Mariana of Austria
Mariana of Austria or Maria Anna was Queen of Spain from 1649 until her husband and uncle, Philip IV, died in 1665. She was then appointed regent for their three-year-old son Charles II, and due to his ill health remained an influential figure until her own death in 1696. Her regency was overshadowed by the need to manage Spain’s post-1648 decline as the dominant global power.
About Mariana of Austria in brief
Mariana of Austria or Maria Anna was Queen of Spain from 1649 until her husband and uncle, Philip IV, died in 1665. She was then appointed regent for their three-year-old son Charles II, and due to his ill health remained an influential figure until her own death in 1696. Her regency was overshadowed by the need to manage Spain’s post-1648 decline as the dominant global power, internal political divisions and the European economic crisis of the second half of the 17th century. The inability of her son Charles to produce an heir led to constant manoeuvring by other European powers, which ultimately ended in the 1701 to 1714 War of the Spanish Succession. Her exclusion from political life meant she focused on religion and education, which society viewed as fitting women’s role as nurturers and providers of moral guidance. Only two of their five children survived to adulthood; in 1666, Margaret Theresa married her maternal uncle Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.
Mariana’s second daughter, Maria Ambrosia, lived only fifteen days, followed by two sons, Philip Prospero and Ferdinand Thomas. On 6 November 1661, Mariana gave birth to her last child, Charles, later known as El Hechizado or \”The Bewitched\”, in the belief his disabilities were caused by \”sorcery. \” In his case, the so-called Habsburg jaw was so pronounced he spoke and ate with difficulty all his life. It has been suggested Charles suffered from the endocrine disease acromegaly and a combination of rare genetic disorders often transmitted through recessive genes, including combined pituitary hormone deficiency and distal renal tubular acidosis. Regardless of the cause, Charles suffered ill health throughout his life, and the Spanish court was split by the struggle between his co-heirs, Louis XIV and Emperor Leopolds.
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This page is based on the article Mariana of Austria published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
