Mariana of Austria
Mariana of Austria (Spanish: Mariana de Austria) or Maria Anna (24 December 1634 – 16 May 1696) was the queen consort of her uncle Philip IV of Spain from their marriage in 1649 until Philip died in 1665. She was then appointed regent for their three-year-old son Charles II, and due to his ill health remained an influential figure until her own death in 1696.
Mariana of Austria | |||||
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Queen consort of Spain | |||||
Tenure | 7 October 1649 – 17 September 1665 | ||||
Born | Wiener Neustadt, Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire | 24 December 1634||||
Died | 16 May 1696 61) Uceda Palace, Madrid, Spain | (aged||||
Burial | |||||
Spouse | Philip IV, King of Spain
(m. 1649; died 1665) | ||||
Issue Detail | Margaret Theresa, Holy Roman Empress Philip Prospero, Prince of Asturias Charles II, King of Spain | ||||
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House | Habsburg | ||||
Father | Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor | ||||
Mother | Maria Anna of Spain | ||||
Religion | Roman Catholic |
Her regency was overshadowed by the need to manage Spain's post-1648 decline as the dominant global power, internal political divisions and the European economic crisis of the second half of the 17th century. The inability of her son Charles to produce an heir led to constant manoeuvring by other European powers, which ultimately ended in the 1701 to 1714 War of the Spanish Succession.
Early life
Maria Anna was born on 24 December 1634 in Wiener Neustadt, second child of Maria Anna of Spain and her husband Ferdinand (1608-1657), who became Holy Roman Emperor in 1637. Her parents had six children, of whom only Maria Anna and two brothers survived to adulthood; Ferdinand (1633-1654), and Leopold (1640-1705), elected emperor in 1658.[1]
Queen of Spain
The Habsburgs often married within the family to retain their lands and properties, and in 1646 Maria Anna was betrothed to her cousin and heir to the Spanish throne, Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias. His death three months later left her without a prospective husband and her widowed uncle Philip IV without an heir.
On 7 October 1649, the 44-years-old Philip married his 14-years-old niece in Navalcarnero, outside Madrid; from then on, she was known by her Spanish name 'Mariana.' Her exclusion from political life meant she focused on religion and education, which society viewed as fitting women's role as nurturers and providers of moral guidance.[2]
Only two of their five children survived to adulthood; in 1666, Margaret Theresa (1651-1673) married her maternal uncle Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. Mariana's second daughter, Maria Ambrosia, lived only fifteen days, followed by two sons, Philip Prospero (1657-1661) and Ferdinand Thomas (1658-1659).
On 6 November 1661, Mariana gave birth to her last child, Charles, later known as El Hechizado or "The Bewitched", in the belief his disabilities were caused by "sorcery." In his case, the so-called Habsburg jaw was so pronounced he spoke and ate with difficulty all his life. He did not learn to walk until he was eight and never attended school, but foreign observers noted his mental capacities remained intact; others speculated the Regents overstated his defects to retain political control.[3]
It has been suggested Charles suffered from the endocrine disease acromegaly and a combination of rare genetic disorders often transmitted through recessive genes, including combined pituitary hormone deficiency and distal renal tubular acidosis.[4] However, his elder sister did not appear to suffer the same issues and the authors of the most significant study state it has not been demonstrated (his) disabilities...were caused by...recessive alleles inherited from common ancestors.[5]
Regardless of the cause, Charles suffered ill health throughout his life, and the Spanish court was split by the struggle between his co-heirs, Louis XIV and Emperor Leopold. His death was expected almost from birth; he was "short, lame, epileptic, senile and completely bald before 35,...repeatedly baffling Christendom by continuing to live."[6]
Regency
When Philip died on 17 September 1665, Charles was only three; Mariana was appointed regent, advised by a Regency Council, until he became a legal adult at the age of 14. She adopted the system of using a valido or 'favourite' established by Philip in 1620 and widely used elsewhere in Europe. The first was Juan Everardo Nithard, an Austrian Jesuit and her personal confessor who came with her from Vienna; as Philip's will excluded foreigners from the Regency Council, he had to be naturalised, causing immediate resentment.[7]
A 'foreigner' herself, the two men habitually identified as her 'favourites' were also outsiders; Nithard and Valenzuela, who came from the lower rank of Spanish nobility.[8] Even modern accounts of her reign often reflect contemporary sources that viewed women as incapable of ruling on their own and thus imply a sexual relationship.[9] Mariana used a variety of advisors, including Count Peñaranda and the Marquis de Aytona; historian Silvia Mitchell disputes whether Nithard or Valenzuela were 'validos', since Mariana used them to retain power, rather than delegating it.[10]
Her son's poor health and lack of an heir led to a constant struggle between Mariana's 'Austrian' faction, and a 'French' faction, nominally led by his illegitimate half-brother, John of Austria the Younger. Spain was also divided into the Crowns of Castile and Aragon, whose very different political cultures made it almost impossible to enact reforms or increase taxes. Government finances were in perpetual crisis, the Crown declaring bankruptcy in 1647, 1652, 1661 and 1666.[11] Mariana faced issues that would have challenged the most competent ruler; Spain was financially exhausted by almost a century of continuous war, while her reign coincided with the Little Ice Age, a period of cold weather during the second half of the 17th century. Between 1692 and 1699, crops failed across Europe and an estimated 5-10% of the population starved to death.[12]
The new government also inherited a wide range of economic and political problems. The long-running Portuguese Restoration War was the most urgent, followed in May 1667 by the War of Devolution, when France invaded the Spanish Netherlands and the Spanish province of Franche-Comté.[13] The need to reduce spending resulted in the 1668 treaties of Aix-la-Chapelle and Lisbon ended the wars with France and Portugal.[14]
Peace ended the constant drain of Spanish resources, while Aix-La-Chapelle forced France to return most of the territories over-run in 1667 to 1668. Despite this, the army consisted them a humiliation; in June 1668, Joseph Malladas, an Aragonese captain living in Madrid, was executed for plotting to murder Nithard, reputedly on John's behalf.[15] An internal power struggle ended with Nithard becoming Ambassador to Rome in February 1669; he was succeeded by Aytona, who died in 1670 and was replaced by Valenzuela, a member of her household since 1661.[16]
In 1672, Spain was dragged into the Franco-Dutch War; Valenzuela was dismissed when Charles came of age in 1675, but Spanish policy continued to be undermined by the struggle for power. Mariana reinstated the regency in 1677 on the grounds of Charles's ill-health and Valenzuela was restored, before John finally gained control in 1678. He died in September 1679 and Mariana became regent once again; one of his final acts was arranging the marriage of Charles to 17-year-old Marie Louise of Orléans, which took place in November 1679.[17]
Marie Louise died in February 1689, without producing an heir; as with many deaths of the period, limited medical knowledge led to allegations she was poisoned. Modern assessments of her symptoms conclude it was almost certainly appendicitis, possibly from the treatments undertaken to improve fertility. Her replacement was Maria Anna of Neuburg, one of 12 children whose family reputation for fertility made them popular choices for royal marriages. Of her sisters, Maria Sophia married Peter II of Portugal, while Eleonore was the third wife of Emperor Leopold. Maria Anna was aunt to future emperors Joseph I and Charles VI, making her an ideal choice for the Austrian faction.[18]
Charles remained childless; by that time, he was almost certainly impotent, his autopsy later revealing he had only one atrophied testicle.[19] As his health declined, internal struggles over the succession became increasingly bitter, leadership of the pro-French faction passing to Fernández de Portocarrero, Cardinal and Archbishop of Toledo.
Under the influence of the 'Austrians,' in 1690 Spain joined the Grand Alliance in the Nine Years' War with France. It declared bankruptcy again in 1692 and by 1696, France occupied most of Catalonia; Mariana retained power with the support of German auxiliaries under Maria Anna's brother Charles Philip, many of whom were expelled after Mariana's death.[20] She died on 16 May 1696 at the Uceda Palace in Madrid, at the age of sixty-one; the cause is thought to have been breast cancer.[21]
Anti-slavery campaign
Mariana of Austria continued her husbands moves against slavery. Serving as regent she engaged in a broad anti-slavery campaign throughout the Spanish Empire.[22][23] The anti-slavery campaign began with an order by Mariana of Austria in 1667 freeing all the Indian slaves in Peru that had been captured in Chile.[24] Her order was met with disbelief and dismay in Peru.[25] Without exception she freed the Indian slaves of Mexico in 1672.[26] After receiving a plea from the Pope she freed the slaves of the southern Andes.[27] On 12 June 1679 Charles II issued a general declaration freeing all indigenous slaves in Spanish America. In 1680 this was included in the Recopilación de las leyes de Indias, a codification of the laws of Spanish America.[28] The Caribes, "cannibals," were the only exception.[29] Governor Juan Enríquez of Chile resisted strongly, writing protests to the king and not publishing the decrees freeing Indian slaves.[30] The royal anti-slavery crusade did not end indigenous slavery in Spain's American possessions, but, in addition to resulting in the freeing of thousands of slaves, it ended the involvement and facilitation by government officials of slaving by the Spanish; purchase of slaves remained possible but only from indigenous slaver such as the Caribs of Venezuela or the Comanches.[31][32]
Issue
- Margaret Theresa (12 July 1651 – 12 March 1673), first wife of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor
- Maria Ambrosia de la Concepción (7 December 1655 – 21 December 1655)
- Philip Prospero, Prince of Asturias (28 November 1657 – 1 November 1661)
- Ferdinand Thomas Charles (23 December 1658 – 22 October 1659)
- Charles II of Spain (6 November 1661 – 1 November 1700)
Legacy
Mariana supported the 1668 mission led by Diego Luis de San Vitores and Saint Pedro Calungsod to convert the indigenous Chamorro people of Guam and the Mariana Islands to Christianity.[33]
The Portrait of Mariana painted by Diego Velázquez was commissioned by Philip and is the only known full-length painting of her. The original is in the Prado Museum in Madrid; a copy was sent to her father Ferdinand and is held by the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
Several other portraits of her were made, including Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo's Queen Mariana of Spain in Mourning, 1666. She also appears as a detail in Velasquez' masterpiece Las Meninas which features her daughter Margaret Theresa.
Mariana of Austria is depicted as regent in a brief scene during the fourth episode of Juana Inés, a television mini-series centered around Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Mariana's increasingly famous and controversial subject in the colony of New Spain, produced by Canal Once.
Family tree
References
- "Ferdinand III of Habsburg (Habsburg-Lothringen), Holy Roman Emperor". Geni.com. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- Graziano 2004, pp. 106-107.
- Rule 2017, pp. 91-108.
- Callaway 2013.
- Gonzalo, Ceballos, Quintero 2009, pp. e5174.
- Durant 1963, p. 25.
- Storrs 2006, p. 154.
- Knighton 2005, p. 293.
- "Fernando de Valenzuela, marquis de Villa Sierra". Britannica.com. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- Mitchell 2019, p. 56.
- Cowans 2003, pp. 26–27.
- De Vries 2009, pp. 151–194.
- Geyl 1936, pp. 311.
- Barton 2009, p. 123.
- Mitchell 2019, p. 53.
- Storrs 2006, p. 155.
- Mitchell 2013, pp. 265-269.
- Rommelse 2011, p. 224.
- García-Escudero, Ángel, Padilla Nieva, Giró1 2009, p. 182.
- Storrs 2006, p. 158.
- Graziano 2004, p. 108.
- "...the king died before he could set the Indians of Chile free and discharge his royal conscience. But Philip was not alone in trying to make things right. His wife, Mariana, was thirty years younger than he, every bit as pious, and far more determined. The crusade to free the Indians of Chile, and those in the empire at large, gained momentum during Queen Mariana’s regency, from 1665 to 1675, and culminated in the reign of her son Charles II. Alarmed by reports of large slaving grounds on the periphery of the Spanish empire, they used the power of an absolute monarchy to bring about the immediate liberation of all indigenous slaves. Reséndez, Andrés. The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America (p. 128). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
- [They] took on deeply entrenched slaving interests, deprived the empire of much-needed revenue, and risked the very stability of distant provinces to advance their humanitarian agenda. They waged a war against Indian bondage that raged as far as the islands of the Philippines, the forests of Chile, the llanos (grasslands) of Colombia and Venezuela, and the deserts of Chihuahua and New Mexico. Reséndez, Andrés. The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America (pp. 128-129). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
- Queen Mariana brought renewed energy to the abolitionist crusade. If we had to choose an opening salvo, it would be the queen’s 1667 order freeing all Chilean Indians who had been taken to Peru. Her order was published in the plazas of Lima and required all Peruvian slave owners to "turn their Indian slaves loose at the first opportunity". Reséndez, Andrés. The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America (p. 136). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
- When the viceroy of Peru learned of this order, he could not hide his disbelief. Reséndez, Andrés. The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America (p. 136). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
- In 1672 she freed the Indian slaves of Mexico, irrespective of their provenance or the circumstances of their enslavement. Reséndez, Andrés. The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America (p. 136). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
- [she] waited only a few weeks to respond, banning all forms of slavery in Chile. They extended the same prohibition to the Calchaquí Valleys on the other side of the Andes. The campaign to liberate the Indians had kicked into high gear. Reséndez, Andrés. The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America (pp. 136-137). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition
- Finally, on 12 June 1679, he issued a decree of continental scope: "No Indians of my Western Indies, Islands, and Mainland of the Ocean Sea, under any circumstance or pretext can be held as slaves; instead they will be treated as my vassals...." Reséndez, Andrés. The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America (p. 137). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
- As it turned out, they excluded two groups from their broad royal protection: the inhabitants of the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, "who have taken up the sect of Muhamad and are against our Church and empire", and the Carib Indians, "who attack our settlements and eat human flesh". Reséndez, Andrés. The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America (pp. 137-138). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
- Reséndez, Andrés. The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America (p. 142-144). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
- "The crusade also had a chilling effect on European slavers. For all of his reluctance to free the slaves, Governor Enríquez of Chile did issue orders prohibiting soldiers from launching slave raids and taking Indian captives after 1676." Reséndez, Andrés. The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America (pp. 146-147). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
- Reséndez, Andrés. The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America (p. 177). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.
- "About the CNMI". Commonwealth of the Nortern Mariana Islands Office of the Governor. Archived from the original on 17 August 2020. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
In 1668, 147 years after Magellan’s encounter, Fr. Diego Luis de San Vitores, a Jesuit priest, arrived in The Marianas with the mission to convert and implement Christianity among the Chamorros, thus beginning the colonization of The Marianas by Spain. The islands were named after Queen Maria Ana of Spain.
Sources
- Barton, Simon (2009). A History of Spain. Palgrave. ISBN 978-0230200128.
- Callaway, Ewen (2013). "Inbred Royals Show Traces of Natural Selection". Nature News. doi:10.1038/nature.2013.12837. S2CID 87959487.
- Cowans, Jon (2003). Modern Spain: A Documentary History. U. of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-1846-9.
- De Vries, Jan (2009). "The Economic Crisis of the 17th Century". Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. 40 (2).
- Durant, Ariel, Durant, Will (1963). Age of Louis XIV (Story of Civilization). TBS Publishing. ISBN 0207942277.
- García-Escudero López, Ángel, Arruza Echevarría A, Padilla Nieva and R. Puig Giró1, Padilla Nieva, Jaime, Puig Giró, Ramon (2009). "Charles II; from spell to genitourinary pathology". History of Urology. 62 (3).CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- Geyl, P (1936). "Johan de Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland, 1653–72". History. 20 (80): 303–319. doi:10.1111/j.1468-229X.1936.tb00103.x. JSTOR 24401084.
- Gonzalo, Alvarez, Ceballos, Francisco; Quintero Celsa (2009). "The Role of Inbreeding in the Extinction of a European Royal Dynasty". PLOS ONE. 4 (4): e5174. Bibcode:2009PLoSO...4.5174A. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0005174. PMC 2664480. PMID 19367331.
- Graziano, Frank (2004). Wounds of Love: The Mystical Marriage of Saint Rose of Lima. OUP. ISBN 0195136403.
- Knighton, Tess (author), Carreras Lopez, Juan José (ed) (2005). The Royal Chapel in the time of the Habsburgs: Music and Court Ceremony in Early Modern Europe. Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1843831396.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
- Mitchell, Silvia Z (2013). Mariana of Austria and Imperial Spain: Court, Dynastic, and International Politics in Seventeenth- Century Europe. University of Miami Scholarly Repository.
- Mitchell, Silvia Z (2019). Queen, Mother, and Stateswoman: Mariana of Austria and the Government of Spain. Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 978-0271083391.
- Rommelse, Gijs (2011). Ideology and Foreign Policy in Early Modern Europe (1650–1750). Routledge. ISBN 978-1409419136.
- Rule, John (author), Onnekink, David (ed) Mijers, Esther (ed) (2017). The Partition Treaties, 1698-1700; A European View in Redefining William III: The Impact of the King-Stadholder in International Context. Routledge. ISBN 978-1138257962.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
- Stolicka, Ondrej. Different German Perspectives on Spanish Politics in the 1670s: The Reaction of Vienna and Berlin on the Coup of Juan José de Austria in the Year 1677, JEHM 23(4), 2019, pp. 367–385. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700658-00002638
- Storrs, Christopher (2006). The Resilience of the Spanish Monarchy 1665-1700. OUP Oxford. ISBN 0199246378.
External links
- "Fernando de Valenzuela, marquis de Villa Sierra". Britannica.com. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- "Ferdinand III of Habsburg (Habsburg-Lothringen), Holy Roman Emperor". Geni.com. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
- Piferrer, Francisco (1859). "Nobiliario de los reinos y señorios de España (revisado por A. Rujula y Busel).[Nobility of Spain]". Google books. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
Mariana of Austria Born: 23 December 1634 Died: 16 May 1696 | ||
Spanish royalty | ||
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Vacant Title last held by Elisabeth of France |
Queen consort of Spain 7 October 1649 – 17 September 1665 |
Vacant Title next held by Marie Louise of Orléans |