Maria of Austria, Holy Roman Empress


Maria of Austria or Maria of Spain, also known as Isabel, was the empress consort and queen consort of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia and Hungary. She served as regent of Spain in the absence of her father Emperor Charles V from 1548 until 1551 and was one of the most powerful empresses of the Holy Roman Empire.

Early life

Maria was born in Madrid, Spain to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, and Isabella of Portugal. She grew up mostly in Toledo and Valladolid with her siblings, Philip and Joanna. They built a strong family bond despite their father's regular absences. Maria and her brother, Philip, shared similar strong personal views and policies which they retained during the rest of their lives.

As Regent of Spain

On 15 September 1548, aged twenty, Maria married her first cousin Archduke Maximilian. Despite Maria's commitment to Habsburg Spain and her strong Catholic manners, the marriage was a happy one. The couple had sixteen children in just nineteen years, but only nine of them lived to adulthood.
While her father was occupied with German affairs, Maria and Maximilian acted as regents of Spain during the absence of Prince Philip from 1548 to 1550 and from 1550 she did so alone. 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.

As Holy Roman Empress

In 1564, her husband succeeded his father Ferdinand I at his death, as Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, and King of Hungary. He ruled these domains until his death in 1576. Maria became Empress and Queen.
Maria was a devout Catholic and frequently disagreed with her religiously ambiguous husband about his religious tolerance.
During her life in Austria, Maria was reportedly ill at ease in a country which was not entirely Catholic, and she surrounded herself with a circle of strictly Catholic courtiers, many of whom she had brought with her from Spain. Her court was organized by her Spanish chief lady-in-waiting Maria de Requenes in a Spanish manner, and among her favorite companions was her Spanish lady-in-waiting Margarita de Cardona.

As Holy Roman Empress Dowager

In 1576, Maximilian died. Maria remained at the Imperial Court for six years after his death. She had great influence over her sons, the future emperors Rudolf II and Matthias.
Maria returned to Spain in 1582, taking her youngest surviving child Archduchess Margaret with her, who was promised to marry Philip II of Spain, who had lost his fourth wife, her oldest daughter, Archduchess Anna in 1580.
Margaret finally refused and took the veil as a Poor Clare. Commenting that she was very happy to live in "a country without heretics", Maria then influenced quite a number of events in the Spanish Court until she eventually settled in the Convent of Las Descalzas Reales in Madrid, where she lived until her death in 1603.
She was the patron of the noted Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victoria, and the great Requiem Mass he wrote in 1603 for her funeral is considered among the best and most refined of his works.
Maria exerted some influence together with Queen Margaret, the wife of her grandson/nephew, Philip III of Spain. Margaret, the sister of the future Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, would be one of three women at Philip's court who would apply considerable influence over the king. Margaret was considered by contemporaries to be extremely pious – in some cases, excessively pious, and too influenced by the Church, and 'astute and very skillful' in her political dealings, although 'melancholic' and unhappy over the influence of the Duke of Lerma over her husband at court. Margaret continued to fight an ongoing battle with Lerma for influence until her death in 1611. Philip had an 'affectionate, close relationship' with Margaret, and paid her additional attention after they had a son, also named Philip, in 1605.
Maria, the Austrian representative to the Spanish court – and Margaret of the Cross, Maria's daughter – along with Queen Margaret, were a powerful Catholic and pro-Austrian faction in the court of Philip III of Spain. They were successful, for example, in convincing Philip to provide financial support to Ferdinand from 1600 onwards. Philip steadily acquired other religious advisors. Father Juan de Santa Maria, the confessor to Philip's daughter, Maria Anna, was felt by contemporaries to have an excessive influence over Philip at the end of his life, and both he and Luis de Aliaga Martínez, Philip's own confessor, were credited with the overthrow of Lerma in 1618. Similarly Mariana de San Jose, a favoured nun of Queen Margaret's, was also criticised for her later influence over the king's actions.

Issue

Maria was constantly pregnant during much of her marriage, giving birth almost once a year:
  1. Anna, married her uncle Philip II of Spain
  2. Ferdinand, died in early childhood
  3. Rudolf II, emperor
  4. Ernest, served as governor of the Habsburg Netherlands
  5. Elisabeth, married Charles IX of France
  6. Maria, died in infancy
  7. Matthias, emperor
  8. A stillborn son
  9. Maximilian, served as grandmaster of the Teutonic Order and administrator of Prussia
  10. Albert, served as governor of the Habsburg Netherlands
  11. Wenceslaus
  12. Frederick, died in infancy
  13. Maria, died in infancy
  14. Charles, died in infancy
  15. Margaret, a nun
  16. Eleanor, died in childhood
Only five of Maria's children were still alive at the time of her death.