In two previous posts found here and here, I told you about a few of the women of Aragon and Castile that I find the most interesting. Today’s post is about the women post the unification which occurred technically when Isabella I of Castile became both Queen Regnant of Castile and Queen Consort of Aragon as the wife of Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1474 however the two kingdoms legally remained separate until the Nueva Planta decrees of 1707-1716. The first individual to rule the entirety of Spain as the King of both Castile and Aragon was Isabella and Ferdinand’s grandson Charles V Holy Roman Emperor became King (the son of their daughter Juana) who inherited both kingdoms officially (Juana herself was technically Queen Regnant of both but due to her mental health/scheming of her frankly awful male family members, she never actually wielded power). All the Queens in this will be from Charles V’s reign onwards (1516-present).
We’ll start off with Charles V’s wife. And cousin. Because of course. Isabella was born the daughter of Manuel I King of Portugal and Maria of Aragon the latter of whom was the daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile aka The Catholic Monarchs. When I tell you that Manuel went through the women in that family like there was no tomorrow, I mean it. His first wife had been Ferdinand and Isabella’s eldest daughter Isabella (there’s a lot of Isabella’s in this story) however she tragically died and he then married their next daughter Maria in order to keep the alliance going. Manuel and Maria had a ton of kids before she too died. To once again keep the old Spain-Portugal alliance going, he then married Eleanor of Austria the daughter of Juana of Castile and Philip of Austria; Juana was Maria and Isabella’s sister so basically Manuel married the niece of his two deceased wives. So Isabella grew up with a stepmother that was also her first cousin. Awkward. Isabella’s mother died when she was 14 and Isabella and her sister Beatrice became very wealthy on account of inheriting her properties, plus the income from Viseu and Torres Vedras. Being pretty princesses who were a) wealthy, b) very well educated and c) the daughters of the reigning King of Portugal made both Isabella and Beatrice very attractive on the European marriage market especially Isabella who was the eldest. From the get go the number 1 candidate for her husband was her first cousin Charles, the son of Maria’s sister Juana I of Castile and her god-awful husband Philip the Duke of Burgundy. The idea of the marriage was to continue the strong Spanish-Portuguese alliance that their joint grandparents Isabella and Ferdinand were in favour of and was also probably a way to put off any clashes between the two countries in terms of colonialism – at the time before the advent of the British Empire, Portugal was the only naval power that could challenge Spain’s naval supremacy in terms of invading and exploiting the New World. Marrying Isabella was also a benefit for Charles – as he’d been raised in Burgundy there was some resistance towards him on the part of the Spanish nobles – marrying an Iberian princess would go some way to healing that resistance whilst a continuation of the Portuguese-Spanish alliance also kept Portugal tied to Spain and the Holy Roman Empire and not France. All in all, the idea was a good one for everyone involved. Charles being Charles however decided to be difficult and seemed somewhat adverse to the idea of marriage (unsurprising considering the disaster that was his parents marriage). So instead of marrying Isabella he sent his sister to marry her father. He then flirted with the idea of marrying his other cousin (bloody Habsburg’s) Mary of England who was 16 years younger than Charles and still a child. An engagement between those two came about as a means to undo the alliance between England and France that had been schemed up by bona fide Charles hater Thomas Wolsey. The Portuguese were pissed at the rejection but Isabella ever the optimist kept her eye on the prize and made it abundantly clear she would marry only Charles, threatening that if she didn’t she’d enter a convent. I’m not 100% why she was so determined to marry him – they didn’t know each other that well so it wasn’t as though she was desperately in love with him. The only possibility is that she recognised that he ruled half of Europe and wanted in on that immense power. Which fair enough, that kind of overt ambition I can respect. Eventually Charles came to his senses and married Isabella realising that a) due to the age gap between him and Mary, he’d have to wait YEARS for legitimate heirs, b) Isabella was already fluent in Spanish and knew the politics of the Iberian peninsula like the back of her hand and c) had a VERY rich daddy who could offer a a dowry of 900,000 Portuguese cruzados which was enough cash to solve all of the financial issues caused by the Italian Wars. They married on the 11th March 1526 at the Palace of Alcazar; around the same time her brother King John III of Portugal married Charles’ younger sister Catherine of Austria in order to fully solidify the close bond between Spain and Portugal. Charles’ plan was to marry Isabella and then leave her in Spain to govern on his behalf whilst his returned to the German territories to deal with all the political and religious shenanigans there. He didn’t however factor in the possibility he’d fall in love with her and boy did he. He was so smitten that their honeymoon at the Alhambra in Granada lasted several months and whilst there he ordered the seeds of a Persian flower that had never been seen before in Spain. The seeds eventually grew into red carnation. She was very chuffed which only made him happier; he ordered thousands more to be planted in her honour, which established the red carnation as Spain’s floral emblem (which it remains). He would remain throughout their marriage deeply in love although the marriage was not without it’s fair share of tension; owing to the sheer size of his vast empire they were frequently apart, something that Isabella is believed to have struggled with. Their first major separation lasted for four years between 1529 and April 1533. He remained in Spain for 3 years, only to depart again in December 1536. Although he came back briefly in 1538, he left almost immediately, returning in November 1539. The two basically spent most of their marriage apart. With him galavanting across Europe she was left in charge of his Spanish territories and she served as regent during each of his absences. Isabella proved to be an exemplary regent; she regularly attended meetings of the governing councils, consulted with the ministers and as the years went on and she clearly grew in confidence, she began to take on more of an active role in policy-making, suggesting her own solutions rather than merely accepting the recommendations of her advisors. It got the point where Isabella was basically the King of Spain – Charles although not the most likeable of 16th century dudes, seems to have recognised his wife’s political prowess and for the most part allowed her significant political autonomy. She was immensely popular in Spain in part due to her insistence that Spain remained independent of the empire’s expensive military policies and her promotion of policies which prioritised the Spanish over the rest of Charles’ territories – she was after all a profound expert on the problems of the peninsular kingdoms. This meant that Spanish was thus relatively prosperous during her lifetime. A lifetime which was tragically cut rather short. Over the course of several years, Isabella and the court frequently traveled from city to city, moving in part to avoid exposure to various epidemics. She was also frequently pregnant (she basically got pregnant every time she and Charles saw each other – during the two years he was in Spain between 2033 and 2036 she got pregnant twice whilst during his brief pit stop in Spain she 1538 she again got pregnant). It’s believed that none of these births were particularly easy and childbirth was considered highly risky for her. It’s also likely she was suffering from some sort of medical condition probably consumption with one contemporary describing her as “the greatest pity in the world, she is so thin that she does not resemble a person”. In April 1539, whilst pregnant for the seventh time, she contracted a fever that caused antenatal complications and culminated in her giving birth to a stillborn son. She died two weeks later on 1 May 1539 at the age of 35, without her husband present. Charles was absolutely wrecked by Isabella’s death; so distraught was he that he was unable to accompany his wife’s body to her resting place at the Royal Chapel of Granada, sending their son instead. He then shut himself in a monastery for 2 months, praying and mourning for her in solitude. When he finally emerged he was a shadow of his former self and never recovered from her death. He wore black for the rest of his life to show his mourning and whenever the subject of getting remarried came up he dismissed it. He did have a mistress some years after her death – the relationship culminated in the birth of a son but he never forgot Isabella and when he himself died in 1558 he was holding the same cross in his hand which she had been holding in her hand when she had died. Charles was not the only one to suffer in the aftermath of her death. Spain as a whole suffered – without Isabella to advocate on it’s behalf and guarantee it’s independence from the rest of the empire Charles did exactly what she had tried to prevent which culminated in sky high inflation and an enormous budget deficit which rose during the latter half of her husband’s reign and culminated in Spain declaring bankruptcy during the reign of her son Philip II. All in all. A bit of a disaster.
Meet Elisabeth Farnese aka the HBIC of Spain between 1714 and 1760. Born in Parma in 1692 the daughter of Odoardo Farnese who was the Hereditary Prince of Parma, and Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg. At the time of her birth her grandfather Ranuccio II was the ruling Duke of Parma. Her father died when she was a baby and in a bizarre yet totally the norm for European-monarchy twist, her mother ended up marrying his brother Francesco meaning her uncle became her step-father. She grew up being oddly devoted to him and very distant with her mother. Because of the lack of male heirs of her father, her uncle/step-father and her other uncle who all succeeded one another, she became the golden goose and preparations were made for the succession of the Duchy of Parma to pass through her. Because of her importance as heir she was raised in seclusion under strict guard in an apartment in the Palace in Parma. She was taught Latin, French, and German and was schooled in rhetoric, philosophy, geography and history, but, allegedly hated her lessons. She was considered a major prize on the European marriage market and received marriage proposals from EVERYONE including Victor Amadeus Prince of Piedmont, Francesco d’Este Hereditary Prince of Modena and the Prince Pico della Mirandola. Ultimately the decision was made to marry her to Philip V Spain; this was advantageous to both – for her she was marrying into one of the most powerful monarchies in the world whilst the Spanish had long-standing interests in the Italian provinces, and she was the heir to the Parmesan throne. At the point that they married Marie Anne de La Tremoille the Princesse de Ursins was the all powerful dominant figure at the Spanish court (despite the fact she was French). She effectively ruled the Spanish court between 1710 and 1714 and was basically in charge of deciding who the widowed King would marry. She was eager for Philip V to marry someone similar to his first wife Maria Gabriella of Savoy who had been co-operative, relatively weak willed and lacking of political ambitions. The Princesse de Ursins did not initially that Elisabeth was that kind of a girl until the Parmese ambassador somehow managed to convinced her that Elisabeth was kinda stupid, easy to control and dominate and would do nothing more than focus on needlework and embroidery. The Parmese ambassador was shit stirring to an unbelievable degree because whilst telling the Princesse de Ursins all that, he was also telling Elisabeth that the King was weak willed and preferred “being governed” by others and that the key to winning the support of the Spanish people was to remove the influence of the French party lead by….you guessed it, the Princess des Ursins. This obviously set up a hell of a clash between the two women. After negotiations for the marriage were complete, Elisabeth said goodbye to her home in September 1714 and traveled to Spain by land (which might I add was totally against the original plan which had her travelling by sea but she allegedly fell sick in Genoa and so it was decided travelling by land was a more solid choice). Whilst on the road trip to her new home she stopped off to meet the Prince of Monaco, the French ambassador (who tried to curry favour by giving her a ton of gifts from his boss the King of France) and her maternal aunt the Dowager Queen of Spain Maria Anna who was living in Bayonne. On the journey the point was emphasised to her that she needed to be wary of the Princesse de Ursins. Elisabeth proved literally within 7 seconds of arriving in Spain that she was not the pushover the Princesse was expecting causing some problems when she refused to part with her Italian entourage in exchange for a Spanish one which as you can imagine did not particularly go down well. She met the Princesse before she met her own husband; the Princesse had naturally appointed herself as Elisabeth’s Mistress of the Robes and wished to present herself before Elisabeth met Philip V. The Princesse at you imagine was not thrilled to discover that Elisabeth was not in any way shape or form the timid little Italian girl that she had been expecting. Now we don’t know 100% what happened when the two did come face to face – the two evidently began having a private conversation separate from the rest of their party. The conversation escalated and culminated in a violent argument, after which the Princesse des Ursins was arrested, fired, and immediately escorted over the border to France. Now there have been many different versions of this incident, and different suggestions as to how it occurred – propagandists who were on Elisabeth’s side were quite clear that she was absolutely not to blame whist loyalists to the Princesse said the same. What we do know is that after it happened Elisabeth sent the ambassador of Parma Cardinal Alberoni to meet her husband and inform him of what had happened before anyone could. Alberoni insisted to Philip V that Elisabeth had acted with the best interests of both him and Spain. Philip it must be said wasn’t initially thrilled however upon meeting Elisabeth at Guadalajara on Christmas Eve, he fell so quickly fell in love with her that he seemingly forgave and forgot almost immediately. With her husband smitten and the Princesse gone, Elisabeth almost immediately became Philip’s most important and closest confidante. She was charming, jovial, intelligent and full of energy which Philip who was more of an introvert adored; he also suffered periods of crippling depression. During those periods he struggled to maintain government and Elisabeth quickly assumed the role of non official regent during those periods, handling government in his absence (some of his worst episodes of depression took place in 1717, 1722, 1728, 1731, 1732-1733 and 1737). He became hugely dependant on her and in no time at all she basically obtained complete influence over him. With her two closest advisors Cardinal Alberoni and Cardinal de Giudice and her Italian closest companion Laura Pescatori (who had been Elisabeth’s childhood nurse in Parma) she began working to eliminate the French party at court and develop a network of supporters and spies. Now although Elisabeth benefitted massively from her husband’s reliance on her, the two seem to have had a genuine bond; in what was considered at the time a highly shocking move (and completely contrary to previous kings) Philip and Elizabeth shared apartments rather than having separate ones which meant that they shared a bed every single night; it’s believed that when they awoke, they would discuss government business after which the couple, would summon their ministers as Philip preferred to meet his ministers in his own rooms. This meant that Elisabeth was thus in those meetings from the very beginning of their marriage. Contemporaneous reports suggest that in the early years she merely sat by his side either drawing or embroidering however as time went on and her confidence grew she soon began participating more. As the years went on he grew less and less fond of the ceremony of the Spanish court and from 1729 onwards, they seldom emerged their rooms before two in the afternoon, after which they very swiftly performed their official functions and went back to their rooms. They also began spending less time at the main palace and more time at smaller hunting palaces such as El Pardo or Aranjuez where the ceremony of court was less strict. Their absence from court earned considerable backlash although the majority of the backlash was aimed at Elisabeth despite Philip being the instigator of their absence. In 1719 there was a falling out between Elisabeth and Alberoni which led to the latter’s dismissal. From that moment on Elisabeth was effectively the sole ruler of Spain even during the seven-eight months in 1724 when Philip decided to abdicate in favour of his son Louis from his first marriage. Despite having absolutely no influence over or connection to Louis, Elisabeth managed to keep a hold of power (probably due to the fact that she had stacked government with those loyal to her) despite the fact that Louis specifically surrounded himself with officials who had not served under his father. Elisabeth as you can imagine was not in favour of the abdication, so she was probably somewhat relieved when Louis died of small pox after just seven months. She was the one that supposedly convinced Philip to accept the throne again. In the latter part of the 30’s and 40’s Philip’s mental health was really terrible which meant that Elisabeth was King in all but name. On of the key areas of her influence was foreign policy (which she was far more interested in than domestic policy); she was keen to enforce the Spanish presence in the Italian states, especially in regards to her own sons, who were not expected to succeed in Spain because Philip had multiple sons from his first marriage. I should note that throughout their marriage Elisabeth and Philip had seven children; four sons and three daughters, only one of whom died in infancy which is pretty good as far as pre-modern medicine goes. Out of those seven children four ending up ruling kingdoms. Elisabeth’s plans to recover the ancient Italian possessions of Spain, actually resulted in the capture of Sardinia and Sicily however by 1720 the Triple Alliance (a alliance between the Dutch Republic, France and England to keep Spain aka Elisabeth in check) had thwarted her plans and the Spanish ended up having to flee the islands (they also demanded she dismiss Alberoni which she did). She didn’t however end up completely empty handed – in 1731 the Treaty of Vienna was agreed on by the main powers of Europe which recognised her eldest son Don Carlos (later Charles III of Spain) as the Duke of Parma. Seven years later the 1738 Treaty of Vienna recognised his accession to the thrones of Naples and Sicily and in 1748 her second Philip was recognised as Duke of Parma. In 1746 her husband suffered a horrendous stroke and died leaving his son from his marriage Ferdinand the new King of Spain. There was apparently some tiff over where Philip would be buried; Ferdinand allegedly wanted his father to be interred with his mother/Philip’s first wife Maria Gabriella of Savoy at El Escorial however Philip wished to be buried at his and Elisabeth’s favoured residence the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso. Philip’s wish was eventually granted. Now Elisabeth was not exactly a happy bunny at having to give up power especially as she wasn’t giving it up to Ferdinand. You see Ferdinand decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and let his wife Barbara of Portugal run the show (I’d liked to point out Philip’s mental health necessitated that Elisabeth take control, Ferdinand’s did not. He just didn’t want to rule). The French ambassador allegedly remarked that “it is rather Barbara who succeeds Elisabeth than Ferdinand succeeding Philip”. Elisabeth not being best pleased at having to give up power settled with a court of supporters in a palace in Madrid, and demanded to be kept informed of government policy. She also made the questionable decision of openly criticising the new monarchs. It got the point where Queen Barbara had enough and was encouraged to deal with Elisabeth by her family (the rulers of Portugal) and her Portuguese advisors. On 23 July 1747, Elisabeth was exiled with her court to Palace of La Granja, where she spent the rest of her step-son’s reign exiled from the royal court and any influence on politics. Despite this she was known to host grand receptions where she was visited by foreign diplomats (especially those from nations which opposed the policies of her step-son and his wife. She basically became the lightning rod for all opposition to Ferdinand and Barbara. Whils Barbara followed in Elisabeth’s footsteps politically, she didn’t in regards to child bearing and when Ferdinand died in 1759 he had no sons to succeed him meaning Elisabeth’s son Charles became King. He however was busy ruling Naples so Elisabeth swiftly took power, serving as interim regent for a little over a year until her son arrived in Spain as Charles III. With her sons on the thrones and her daughters taking their places as Queen of Portugal and Queen of Sardinia, Elisabeth was willing to take a step back from politics. In her later years she focused on her arts patronage and extensive collection and retired to the Royal Palace of Riofrio which she had built in 1752 (she also spent significant time at the Palaces of La Grange and Aranjuez). In 1766 she died at the age of 73 and per her request as buried besides her husband.
One thing you should know about Philip V is that when he fell hard for a woman, he fell VERY hard for a woman. Luckily he was in love two times during his life and both times were with his wife. I just introduced you to Elisabeth Farnese his second wife, now allow me to introduce you to Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy aka wife number one. Born in Turin the daughter of Victor Amadeus II of Savoy and Anne Marie d’Orleans. For some reason there doesn’t seem to be a phenomenal amount of evidence that tells us much of her childhood. Considering her intelligence later on in life, she was probably extremely well educated. In 1701 when she was just 13 she was married to Philip V of Spain; the official wedding took place on the 2nd November 1701. Now their dynamic was an interesting one; Philip was super religious which meant that unlike every other king in Europe, he had major scruples about sex outside of marriage. This culminated in him being rather sexually dependent on his spouse throughout their marriage. The French ambassador, the Duke of Gramont at one point reported to Louis XIV that Philip would be completely governed by his spouse as long as he had one, a report that allegedly led to Louis XIV warning his grandson not to allow his Queen to dominate him. In general, the Spanish court and indeed the entire country didn’t mind her influence and it considered it beneficial: in contemporary reports Maria Luisa Gabriella’s usually described as being remarkably mature for her age, politically savvy, articulate and hardworking. In 1702 her husband had to go to Naples to led his troops as part of the ongoing War of Spanish Succession. Despite only being 14, Maria Luisa Gabriella effectively acted as regent from Madrid. Now the thought of a 14-year-old running the country is a lil bit terrifying but she by all accounts tried her absolute hardest and owing to her effectiveness, she became very popular in Spain. During her time as regent she insisted upon all complaints being investigated, ordering that the reports were directly sent to her, she worked by all accounts tirelessly with government ministers, gave audiences constantly to ambassadors and did everything she could to prevent Savoy from joining the enemy, though that goal ultimately failed. Remember the Princesse de Ursins? Well it was due to Maria Luisa Gabriella that the Princesse emerged as a major player at the Spanish court. You see the Princesse was a member of Maria Luisa Gabriella’s household and became her chief lady-in-waiting which meant that she was almost constantly in Maria Luisa Gabriella’s presence, accompanying her wherever she went. She also accompanied Maria Luisa Gabriella to council meetings where she listened sitting by the side sewing, was present at the most intimate personal tasks, dressing and undressing her, and became a gatekeeper of sorts basically controlling whoever wished to come near the Queen. Because of the King’s aforementioned sexual reliance on his wife, he spent a significant amount of time in his wife’s rooms allowing the Princesse to obtain influence over the king as well. Throughout their marriage Philip and Maria Luisa Gabriella had four sons; once ruled for seven months in 1724 before dying at the age of 17 from smallpox, two died in infancy and one died in 1759 after ruling for thirteen years as King of Spain. Maria Luisa Gabriella never got to witness either of her sons becoming King of Spain. At some point in 1713 she became ill with tuberculosis,, eventually dying on Valentines Day 1714 at the age of just 25. Months alter her husband married Elisabeth Farnese. As none of her sons had any kids of their own, there are no surviving descendants of Maria Luisa Gabriella who was greatly mourned by the public but also fairly quickly forgotten.
There are many a tale of unfaithful Kings unable to keep it in their pants. There are less tales of Queens getting up to no good in between the bed sheets, and for good reason – remember Anne Boleyn??? (Although to be fair Anne was almost certainly innocent). May I introduce you to Maria Luisa of Parma a woman who may (or may not) have been unfaithful some might say flagrantly so behind her royal husband’s back! Born in Parma in 1751 the daughter of Philip the Duke of Parma and Louise-Élisabeth of France, very little is actually clear about her childhood. It was long thought that she was educated by French philosopher Étienne Bonnot de Condillac however later evidence suggests he didn’t arrive in Parma until 1768. She was raised with her brother Ferdinand and sister Isabella; the latter was a decade older than the other two children and was considered to be particularly beautiful. Maria Luisa was shorter and by all accounts less attractive than her dazzling older sister. In 1760 Isabella married Archduke Joseph (later Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor) the eldest son and heir of Maria Theresa Holy Roman Empress. Isabella and Maria Luisa’s mother was eager to get both daughters on thrones and so tried to engage Maria Luisa to her cousin Louis Duke of Burgundy the heir to the French throne. He however died in 1761 putting an end to such plans. A year later a marriage was arranged between Maria Luisa and Charles the Prince of Asturias and heir to the Spanish throne. The engagement was paused slightly in 1763 when Maria Luisa’s sister Isabella died and there were suggestions that she marry her sister’s widower however Joseph heartbroken by the loss of his wife refused which led to the confirmation of her engagement to Charles. The wedding took place on the 4th September 1765. At the point that they married there was no Queen although the Queen Mother and former regent Elisabeth Farnese was still alive and thus the dominant female figure at court; she died a year later meaning that María Luisa then became the first lady in precedence at the court. The relationship between the young couple was initially quite good and Maria Luisa was described as intelligent, ambitious and dominant, demonstrating a stronger will than her husband from early on. She was also known to be extremely extravagant and maybe not great with spending; Her father-in-law Charles III wasn’t a fan and believed her to be frivolous which led to increased attempts on his part to control and supervise her private life. He also kept his son and new daughter in law away from matters of state. Her fractious relationship with her father in law combined with her interest in state affairs led to her becoming a leading figure in the circle of opposition which formed around her husband as the heir to the throne. This tension between Maria Luisa/Charles and his father went on for years until 1788, when her father in law died and her husband succeeded him, making Maria Luisa queen. In that time Maria Luisa bore her husband ten children and would go on to bear him a further four after his accession. Fourteen kids (including twins) is ridiculously impressive – even more ridiculous is that we believe she had up to 10 miscarriages as well, meaning she was pregnant pretty much non stop for almost three decades. On the first meeting between Charles IV and his ministers, Maria Luisa was present, a break from precedence which attracted widespread attention and made it clear to everyone that Maria Luisa was to be a force to be reckoned with in regards to affairs of state. She had significant influence over her spouse and was eager to see as many of her political favourites in places of power; within no time at all one of them was basically running the country. Manuel de Godoy was a former member of the guard who had in 1784 begun to be promoted through the ranks at court. By 1792 Charles and Maria Luisa had appointed him as prime minister. Now this was controversial for a number of reasons (among them Godoy’s general unpopularity), but the most obvious was that everyone was fairly convinced that him and the Queen were lovers. You see María Luisa was notoriously reputed to have had many love affairs however there’s very little solid evidence that she was rampantly unfaithful; it’s likely that rumours of her infidelity were exaggerated for political reasons by her enemies at court as well as by foreign powers. The rumours of Godoy and Maria Luisa differ from rumours about her and her other lovers in that her other alleged affairs were supposedly brief whereas her affair with Godoy was said to be long lasting and supposedly involved him fathering at least two of her children (it should be said that Charles never seemed to doubt the children were his nor did he ever publicly make mention of his wife’s rumoured infidelity). Her alleged affair with Godoy was also more widely talked about then her other flings; in 1791 another government minister Floridablanca made several allegations about the pair which resulted in him losing his office and being dismissed from court whilst there is a plethora of pieces of contemporary diplomatic correspondence in which their so-called affair is discussed. A number of foreign ambassadors reported the affair to the sovereign’s including the French ambassador Alquier. My personal view is that there probably was something going on with Godoy – there’s correspondence between them some time after her last pregnancy and shortly after she’s started the menopause where they literally discuss the fact she’s stopped her period and that she’s experiencing depression caused by the menopause. Those things are so unbelievably intimate, that it makes me think they were probably too close. Having said I don’t think she’d be stupid enough to get pregnant with his child nor do I think she was as rampantly unfaithful as it’s made out she was. Queens are followed by ladies in waiting and secretaries and aides and officers constantly; there’s almost no way a Queen could be constantly cheating on her husband and no one notice. Also as much of a pushover as Charles was, I’m not sure he’d be cool with raising another man’s child as his own. Regardless of if she and Godoy were actually having an affair, they were undoubtedly close (see the menopause letters). Now this closeness contributed to her significant lack of popularity with the Spanish public who to put it mildly were not fans. This was down to a number of factors; among them 1) her apparent infidelity, 2) her political association with Godoy (who was hated by pretty much most of Spain), 3) her reputed political influence and 4) the fact she made a number of powerful enemies all of whom were more than happy to spread salacious rumours about her. These rumours included the one that said she poisoned her long-time rival the Duchess of Alba who died suddenly in 1802. The Duchess of Alba and Maria Luisa had been engaged in a feud for years and the Duchess of Alba wasn’t the only one at court to clash with Maria Luisa who also feuded with the Duchess of Osuna and her daughter in law Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily who was also alleged to have been poisoned by Maria Luisa when she died suddenly in 1806. You know one of these days I’d like a Queen to be accused of murdering their rival in a way that doesn’t involve poison. It’s a bit boring!!! Another factor in her and Godoy’s pitifully low popularity was the deal that he made with Napoleon in 1808. The treaty allowed French troops to be stationed in Spain, which furiously pissed off the Spanish people. Maria Luisa was blamed for it and in one incident, she was threatened by a mob and had to be protected by her guards. So unhappy was Spain with the treaty and the general state of the government which Maria Luisa and Godoy led that in 1808, popular discontent spilled over into a full blown uprising in Aranjuez. This culminated in Charles IV abdicating the throne in favour of their son Ferdinand VII in March 1808. A month later, when Charles IV and Godoy travelled to Bayonne to meet Napoleon in order to convince him to intervene and assist in reclaiming Charles’ throne, Maria Luisa went with them. At the meeting, however, Napoleon being well Napoleon, forced both Charles IV and Ferdinand VII to renounce their claims to the throne in favour of his brother Joseph Bonaparte who for absolutely no reason at all he named King of Spain. He then promptly declared that was Bourbon dynasty was done in Spain. When Napoleon’s army invaded the country, pamphlets were circulated which blamed her for the abdication. Whilst I think her and Godoy definitely made a number of very questionable political decisions, you can’t exactly blame EVERYTHING on her. After the whole abdication business, Maria Luisa lived with Charles IV and Manuel Godoy as a weird trio of state prisoners of Napoleon in France first in Compiegne, then Aix en Provence and finally in Marseilles where they lived for four years. The fact the three of them lived together is so bizarre if Godoy and Maria Luisa really had, had an affair (although its likely if they did have an affair, it was over by this point). In 1812 they were allowed to leave France and settle under the protection of the Pope in the Barberini Palace in Rome where Maria Luisa and Charles began building a large art collection including works by artists including Titian, Leonardo, Bronzino and Andrea del Sarto. After their deaths, their son had the collection transferred to Madrid. Now if you know the story of Napoleon, you know he didn’t remain at the top of European politics forever and after his fall from grace in 1814, her son Ferdinand VII was reinstated on the Spanish throne. However, knowing how hated his mother and Godoy were and making the wise decision to keep the regime of his father in the past, he banned the three of them from ever returning to Spain. They remained in Rome where they settled permanently; Charles and Maria Luisa died within weeks of each other in January 1819. Curiously Manuel Godoy was the executor of their wills.
There are queens consistently throughout history who have served as regent on behalf of their sons; it’s rare however to find a queen that ruled as regent for a daughter. Step forward Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies. Born in Palermo, Sicily in 1806 the daughter of Francis I King of the Two Sicillies and his second wife Maria Isabella of Spain (this makes her a granddaughter of Maria Luisa who I introduced you to above). In 1829 everything kicked off when Maria Amalia Josepha of Saxony the wife of her uncle Ferdinand VII died leaving Ferdinand old with failing health and no heir. Court became split between two parties – The Liberal party led by Ferdinand’s brother Infante Francisco de Paula of Spain and his wife Luisa Carlotta who might I add was Maria Christina’s sister meaning that Francisco was Maria Christina’s uncle by blood AND brother in law by marriage – truly the uncle/niece marriages that were popular in Spain are just awful, and the conservative faction led by Ferdinand’s other brother Infante Carlos María of Spain and his wife Infanta Maria Francisca of Portugal. Fearing that a feud between the two parties could get wildly out of hand Ferdinand VII declared his intention to once again marry. Luisa Carlotta who had a close relationship with Ferdinand suggested her sister; he evidently listened to her suggestion and promptly sent for Maria Christina. Upon her arrival the two seemingly got along well and he found her physically pleasing which led to them marrying on the 12th December 1829. She was 23. He was 45, not to mention her mum’s own brother. Now she swiftly found herself embroiled in the utter chaos of Spanish politics and upon her arrival, both the Liberal party, and the Spanish people, made her their champion; when she first arrived in Madrid in 1829, the blue of the cloak she wore became their official colour. One of the reasons that the conservative faction (later known as the Carlists) were so unpopular is that they were major absolutists and highly conservative. In 1830 Maria Christina gave birth to her first child a daughter Isabella followed by a second daughter Luisa Fernanda in 1832. Using King Philip V’s enactment of Salic Law which prevented women from taking the throne, Ferdinand’s brother Infante Carlos María of Spain and sister in law Infanta Maria Francisca of Portugal pushed their claim forwards and basically declared Carlos the heir to the throne. This understandably alarmed the liberal party who were willing to do just about anything to keep Carlos off the throne; Maria Christina and her sister Luisa Carlotta were instrumental in convincing Ferdinand VII to announce the Pragmatic Sanction of March 1830 which revoked the Salic Law and allowed their oldest daughter to inherit the throne/ be declared queen upon his death, rather than his brother. Carlos as you can imagine was pissed to say the least. In July 2032 on a trip to La Granja, Ferdinand VII was badly injured by a coach accident. He became ill and increasingly sick over the summer leading everyone to panic that he was on death’s door. That fear grew exponentially when Ferdinand VII allegedly at one point fell unconscious in the palace chapel. Maria Christina wanting to at least try and maintain some degree of peace sought a meeting with the influential statesmen Francisco Calomarde who it just so happened was a Carlist. He advised her that the Spanish people would rally behind Carlos. In response she convinced her husband to sign a decree which made her regent if he did with Carlos as her chief advisor. That wasn’t good enough for Carlos who refused and demanded total governance leading to a plethora of people at court including the ambassador of Naples and her own confessor, to convince Maria to renounce the dynastic rights of her daughters in favor of Carlos, to avoid the horrors of a civil war. The queen crumbled under the pressures and convinced her husband to repeal the Pragmatic Sanction of 1830. Most versions of these events say that Maria was either pressured or outright forced to do. When the Counsel of Castile (which favored a transition towards constitutionalism) learned about this, they allegedly sent word to Maria Christina’s infamously liberal and strong willed sister Luisa Carlotta to intervene in the hopes that she could persuade the queen. Luisa Carlotta rode nonstop for four days after receiving the news and arrived to La Granja, unannounced. During the four days when Luisa Carlotta was travelling; there was an incident in which Ferdinand VII appeared to have died, and Carlo and his supporters promptly announced that the Sanction had been repealed and that he was now king. Courtiers began deserting Maria Christina until it was discovered that Ferdinand VII was actually alive. I have absolutely no idea how that cluster fuck happened. Luisa Carlotta then arrived to handle the situation. She clashed with everyone including Calomarde; the two had a vicious fight which allegedly culminated in her slapping him in the face although most authors, like Comellas, consider the slap an urban legend. When Ferdinand awoke, Luisa Carlotta and Maria Christina convinced him to re-enact the Pragmatic Sanction. On the 31st December 1832 he named his daughter heiress again, and gave the queen full regency powers. Maria Christina and Luisa Carlotta then allegedly orchestrated Calomarde’s dismissal. Ferdinand’s health never recovered and on the 29th September 1833 he died leaving Maria Christina as regent for their young daughter Isabella. Hours after her husband died and shortly before his death was publicly announced, a council of state was summoned to pledge loyalty to the Queen. This was basically an attempt to try and keep the peace even though Maria Christina and the government fully expected reactionary elements to contest the succession. As expected Isabella’s claim to the throne was disputed by Carlos, who claimed that his brother Ferdinand had unlawfully changed the succession law to permit females to inherit the crown again and some even more reactionary supporters of Don Carlos went so far as to claim that Ferdinand had actually named Carlos as his heir but that Maria Christina was covering it up. This is very evidently rubbish. Ferdinand’s will was clear that Isabella was his heir. It was even alleged (although pretty much everyone recognised it wasn’t true) that the Queen had signed her dead husband’s name to a decree recognising Isabella as heir. Carlos’ various attempts to seize power in the months that followed culminated in the First Carlist War. It’s important to know that Isabella’s gender was actually a very small point in the debate over the succession; the bigger issue was the liberals vs the conservatives. The two sides had differing views on the influence of the army and the Church in governance; the Carlists goal was the return to a traditional absolutist monarchy while the Liberals sought to defend the constitutional monarchy. A significant portion of Spanish conservatives feared that as regent Maria Christina would make liberal reforms hence why they backed Carlos. One of Maria Christina’s first acts was to expel Conservative ministers from the upper echelons of government and replace them with liberal loyalists. Eventually in November 1833 Carlos called his followers to arms and an insurgency began to form in the Basque Mountains. The Carlists army was split between three geographically distinct locations where Carlist support was strongest: Basque Country, Catalonia and Maestrazgo in Valencia. The bulk of the country however was more in favour of Isabella and Maria Christina. For seven years Maria Christina ruled on her daughter’s behalf and led the efforts to win the civil war; she managed to win support from Portugal, France and the United Kingdom who backed her and sent volunteer and even regular forces to help defeat the Carlist army. For most of those seven years Maria Christina had control of the country; it was in the rural areas where Carlist support was strongest that she was unable to gain complete influence. The war was long and hard; from 1835 the liberals had effectively won but it wasn’t until 1839 that the Carlists in the Basque region agreed to cease fighting. The main reason they did this was that years of civil war had taken a heavy toll on the Basque economy and the Basque people had, had enough of a series of war related plights—human losses, poverty, disease. They had also realised that Carlos was obsessed with his own absolutist ambitions and had absolutely no regard for their ambitions of self government. In 1840 after seven years as regent Maria Christina was forced to abdicate the regency; this was because the public found out a very big secret she had been keeping from them. It turns out that just several months after her husband’s death she had fallen in love with and promptly married Agustín Fernando Muñoz y Sánchez a member of the royal bodyguard. Maria Christina knew that if she officially made the marriage public, she would be forced to forfeit the regency and so for seven years she kept the marriage secret from the Spanish people despite the fact that in that they had 4 children!!! One thing that always baffles me is that although the marriage was a secret amongst the public, it was perfectly well known within the Spanish court meaning that her former brother in law Carlos probably knew about it, and I’ve always wondered why he never leaked that information to the public. When the public did find out they were outraged which led to the army, which was the backbone of Isabella II’s support, and the liberal leadership in the Cortes coming together to demand that she stand aside from the regency. She tried to resist however she eventually found her position intolerable; she renounced the regency and promptly left Spain with Muñoz. The army commander, Baldomero Espartero replaced her as regent. She initially moved to France where she and Munoz had several more children. In 1843, on the overthrow of General Baldomero Espartero her daughter asked her to return to Spain. A year later Isabella II was declared to be of age and took control of Spain herself. Upon taking power Isabella gave her step-father the title Duque de Riánsares, and gave official consent to the marriage. It was performed publicly as a way of trying to calm any anger the public retained towards the couple. Isabella would seemingly grow quite fond of her step-father and went on to grant him a number of other titles, make him a member of the Knight of the Golden Fleece and named him a Captain General the highest rank in the Spanish Army. In 1854 Maria Christina and her husband retuned to France which remained her primary residence for the remainder of her life. In September 1868, a naval mutiny marked the beginning of the Glorious Revolution and Maria Christina’s daughter Isabella was forced to exile. She joined her mother in France. In 1870, Isabella formally abdicated the Spanish throne in favour of her son, Alfonso. Just four years later in 1874, the First Spanish Republic was overthrown in a coup leading to the restoration of the Bourbon Monarchy and the accession of Maria Christina’s grandson Alfonso XII as King of Spain. Maria Christina and Munoz were married for 40 years until his death in 1873. She died five years later and as the mother of Isabella II and consort of Ferdinand VII, she was buried not beside her second husband, but in the royal crypt of El Escorial. Her daughter was later buried beside her.
If you’ve ever watched any of the 1,000 adaptations of the Three Musketeers, then you’ll probably know who this woman is. Anne of Austria was born an Infanta of Spain as the daughter of Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria. In 1615 at the age of 11 she was betrothed to Louis XIII of France; the pair were part of a two part marriage alliance – whilst Anne and Louis married, her brother Philip also married Louis’ sister Elisabeth. Now Anne was a delight; she was charming, vivacious, intelligent, a talented equestrian, very beautiful and flirtatious whilst Louis, well Louis was not quite so delightful, a fact that he made abundantly obvious when upon marrying he promptly began completely ignoring his new wife. His mother Marie de Medici (herself not the most likeable of monarchs) put considerable pressure on the couple to consummate the marriage, evidently wanting to dismiss the chance of it being annulled but Louis refused. This was partially down to his complex relationship with his over-bearing mother (Anne basically got caught up in the power struggle between the two) and potentially a result of his rumoured homosexuality; there’s the chance that Louis was gay but unlike other LGBTQ monarchs whose sexuality is a bit clearer, Louis’ is a bit more of a question mark. In 1617 with the assistance of his favourite Charles d’Albert Luynes, Louis staged a coup d’etat to remove his mother and her favourite Concino Concini from power. The plot was successful and Concini was assassinated in April of that year. In the aftermath of the coup Luynes began trying to bring the King and Queen closer recognising that a) the marriage needed to be consummated and b) an heir wasn’t going to happen without consummation. Basically Luynes went full on matchmaker; he sent away her Spanish lady in waitings and replaced them with French ones, advised Anne to start dressing in French styles and organised court events that would inevitably bring them together. We don’t know when exactly the marriage finally was consummated but it certainly was by 1619. It appears that the two became somewhat affectionate to other another to the point that Louis was visibly concerned when she suffered a brief illness. This marital bliss however didn’t last; a succession of miscarriages & stillbirths caused tension especially her stillbirth in March 1622 which was brought on by Anne falling down some stairs whilst playing with her ladies. Louis blamed her as well as Marie de Rohan (Luynes’ wife) who Louis disliked for having too much influence over Anne. In 1624 Cardinal Richelieu was named First Minister of France; Richelieu was not Anne’s number 1 fan nor did she like him and the two would spend the next 20 years loathing each other and trying to diminish the other’s influence. Anne was said to be involved in various plots to remove Richelieu, all of which were unsuccessful. Cardinal Mazarin interestingly enough was a Richelieu protégée. Now Richelieu’s main bug bear with Anne was that she was a Habsburg. He, like many Frenchmen had little love for their Spanish neighbours; Anne’s nationality would be a continuous issue for her especially in the mid 1630’s when France and Spain once again found themselves at war. This put her in a very awkward position, to say the least. She found herself in very hot waters when it was revealed she had been engaging in a secret correspondence with her brother (Louis had banned all communication between them); although she initially refused to confess, she eventually did and in response the Cardinal and Louis purged her household and filled it with loyalists to them. In 1637 the impossible happened; Anne fell pregnant!!! This was despite the fact that Louis and Anne were in a notoriously unhappy marriage; this led to the kind of rumours you might expect, rumours that suggested Louis was not the father. Contemporary sources at the time pointed to one particular night, when Louis planned to travel to Saint Mur but was prevented from doing so by a large storm meaning that he was forced to spend the night with Anne, as the date of conception. Louis evidently didn’t seem to question the paternity and there were huge celebrations at the birth of an heir. Fifteen months later Anne gave birth again to another son fully securing the line of succession. Two children and a secured line of succession did nothing to heal marital tensions and the two were as unhappy as ever. Richelieu died in 1642 followed by Louis a year later. On his deathbed, he decided to be spiteful one last time by trying to deny Anne the regency over their young son. His plan failed (lol) and Anne convinced the Parlement of Paris to declare her regent upon his death. She then shocked everyone by passing the majority of the powers of government to Cardinal Mazarin. Now Anne and Mazarin had met for the first time in 1632; Mazarin was at the time a papal diplomat who had established himself as a guardian of French interests in Rome. Throughout the 1630’s Mazarin was known to send various gifts to the most influential ladies at French court, Anne included. It wasn’t until he moved to Paris full time in 1640 that the two probably got to know each other better. Evidently between 1640 and 1642 they became close, or at least close enough that Anne trusted him to co-rule her son’s kingdom with her. Anne would go on to be regent from 1643 until her son came of age in 1651. The central issue of her regency was the disputes between the nobility and the crown. Between 1648 and 1653 government was dominated by The Fronde a series of civil disputes which started when the government of France (aka Anne and her regency) issued seven fiscal edicts, six of which were to increase taxation. The parlements resisted, questioned the constitutionality of the king’s actions, and sought to keep the authority of the crown in check. It was basically the nobility in articular very high ranking nobles like Louis II de Bourbon, Prince of Condé rebelling against the crown. This was all against the backdrop of the Thirty Years War. Her son Louis XIV was so traumatised by the events of the Fronde that it shaped him forever; the rest of the country similarly were tired of anarchy and due to their utter disgust for the princes, they came to view the king’s party as the party of order and settled government. This ultimately facilitated the emergence of the absolute monarchy under his reign (Louis is the “I am the State” guy). Imagine rebelling against the crown and messing up so badly that instead of limiting the king’s authority as you wanted, you end up bringing about absolutism. Oops. During the eight years that Anne was regent, she and Mazarin were clearly devoted to one another and to her son’s rule. Evidence as to whether they were lovers, however is scarce. Letters between them clearly demonstrate that they were hugely fond of one another as does the fact they actually lived together – upon becoming regent, Anne decided to leave the Louvre and reside at the Palais Royale which amusingly had been Richelieu’s residence. Shortly afterwards Mazarin left his residence and moved in to the Palais Royale with her. They effectively raised her two sons together. This unsurprisingly serves as the basis for the rumours that they were lovers. There are even suggestions that the two secretly married (Mazarin was a lay-man not a full blown priest) although there’s even less evidence of that. When her son took power in 1651 Mazarin was initially dismissed although allowed to return to some degree of influence two years later. When he died in 1661 he left an ENORMOUS fortune, the beneficiaries of which were his various nieces and nephew, Anne and her sons; her eldest Louis XIV received a set of eighteen diamonds known as the “Mazarins” worth two million livres. Anne’s formal regency came to an end in 1651 when Louis XIV was declared of legal majority at the age of thirteen. That didn’t stop her influence however; both Louis and his brother Philippe were devoted to their mother and she remained a key advisor to her son. In 1659 the war with Spain ended with the Treaty of the Pyrenees; the treaty was cemented by the marriage of Louis to Anne’s niece Maria Theresa of Spain. Anne was said to be a key figure in bringing her niece to court and the two enjoyed a good relationship. In 1661 she retired to the convent of Val-de-Grâce due to ill health; she died there five years later of what is believed to have been breast cancer.
If we’re being honest here, the Habsburgs are not exactly renowned for exceptional beauty (centuries of inbreeding will do that to you) however there are the occasional Habsburg who manages to escape the dreaded curse of the Habsburg chin. This girl right here might be the prettiest princess of them all. Meet Catalina Micaela of Spain. Born the daughter of Philip II and his third wife Elisabeth of Valois, Catalina was the granddaughter of Henry II of France, Catherine de Medici, Charles V Holy Roman Emperor and Isabella of Portugal which is a pretty spectacular set of grandparents. It’s likely she was named after her grandmother Catherine de Medici. She was raised alongside her sister Isabella Clara Eugenia with whom she had a lifelong close bond with; the two probably bonded over the loss of their mother which happened when Catalina was just a baby. Following Elisabeth’s death, Catherine (despite being in & ruling France) made sure to keep an eye on her grand babies; she was given regular reports of the girls health and education, she sent regular gifts, had their portraits done and sent to her and we know that she had portraits of them in her book of hours. Now Catalina was fully aware that she was the daughter of the man that ruled a decent chunk of Europe; she was also fully aware that she was exceptionally beautiful and intelligent and she developed a slight reputation for arrogance. Now due to the Wars of Religion engulfing France, Charles Emmanuel I Duke of Savoy developed plans to expand the Duchy of Savoy at the expense of the weakened France. He however needed Spanish support and so put forth the idea to marry Catalina Micaela (the two were distantly related; her grandfather Henry II of France and his mother Marguerite of France were siblings). Her father agreed with the match and their wedding took place in Zaragoza on the 11th March 1585. They entered Turin in Savoy months later on the 10th August 1585. Now Catalina was not initially popular in Savoy mainly due to her aforementioned arrogance and her misguided attempts to introduce Spanish pomp, ceremony and way of dress to the court in Turin. Her lack of popularity was concerning however over time the people grew to respect her for her political and diplomatic abilities as well as her loyalty to her new home. Despite being a Spanish princess, she fiercely defended the autonomy of Savoy against Spain and at one point refused the Spanish offer to install a Spanish garrison in Turin from Milan with the excuse of giving her a proper personal guard. She developed significant influence over her husband; the people grew to love her for this owing to her husband’s less than pleasant personality. He was known as Testa d’feu (“the Hot-Headed”) for his rashness, temper and military aggression; she tempered his rage and was considered a calming influence. Throughout their twelve year marriage she served as regent on a number of occasions during her husband’s absence on military campaigns, including during the Lyon campaign in 1594. Now she was pregnant for the vast majority of her marriage and gave birth to five sons Philip Emmanuel Prince of Piedmont, Victor Amadeus I Duke of Savoy, Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, Maurice of Savoy and Thomas Francis Prince of Carignano and five daughters Margaret of Savoy Vicereine of Portugal & Duchess of Mantua & Montferrat, Isabella of Savoy Hereditary Princess of Modena, Maria Apollonia of Savoy (who became a nun), Francesca Caterina of Savoy (also a nun) and Giovanna of Savoy (who died shortly after birth). She was a devoted mother and due to her influence, her husband allowed her sons to be educated in Spain. In Savoy she became renowned for her contributions to the cultural of the duchy. She commissioned a series of impressive buildings including an art gallery to house Savoy’s art collection. In 1597 she suffered a miscarriage. Against the advice of her doctors, she fell pregnant again almost immediately. In November of that year she went into labour. Both she and the baby died shortly afterwards. Her death devastated both her father and her husband; so devastated was her father that his health deteriorated and when he died less than a year later, everyone claimed that her death had contributed to his. Her husband had many a mistress in the years after her death but did not remarry for over thirty years (and he died less than a year later).
There are only a couple of countries in Europe that have allowed girls to sit on the throne; Spain happens to be one of them. Meet Isabella II Queen of Spain. Born the daughter of Ferdinand VII and Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies; now because of the rampant incest in Iberian royalty her mum was also technically her 1st cousin because her maternal grandmother and father were siblings and her parents uncle & niece. As I mentioned when I discussed her mother above, her parents married due to her fathers lack of an heir and a concern that her uncle Infante Francisco de Paula of Spain inheriting the throne would be a disaster. Spanish politics was at this point split between Liberal and Conservative factions. Upon her mothers arrival in Spain, both the Liberal party, and the Spanish people, made her their champion; when she first arrived in Madrid in 1829, the blue of the cloak she wore became their official colour. One of the reasons that the conservative faction (later known as the Carlists) were so unpopular is that they were major absolutists and highly conservative. In 1830 Isabella was born followed by her sister Luisa Fernanda in 1832. Using King Philip V’s enactment of Salic Law which prevented women from taking the throne, Ferdinand’s brother Infante Carlos María of Spain and sister in law Infanta Maria Francisca of Portugal pushed their claim forwards and basically declared Carlos the heir to the throne. This understandably alarmed the liberal party who were willing to just about anything to keep Carlos off the throne; Isabella’s mother Maria Christina and aunt Luisa Carlotta were instrumental in convincing Ferdinand VII to announce the Pragmatic Sanction of March 1830 which revoked the Salic Law and allowed Isabella to inherit the throne/ be declared queen upon his death, rather than his brother. Carlos as you can imagine was pissed to say the least. In July 2032 on a trip to La Granja, Ferdinand VII was badly injured by a coach accident. He became ill and increasingly sick over the summer leading everyone to panic that he was on death’s door. That fear grew exponentially when Ferdinand VII allegedly at one point fell unconscious in the palace chapel. Maria Christina wanting to at least try and maintain some degree of peace sought a meeting with the influential statesmen Francisco Calomarde who it just so happened was a Carlist. He advised her that the Spanish people would rally behind Carlos. In response she convinced her husband to sign a decree which made her regent if he did with Carlos as her chief advisor. That wasn’t good enough for Carlos who refused and demanded total governance leading to a plethora of people at court including the ambassador of Naples and her own confessor, to convince Maria to renounce the dynastic rights of her daughters in favor of Carlos, to avoid the horrors of a civil war. The queen crumbled under the pressures and convinced her husband to repeal the Pragmatic Sanction of 1830. Most versions of these events say that Maria was either pressured or outright forced to do. When the Counsel of Castile (which favored a transition towards constitutionalism) learned about this, they allegedly sent word to Maria Christina’s infamously liberal and strong willed sister Luisa Carlotta to intervene in the hopes that she could persuade the queen. When Ferdinand awoke, Luisa Carlotta and Maria Christina convinced him to re-enact the Pragmatic Sanction. On the 31st December 1832 he named Isabella heiress again, and gave her mother full regency powers. Maria Christian and Luisa Carlotta then allegedly and orchestrated Calomarde’s dismissal. Ferdinand’s health never recovered and on the 29th September 1833 he died leaving Maria Christina as regent for Isabella. Hours after her husband died and shortly before his death was publicly announced, a council of state was summoned to pledge loyalty to the Queen. This was basically an attempt to try and keep the peace even though Maria Christina and the government fully expected reactionary elements to contest the succession. As expected Isabella’s claim to the throne was disputed by Carlos, who claimed that his brother Ferdinand had unlawfully changed the succession law to permit females to inherit the crown again and some more reactionary supporters of Don Carlos went so far as to claim that Ferdinand had actually named Carlos as his heir but that Maria Christina was hiding that fact. This is very evidently rubbish. Ferdinand’s will was clear that Isabella was his heir. It was even alleged (although pretty much everyone recognised it wasn’t true) that the Queen had signed her dead husband’s name to a decree recognising Isabella as heir. Carlos’ various attempts to seize power in the months that followed culminated in the First Carlist War. It’s important to know that Isabella’s gender was actually a very small point in the debate over the succession; the bigger issue was the liberals vs the conservatives. The two sides had differing views on the influence of the army and the Church in governance; the Carlists goal was the return to a traditional absolutist monarchy while the Liberals sought to defend the constitutional monarchy. A significant portion of Spanish conservatives feared that as regent Maria Christina would make liberal reforms hence why they backed Carlos. One of Maria Christina’s first acts was to expel Conservative ministers from the upper echelons of government and replace them with liberal loyalists. Eventually in November 1833 Carlos called his followers to arms and an insurgency began to form in the Basque Mountains. The Carlists army was split between three geographically distinct locations where Carlist support was strongest: Basque Country, Catalonia and Maestrazgo in Valencia. The bulk of the country however was more in favour of Isabella and Maria Christina. For seven years Maria Christina ruled on her daughter’s behalf and led the efforts to win the civil war; she managed to win support from Portugal, France and the United Kingdom who backed her and sent volunteer and even regular forces to help defeat the Carlist army. For most of those seven years Maria Christina had control of the country; it was in the rural areas where Carlist support was strongest that she was unable to gain complete influence. The war was long and hard; from 1835 the liberals had effectively won but it wasn’t until 1839 that the Carlists in the Basque region agreed to cease fighting. The main reason they did this was that years of civil war had taken a heavy toll on the Basque economy and the Basque people had, had enough of a series of war related plights—human losses, poverty, disease. They had also realised that Carlos was obsessed with his own absolutist ambitions and had absolutely no regard for their ambitions of self government. In 1840 after seven years as regent Maria Christina was forced to abdicate the regency; this was because the public found out a very big secret she had been keeping from them. It turns out that just several months after her husband’s death she had fallen in love with and promptly married Agustín Fernando Muñoz y Sánchez, 1st Duke of Riánsares a member of the royal bodyguard. Maria Christina knew that if the she officially made the marriage public, she would be forced to forfeit the regency and for seven years she kept the marriage secret from the Spanish people despite the fact that in that they had 4 children!!! One thing that always baffles me is that although the marriage was a secret amongst the public, it was perfectly well known within the Spanish court meaning that her former brother in law Carlos probably knew about it, and I’ve always wondered why he never leaked that information to the public. When the public did find out they were outraged which led to the army, which was the backbone of Isabella II’s support, and the liberal leadership in the Cortes coming together to demand that she stand aside from the regency. She tried to resist however she eventually found her position intolerable; she renounced the regency and promptly left Spain with Muñoz. The army commander, Baldomero Espartero replaced her as regent. In 1843 General Baldomero Espartero was overthrown as part of an alliance between alliance between moderates and progressives. A year later Isabella II was declared to be of age and took control of Spain herself; most of her reign was dominated by clashes between the monarchy and parliament. Despite the fact that the constitution dictated that parliament ruled supreme, in practice, Isabella had a key and very powerful role in the making and breaking of governments. She had an uneasy relationship with the progressives and was frequently accused of undermining them; the alliance between moderates and progressives that had removed Espartero from power was already disintegrating by the time Isabella took power. Isabella was more inclined to side with the Moderate Party leading to the Década Moderada, a ten year period that lasted from May 1844 to July 1854 in which the Moderate Party continuously held power. On the 10th October 1846, the Moderate Party made Isabella marry her double-first cousin Francisco de Asis the Duke of Cadiz in a double ceremony that included the wedding of her sister Luisa Fernanda to Antoine d’Orleans Duke of Montpensir. The marriage was supposed to bring together all parts of the family as Francisco’s father also technically had a claim to the throne as the brother of Isabella’s father (his mother was also the sister of Isabella’s mother). Isabella was disgusted by both the marriage and her husband, and it didn’t get any better. Probably because Francisco was likely gay. It was widely rumoured at the time that he preferred men and Isabella reportedly commented later to one of her intimates: “what shall I tell you about a man whom I saw wearing more lace than I was wearing on our wedding night?”. Her husband’s lack of sexual interest resulted in her seeking lovers elsewhere and persistent rumour had it that few if any of Isabella’s children were fathered by her husband. The Carlist party claimed that her eldest son Alfonso was fathered by a captain of the guard, Enrique Puigmoltó y Mayans whilst her eldest daughter Isabella Francisca was allegedly fathered by José Ruiz de Arana y Saavedra, Duke of Baena. In 1847, there was a major scandal when it became public knowledge that Isabella was in love with General Serrano and allegedly willing to divorce her husband. Her mother was forced to intervene. This was the beginning of popular disapproval with Isabella. In 1852 there was an assassination attempt against her; while she was leaving the Chapel of the Royal Palace, an ordained priest and liberal activist approached the queen and stabbed her. Due to the heavy gold embroidery on her dress an the baleen stays of her corset, the impact of the stabbing was less severe and what was intended to be a stab wound to the chest only resulted in a minor incision at the right side of her stomach. The would be assassin was, quickly seized by the Royal Guard (with help from the dukes of Osuna and Tamames, the Marquis of Alcañices and the Count of Pinohermoso) and was then executed. Isabella then made a very questionable decision when she decided to back the government of the Count of San Luis (literally he only became prime minister due to the support he enjoyed from the royal court). By June 1854 government was in disarray and on the 28th of that month the military began putting pressure on her to oust the government. When she refused a military coup (dominated by the moderates themselves) took place; in order to win the support of the people, those involved in the coup promised new reforms in order to appeal to progressives. Days later, the situation was followed by a full-scale people’s revolution. With the prospect of another civil war on the horizon, Isabella was advised to appoint General Espartero (remember him?) who was considered pretty charismatic and popular by the majority of the public. Espartero’s return to power led to her mother once again leaving Spain and returning to France. For the next 14 years the moderates were in a prominent position in Isabella’s government. One of her downfalls was that she was never able to act as an effective liaison between the various parties and her reign was essentially a see saw between the different factions. When one party had dominance she alienated the others which meant she wasn’t particularly loved by any party. Fourteen years of the same people ruling supreme, left the Democratic Party, the Progressive party and the moderates alienated by the Crown, feeling very pissed to say the least. There was also a dissatisfaction with the personal behaviour of the queen, the corruption of many at court, the complete abandonment of the possibility of political reform (which had been promised to the public) and a pretty poor economy. Altogether a bit of a recipe for disaster. In August 1866 exiled forces from both the Democratic and Progressive Parties met secretly in Belgium and came to the conclusion that they needed to overthrow Isabella. A little under two years later Isabella seemingly became aware that there were various conspiracies against her and Isabella banished her sister and brother-in-law from Spain, due to fears they were involved in the conspiracies. On the 18th September with Isabella out of Madrid, a military coup took place led by Marshal Prim and Admiral Topete. This marked the beginning of the Glorious Revolution. On the 28th September revolutionary forces led by Marshal Serrano clashed with Isabelline forces commanded by Manuel Pavia y Lacy; Isabella’s side was defeated which ultimately led to the definitive demise of Isabella II’s 35-year reign. Isabella and her entourage left San Sebastián and went to exile taking a train to Biarritz where they stayed for around a month before moving to Paris where Isabella remained for the rest of her life. In 1870 Isabella formally abdicated the Spanish throne in favour of her son, Alfonso. With that there was no reason for her and her husband to remain together and so they officially separated. Following the election to the Spanish throne of Amadeo of Savoy (second son of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy) in November 1870, Isabella reconciled in with her brother-in-law, the Duke of Montpensier. Just four years later in 1874, the First Spanish Republic was overthrown in a coup leading to the restoration of the Bourbon Monarchy and the accession of Isabella’s son Alfonso XII as King of Spain. There was some discussion of Isabella returning to Spain however many of Alfonso’s advisors were against the idea with one Cánovas del Castillo, the dominant figure of the new regime, writing her a letter which bluntly said “Your Majesty is not a person, it is a reign, it is a historical time, and what the country needs is another reign, a different time” (see here). She did visit Spain briefly however only after the new constitution was put in place and only briefly before returning to France where she lived with the Marqués de Alta Villa. On the 9th April 1904, decades after being dethroned Isabella II former Queen of Spain died of what doctors said was the flu. Per her request she was buried at El Escorial with her parents.
One thing that the Habsburg’s did extremely well (and I’m not someone that’s particularly complimentary to the Habsburg’s it must be said) was utilising the skill and political shrewdness possessed by some of the princesses of the dynasty. Princesses who might I add were often 1000x more fabulous than their brothers or fathers. One of the positions very frequently given to the women of the family was Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands; the first important woman to hold the title was the one and only Margaret of Austria (aka the best Habsburg) followed by her niece Mary of Austria followed by Margaret of Parma (that’s Charles V’s aunt, sister and daughter; the dude was surrounded by incredible women) and then there was a succession of random men until this woman Isabella Clara Eugenia. Now she wasn’t just the Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands; no she was so impressive her father just gave her Netherlands to rule in her own right. Nice Christmas present really. Now Isabella Clara Eugenia was born the eldest daughter of Philip II and his third wife Elisabeth of Valois and was thus the granddaughter of Henry II of France, Catherine de Medici, Charles V Holy Roman Emperor and Isabella of Portugal which is a pretty spectacular set of grandparents. It’s likely she was named after her grandmother Isabella of Portugal whose death in 1539 had devastated the entire family. Her father was apparently despite her gender, overjoyed at her birth and declared himself to be happier on the occasion than he would have been at the birth of a son. He doted on her and her mother. She was raised alongside her sister Catalina Micaela with whom she had a lifelong close bond with; the two probably bonded over the loss of their mother in childbirth. Following Elisabeth’s death, their maternal grandmother Catherine (despite being in & ruling France) made sure to keep an eye on her grand babies; she was given regular reports of the girls health and education, she sent regular gifts, had their portraits done and sent to her and we know that she had portraits of them in her book of hours. Isabella remained her father’s golden girl for the rest of her life and she also grew close to her stepmother Anna of Austria (who was also her technically her first cousin – honestly no one did family incest quite like the Habsburg’s). Now Isabella and her sister were given an exemplary education and she was raised speaking Dutch, French, Italian and Spanish whilst famous artist Sofonisba Anguissola taught her to paint. So intelligent was Isabella and so close was she with her father that she was the only person whom King Philip allowed to help him with his work – she from a young age sorted his papers and translated Italian documents into Spanish for him. Being the eldest daughter of the King of Spain she was considered a hot commodity on the European marriage market. At the age of 2 she was betrothed to her cousin Rudolf II Holy Roman Emperor however after a twenty year engagement he promptly announced he had no intention of marrying anyone. Her father then arranged for her to marry Rudolf’s younger brother Albert Archduke of Austria; due to Albert serving as Archbishop of Toledo, he had to be released from his religious commitments by Pope Clement VIII before the wedding could take place. Her father Philip II died on the 13th September 1598, mid wedding planning – shortly before his death, he resigned the thrones of the Netherlands in favor of Isabella and her fiancé. In his will he stipulated that they were to reign over the Netherlands jointly and be succeeded by whatever descendants they had according to the male-preference cognate primogeniture however he also stipulated that should a female succeed, she had to marry the King of Spain or a person chosen by the King of Spain as a way of keeping the Netherlands tied to the Habsburg. The will also said that, should they have no children, the Netherlands would revert to the King of Spain upon the death of either spouse. Isabella by this point had been waiting years to marry and she finally did on the 18th April 1599 in Valencia. In 1601 they began ruling the Habsburg Netherlands together; their reign is now considered a key period in the history of that part of Europe and is considered the Golden Age of the Spanish Netherlands. The first half of Albert and Isabella’s reign was pretty much dominated by war and the Habsburg conflict with the Dutch Republic; although they were unable to bring about a long term permanent peace their threats of diplomatic isolation, political negotiations and military campaigns against the republic did bring about the Twelve Years Truce agreed in Antwerp on the 9th April 1609. After forty years of constant war, everyone was thrilled at the reprieve. This truce turned out to be hugely economically beneficial mainly because the fields could be again worked in safety (the kingdom’s main source of income was agricultural). The recovery of agriculture led in turn to a population increase (a relief after decades of demographic losses) whilst industry in particular the luxury trades picked up after a decades long slump which brought considerable economic prosperity. Albert and Isabella also strengthened the role of the monarchy in the Netherlands; the States General (kinda like a parliament of sorts with representatives from all the provinces) were only summoned once right at the very beginning of their reign and then afterwards the duo preferred to deal directly with the provinces. In 1611 they issued the Eternal Edict of 1611 which reformed the judicial system and ushered in the transition from customary to written law. In terms of religious policy, Isabella was a Habsburg meaning she was all for Catholicism and very against Protestantism although she lacked the fanaticism exhibited by some of her relatives and the few Protestants that remained in the Netherlands were no longer actively persecuted. Under the terms of legislation passed in 1609, they were allowed to continue living in the Netherlands provided they did not worship in public. Their court at Brussels became the crown jewel of the Habsburg’s vast empire serving as a meeting place for artists, diplomats, defectors, spies, confessors, politician, functionaries, merchants, musicians and nobles, from Spain, Italy, Burgundy, England and Germany. Brussels became a vital link in the chain of Habsburg Courts and the diplomatic link between the cities of Madrid, Vienna, Paris, London, Lisbon, Prague and The Hague. It also became an artistic centre with Albert and Isabella becoming foremost patrons in art and architecture, particularly in the baroque style which had become popular in the aftermath of the Counter Reformation; they often used their patronage for political means. Unlike her sister who popped out 500 healthy children, Isabella was obviously significantly older when she married and although 33 may not be old in terms of child rearing today, 33 back then was quite late in the game. Albert and Isabella managed to have three children in 1605, 1607 and 1609 however all three died shortly after birth; we’re not even 100% sure of their names and genders. Isabella and Albert seem to have been genuinely devoted to one another and formed an impressive team. In the fall of 1620 Albert’s health began to fail; as the Twelve Years’ Truce was ending the next April, he devoted his last energies to securing its renewal. In order to reach this goal he was prepared to make far reaching concessions however both the Dutch Republic and Spanish Monarchy lacked his desire for peace. His death on the 13th July 1621 therefore more or less coincided with relations once again going south. Per their marriage agreement with no child to succeed them, the Netherlands reverted to the Spanish crown. Recognising that there was a) no more shrewd and b) no once more respected, Isabella’s nephew Philip IV named her Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands allowing her to continue ruling this time on his behalf. Isabella, devastated by his death joined the Third Order of St Francis. She served as Governor for thirteen years until her death; during those years she lacked the autonomy she had, had before. She had some successes during her tenure including the capture of Breda in 1625 however she also oversaw the losses of Hertogenbosch in 1629 and Maastricht in 1632. She died a year later.
There are so many instances of history where the phrase “I got it from my mama” is more than relevant. This is one of those occasions. Meet Mariana Victoria of Spain. Born the daughter of Philip V of Spain and the formidable Elisabeth Farnese, Mariana was at the time of her birth fifth in the line of succession behind her half brothers half brothers Louis, Ferdinand and Pedro and her full brother Charles. She was named after her paternal grandmother Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria. In 1720 when lil Mariana was just two, the War of the Quadruple Alliance came to an end; as part of the peace negotiations it was agreed that she would marry her first cousin Louis XV of France who was underage. This engagement was one of several that took place to cement peace; these other engagements included that of her half brother Infante Louis Prince of Asturias to Elisabeth d’Orleans Madmoiselle de Montpensir (the daughter of the regent of France Philippe II d’Orleans) and her brother Infante Charles to Philippine Elisabeth d’Orleans Mademoiselle de Beaujolais (another daughter of the regent of France Philippe II d’Orleans). The exchange of the young Infanta and Mademoiselle de Montpensier was on the Ile des Faisans (“Isle of Pheasants”) and Mariana Victoria arrived in Paris on the 2nd March 1722 amongst much celebration and took up residence at the Louvre Palace. Due to her husband already being king she was nicknamed “l’infante Reine” (“Queen-Infanta”) although it was agreed that the marriage would not take place until Mariana Victoria reached a more mature age. She became popular with the court including the mother of the Regent Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate who described her as being “the sweetest and prettiest little thing” and having “considerable wit” for one so young. The only person at court seemingly not fond of her was the king himself who avoided her presence; whenever they were together she was said to be quite in awe of him. In February 1723 Louis XV reached his majority and thus governed the country on his own. He named Louis Henri Duke of Bourbon his chief minister; the Duke and his mistress Madame de Prie wished to maintain influence over the young age Louis XV and so convinced him to send Mariana Victoria back to Spain and instead suggested the king marry his sister Henriette Louise de Bourbon. The situation wasn’t helped by the tension between the Spanish and French courts which had been caused by the Spanish court rejecting Louise Elisabeth d’Orleans who had married Mariana’s brother Louis who served as King of Spain for only seven months following the death of his and Mariana’s father. As their marriage had not been consummated, the Spanish refused to support her and ordered she return to France with her sister Philippine Elisabeth. Mariana Victoria left Versailles on the 5th April 1725 and travelled to the frontier where she and the two Orléans daughters were then exchanged. Louis XV subsequently married a Polish princess Marie Leszcynska in September 1725 (twenty years later Mariana’s sister Maria Teresa Rafaela was married to her former fiancé’s son). Safe to say the Spanish (especially her mother Elisabeth) were pissed at the insult and it caused a considerable diplomatic rift between the two countries. To anger the French Elisabeth (who as I earlier mentioned basically ran the show in Spain) concluded the Treaty of Vienna. In 1727 discussions with the Portuguese began with a marriage being negotiated by the Portuguese ambassador the Marquis of Abrantes although there was also at one point discussion of her marrying Peter II Emperor of Russia (the grandson of Peter the Great). It was eventually arranged for her to marry the Infante Jose the son and heir of João V of Portugal whilst her older brother Ferdinand was betrothed to Jose’s sister Barbara. They were married on the 19th January 1979 in Portugal and were quickly smitten. They had similar interests; they both enjoyed hunting as well as music (she was renowned for her singing talents) and theatre and were both passionately religious. Despite their closeness their marriage was plagued by tension over his apparently inability to keep it in his pants. During her marriage, Mariana Victoria gave birth to eight children, four of whom survived infancy; when one of her daughters Mariana Francisca was proposed as a potential wife for her former’s fiancé’s son she fiercely objected remembering her own treatment at the hands of the French; her husband’s advisors were supposedly keen on the idea but she was so furiously against it that her husband didn’t press the issue. The same happened when another daughter Dorothea was put forward as a bride for Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans. Her father in law died in 1750 and her husband became the ruler of the Portuguese Empire. Unfortunately her husband lacked the strong will that she had and allowed his prime minister the Marquis of Pombal (a favourite of Mariana’s mother in law) to dominate politics. He basically left the governing of the state to Pombal who used his power to remove the influence of the church at the court as well as that of his enemies. It’s safe to say that Mariana Victoria was not a fan. In 1759, the Tavora affair kicked off after an assassination attempt on her husband failed and Pombal became convinced that the powerful Távora family were responsible for the attack. He ordered the execution of all members of the family; it was only at the intervention of Mariana Victoria and her daughter Maria who ss the heir to the throne had some political standing, that the women and children of the family were spared. Eventually her husband suffered a series of strokes and decided to appoint a regent; Mariana convinced him to name her over Pombal which he did, allowing Mariana to take his place as head of government. Created Regent on the 29th November 1776, she remained so until her husband’s death on 24th February 1777 (during this time she tried to severely limit Pommel’s influence). Upon her husband’s death, their eldest daughter became the first queen regnant as Maria I. Owing to Mariana and Maria’s dislike of Pombal, he was exiled from court almost immediately after the king’s death. Mother and daughter were close and throughout Maria I’s reign Mariana Victoria exerted significant influence on her daughter, who was known to often ask her mother’s advice on matters of state. Mariana Victoria took it upon herself to improve relations with her native Spain, which was ruled by her older brother Charles III; the two countries had for decades been in conflict owing to disagreements about territorial possessions in the Americas. Towards the end of 1777 she left Portugal to spend a year in Spain where she negotiated a treaty between the two nations which was cemented by a double marriage between her granddaughter the Infanta Mariana Victoria and Charles III’s son Infante Gabriel, and her grandson Infante João and Infante Carlota the granddaughter of Charles III. She returned to Portugal in November 1778. Her health was by this time poor; she suffered from rheumatism and heart disease and was known to sometimes use a wheelchair. She remained a key figure at court until her death on the 17th January 1781. She was buried besides her husband.
Sorry this took so long! I’ll see you all very soon for another post – I promise!
Alexandra
The Monstrous Regiment of Women 