My Trastamara’s Girls - Part SevenFinally finishing the Trastamara’s queens fami

My Trastamara’s Girls - Part Seven

Finally finishing the Trastamara’s queens family three, Maria of Spain, Anna and Elisabeth of Austria.

Maria of Spain, Holly Roman Empress

She was the spouse of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia and Hungary. She was the daughter of Emperor Charles V and Isabella of Portugal, and twice served as regent of Spain.

Maria and Maximiliam had sixteen children during the course of a twenty-eight-year marriage. Among them the Holly Roman Emperors Rudolf II and Matthias III, and the queens Anna and Elisabeth of Austria, the first queen of Spain and the last queen of France.

While her father was occupied with German affairs, Maria and Maximilian acted as regents of Spain from 1548 to 1551 during the absence of Prince Philip. Maria stayed at the Spanish court until August 1551, and in 1552 the couple moved to live at the court of Maximilian’s father in Vienna. During another absence of her brother, now King Philip II, from 1558 to 1561, Maria was again regent of Spain and returned to Madrid during that time.

After her return to Germany, her husband gradually succeeded his father Ferdinand I as ruler of Germany, Bohemia and Hungary, which he ruled from 1564 to his death in 1576. Maria was a devout Catholic and frequently disagreed with her religiously ambiguous husband. She had great influence over her sons, the future emperors Rudolf and Matthias.

c. 1557

Anna of Austria, queen of Spain

She was the eldest daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II and Maria of Spain, and the fourth and last wife of Phillip II of Spain (the other first two are her cousins, Maria Manuela, daughter of Catherine of Austria; and Mary I of England, daughter os Catherine of Aragon. The third is the french princess Elisabeth of Valois)

Anna was considered her father’s favorite child. The story goes that he enjoyed playing and gambling with her and once a meeting of the Estates of Hungary was postponed because Anna was sick. She received a Catholic education even though her father was sympathetic to Lutheranism.

As the eldest daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor, Anna was a desirable candidate for marriage at the European courts. Her parents thought of a Spanish marriage to strengthen links between the Austrian and Spanish Habsburg families.  Initially she had her cousin Don Carlos of Spain in mind, the only son of her maternal uncle Philip II of Spain, but with the death of Don Carlos and the wife of Phillip, Elisabeth of Valois, the plans had changed, and she married with her uncle.

Besides being her father’s favorite child, Anna was also Philip’s most beloved wife. But the marriage was at first opposed by many, including Pope Pius V. According to diplomats, the king was in love with his young bride.

It was Philip’s fourth marriage, but the king still had no male heir. Anna completed her duties flawlessly in that regard. Not only was she a good stepmother to Philip’s daughters Isabella Clara Eugenia and Catherine Michelle, but she also gave birth to five children, including sons.

She had 4 sons and only one daughter, Maria, but the girl died with only 3 years old.

c. 1571

Elisabeth of Austria, queen of France

She was the wife of King Charles IX, and a member of the House of Habsburg, she was the second favorite daughter of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor. Her Maria of Spain, was daughter of Isabella of Portugal, a descendant of Isabella of Castile. 

With her flawless white skin, long blond hair and perfect physique, she was considered one of the great beauties of the era, and she was just as intelligent and charming as her father. 

After the death of her husband, she returned to Vienna, and lived at first in her childhood home, Schloss Stallburg. On 1576 her beloved father Maximilian II died, and her brother Rudolf II succeeded him as Holy Roman Emperor. Her last great tragedy came on 1578, when her six-year-old daughter Marie Elisabeth died.

When a new proposal of marriage was made to her, this time from King Philip II of Spain after the death of his wife Anna in 1580, she again refused; according to Brantôme, she replied to the offer with the famous phrase: “The Queens of France never remarried” (Les Reines de France ne se remarient point), once said by Blanche of Navarre, widow of King Philip VI.

c. 1573

And now, the complete family three of Trastamara’s queens descendents of Isabella of Castile:

by mara sop