourning veil, c.1621–1633, silk. © Convent of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns, Brussels. Photo by the author.

Fig. 11.12 Mourning veil of the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, c.1621–1633, silk. © Convent of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns, Brussels. Photo by the author.

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levels after the Archduke’s death. Her habit of the tertiary branch of the Observance exactly mirrored the Franciscan shroud of the Observance in which he was buried, thus demonstrating that she was his living embodiment. The infanta’s adoption of the Franciscan habit also signified the Pietas Austriaca her parents had cultivated: her mother, Isabel of Valois (1545–1568), although French, had followed Spanish custom when she demanded to be buried in the habit of Saint Francis, and the archdukes imported this particularly fervent custom to Brussels. A cornerstone of this Habsburg piety was its patronage of mendicant and reformed orders. Isabel, in particular, had a great predilection for the Discalced Carmelites and the Poor Clare Colletines. She integrated herself into these cloistered communities even before her own entry into the monastic state and lived, at least for short intervals, the life of a nun. These punctuated immersions in convent life aided the promotion of the notion that the Brussels court was a “pudicitiae sacrarium” [shrine of chastity] and “pietatis orchestra” [dancing-floor of piety] (Beyerlinck 47). The infanta’s cousin at the Descalzas Reales, Sister Margaret of the Cross, not only entertained a lively correspondence with the nuns in Flemish convents, but also communicated with Isabel, sending to Brussels copies of her spiritual plays performed at the Madrid convent that were then staged by the infanta and her court ladies at the palace (Palma 88–9, 235–6).38 Sister Margaret therefore acted as a role model for Infanta Isabel and the young court ladies and nuns in her monastic network. The infanta’s adoption of the tertiary habit completed this conflation of the courtly and convent sphere by perfecting her emulation of the nuns into a proper spiritual sisterhood. Isabel expressed this herself when saying to Sister Françoise from the Colletines in Ghent during her first visit in her religious garb shortly after Albert’s death, that “I am now your sister.”39 Vanessa de Cruz Medina shows in her essay on Margaret’s niece, Ana Dorotea de la Concepción, that other women became feminine role models by bridging the monastic and courtly spheres. In many ways, Ana Dorotea was groomed by Margaret to become her successor in the Descalzas Reales and as such to maintain the political and patronage networks that tied court and convent together. The manner of dying was decisive for the value of a Habsburg prince or princess as a good ruler and pious Christian. Chroniclers of Habsburg deaths were royal panegyrics to commemorate the greatness of the deceased prince as much as manuals for the proper Catholic ars moriendi. The dressing of the corpse in the Franciscan habit, usually testated as a personal wish of the deceased, was an expression of this ideal spiritual state in which the deceased should face his creator in the moment of transition from one world to the next. The simplicity, coarseness, and poverty of the Franciscan shroud signaled that the deceased had willingly and humbly renounced this world in the hour of death and had left it with the desired modesty and obedience to Christ and his Church. The religious dress, 38 For the close relations between women at the Descalzas Reales and the court in Brussels, see Wyhe, “Court and Convent” 425–38, and Jordan Gschwend, ‘Mujeres mecenas de la casa de Austria” 235–7. 39 “Je suits maintenant vostre soeur” (Villermont 500).

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however, was not merely an external manifestation of this ideal, but could also confer holiness to its wearer by virtue of its sacred and miraculous powers. So, the adoption of the holy Franciscan shroud may be understood as the culmination of the prince’s Christian virtue and royal qualities in his final hour. Nevertheless, burial in monastic habit was not common to all members of the Habsburg family. It was most popular with Spanish queens and infantas, while a separate tradition existed for Spanish Habsburg kings.40 The washing and dressing of the corpse for burial followed embalming and was carried out by a select group of the most senior servants of the chamber with due decorum and modesty. By contrast, the dressing of Isabel of Borbón for burial suggests a lamentation scene; “bath[ing] her in tears,” the eldest ladies of the queen’s chamber, “instead of rich materials, and precious brocades … dressed her up in the habit of Saint Clare, as this had been brought from the religious convent of Royal Discalced Sisters.”41 However, custom prescribed that the body thus dressed would be placed on a richly ornamented “lict de parade” and covered in “crimson taffeta” (Pompa funeral 6). This juxtaposition of luxurious courtly fabrics with the coarse monastic shroud enhanced their distinctive qualities, emphasizing the queen’s perfect humility and contemptus mundi in her final hours. The same contrast of princely splendor and monastic poverty is also illustrated by Pieter de Jode’s engraving, made after the design of Anton Sallaert, of the public display of the Infanta Isabel’s body in the royal chapel in the Coudenberg palace in Brussels (Figure 11.13). The costliness of the “lict de parade” is an homage to the deceased infanta, yet her body, dressed in the Franciscan garb, withdraws from this princely splendor. The dazzling fabrics with their botanical and faunal motives, nevertheless, do not only represent earthly pomp, but may also be understood as a representation of the heavenly realm the infanta has entered, as nature’s rejuvenation was traditionally considered a symbol of spiritual renewal and rebirth. The face, in particular, had to express the state of bliss the deceased experienced through the final moment of transition and entry into heaven. Palma claims that Sister Margaret of the Cross’s face “looked as admirable in death as while alive; her face was like a clear crystal, happy and devout, signifying the glory that her soul was enjoying in Heaven.”42 This concern about the adequate facial expression of the deceased may also have motivated staff at the Brussels court to display the body of Infanta Isabel without the long, black veil of her Franciscan garb (Figure 11.13). Charles V established the tradition for Spanish Habsburg kings to be buried in a simple white burial shroud (Eire 277). Philip IV departed from this custom; his body was dressed in a pearl-colored outfit with silver embroidery and white beaver hat, cape, and sword. The chronicler of the king’s funeral exequies deemed it necessary to justify this princely magnificence with three pages of exemplars from the Bible and history (Rodríguez de Monforte 26v–27), Moreover, men were generally embalmed, while women were not. 41 “[B]añandole con lagrimas … en vez de ricas telas, i preciosos brocados, le vistieron el Habito de Santa Clara, que se avia traido el Habito de santa Clara, que se avia traido del Religioso Convento de las Descalças Reales” (Pompa funeral 6). 42 “[T]an admirable, difunta, como viua; el rostro como vn cristal claro, alegre, y deuoto, significando la gloria que en el Cielo estaua gozando su alma” (Palma 275). 40

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Fig. 11.13

269

The Body of the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia in Franciscan Shroud displayed in the Chapel of the Coudenbergh palace. Pieter de Jode after Anton Sallaert. In Jean Puget de la Serre, Mausolée erigé a la memoire immortelle de tres-haulte … Princesse Isabelle Claire Eugenie d’Autriche, Infante d’Espagne … Brussels: Jean Papermans, 1634. © British Library, London.

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The veil was perhaps removed solely for duration of the public display of the corpse in order to grant full visibility of her face and its “joyful” radiance. It is unlikely that she was also buried without it as this would have represented a violation of the Franciscan etiquette, because every nun had to live, die, and be buried in her full monastic garb. Yet, because the infanta’s black veil was primarily a mourning veil, this sign of grief would indeed have been inappropriate, because death was regarded as the happy transition into the superior, eternal life. Inferior, earthly life, on the other hand, was merely the painful exile from complete union with the divine from which the faithful was only released through death. Isabel Clara Eugenia’s death also meant the end of her widowhood and her mourning for Albert, because death had reunited her with her deceased husband in heaven. For Margaret of the Cross, burial in the monastic shroud signaled that her death was the highpoint rather than end of her life and profession. The body of a fully professed nun was customarily dressed as a bride, strewn with flowers and the head crowned with a garland of flowers. Margaret’s monastic habit is clearly identified here as a wedding gown. According to Palma, she entered heaven “dressed her up in her habit, lace and white veil, and black, as she lived and died … the garments which in this life she had loved the most.”43 The adoption of the monastic habit was not merely perceived as a symbol, but constitutive of the understanding of the Imitatio Christi. Post-Tridentine spirituality, therefore, revived the notion of a Christoformitas that revolved around the body and the human flesh as a force field for the soul’s salvation. Furthermore, the manuscript sources pertaining to the monastic habits of the Spanish Habsburg court reveal that they are characterized by bodily and meditative practices and penitential asceticism. However, the tailoring of the religious garb was also influenced by the fashions of court costume, so that some habits of Habsburg princesses resulted in a hybrid of monastic and courtly traditions of dress. Despite its inherently conservative quality, the monastic habit offered Habsburg princes and princesses a range of subtle, yet poignant choices to express their individual identity and varying roles within the political network in which they operated. Works Cited Anne de Saint Barthelmy. Histoire du Monastere de RR Meres Carmelites deschaussées de la ville d’Anvers, depuis son establissement fait par la V.M. Anne de St. Barthelemy compagne de Ste Therese l’an 1612 iusqu’a l’an 1671 ecrite par une Religieuse du mesme conuent (written by mother Anne Eugene de Saint-Barthelémé). Convent Archives of the Discalced Carmelite Sisters. Antwerp: Rosier, 1644. Bale, John. Select Works … containing the Examinations of Lord Cobham, William Thorpe, and Anne Askewe; and the Image of both Churches. Ed. H. Christmas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1849. 43 “[V]istieronle su habito, cuerda, y velo blanco, y negro, como murio, y viuio … como las prendas, que esta vida mas auia amado” (Palma 274).

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Beyerlinck, Laurentius. Sereniss. Principis ALBERTI Austriæ Archiducis VII. Brabantiæ Ducis I. Laudatio Funebris. Antwerp: Ex Officina Plantiniana, 1622. Bordoni, Francesco. Archivium bullarum, privilegiorum, instrumentorum et decretorum fratrum et sororum Tertii Ordinis S. Francisci. Parma: M. Vignae, 1658. Brückner, Wolfgang. “Sterben im Mönchsgewand. Zum Funktionswandel einer Totenkleidsitte.” In Kontakte und Grenzen. Probleme der Volks-, Kulturund Sozialforschung. Festschrift für Gerhard Heilfurth zum 60. Geburtstag. Göttingen: Schwartz, 1969. 259–77. Calvo Poyato, José. Reinas viudas de España. Barcelona: Península, 2002. Chinchilla, Rosa Helena. “Juana of Austria: Courtly Spain and Devotional Expression.” Renaissance & Reformation 28 (2004): 21–33. Cruz, Anne J. “Juana of Austria, Patron of the Arts and Regent of Spain, 1554– 1559.” In The Rule of Women in Early Modern Europe. Ed. Anne J. Cruz and Mihoko Suzuki. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2009. 103–22. Eire, Carlos M.N. From Madrid to Purgatory: The Art and Craft of Dying in Sixteenth-Century Spain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Erasmus, Desiderius. Colloquies. Ed. and trans. Craig R. Thompson. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997. Esteban Estríngana, Alicia. Madrid y Bruselas. Relaciones de gobierno en la etapa postarchiducal (1621–1634). Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2005. Francis and Clare: The Complete Works. Trans. and intr. Regis J. Armstrong and Ignatius C. Brady, New York: Paulist Press, 1982. Flury, D. Mechthile. “La Tonaca di San Francesco.” Our Shrine Review 69.2 (1989): 46. Habig, Marion, ed. St Francis of Assisi, Writings and Early Biographies: English omnibus of the sources for the life of St. Francis. Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1973. Hamann, Brigitte. Die Habsburger. Ein biographisches Lexikon. Vienna: Ueberreuter, 1988. Hélyot, Pierre. Histoire des ordres monastiques, religieux et militaires: et des congregations seculieres de l’un & de l’autre sexe. 5 vols. Paris: J.B. Coignard, 1714–21. Horst, Nicolaas van der. The Pilgrimage of the Infanta Isabelle to Laken, 1622. Brussels, Musée de la Ville. Janssen, Elsje. El arte en la corte de los archiduques Alberto de Austria e Isabel Clara Eugenia, 1598–1633. Un reino imaginado. Cat. No. 85. Madrid: Salas de Exposiciones Temporales del Palacio Real, 1999. 266–7. Jenkins, Marianna. The State Portrait: Its Origin and Evolution. New York: College Art Association, 1947. Jesús María, Fray Juan de. Kloosterlijke Leiding of Vingerwijzingen bij de oefeningen van het kloosterleven, om die op geestelijke en volmaakte wijze te verrichten. Ghent: n. p., 1938.

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Jordan Gschwend, Annemarie. “Mujeres mecenas de la casa de Austria y la infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia.” In El arte en la corte de los archiduques Alberto de Austria e Isabel Clara Eugenia, 1598–1633: un reino imaginado. Cat. No. 85. Madrid: Salas de Exposiciones Temporales del Palacio Real, 1999. 135–7. ———. “Los retratos de Juana de Austria posteriores a 1554: La imagen de una Princesa de Portugal, una Regente de España y una jesuita.” Reales Sitios 151 (2002): 42–65. Lambert, Malcolm David. Franciscan Poverty: The Doctrine of the Absolute Poverty of Christ and the Apostles in the Franciscan order, 1210–1323. London: S.P.C.K, 1961. Lehfeldt, Elizabeth. Religious Women in Golden Age Spain: The Permeable Cloister. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005. Luther, Martin. Martin Luthers Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Vol. XXX. Weimar: Böhlau, 1909. Manrique, Angel. La vie de la Venerable Mere Anne de Iesus disciple et compagne de la Mere Saincte Terese de Iesus. Principale augmentatrice de son Ordre & fondatrice d’iceluy en France & en Flandre. Brussels: Godefroy Schoevaerts, 1639. Martínez Mazo, Juan Bautista. Infanta Margarita Teresa of Spain in Mourning Dress, 1666. Oil on canvas, 209 x 147 cm. Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado. Metz, René. La Consécration des Vierges dans l’église romaine. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1954. Miræus, Aubertus. Serenissimæ Principis Isabellæ Claræ Evgeniæ Hispaniarum Infantis Lavdatio Funebris. Die XXIX. Ianuarij M.DC.XXXIV. Antwerp: Ex officina Plantiniana Balthasaris Moreti, 1634. Moorman, John. A History of the Franciscan Order-From its Origins to the Year 1517. Oxford: Clarendon, 1968. Nimmo, Duncan. Reform and Division in the Medieval Franciscan Order, Bibliotheca Seraphico-Capuccina no. 33. Rome: Capuchin Historical Institute, 1987. Norris, Herbert. Tudor Costume and Fashion. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1997. Orso, Steven H. Art and Death at the Spanish Habsburg Court: The Royal Exequies for Philip IV. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1989. “Padre Pio the Franciscan.” http://www.ewtn.com/PadrePio/franciscan/ofm. htm#Habit. Palma, Juan de. Vida de la serenissima infanta Sor Margarita de la Crvz: Religiosa descalça de S. Clara. Madrid: n.p., 1636. Pompa funeral, Honras y Exequias en la muerte de la muy alta y Católica Señora Doña Isabel de Borbon, Reyna des las Españas. Madrid: Diego Díaz de la Carrera, 1645. Puget de la Serre, Jean. Mausolée erigé a la memoire immortelle de tres-haulte … Princesse Isabelle Clare Eugenie d’Austriche, Infante d’Espagne … Brussels: Iean Pepermans, 1634. Relation des vertus signalées que nous auons vû reluire en n[ost]re S. mere Terese de Jesus Maria … Brussels: Bibliothèque Royale Albert 1er, mss. 14148 and 14149.

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“Religious Profession.” Catholic Encyclopedia. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen /12451b.htm. “Religious Veil.” Catholic Encyclopedia. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/153 21c.htm. Rodríguez de Monforte, Pedro. Descripcion de la honras que se hicieron a la Catholica Magd de D. Phelippe quarto … en el Real Convento de la Encarnacion. Madrid: Francisco Nieto, 1666. Rodríguez G. de Ceballos, Alfonso. “Arte y mentalidad religiosa en el Museo de las Descalzas Reales.” Reales Sitios 35.138 (1998): 13–24. Rossetti, Felice. L’abito francescano. Frigento: Casa Mariana, 1989. Sánchez, Magdalena S. The Empress, the Queen and the Nun: Women and Power at the Court of Philip III of Spain. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. Taylor, Lou. Mourning Dress. A Costume and Social History. London: Allen and Unwin, 1983. Teresa of Ávila, Saint. The Complete Works of Saint Teresa of Jesus. Trans. and ed. E. Allison Peers. 3 vols. London: Sheed & Ward, 1946. Terrier, Jean. Portraicts des SS. Vertvs de la Vierge contemplees par feue S.A.S.M. Isabelle Clere Evgenie Infante d’Espagne, Pin 1635. Ed. and intr., Cordula van Wyhe, Glasgow Emblem Studies, VII (2002). Glasgow: University of Glasgow, Department of French, 2002. Velázquez, Diego. Las meninas, 1656. Oil on canvas. 3.2 x 2.76 m. Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado. Villermont, Countess Marie Hennequin de. L’Infante Isabelle, Gouvernante des Pays-Bas. 2 vols. Paris: Tamines, 1912. Wadding, Lucas. B.P. Francisci Assiatis Opvscula nunc primum collecta. Antwerp: Officina Plantiniana, 1623. Wang, Andreas. Der ‘Miles Christianus’ im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert und seine mittelalterliche Tradition. Ein Beitrag zum Verhältnis von sprachlicher und graphischer Bildlichkeit. Frankfurt am Mein: Peter Lang, 1975. Wyhe, Cordula van. “Court and Convent: the Infanta Isabella and her Franciscan Confessor Andres de Soto.” Sixteenth Century Journal 35.2 (2004): 419–24. ———. “Piety and Politics in the Royal Convent of Discalced Carmelite nuns in Brussels 1607–1646.” Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique 100.1 (2005): 475. ———. “The Making and Meaning of the Franciscan Habit at Spanish Habsburg Courts.” In Dressing the Spanish Way: Prestige and Usage of Spanish Attire at the European Courts in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Ed. JoséLuis Colomer et al. Madrid: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica, 2010. 1–40. ———, ed. The Spiritual Diaries of Sister Margaret of the Mother of God (1635– 1637). Trans. Susan Smith, with an essay by Paul Arblaster, The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe. Toronto: Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, forthcoming. Yates, Father Philippe. Personal correspondence to author. March 26, 2008.

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Index Page numbers followed by f indicate illustrations; those followed by t indicate tables. Acuña, Jusepe de, one of Infanta Catalina Micaela’s letters read to, 92n66 Agatha, Saint, play based on martyrdom of 50–51 Agnes of Habsburg (1281?–1364), married Árpád, King of Hungary 31 Alba, II Duke of (Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo) (1460–1531) 48n19 Alba, III Duke of (Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel) (1507–1582) Albista faction displaced by Éboli faction 136 and royal household of Philip II 140, 141 Alba, VII Duke of (Antonio Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez de Ribera) (1615–1690), letter to Cardinal Aragón 186–7, 187n56 Albert VII, Archduke of Austria childlessness 13, 35 Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia as guardian of his legacy 265, 267 marriage to Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia 1 Albertine Line vs. Leopoldine Line 28 Albrecht I, Holy Roman Emperor (1255– 1308), Habsburg loss of imperial throne after his assassination 30 Alcázar palace; see also Bidasoa River crossing Hall or Salon of Mirrors setting for Mariana’s portraits 15, 199–207 Inés familiar with sculpture of Virgin of the Expectation in queen’s chapel 163 Nativity matins recited by queens giving birth 153 Alfonso X the Wise, King of Castile, queens’ households identified with bedchamber 120

Álvarez de Toledo, Fadrique; see Alba, II Duke of (Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo) (1460–1531) Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez de Ribera, Antonio; see Alba, VII Duke of (Antonio Álvarez de Toledo y Enríquez de Ribera) (1615–1690) Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, Fernando; see Alba, III Duke of (Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel) (1507–1582) Ana de Jesús, Sor (1545–1621), habit given to Isabel Clara Eugenia 244 Ana Dorotea de la Concepción, Sor (1611–1694) birth and childhood in Vienna 97–9, 99n6, 99n7 chapel of Guadalupe commissioned by 102–3, 103n20 education at Descalzas Reales 102–3 genealogical chart 98t her supposed silence and quietness 106–7 journey to Spain 99–102 letters as means to exercise authority beyond convent 9–11 portrait by Peter Paul Rubens 96f reaffirmation of vows 103–6 sacred and secular international connections 107–13, 267 Ana of Austria (1601–1666) painting of “exchange” with Isabel of Borbón 4n15, 236, 237 preparation for marriage to Louis XIII 4, 227, 230 pressured to dress in French style 16 queen, regent and queen dowager of France 33–4 Anguissola, Sofonisba payment due portrait of Isabel of Valois copied by Pantoja de la Cruz 153, 154, 155f

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Anna of Austria (1549–1580) gave Philip II one son Philip III 13n31 ordinances for queens’ households 137–40 Anna of Habsburg (1280?–1328) married into Brandenburg then SilesiaWroclaw 30 Anne of Bohemia and Hungary (1503– 1547), marriage to Ferdinand I secured lands for Habsburgs 3n9 Anne, Saint, in paintings as model for child bearing 165–6, 168–9 Anunciación, by Pantoja de la Cruz 156 Aponte, Marcelo de, claim to have seen apparition of Virgin at Ana Dorotea’s ceremonies 106 Aragón; see also Ferdinand of Aragón (1452–1516) Castilian household adopted as mode of service 123 kings made wives lieutenants 82–3, 83n16 Aragón, Pascual, Cardinal, letter from Duke of Alba on Mariana and Carlos 186–7 Aranda, Countess of (Luisa María de Padilla) (1590?–1646) mothers should nurse own children 168 on birth of children 152–3 on illegitimate children guaranteeing succession of noble houses 163–4 on keeping men out of birthing chamber 158 ars moriendi 267–70; see also monastic habit art and culture paintings and tapestries at Descalzas Reales 103–7 paintings at Villa Poggio Imperiale 47 patronage of arts by Habsburg women 6–7, 11 performances organized or attended by Maria Maddalena 47–55 works symbolic to childbirth 12–13, 152, 156–9 Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, Saint, on strong women 204 Austria extending power through marriage 1n2, 25–6 Habsburg lineage 1–4

Aytona, IV Marquis of (Guillén Ramón de Moncada) (1635–1670) 180n25 Baltasar Carlos, Prince (1629–1646) 236 celebrating feast days to protect health of 164n40 heir apparent to Philip IV died at age sixteen 14, 197 Barberini, Francesco, Cardinal 112–13, 235–6 Barcelona, gifts to Ana Dorotea during visit 101n14 Bavaria, Habsburg daughters married to rulers of 27, 29–30 Beatriz of Portugal (1373–1420), queens’ household 121, 122 Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria, nube!; see “Let others fight – you, happy Austria, marry!” Bérenger, Jean, on three principles guiding Habsburg dynasty 3 Berenguela of Castile (1180–1246), royal household 120 Bidasoa River crossing Exchange of Princesses portrait 4n15, 236 painting removed from Alcázar 237 represented peace between France and Spain 230 birth at the Habsburg court birth and material culture at early modern Spanish court 153–9 eggs and chicken broth, importance for child bearing and as symbols 166, 168 expectations of fecundity 10, 12–14 maternal vows 160–69 midwives, leadership in birthing chamber 158 portraits with symbolic elements related to procreation; see also layette 151–3 wet nurses, requirements for 168–9 Bohemia, Habsburg daughters married to rulers of 27, 30 Bonaventura, Saint, on Saint Francis 245, 246n11 Borja, Francisco de, use of Burgundian influence 131 bouche of court (free food and drink) 121, 133–5t

Index Bourbon dynasty, rivalry with Habsburgs 32; see also Isabel of Borbón (1602–1644) Brandenburg, Habsburg daughters married to rulers of 29, 30 Briceño, Cristóbal de, complaints about Catalina and Carlo 86–7 Bridget of Sweden, Saint (d.1373), visions of Mary giving birth to Jesus on her knees 163 Buen Retiro palace portraits in Hall of Realms 237 role in separation of Carlos II from his mother 189–90, 200 Bureo, institution of House of Burgundy 136 Burgundy; see also Low Countries domains added to Habsburg possessions 2 grefier for Isabel of Valois had served in 132 influence on European royal households 123–31, 125n36, 131, 135–6, 138–42 model of royal entries into cities 137 Pamphili desire to govern 108 queens’ households 11 territory once known as 33 butler, office documented in court of Beatriz of Portugal 122 Caecilia Renate, queen of Poland (1611–1644) 28 Calderara, Galasso, on Maria Cristina (daughter of Maria Maddalena) 43n5 Calderón de la Barca, Pedro, mythological dramas commissioned by Mariana 202–3 camareras; see ladies-in-waiting Cambrai, Treaty of 4n14 Caracca, Giovanni, portrait of Catalina Micaela, Museo Civico Casa Cavassa, Saluzzo 78f Cárdenas Zapata, Íñigo de, Spanish ambassador to France, reprimand of Isabel of Borbón 229–30 Carillo, Martín, Elogios de mujeres insignes del viejo testamento 103–4, 103n20

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Carinthia, Tyrol and Gorizia brought into Habsburg fold 30 Carlo Emanuele I, Duke of Savoy (1562–1630); see also Catalina Micaela, Infanta, Duchess of Savoy (1567–1597) relationship with daughter Margherita 8, 63–4, 65 strategic marriages for his daughters 61 Carlos II, King of Spain (1661–1700); see also Mariana of Austria (1634–1696) Ana Dorotea’s intercessions with 111 as last Habsburg king of Spain 14, 197 assistance provided by testament of Philip IV 216 emancipation obstructed by mother 14–15, 180–88 household 180, 180n21, 186, 217–18 marriage negotiations 175, 175–6n3, 183–4, 191–2, 218 move from Alcázar to Palace of Buen Retiro 189–90 portraits in Salón de los Espejos 200 Caroline, Marquise of Austria letters to her sister Ana Dorotea 108 widow of François Thomas Perrenot de Granvelle 108n36 Carreño de Miranda, Juan Mariana’s portrait at Museo Nacional del Prado 174f Mariana’s portrait at Museo Romántico de Madrid 205n29, 206f Mariana’s portrait at Palacio Tavera, Toledo, Spain 208f Mariana’s portrait at Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando 201f painter for Mariana of Austria 199–202, 204–10, 212, 214, 214n51, 218 Castile Castilian party to organize queens’ household 137–40, 138n80 model for queens’ households 120–25 struggle for household model vs. Burgundy’s 125–8, 131–2, 140–42 Castilleja de la Cuesta, Parish Church of Santiago, location of Virgen de la Expectación (sculpture) 161–2f Catalina Maria d’Este (d.1628), novice at Descalzas Reales 97n3, 100

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Catalina Micaela, Infanta, Duchess of Savoy (1567–1597) at investiture of Saint Margaret of the Cross 251 death after bearing ten children 10 devotion to Vicoforte 51 dowry rights 71n42 early life 80 frequent letters to Carlo 9–10, 81–2, 84–9, 92 genealogical chart 80t gifts exchanged with Carlo 89–91 governing in husband Carlo’s absence 10, 10n26, 79, 82–4, 91–2 inherited marten amulet from Isabel of Valois 13, 154 mother of Margherita of SavoyGonzaga 60 ordinances for Philip II’s daughters’ households 136, 137, 140 portrait 78f Catherine de’ Medici (1519–1589) appointed 162 members to household of Isabel of Valois 131–2 fertility advice to Isabel of Valois 153–4 Cerda, Juan Francisco de la; see Medinaceli VII Duke of (Juan Francisco de la Cerda) (1637–1691) chairs in paintings of Spanish royalty 218 signified high status 204–5, 231 chapines 232, 232n27 chaplaincies established by Countess of Olivares 164n40 Charles I, King of Hungary (1288–1342), marriage to Clementia of Habsburg 30 Charles II Francis, Archduke of Austria children with Maria Anna of Bavaria and their marriages 42 Jesuit and promoter of CounterReformation 43 Charles of Ghent; see Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) Charles the Bold, ceremonial etiquettes 123 Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) abdication in 1556 189

divided Western world between Ferdinand I and Philip II 3 household in Ghent based on Burgundian model 125n35 known as King Carlos I of united Spanish kingdoms 35n25 queens’ households under 125–31 tradition for burying Spanish Habsburg kings 268n40 Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (1685–1740), appointment of Maria Elisabeth as regent in Low Countries 36 Cherasco, Treaty of 65, 236 child bearing; see birth at the Habsburg court; motherhood children; see also birth at the Habsburg court; illegitimate Habsburg children; motherhood and pregnancies of Catalina Micaela 10, 88, 91 Countess of Olivares’s concern for 164 death of Ferdinand and Isabel’s son 123 death of Infanta María of Austria 156 education of; see Coolidge, Grace; González de Salcedo, Pedro Isabel of Borbón’s miscarriages and infant deaths 236 mentioned in Catalina Micaela’s letters 82 of Albrecht I and Elisabeth Katharina 30–31 of Charles II Francis and Maria Anna of Bavaria 13, 42 of Ferdinand of Aragón and Isabel of Castile 3n7 of Habsburg fathers and/or mothers in France (1530–1793) 33 of Henri IV of France and Marie de’ Medici 225 of Maria Maddalena 43–4 of Philip IV and Isabel of Borbón 14, 227, 236 of Philip IV and Mariana 186 of Rudolf I and Gertrud 29–30 of Rudolph, Holy Roman Emperor 10, 98–9 portable portraits of Catalina Micaela’s children 88

Index Christine of Lorraine co-regency in Florence with Maria Maddalena 7, 41, 44–8 natal family networks attracted diplomats to Florence 50 Cicognini, Jacopo, Il martirio di Sant’Agatha 50–51 Clare of Assisi, Saint (1194–1253) founder of Second order of St Francis 248 habit believed worn by 249f Poor Clare Colletines 267 Poor Clares houses in Madrid and Vienna 34n23 sisters worked in same habit all week 248, 250 Sor Margaret’s veneration for habit of 253–4, 270 Claudia de’ Medici (1604–1648) listening to comedy incognito 53 wedding affected by Cosimo II’s death 49–50 Clementia of Habsburg (1262?–1293), marriage to Charles Martell 30 clothing; see dress; monastic habit Coello, Claudio Mariana’s portrait at Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle 261f Mariana’s portrait at Museo Nacional del Prado 215f portraits of Mariana of Austria 213–14 color of monastic habits 246, 248, 248n13 commedia dell’arte 52–4 comuneros and Castilian households 126 confessors, Austrian Jesuits vs. Spanish Franciscans 262 convents; see also Descalzas Reales; Discalced Sisters and religious houses established by Habsburg widows 31, 34, 34n23 convent of Saint Teresa and Saint Joseph in Antwerp 244 convent of St. Agnes zur Himmelpforte as temporary home for Ana Dorotea 99 cook, household office of great responsibility 121–2 Coolidge, Grace, on family lineage and gender roles 41n1 correspondence; see letters

279

Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1590–1621) marriage to Maria Maddalena of Austria 7, 43–4 period of mourning observed during carnevale 49–50 Coudenberg palace, Infanta Isabel’s body displayed at 268–70 Council of Trent and Habsburg religious beliefs 43, 43n4 Counter-Reformation, house of Habsburg reunited in figure of Ana Dorotea 101 Covarrubias, Sebastián de 91, 186 Cristina of Borbone, Duchess of Savoy, marriage to Vittorio Amedeo 63 cross, association of religious garb with 244 culture; see art and culture curatela/guardianship; see also tutela/ tutorship curador as legal term 214–16 importance of role 179 Mariana’s function as curadora/curator 212–14, 217–18 death; see monastic habit; specific persons by name Descalzas Reales; see also Ana Dorotea de la Concepción, Sor (1611–1694); Margaret of the Cross, Sor (1567– 1633); María of Austria, Holy Roman Empress (1528–1603) Ana Dorotea free to receive visitors and come and go 107–8, 107n33 Ana Dorotea’s reception at 102 center of power for Habsburg women 10–11, 97, 108 dynastic continuity at the convent 100 founded by Juana of Castile 34n23 Mariana allowed to stay under tutelage of Ana Dorotea 109 paintings and tapestries 6–7, 103–7 d’Este, Alfonso; see Modena, Duke of (Alfonso III d’Este) (1591–1644), marriage to Isabella of Savoy Díaz, Francisco, on Ana Dorotea 101, 106 Discalced Sisters; see also Descalzas Reales Discalced Carmelite order in Brussels 256, 262, 264, 267 Franciscan convent in Olivares 160–61

280

Early Modern Habsburg Women

Don Juan José of Austria (1629–1679) called then released by Carlos II 181n29, 186–7 commissioned text capturing dilemma of Carlos II 185 conflicts with Mariana 180–82, 197 death in 1679 192 took power from Mariana (1677–1679) 176, 217–18 dowry rights of Margherita of SavoyGonzaga 64–7, 64n18, 64n19, 70–71 dress, sartorial politics of Habsburg women 15–18; see also Isabel of Borbón (1602–1644); Mariana of Austria (1634–1696); monastic habit; widow’s garb/widow’s weeds Dyck, Anthony van, portrait of Infanta Isabel 262, 264 Éboli faction displaced members of Albista faction 136–7 Eckhart von Hochheim (Meister Eckhart), writings dedicated to Dowager Queen Agnes 31 Eire, Carlos, on use of Franciscan shroud 245 Eisenach, Germany, first Franciscan monastery 258 Eleonor of Plantagenet (1162–1214) 120 Eleonora di Toledo (wife of Cosimo I de’ Medici) (1549–1609) 48n19 Eleonora Gonzaga della Rovere, objects in Titian’s portrait of 212 Eleonora Gonzaga, Holy Roman Empress (1598–1655), objects sent to Isabel of Borbón in 1624 158–9, 168 Eleonora (Leonor) of Mantua (1630–1686), daughter of Margherita, later consort to Ferdinand III 66 Elisabeth Katharina, Holy Roman Empress (1262?–1313), marriage to Albrecht I 30 Elisabeth of Habsburg (1285?–1352), marriage to Duke Friedrich IV of Lorraine 31 Elisabeth of Valois; see Isabel of Valois (1545–1568) Elisabeth, Queen of France (1554–1592), both parents Habsburgs 33

Elizabeth, Archduchess of Austria (1554–1592) as “queen’s apprentice” 4 marriage to Charles IX and return to Austria 4n14 Elizabeth of Hungary, Saint (1207–1231), founder of Third Order of St. Francis 256–7, 258 Elogios de mujeres insignes del viejo testamento (Carrillo) 103–4, 103n20 epistolary power; see Ana Dorotea de la Concepción, Sor (1611–1694); Catalina Micaela, Infanta, Duchess of Savoy (1567–1597); letters Erasmus (1466/9–1536) derided burials in Franciscan habit 245–6 Escorial; see Monasterio de El Escorial Espinosa, Diego de, Cardinal, Castilian party asked to organize queens’ household 137–40 Exchange of Princesses; see Bidasoa River crossing expenses; see households, royal Federico of Urbino, marriage to Claudia d’ Medici 49 Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor (1503– 1564), Habsburg empire split into Spanish and Austrian branches 3 Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (1578–1637), arrangements for Ana Dorotea’s travel 100 Ferdinand of Aragón (1452–1516) children 3n7 division of Castile’s royal household 125 marital alliances for political stability 3 Ferdinando I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1590–1621), desire to educate Margherita’s daughter Maria 63–4 Ferdinando II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1610–1670) always addressed as “His Highness” 48n20 claims that he was ruled by his co-regents 45–7 Maria Maddalena of Austria as co-regent for 7

Index marriage to Vittoria della Rovere of Urbino 44 portrait as child with mother 40f Fernández de Oviedo, Gonzalo, description of Isabel’s Castilian household 123–4 Fernando de Austria, Cardinal, father of Sor Mariana of the Cross 97n3 fertility; see birth at the Habsburg court; motherhood Florence (principality); see Maria Maddalena of Austria, Grand Duchess of Florence (1589–1631) Fonti d’Ardenna, Le 51 France Catalina Micaela and Carlo tried to gain throne of 92n64 change in Spain’s foreign relations with 233–8 Habsburg daughters married to rulers of 28 Habsburg influences 32–3 Mantua and Monferrato given to Gonzaga-Nevers dynastic line 65 Francesco I d’Este; see Modena, Duke of (Francesco I d’Este) (1610–1658) Francis of Assisi, Saint (1122–1226) grey cloak to Elizabeth of Hungary 258 habit believed worn by 244, 247f meditation on his habit 245 symbolism of his habit 246, 248 Franciscan Observants habit worn by Infanta Isabel 262 ideal of absolute poverty 245 Franciscan order; see also Clare of Assisi, Saint (1194–1253) burial shrouds 246, 267–8 matters discussed by Ana Dorotea and Méndez de Haro 109 saints’ habits venerated by 244n5 Second order founded by Saint Clare 248 sharing of habit by friars 250 split into two branches 245n8 Tertiary or Third Order of St. Francis 71, 105, 248, 256, 256n30, 258, 260, 262 Francisco de Jesús María, Father, on Virgen de la Expectación (sculpture) 161

281

Francisco Eusebio, Count of Pötting, visits to Ana Dorotea 110 Francisco Gómez de Sandoval; see Lerma, I Duke of (Francisco Gómez de Sandoval) (1552?–1625) Friedrich of Habsburg defeated at Mühldorf in 1322 30, 31 Galasso Calderara, Estella, criticism of Maria Maddalena 45–6 Gaztelu, Martín de, member of Castilian party 137–8 genealogical charts Ana Dorotea de la Concepción, Marquise of Austria (later Sor Ana Dorotea) 98t House of Habsburg xviiit Infanta Catalina Micaela 80t Isabel of Borbón 225t Margherita of Savoy-Gonzaga 59t Maria Maddalena of Austria 42t Gertrud von Hohenberg and Heigerloch (1225–1281) children and their marriages 29–30 marriage to Rudolf I 29 Gheynst, Johanna Maria van der, mistress of Charles V and mother of Margaret of Parma 35 gifts; see also objects among aristocracy as patronage 90, 90n57 exchanged by Catalina Micaela and Carlo 89–91 Mariana’s portrait for Carlos’s sixteenth birthday 190–91 pearls offered by Philip II to Catalina Micaela 81n5 to Ana Dorotea from Bishop of Barcelona 101n14 Gómez de Sandoval, Francisco; see Lerma, I Duke of (Francisco Gómez de Sandoval) (1552?–1625) Gonzaga, Eleonora, Holy Roman Empress; see Eleonora Gonzaga, Holy Roman Empress (1598–1655) Gonzaga, Francesco IV; see Mantua, Duke of (Francesco IV Gonzaga) (1586–1612) Gonzaga, Maria; see Maria Gonzaga of Mantua (1609–1660)

282

Early Modern Habsburg Women

González de Contreras, Martín, mayordomo of Eleanor of Plantagenet 120 González de Salcedo, Pedro, educational treatise 184 governance “by word of mouth” reflected in portraits of popes and cardinals 210 Granvelles of Cantecroy 108n36, 108n37 gravitas/solemnity Isabel’s break with at Pardo Palace 234–5 of Spanish Habsburgs 227–30 Greer, Margaret R., on Pandora 202n16 Groenendaal, Treaty of 81n5 Guzmán, Enrique Felípez de; see Mairena, Marquis of (Pedro de Guzmán y Zúñiga) (1613–1646) Guzmán, Gaspar de; see Olivares, CountDuke of (Gaspar de Guzmán) Guzmán, House of, efforts to secure succession 160, 163–4 Guzmán, María de (1609–1626), and Virgin of the Expectation 160–61 Habsburg, House of burial customs different for kings than queens 268, 268n40 genealogical chart xviiit hereditary Habsburg lands 3, 3n6 lions and eagles symbols of royalty and 202 off imperial scene for a century after 1322 30, 31 power constantly negotiated through reciprocal political relations 59–60 virtues displayed in Salón de los Espejos 203–4, 203n20 Habsburg women; see also specific Habsburg women by name as “political creatures” 3–6, 41 birthing Habsburgs 12–15 epistolary and spatial power 9–12 establishment of religious houses by widows 33–4 female rule in the Low Countries 34–6 French connections 32–3 geographic distribution 27–9 leaving home for the sake of the House 8–9, 25–6 medieval transitions 30–32

“retirement” of widows not always the case 189 rights to inheritance and succession 175, 175n2, 198 role in establishment of the dynasty 17–18, 29–30, 36 Spanish and Austrian lineages 1–4 translations of Habsburg names 18 transnational and transcultural ties 4–9 visual and sartorial politics 15–18 women’s rule accepted in Spain before Austria 5n17 Hale, J.R., judgments of Maria Maddalena and Christine of Lorraine 47 Hall of Mirrors; see Alcázar palace Harness, Kelley on Maria Maddalena’s patronage of arts 47–8 on religious topics selected at Medici court 54 Hedwig of Habsburg (c.1259–1286), marriage into Brandenburg dynasty 29 Henri II de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, visit to Florence, 50–51 Henri IV, King of France (1553–1610) death by assassination 16, 226 father of Isabel of Borbón 225 Henrietta Maria of France (1609–1669), Isabel asked sister for portrait in Spanish dress 231 Hernández, Rosilie, on Elogios 103–4, 103n20 Herrera Barnuevo, Sebastián, paintings of Mariana as ruler based on portraits by 200, 205–12 Holy Roman Empire eight Habsburg princesses were empresses 5 emperors dominated by Habsburgs 27–8 first Habsburg empress 27–8 Habsburgs reached throne in 1273 29–30 households, royal at time of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V 125–31 ballesteros 121 bedchamber identified with queens’ households 120, 122 camarera mayor 85 camareras; see ladies-in-waiting (camareras)

Index Castilian vs. Burgundian models 11–12, 86n34, 141–2 contino 121 despensero mayor 121 established for Carlos II 179–80, 180n21, 213, 217–18 expenses bouche of court for Isabel of Valois 133–5t cutting costs of queen’s household 138 of queen’s household of Juana of Castile 129t of royal household under Charles V 126, 129–30 mayordomo mayor as administrator of queens’ households 120 order reflected in good government and loyalty to dynasty 119–20 ordinances during time of Anna of Austria 137–40 ordinances during time of Isabel de Valois 131–7 ordinances for Spanish queens and infantas 140–41 provisions from Spain for vicereine of Portugal 69–70 queen’s households could be economically independent 121 queens’ households in Castile 120–25 reposteros 121–2, 128–30 rules regarding ladies-in-waiting 84, 85–7 stewards frustrated by Catalina Micaela 86–7, 88 Hungary, Habsburg daughters married to rulers of 27, 27n9, 31 hunting favorite pastime of Maria Maddalena 44 feature of Prince Wladyslaw visit 51 Idiáquez, Juan de, orders for Catalina Micaela’s household 140 illegitimate Habsburg children 35, 97n3, 109, 163–4, 180; see also Ana Dorotea de la Concepción, Sor (1611–1694); Margaret of the Cross, Sor (1567–1633) Immaculate Conception, Ana Dorotea’s defense of 112

283

Imperial Election of 1273 29–30 Instrucción de la mujer cristiana, by Juan Luis Vives 152 inventory bond and oath as duties of curador/ guardian 216 of household of Carlos II 217–18 investiture; see profession Isabel Clara Eugenia, Infanta, Archduchess of the Low Countries (1566–1635) at investiture of Saint Margaret of the Cross 251 body in Franciscan shroud 268–70, 269f childlessness 13 marriage to Albert of Austria 1 monastic widow’s garb 260, 262–7 ordinances for Philip II’s daughters’ households 136, 137 personal interest in niece Ana Dorotea 101, 106 photograph, Franciscan habit of 263f, 266f portrait in monastic widow’s garb 17, 265f portraits and tapestries by Rubens 105, 105n25, 105n26, 264 relied on skills of Flemish painters 6–7 sent Spanish dress to Isabel of Borbón 16, 227–8 served as governor of Low Countries 4n14, 35–6 support for Isabel of Borbón’s journey 101n13 Isabel of Borbón (1602–1644) adoption of Spanish attire and ways 4, 16–17, 227–36, 250–51 as courier of letters for Ana Dorotea 108 as queen mother: a renewed body politic 236–7 body politic of 225–7 Countess of Olivares’s position in her household 160 death from Saint Anthony’s fire after miscarriage 239 from French grace to Spanish solemnity 230–32 genealogical chart 225t objects received when approaching delivery 158–9, 168

284

Early Modern Habsburg Women

painting of “exchange” with Ana of Austria 4n15, 236, 237 portrait, anonymous, Prado 224f portrait by Frans II Pourbus 229 portrait on horseback by Velázquez 226, 226n3 war, regency, and death of a Habsburg queen 237–40 Isabel of Castile, Queen (1451–1509) children 3n7 household model 12, 122–5, 122n25, 142 marital alliances for political stability 3 Isabel of Portugal (Aviz), Holy Roman Empress (1503–1539) 127, 131, 212 Isabel of Portugal, Saint, identification of Isabel of Borbón with 235 Isabel of Valois (1545–1568) death 137 Philip II’s instructions for her travel and household 131–7 portrait with marten amulet by Sofonisba Anguissola 13, 153, 154, 155f Isabella of Savoy, marriage to Alfonso d’Este 61 Isabella, Queen of Denmark (1501–1526), expelled from kingdom 28 Jagiellon dynasty 28 Juan, Prince of Asturias (1478–1497), death of son of Ferdinand and Isabel 123 Juana of Austria, Infanta, regent of Spain (1535–1573) household 137 monastic widow’s garb 260 portrait by Sánchez Coello workshop 212, 259f, 260 Juana of Castile (1479–1555) layette in Nacimiento de la Virgen (Pantoja de la Cruz) 158 married Philip I the Fair 3, 124 signed documents until her death in spite of purported madness 3n8 Tordesillas household 125, 126, 128–30 Juana of Ponthieu (r.1237–1352), second wife of Ferdinand III 122 Juana of Portugal; see Juana of Austria, Infanta, regent of Spain (1535–1573)

Judith and Holofernes; see Tintoretto, Jacopo Judith of Habsburg (1271–1297), marriage to Ottokar’s son King Václav II 30 Junta de Gobierno; see Regency Council as advisory board to Mariana Jutta of Habsburg (1271–1297) became a countess of Öttingen in Swabia 31 Karl, Archduke of Austria, visit of Maria Maddalena’s brother 51 Katharina of Austria (1533–1572) repudiated by husband because of infertility 13n32 Katharina of Habsburg (1256–1282), marriage to Otto of Bavaria 29–30 Katharina of Habsburg (1295–1323), marriage to Charles Anjou 31 Khevenhüller, Hans Christoph and other Imperial ambassadors visited Ana Dorotea 107 arrangements for Ana Dorotea’s travel 100, 102 Königsfelden Abbey, Franciscan house 31, 34 ladies-in-waiting (camareras) as officers of royal households 122 to Catalina Micaela 84, 86–7 to Infanta Isabel 256 to Maria de’ Medici 238 “Ladies’ Peace” (treaty of Cambrai) 4n14 Ladrada, IV Marquis of, (Gonzalo de la Cerda), member of Castilian party 137–40 Las Huelgas convent in Burgos 109, 110 layette in Nacimiento de la Virgen (Pantoja de la Cruz) 158 Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor and Mariana’s choice of bride for Carlos II 183 and marriage of Carlos II 191–2 Leopoldine Line vs. Albertine Line 28 Lerma, I Duke of (Francisco Gómez de Sandoval) (1552?–1625) help in arranging Habsburg matches 46 political influence at court of Philip III 97, 231–2 “Let others fight – you, happy Austria, marry!” 1n2, 25–6

Index letters; see also Catalina Micaela, Infanta, Duchess of Savoy (1567–1597) Mariana’s epistolary contact with members of court 14 of Ana Dorotea with royal family and other leaders 107–13 of Habsburg women 9–12 written by Ana Dorotea as her aunt’s secretary 103 Leynì, Andrea Provana di, Catalina Micaela’s disagreement with 83–4 “lict de Parade,” body in habit placed on richly ornamented 268 Lithuania, Habsburg daughters married to rulers of 28 Lorraine, Habsburg daughters married to rulers of 31 Louis XIII, King of France (1601–1643) betrothal and marriage to Ana of Austria 1, 4, 16, 18, 226, 230 brother of Isabel of Borbón 225, 227–9 correspondence with Margherita of Savoy-Gonzaga 66–7, 67n28 Louis XIV, King of France (1638–1715), regency of Ana of Austria 33–4 Louise of Savoy (1476–1531), “Ladies’ Peace” 4n14 Low Countries added to Habsburg possessions 2 female rule in 4n14, 34–6 Spanish governorship lost for lack of heir 13–14, 35–6 Ludwig (the Stern) Wittelsbach, Count of Bavaria and palatine elector (r.1253–1294) 29–30 Luis I, King of Portugal (1838–1889) 8 Luisa de las Llaga, Sor 102n18 Luther, Martin (1483–1546) derided burials in Franciscan habit 246 Luxembourg dynasty in Moravia, two Habsburg archduchesses married into 32 Magdalena; see Maria Maddalena of Austria, Grand Duchess of Florence (1589–1631) Magdeburg (Hardegg) and Coucy, Katharina, niece of Friedrich I married into 31n17

285

Mairena, Marquis of (Enrique de Guzmán) (1613–1646) 163–4 mantilla; see veil Mantua Margherita’s political contacts after exile 63, 66–7 Margherita’s second forced departure 68 relations among Spain, Savoy and 60 wars of succession 65, 236 Mantua, Duke of (Francesco IV Gonzaga) (1586–1612) 8, 61 Margaret of Austria, Archduchess; see Margaret of the Cross, Sor (1567–1633) Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy (1480–1530) “Ladies’ Peace” 4n14 ruler of Low Countries as regent 34–5 Margaret of Parma, Duchess (1522–1586) patronage system of another illegitimate Habsburg 111 served as governor of Low Countries 4n14, 35 Margaret of the Cross, Sor (1567–1633) activities and political influence 107 as role model for Infanta Isabel 267 Carrillo dedicated Elogios to 103–4 convent education of Ana Dorotea 100, 102–4 engravings by Pedro Perete 251, 252f, 254, 255f illegitimate daughter of Juan José de Austria 97n3 in death 268, 270 Infanta Isabel as godmother for 106 investiture of Archduchess Margaret as 250–56 mentor of Sor Ana Dorotea at the convent 10 wore monastic habit of St. Clare 17, 270 Margareta of Habsburg, Duchess and Electress (1416/17–1486) descendents founded Wettiner dynasty 32n19 marriage to Elector Friedrich II of Saxony 32 Margareta of Habsburg, Margravine (1346–1366), Wittelsbach and Luxembourg connections 32, 32n18

286

Early Modern Habsburg Women

Margareta of Habsburg, Margravine (1370?–1400?), daughter of Leopold III 32n18 Margarita of Austria (1584–1611) daily routine 43n3 marriage to Philip III 1, 42 marten inherited from Anna of Austria 154, 156, 156n17 painting with mother and sisters 13, 13n29, 158, 159 patronage of works linked to maternity 156–9 selected as Philip III’s wife due to fertility of her mother 13 sister of Maria Maddalena 42 Margherita of Savoy-Acaia, Marchioness of Monferrato, disposal of remains 62 Margherita of Savoy-Gonzaga, Duchess of Mantua (1589–1655) death 71 dowry rights 64–7, 64n18, 64n19, 70–71 genealogical chart 59t journey to become Portugal’s vicereine 69–70 Margherita’s first life (1589–1612) 60–62 Margherita’s second life (1613–1635) 62–9 portrait by Il Pourbus 58f transnational connections and ties 7–8, 59–60, 71–2 Maria Amalie, Holy Roman Empress (1701–1756), consort to nonHabsburg emperor 28 María Anna of Austria; see Mariana of Austria (1634–1696) Maria Anna of Austria, Duchess of Lorraine (1718–1744), co-regent of Low Countries with husband 36 Maria Anna of Bavaria (1551–1608) gave birth to fifteen children 13 marriage to Charles II Francis 42 Maria Antonia, Archduchess of Austria (1669–1692), proposed bride for Carlos II 175, 175–6n3, 183–4, 191 Maria Christierna, Archduchess of Austria (1574–1621) marriage to ruler of Transylvania annulled 29 prioress in Tyrol 34n23

Maria Christina, Archduchess of Austria (1742–1798), co-regent of Low Countries with husband 36 Maria Cristina (daughter of Maria Maddalena) 43–4, 43n6 Maria de’ Medici, Queen of France (1573–1642) mother of Isabel of Borbón 225, 228, 236 regent for Louis XIII 226 María de Molina (1265–1331), Queen of Castile ladies-in-waiting 122 main lines of Castilian queens’ household laid down 120–21 Maria Elisabeth, Archduchess of Austria (1680–1741) left home to be regent in Low Countries 36 Maria Gonzaga of Mantua (1609–1660) 62–4, 66–8 María Luisa of Orleans (1662–1689), chosen bride of Carlos II 191–2, 218 Maria Maddalena of Austria, Grand Duchess of Florence (1589–1631) co-regency with Christine of Lorraine 44–7 death 44 early life 41–3 genealogical chart 42t marriage for her and her sister negotiated by Duke of Lerma 46 marriage, her children and their marriages 43–4 patronage of arts in Florence 7, 41–2 performances organized or attended 43, 43n5, 44, 45, 47–55 portrait by Justus Sustermans 40f Maria Manuela of Portugal (1527–1545), arrival in Castile as wife of Philip II 131 María of Austria, Holy Roman Empress (1528–1603) activities and political influence 107 consort of Maximilian II 27–8 entry into Third Order of St Francis 251, 256, 258 monastic widow’s garb 17, 260 portrait by Pantoja de la Cruz 257f María of Mantua; see Maria Gonzaga of Mantua (1609–1660)

Index Maria Pia of Savoy (1847–1911), wife of Luis I of Portugal 8 María Theresa (Teresa) of Spain (1638–1683) daughter of Habsburg father 33 married to Louis XIV of France 227 Maria Theresa (Theresia), Holy Roman Empress (1717–1780) consort to non-Habsburg emperor 28 first woman to rule Austrian realm in her own right 5n17 Mariana of Austria (1634–1696) from ruler to advisor 179–82 mother and regent for Carlos II 7, 14–15, 175–9, 197–8 mother vs. monarchy 182–6 politics of motherhood 186–92 portrait sent for Carlos’s sixteenth birthday 190–91 portraits as curadora or guardian 15, 212–14, 215f portraits as ruler 15, 174f, 199–212 portraits by Carreño; see Carreño de Miranda, Juan portraits by Claudio Coello 213–14, 215f, 261f portraits show woman exercising power 218 role as tutora 217–18 visits to Ana Dorotea by Prince Carlos and 110 Mariana of the Cross, Sor Ana Dorotea’s insistence she stay at Descalzas Reales 109 illegitimate daughter of Fernando de Austria 97n3 Marie Sophie de Dietrichstein, visits to Ana Dorotea 110 marriage; see also specific persons by name arrangements for Habsburg daughters 25–36 as means of political control 1–4, 1n2, 2n4, 3n12 dynastic union could be loving 92 into Habsburg dynasty 26n4 investiture of nuns as wedding ceremony with Christ 244 preservation of family lineage more important than gender roles 41n1 recurrent unions to protect rule 13–14 to monarchy as king’s duty 185–6

287

martens as talisman for fertility and motherhood 13, 151 jeweled head at Walters Art Museum, Baltimore 150f, 151 piece worn by Isabel of Valois 153–4, 155f, 251 piece worn by Margarita of Austria 156n17 Martín Baños, Pedro, on “courtly” letters 111n46 Martínez del Mazo, Juan Bautista, paintings of Mariana as ruler based on portraits by 200 Mary of Burgundy (1457–1506), marriage to Maximilian I 2–3 Mary of Hungary (1505–1558), governor of Low Countries 4n14 Mathias, Holy Roman Emperor (1557– 1619) 99, 99n7 Mathilde of Habsburg, Duchess of Bavaria and countess palatine (1251–1304), marriage to Ludwig “the Stern” 29–30 Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (1459–1519) appointment of Margaret as regent for Charles 34–5 expansion of Habsburg possessions 2–3 later marriages 3n11 Medici court traditions; see also Tinghi, Cesare maintained by Maria Maddalena 41–2, 48–55 Medici princesses spent time in convent 44n7 negative portrayals of Maria Maddalena in light of 46–8 popular narrative of Medici rule 47 Medici, House of; see Catherine de’ Medici (1519–1589); Claudia de’ Medici (1604–1648); Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1590–1621); Ferdinando I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1549–1609); Ferdinando II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1610–1670); Maria de’ Medici, Queen of France (1573–1642)

288

Early Modern Habsburg Women

Medinaceli, VII Duke of (Juan Francisco de la Cerda) (1637–1691) mediator between Carlos II and Mariana 187, 190, 191 on Salic Law 175 Memorie Fiorentine; see Settimanni, Francesco, on events in Florence Méndez de Haro, Luis, Marquis of Carpio discussions with Ana Dorotea 109 Philip IV’s favorite after fall of Olivares 108 midwives, leadership in birthing chamber 158 Miles Christianus, monks and nuns as soldiers of God’s army 245 Modena, Duke of (Alfonso III d’Este) (1591–1644), marriage to Isabella of Savoy 61 Modena, Duke of (Francesco I d’Este) (1610–1658), reluctant to take in Margherita 68 Monasterio de El Escorial, Cuello portrait of Mariana compared to that in Prado of Austria 213–14, 214n52 Monasterio de la Consolación de Franciscanas Clarisas; see Descalzas Reales Monastery of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción; see Descalzas Reales Monastery of Nuestra Señora de la Consolacíon; see Descalzas Reales monastic habit burial dress often chosen by members of Habsburg dynasty 243–6, 267–70 burial in not common to all Habsburgs 268, 268n40 of Second order of St Francis 248 photographs of habit believed worn by St Clare of Assisi 249f photographs of habit believed worn by St. Francis 247f pocket for storage of received alms 248n12 profession of Sor Margaret of the Cross 250–56 sharing by Franciscan friars 250 symbolism of 17, 246, 248 worldly adaptations by Habsburg widows; see also widow’s garb/ widow’s weeds 17, 258–61

Monastic Profession of Archduchess Margaret of Austria, The; see Perete, Pedro Moncada, Guillén Ramón de; see Aytona, IV Marquis of (Guillén Ramón de Moncada) Monferrato and Mantua briefly ruled by Margherita 62 end of Sabaudian claims to 61 second war of succession for Mantua and 65 Monter, William, distinction between “wife of king” and exercise of kingship 14, 14n35 Monterrey,VI Count of (Manuel de Zúñiga) (1586–1653) 50–51 Monzón, Treaty of 235 Morales, Luis de, painting of Nacimiento de la Virgen, Prado 167f, 168–9, 168n47 Moro, Antonio, portrait of Empress María 212 motherhood; see also birth at the Habsburg court fecundity meant the dynasty’s very survival 12, 12–14 importance in Habsburg culture and tradition 8–9, 151–2 monarchy vs. Mariana 182–6 politics of 13, 13n32, 44–7, 186–92 producing heirs most important for aristocratic women 46n18 spiritual and physiological aspects 12 visual and material culture 153–9 works commissioned by women as votive acts 160–69 Moura, Cristóbal de (1538–1613), drawing up of household regulations 140–41 Musacchio, Jacqueline M. gifts in Italy chosen by head of family 159 on visual approaches to study of births 152, 152n5 Museo Nacional del Prado; see Prado, Museo Nacional de Nacimiento de la Virgen (Morales) 167f, 168–9, 168n47

Index Nacimiento de la Virgen (Pantoja de la Cruz) 156–8, 169 Nacimiento de la Virgen (Zurbarán) 165–6, 169 Naples and Calabria brought into Habsburg fold 31 needlework/sewing done by Catalina Micaela 87–8, 89 Netherlands; see Low Countries networks; see also children; marriage family visitors to Florence 50–52 of noble families covered entire European continent 41 Neutral Room’s portraits 205n29, 207, 207n30, 213, 214 Nithard, Juan Evaristo, Cardinal (1607– 1681) 14, 176, 180 Nobleza virtuosa; see Aranda, Countess of (Luisa María de Padilla) Nudrición Real commissioned by Mariana in 1671 184 Nuñez de Guzmán, Pedro; see Villaumbrosa, Count of (Pedro Nuñez de Guzmán, Marquis of Montealegre) (1615?–1678) objects; see also gifts; martens requested by Duke Carlo Emanuele 90 shown in paintings 212, 213, 218 typical of gifts to new mothers 158–9, 166, 168 Ocampo, Francisco de, sculpture of Virgen de la Expectación 162f officers of royal households Castilians replaced with Portuguese 127 of Anna of Austria 137–8 of Castilian queens 120–22, 123–4, 135–6 of Empress Isabel and Juana of Castile 128–9 of Isabel de Valois 131–6 surprised by Margherita’s dynastic claims 68–9 Olivares, Count-Duke of (Gaspar de Guzmán) (1587–1645) depression after daughter María’s death 160n31 held responsible for separation of Portugal from Spain 70

289

Margherita requested his protection 66 rise and fall of Olivares as Philip’s favorite 16, 108, 226, 232–7 testament 163 Olivares, Countess of (Inés de Zúñiga y Velasco) (1584–1647) 160–64 ordo sacer 243 Oresko, Robert, on Habsburg marriages 2n4 Orso, Steven, portraits of Philip IV and ancestors carrying out duties of office 203 Ottokar II Přremysl of Bohemia (1233– 1278), rivalry with Rudolf I 29–30 Ovid’s Heroides 26 Pacheco, Francisco, polychrome of Virgen de la Expectación 161–3, 162f Padilla, Luisa María de; see Aranda, Countess of (Luisa María de Padilla) paintings; see art and culture Pallavicino, Carlo, mayordomo mayor, frustration with Catalina’s household 88 Palma, Juan de on Ana Dorotea 99, 99n7, 101, 106 on Sor Margaret of the Cross 250–56, 268, 270 Palomino de Castro y Velasco, Antonio appointed Pintor del Rey 199n5 on Carreño 199 on Cuello 214n51 on queen’s familiarity with Hall of Mirrors 202 Pamphili family, Ana Dorotea’s correspondence with 108, 111 Pandora parallels between Christ or Eve and 202n16 scenes on ceiling of Hall of Mirrors 202–3 Pantoja de la Cruz, Juan Anunciación, now in Vienna 156 commissioned to insert Margarita’s family in painting of Nativity 13, 158, 159 copy of portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola 153, 154, 155f

290

Early Modern Habsburg Women

Nacimiento de la Virgen, Prado 156–8, 157f painting commissioned by Maria Maddalena 13 Virgen de la Expectación, now in Vienna 156 Pardo Palace, rooms decorated with history of strong women in Bible 234–5 Pastrana, III Duke of (Ruy de Silva y Mendoza) (1587–1627), on Isabel of Borbón 228–9 pater familias, royal households and institutions ruled by monarch 119–20 patronage; see also art and culture Mariana’s regiment as source of royal 180 system of Ana Dorotea 109–13 Perete, Pedro Monastic Profession of Archduchess Margaret of Austria, The 251, 252f Sister Margaret of the Cross with Personifications of Holy Poverty and Prayer 254, 255f Philip I of Castile (the “Fair”), King of Spain (1478–1506) brother of Margaret, Duchess of Savoy 34 household followed Burgundian model 124 marriage to Juana of Castile 3 Philip II, King of Spain (1527–1598) daily schedule 211n39 daughter Catalina’s letters to 83 disagreements with son-in-law Carlo Emanuele 80–81, 91–2 emulated by Mariana in portraits as ruler 204–5 “governing the world with his pen” 15 introduced written consultations 210 married four times but only one son survived 14 ordinances for queen’s households 11–12, 131–41 part in investiture of Margaret of the Cross 250, 251, 253 received lands from his father Maximilian I 3 Philip II Offering Don Fernando to Victory; see Titian

Philip III, King of Spain (1578–1621); see also Margarita of Austria (1584–1611) “expanded court” 50n23 marriage to Margarita of Austria 1, 42 Philip IV, King of Spain (1605–1665); see also Isabel of Borbón (1602–1644); Mariana of Austria (1634–1696) additional funds for celebrating Virgin of the Expectation 164n40 betrothal and marriage to Isabel of Borbón 4, 226–32 Carlos II to begin to learn paperwork at age ten 200 conflicting statements regarding queens’ households 141–2 correspondence with Margherita of Savoy-Gonzaga 63, 65 correspondence with Sor Ana Dorotea 11, 109 instructions to Mariana on how to rule 209 letter to Sor María de Ágreda on his work 209–10 Margherita of Savoy-Gonzaga named vicereine of Portugal 69–70 Mariana given instructions on how to rule 207 Mariana made tutor and curador 216 Mariana of Austria gave him heir 14 regency and power clearly given to Isabel 237 regency and power clearly given to Mariana 176–9, 197–8 regency of Isabel in his absences 235–9 rise and fall of Olivares as favorite of 16, 108, 226, 232–7 testament 142, 175–80, 198, 200, 207–9, 212–13, 217 Philip the Good, ceremonial etiquettes 123 Piedmont, Duke of (Vittorio Amedeo of Savoy) (1587–1637) 62, 63, 65, 67 Pietas Austriaca and Ana Dorotea 104–5, 112 Habsburg deployment of Catholic beliefs and symbolism through 6, 13 promotion by monastic burial dress 17, 243, 267

Index Pinerolo given to France at Peace of Cherasco 65 Pitti Palace 50, 50n25, 55 Poland, Habsburg daughters married to rulers of 28 Poor Clares; see Clare of Assisi, Saint (1194–1253); Descalzas Reales; Discalced Sisters Pope Paul III and His Grandsons Ottavio and Cardinal Alessandro Farnese; see Titian Portrait of Countess Livia da Porto Thiene and her Daughter Porzia by Paolo Veronese 151, 154 portraits; see also portraits of specific persons and subjects Carreño de Miranda’s royal portraits painted (1671–1677) 199–200 portable reminders of loved ones 88–9, 91, 156, 231 Portugal Éboli faction at court of Philip II 136–7 Habsburg daughters married to rulers of 28 Margherita of Savoy-Gonzaga appointed vicereine of 69–70 Portuguese style of service under Isabel of Aviz 127 rulers from House of Savoy 72 Spanish influence on Italian politics and 60 united, separated and reunited with Spain 8 Pourbus, Frans II portrait of Isabel of Borbón 229 portrait of Margherita of SavoyGonzaga at State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg 58f Poznan National Museum portrait of Mariana 207, 209 Prado, Museo Nacional de comparison of Cuello portraits in Escorial and 213–14, 214n52 Nacimiento de la Virgen by Morales 167f, 168–9, 168n47 paintings by Pantoja de la Cruz 155f, 157f portraits of Isabel de Borbón 224f, 226, 226n3, 237

291

portraits of Mariana of Austria 174f, 215f pregnancies and children; see birth at the Habsburg court; children profession of Sor Ana Dorotea 104 of Sor Margaret of the Cross 250–56 “Prudent King” archetype established by Philip II 210–11 Quevedo, Francisco de, on Isabel’s supposed lameness 232, 233 red; see needlework/sewing regalo/regalar/regalado 91 Regency Council as advisory board to Mariana 178, 178n14, 181, 209, 211 regiment “La Chamberga” created by Mariana 180, 180n25, 180n26 religious garb; see monastic habit religious life; see also Ana Dorotea de la Concepción, Sor (1611–1694); convents; Descalzas Reales; Margaret of the Cross, Sor (1567–1633) convents and houses established by Habsburg widows 31, 34, 34n23 music and theater to propagate Catholic agenda 43 of Catalina Micaela 87 of Isabel of Borbón (1602–1644) 237–9 themes on virtues of strong women’s behavior at Medici court 48, 54 vows of poverty, chastity and obedience 243–4 reposteros; see households, royal retirement, idea subscribed to by Habsburg dynasty 189 Revello, attack on castle by Carlo Emanuele I 83, 89 Revolt of the Comuneros 126 Rigucci Galluzzi, Jacopo, on co-regency of Maria Maddalena 44–5 Rojas, Simón de, Father, assistance at difficult births 164, 164n39 Royal Discalced; see Descalzas Reales Rubens, Peter Paul design of tapestries for convent of the Descalzas Reales 6–7 portrait of Ana Dorotea, Apsley House, London 96f

292

Early Modern Habsburg Women

portraits of Infanta Isabel 17, 105n25, 105n26, 264 The Triumph of the Eucharist 105, 105n24 Rudolf I, Holy Roman Emperor (1218– 1291) 10n27, 28–30 Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor (1552n1612) 10, 97 Saavedra Fajardo, Diego de, on governance by princes 210 Salic Law 175, 175n2 Salón de los Espejos; see Alcázar palace Saluzzo, Italy, siege and seizure of French enclave 81–2, 91 Salvatori, Andrea, Le fonti d’ardenna 51 Sánchez Coello, Alonso (1532–1588), portrait of Juana of Austria 212, 259f, 260 Sandoval clan, collapse of 232 Santa Croce, events in the square 51 Savoy, House of; see also Carlo Emanuele I, Duke of Savoy; Catalina Micaela, Infanta, Duchess of Savoy (1567–1597); Margherita of Savoy-Gonzaga, Duchess of Mantua (1589–1655); Piedmont, Duke of (Vittorio Amedeo of Savoy) (1587–1637) contribution to dynastic marriages 71–2 contribution to reuniting of Portugal and Italy 8 relations among Spain, Mantua and 60 Saxony elector Albrecht II married Agnes (1257?–1322) 29 Habsburg daughters married to rulers of 28 scapular added to monastic habits 244 Second Order of St. Francis 248 Senecey, Marquis of, on Isabel’s transformation from French princess 230 Settimanni, Francesco, on events in Florence 50–52 sewing; see needlework/sewing shipwreck of Patrona de la Señoria de Génova 101 Sigoney, Juan de, and royal household of Philip II 140, 141

Sigoney, Luis de, grefier for Isabel of Valois 132 silence as inaccurate characterization of Ana Dorotea 106–7, 110–13 Silesia-Wroclaw, Habsburg daughters married to rulers of 30 Silva y Mendoza, Ruy de; see Pastrana, III Duke of (Ruy de Silva y Mendoza) (1587–1627) Sister Margaret of the Cross with Personifications of Holy Poverty and Prayer; see Perete, Pedro solemnity; see gravitas/solemnity Solerti, Angelo judgments of Maria Maddalena 45, 48n20 omissions in transcription of Tinghi’s court diary 49, 52–4 Soto, Andrés de (1552/3–1625) 262 Spain; see also households, royal; specific rulers by name and union with Portugal 8 Catalina Micaela and Carlo tried to gain throne for son 92n64 Duke of Piedmont’s relations with 62 Habsburg daughters married to rulers of 28 Habsburg lineage 1–4 part of Catalina Micaela’s dowry still unpaid 64 relations among Mantua, Savoy and 60 rulers from House of Savoy 72 Spanish attire designed to restrict bodily movement 227–8 spatial power; see households, royal stewards; see households, royal; officers of royal households Strada, Catalina, possibly mother of Ana Dorotea 98–9 Sustermans, Justus, portrait of Maria Maddalena, Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan 40f Swabia, Habsburg daughters married to rulers of 30, 31 swaddling 169, 169n49 tables in paintings of Spanish royalty 5, 159, 202, 218 working tables and tables of justice 212

Index Talavera, Hernando de, Fray, and Queen Isabel of Castile’s household 122n25 tapestries; see art and culture Teresa of Ávila, Saint, veil venerated in Antwerp 244 Tertiary or Third Order of St. Francis; see Franciscan order Tesauro, Emmanuele, homage to Spanish faction and Margherita 65 Tinghi, Cesare, diary regarding Medici court 47–8n19, 48n20, 49–54 Tintoretto, Jacopo, Judith and Holofernes 48n21, 202, 204 Titian Philip II Offering Don Fernando to Victory 202n14 Pope Paul III and His Grandsons Ottavio and Cardinal Alessandro Farnese 210 portrait of Eleonora Gonzaga della Rovere 212 Tordesillas; see Juana of Castile (1479–1555) tower clocks in paintings 212, 213, 218 transnational and transcultural ties; see Ana Dorotea de la Concepción, Sor (1611–1694); Habsburg women; Margherita of Savoy-Gonzaga, Duchess of Mantua (1589–1655); Maria Maddalena of Austria, Grand Duchess of Florence (1589–1631); travel Transylvania, Sigmund Bathory’s marriage to Maria Christierna annulled 29 Trastámara dynasty of Castile, institutionalization of queens’ household 121–3 travel Ana Dorotea’s journey to Spain 99–102 Catalina Micaela’s journey to Savigliano 89 entries of Anna of Austria in Burgundian pattern 137 entries of Isabel of Valois into Spanish cities 131–2 Margherita of Savoy-Gonzaga’s journey to Portugal 69–70 Triumph of the Eucharist, The, tapestries hung in main chapel of Descalzas Reales 105–6, 105n24

293

Turin; see Savoy, House of Tuscany; see Maria Maddalena of Austria, Grand Duchess of Florence (1589–1631) tutela/tutorship; see also curatela/ guardianship and governorship rights not necessarily by same person 178n13 Mariana given titles of governor, curator and tutor 177–9 Mariana’s program for Carlos’s education 184 vs. curatela/guardianship 215–16 Two Horaces and two Cynthias 53 Uffizi theater 53, 55 Urban VIII, Pope, marriage dispensation for Maria Gonzaga 67–8 Urraca, Queen of Castile (1079–1126), queens’ household 120 Ursula, Saint, performances of La regina Sant’Orsola 51, 52 Vainen, Paulus von, medal dry-stamped for Ana Dorotea’s mother 98n4 Valenzuela, Fernando (1630–1692), protégé of Mariana of Austria 176, 182, 188 Válgoma, Dalmiro de la, on Castilian household regulations 138–9 Valladolid; see Castile Valois dynasty, rivalry with Habsburgs 32 Valtellina, dispute of Spain and France over 234–6 Vázquez, Mateo, conflicts regarding royal households 141 Vega, Lope de, on birth as women’s affair 151n4 veil as traditional symbol of female purity and faithfulness 244 conferring of 104 mourning veil worn by Infanta Isabel 264–5, 266f, 268, 270 Velázquez, Diego Isabel of Borbón on horseback 226, 226n3, 237 paintings of Habsburg women 15, 16–17, 200 portraits of Philip IV 212

294

Early Modern Habsburg Women

Vergara, Alexander, on The Triumph of the Eucharist 105n24, 105n25, 106 Veronese, Paolo, Portrait of Countess Livia da Porto Thiene and her Daughter Porzia 151, 154 Vicoforte in Mondovì (Piedmont), Margherita’s body sent to Catalina Micaela’s dynastic sanctuary 51 Villa Poggio Imperiale, glorification of Habsburg and Medici families 47, 47–8n19 Villaumbrosa, Count of (Pedro Nuñez de Guzmán, Marquis of Montealegre) (1615?–1678), plan to separate Carlos from his mother 188–9 Virgin Mary, experience of childbirth not easy to relate to 169 Virgin of the Expectation/Virgen de la Expectación celebrations of liturgy 163, 164 painting by Pantoja de la Cruz 156 patroness of Discalced Franciscan convent 160–61 sculpture 161–3, 162f virtue as internal disposition of the soul 203n19 monarchs as supreme Christian examples 203–4 visual aspects of Habsburg culture; see art and culture; birth at the Habsburg court; Isabel of Borbón (1602–1644); Mariana of Austria (1634–1696); monastic habit Vittorio Amedeo of Savoy (1587–1637); see Piedmont, Duke of (Vittorio Amedeo of Savoy) (1587–1637)

Vives, Juan Luis, Instrucción de la mujer cristiana 152 votive acts, works commissioned by women as 160–69 vows; see profession War of Catalonia, Isabel of Borbón managed during regency 226, 237 wet nurses, requirements for 168–9 widow’s garb/widow’s weeds; see also monastic habit and preservation of the body politic 258 of Empress María 17, 257f, 258, 260 of Infanta Isabel 105, 260, 262–7 of Juana of Austria 259f, 260 of Mariana of Austria 202, 260 Windsor, House of, as branch of Wettiner dynasty 32n19 Wladyslaw, Prince of Poland, visit to Florence 51–2 Zabaleta, Juan de, on portrayal of monarch holding an audience 211–12 Zanni; see commedia dell’arte Zúñiga, Baltasar de, power struggle with nephew Olivares 232–4 Zúñiga, Juan de, drawing up of household regulations 141 Zúñiga, Manuel de; see Monterrey, Count of (Zuñiga, Manuel de) Zúñiga y Velasco, Inés de, Countess of Olivares (1584–1647); see Olivares, Countess of (Inés de Zúñiga y Velasco) Zurbarán, Francisco de, Nacimiento de la Virgen, Norman Simon Foundation, Pasadena 165–6, 165f, 169