Maria Anna of Spain

Maria Anna of Spain (18 August 1606 – 13 May 1646) was a Holy Roman Empress and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia by her marriage to Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor. She acted as regent on several occasions during the absences of her husband, notably during his absence in Bohemia in 1645.

The daughter of King Philip III of Spain and of Margaret of Austria, she was prior to her Imperial marriage considered a possible wife for Charles, Prince of Wales. The event, later known in history as the "Spanish match", provoked a domestic and political crisis in the kingdoms of England and Scotland. In the imperial court in Vienna, she continued to be strongly influenced by her native Spanish culture from clothes to music and also promoted the strengthening of relations between the Imperial and the Spanish branches of the House of Habsburg.

Infanta Maria Anna of Spain was born in the Palace of El Escorial, near Madrid, on 18 August 1606 as the fourth child and third (but second surviving) daughter of King Philip III of Spain and his wife, Margaret of Austria, archduchess of the Inner Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg. Of her seven siblings, only four survived infancy: Anna (later wife of King Louis XIII of France), Philip IV of Spain, Charles (who died young in 1632) and Ferdinand (later Cardinal-Infante and Governor of the Spanish Netherlands).^{[citation needed]} Maria Anna's parents had a close kinship; her father was her mother's first cousin once removed, and they were related through multiple lines of descent. On her father's side, she was the granddaughter of King Philip II of Spain, and his fourth wife and niece, Archduchess Anna of Austria, and on her mother's side, she was the granddaughter of Charles II, Archduke of Inner Austria and his wife and niece, Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria.^{[citation needed]}

From early childhood, Maria Anna played an important role in the matrimonial projects of her father. In adolescence, she was betrothed to Archduke John-Charles, eldest son and heir of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, and his first wife, Maria Anna of Bavaria. Her fiancé was her first cousin and the son of her mother's brother. The marriage never took place because of Archduke John-Charles's early death in 1618.

There was a possible marriage between the prince of Wales and the Spanish Infanta, it was known in history under the name "Spanish match" and caused an internal political crisis in both England and Scotland. In 1623, the Prince of Wales, accompanied by George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, visited Madrid to meet his intended bride. However, Maria Anna did not wish to marry a Protestant, and Charles would not convert to Catholicism. At the end, the wedding never took place for political reasons but also because of the reluctance of the new Spanish king to conclude a dynastic marriage with the House of Stuart. Charles eventually married the devout Catholic Henrietta Maria of France of the House of Bourbon.

In late 1626, Maria Anna was betrothed to Archduke Ferdinand, the younger brother of her first fiancé and the new heir of Emperor Ferdinand II. He was her first cousin and was the son of her mother's brother. The formal engagement was preceded by a series of negotiations, which were conducted in 1625. The same year, Ferdinand was crowned King of Hungary, and in 1627, he was crowned King of Bohemia. In the negotiations were included all the life aspects of the infanta at the court of her future spouse. Despite the desire of the groom for Maria Anna's confessor to be the Jesuit Ambrosio de Peñalosa, the appointment eventually went to Capuchin Diego Quiroga. In the marriage contract signed by both parties in 1628, it was noted that Maria Anna could retain her rights of inheritance over the Spanish throne, but her older sister Infanta Anna, who married to King Louis XIII in 1615, was forced to renounce her rights.

Maria Anna had left Madrid for Vienna in December 1629, fully three years after her engagement and nearly five years after the proposal for marriage was first mooted. The journey, once it was embarked upon, took more than a year to complete. On route by sea, in Genoa, complications arose from an epidemic of the plague that erupted in the Italian Peninsula. For that reason, the party was unable to stop in Bologna, where Cardinal Antonio Barberini, nephew of Pope Urban VIII, was waiting for the infanta to give her the Golden Rose. The party moved to Naples, where Maria Anna finally received the award. Leaving Naples, the Infanta crossed the Papal States after she had made a pilgrimage to the Basilica della Santa Casa. On that section of her journey, Maria Anna was accompanied by Roman aristocracy, led by another nephew of Pope Urban VIII, Taddeo Barberini, Prince of Palestrina. On 26 January 1631, she arrived in Trieste, where she met Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, her future brother-in-law, who would first stand in for his brother at a wedding by proxy and then escort the infanta to Vienna. The very day, Maria Anna was married to King Ferdinand of Hungary and Bohemia per procura, with Archduke Leopold Wilhelm serving as the proxy.

Before the official wedding, King Ferdinand, not trusting the previous portraits that he had seen of the infanta, decided to view his bride secretly. The Royal Oberhofmeister asked for an audience with Maria Anna. On that visit, he was accompanied by some nobles, one of whom was her groom. Struck by the beauty of the infanta, King Ferdinand immediately revealed his identity and began a conversation with Maria Anna in Spanish. The love and respect that the future emperor felt for his wife lasted throughout their marriage. He was never unfaithful to her and never had any illegitimate children.