Mariana of austria

Mariana of Austria (Wiener Neustadt, December 22, 1634 - Madrid, May 16, 1696) was queen consort of Spain (1649–1665) as second wife of Philip IV and regent (1665-1675) as mother of Carlos II.

Biography

Queen Mariana of Austria by Diego Velázquez, c.1652.

Mariana was the daughter of Emperor Ferdinand III of the Holy Roman Empire and Infanta María Ana of Spain, daughter of King Philip III of Spain. Since she was a child, she was engaged to her cousin Baltasar Carlos, Prince of Asturias, but when he died unexpectedly young in 1646, King Philip IV of Spain, the young woman's uncle, who had been widowed after the death of his first wife, Isabella of France., offered himself as a boyfriend of the young Austrian archduchess.

The marriage took place on October 7, 1649 in Navalcarnero, near Madrid, spending the wedding night in El Escorial. From this union several children were born, but only two reached adulthood: the Infanta Margarita Teresa, later Empress of the Holy Roman Empire by her marriage to Emperor Leopold I in 1666; and the future Carlos II. When her husband died in 1665, Mariana became regent of the kingdom during her son's minority. A more than influential figure in her government was to be her confessor, Father Juan Everardo Nithard, who found strong opposition from Juan José de Austria, the only recognized natural son of Felipe IV and staunch enemy of Mariana.

Spain was soon involved in the War of Devolution (1667-1668) with Louis XIV of France, after which the peace treaty of Aachen was signed in 1668. Fernando de Valenzuela replaced Nithard in favor of the queen in 1673. However, that same year Mariana suffered a rude blow when she received the news of the death of her daughter, Empress Margarita Teresa, in Vienna. Two years later, in 1675, the regency came to an end due to the coming of age of Carlos II, but Mariana continued to influence her weak son a lot, except during the period from 1677, when Juan José de Austria became with power and confined it to Toledo, until 1679, the date of his death.

His last years were especially difficult due, among other things, to his frequent fights with his second daughter-in-law, Mariana de Neoburgo. Likewise, the death of her granddaughter Maria Antonia of Austria, wife of the elector Maximilian II Manuel of Bavaria, in 1692 was a terrible blow for her; However, the only surviving son of the couple, Prince José Fernando de Baviera, became one of the few comforts that Mariana had during the last years of her life. At the beginning of 1693 he wrote the following words from the Buen Retiro Palace to the elector Maximiliano Manuel about little José Fernando: «May God preserve him for the consolation of Your Highness and mine, because I carry that child in my heart, for being the only thing I have left of my daughter."^{[citation needed]}

Not long after, Mariana was diagnosed with breast cancer. This was the cause of his death, which occurred on May 16, 1696 in Madrid, «when darkness completely covered the moonlight».^{[citation required]} A witness, the Baron de Baumgarten, described the events in the following terms:^{[citation required ]}

Mariana, as a widow, in her advanced years, by Claudio Coello, c. 1685-1693

Sarcophagus of Mariana of Austria in the Royal Cripta of the Monastery of El Escorial.

Wednesday 16, at twelve less fourth of the night, at the very moment when the moon eclipse became more visible, the Queen died, in the houses of Uceda, where she lived. At four in the morning the testament was opened, and then the body was exposed on the stand. The next Sunday he was transferred to El Escorial with the usual pomp. As many people could see, when he pulled the body out of the mortuary box, a pigeon was waving a good time. A nun who served in the room of the deceased Queen, having heard of her death, asked for a remembrance of her, and gave her one of Her Majesty's night shirts. This nun, paralyzed since he entered the convent, put his shirt in his bed, and the next morning he dawned completely healed.

Baron of Baumgarten

More than three years later, during the autumn of 1699, the Austrian ambassador in Madrid, Count Harrach, accompanied the king and queen to spend some time in El Escorial and he recounts that, taking advantage of the occasion, it was decided to change some of the coffins. King Charles II ordered his mother's coffin to be opened and a short time later Harrach wrote a letter to Emperor Leopold recounting what he saw: ^{[citation needed ]}

...there was the whole body without breaking down and the flesh of the face and hands as intact as if His Majesty had just died; all the suit and the mantle, which was made of silk tafetan, was in as good a state as if it had been done. His Majesty the King in person urged me to look at him and to touch everything so that he could give detailed account to Your Imperial Majesty. The slightest smell was not noticed either. All the miracles that happened to His Majesty's death are now studied, and they have assured me that when His Majesty was to die he asked not to be opened or embalmed. But as His Majesty the King had arranged for it to be done and the doctors and surgeons opened the shirt to do the operation, he suddenly reddened the face of the body, so both the doctors and surgeons, who fell on their knees and asked His Majesty to forgive them, because they had done so by order of the King, with which, after opening it, the face was again pale.

Marriage and offspring

Estatua memorial de Mariana de Austria en el Parque Histórico de San Sebastián de Navalcarnero

She was betrothed to her cousin the Prince of Asturias, Baltasar Carlos, but after his premature death in 1646 she married King Philip IV of Spain, her uncle, to ensure their male offspring.

They were married on October 7, 1649 in Navalcarnero, becoming the second wife of Felipe IV. From this union were born:

• Infanta Margarita Teresa of Spain, born in Madrid in 1651 and died in Vienna in 1673. He married the Emperor Leopoldo I of the Holy Roman German Empire in 1666.
• Infanta María Ambrosia de la Concepción (born and killed in 1655).
• A mortinate (dead born), with no name (1656).
• Prince Felipe Próspero of Spain, born in Madrid in 1657 and died in 1661 in the same city.
• The infant Fernando Tomás de España, born in Madrid in 1658 and died in 1659 in the same city.
• King Charles II, born in Madrid in 1661 and died in the monastery of El Escorial in 1700. He married in the first nuptists with Princess Maria Luisa of Orleans and in the second nuptists with Princess Maria Ana of the Palatinate-Neoburg.

Ancestors

Curiosities

The Mariana Islands (often called Las Marianas and historically Islas de los Ladrones) were named in his honor. They are a group of northern Micronesian islands, located east of the Philippines and south of Japan and including Guam (the southernmost island) which has belonged to the United States since 1898.

The deepest oceanic trench in the world also owes its name to this queen: the Mariana Trench, located to the southeast of these islands.