Person
Austria, Mariana de (1634-1696, reina consorte de España)Other forms
Vienna 1634-12-23 - Madrid (España) 1696-05-16
Mariana of Austria (1634-1696), Queen of Spain, Regent (1665-1675), second wife of King Philip IV. Daughter of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, and of Maria Anna of Spain, sister of Philip IV, she married her uncle in 1649. Only two of her children reach adulthood: the Infanta Margaret Theresa, immortalized by Velázquez in "Las Meninas" (and future wife of Emperor Leopold I) and the weak and feeble Prince Charles. When Philip IV died in 1665 his son Charles was four years old. In his testament the King regulated that Mariana, as regent, would preside over the Council of Government, instituted by this entity during the minority of Charles II. However, she relied on favorites such as the Jesuit Juan Everardo Nithard or Fernando de Valenzuela and this caused an aristocratic opposition led by John Joseph of Austria, who, after seizing power (1677), exiled her in Toledo. Two years later, after Juan's death, she returned to the court until her death in Madrid, in the Palace of the Duke of Uceda.
Hija del emperador Fernando III y de María, hermana de Felipe IV.
Madre de María Teresa, emperatriz consorte de Leopoldo I, emperador del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico y del rey Carlos II de España.
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.
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.