Person
Borbón, Isabel de (1603-1644, reina consorte de España)Other forms
1603-11-22 - Madrid (España) 1644-10-06
Elisabeth (1603-1644), Queen of Spain (1621-1644), was the wife of the Spanish monarch Philip IV of Spain and daughter of King Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici. A few months after her birth, she got engaged with the prince of Piedmont, who died. Thus, she focused on her marriage to the Spanish prince. They got married before Philip's accession to the throne (he was Prince of Asturias) on 25 November 1615. The wedding by proxy took place on October 18, 1615, when the princess was not quite thirteen years old, and the marriage was not consummated until November 25, 1620 in the Palace of El Pardo. During her marriage she had six daughters and one son, but only Maria Theresa and Balthasar Charles survived. Maria Theresa married the French sovereign Louis XIV, thus strengthening the bond between the Spanish and French crowns. Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias, died in 1646 when he was seventeen. She always opposed the great power of the Count-Duke of Olivares, advising her husband to limit his powers. Both Margaret of Austria and Elisabeth de Borbón are figures analyzed with the purpose of proving that the Queen's House became a resistance space to the favorite. In the absence of Philip IV, she became a lieutenant at the Court during the crisis of 1640. In her testament she left part of her property to the foundation of a hospice for poor soldiers and a school dedicated to the training of pilots for the Spanish Royal Navy.
Hija de Enrique IV de Francia y de María de Médicis.
Madre de María Teresa, reina de Francia y del príncipe Baltasar Carlos.
RUBIO ARAGONÉS, M.J. Reinas de España: las Austrias. Siglos XV-XVIII, de Isabel la Católica a Mariana de Neoburgo.-Madrid, La Esfera de los Libros, 2010.
Historia de España. La España de Felipe IV. El gobierno de la monarquía, la crisis de 1640 y el fracaso de la hegemonía europea. Tomo XXV/ Francisco Tomás y Valiente, Álvaro Castillo Pintado, Elliot, J.H. et al.3ª ed.-Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1982.