SPAIN

Known to contemporaries as the House of Austria, the Habsburg dynasty succeeded the Trastámara dynasty (1369–1516) and ruled Spain from 1516 to 1700. Its earliest title, count of Habsburg, provides the name now used for it. Spanish kings placed "count of Habsburg" after their royal and ducal titles, which included king of Castile and León, Aragón, Valencia, Navarre, Sicily, Sardinia, Naples, and Jerusalem; archduke of Austria; duke of Burgundy, Brabant, Luxembourg, Milan, and more. Other titles with the status of count included Barcelona, Flanders, Holland, Tyrol, and Franche Comté, all preceding such lordships as the Basque Country and Indies East and West.

Their titles gave the Habsburgs a conviction of divine favor, with its concomitant obligations. The first Habsburg in Spain, Philip I (1504–1506), duke of Burgundy, was king-consort of Castile as husband of Queen Joanna I ("Joanna the Mad," 1479–1555), third child of Ferdinand of Aragón (ruled 1479–1516) and Isabella of Castile (ruled 1474–1504). In 1496, Ferdinand, for diplomatic purposes, married Joanna to Philip, son of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (ruled 1493–1519), and his own son, Prince John (1478–1497), to Maximilian's daughter Margaret. He hardly expected that Joanna would inherit Spain, and that her son Charles I (Carlos I, ruled 1516–1556) would succeed to the Spanish thrones. Charles was born in 1500 in Ghent, where Maximilian influenced his upbringing. Maximilian and his father, Emperor Frederick III (ruled Holy Roman Empire 1452–1493; ruled Germany 1440–1493), developed a mystique about their dynasty, which included fictive genealogies tracing descent from Roman caesars and kings of Israel. Maximilian promoted the ideals of chivalry and crusade, also dear to Ferdinand. To Spain's court Charles bequeathed the elaborate etiquette of Burgundy.

On Maximilian's death, Charles became Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (ruled 1519–1558). He vowed to uphold the Roman Catholic Church when he confronted Martin Luther at Worms. Differences with France involved him in dynastic wars; only in 1530–1541 did he find opportunity to crusade. He continued the marriage strategies of his grandfathers. His sisters married into Portugal, Hungary-Bohemia, France, and Denmark; his brother Ferdinand (1503–1564), to whom Charles ceded his Austrian holdings in 1522, also married into Hungary-Bohemia and founded the Austrian Habsburg line. The Spanish line remained senior. Charles's sister Mary of Hungary acted as arbiter between Charles and Ferdinand, and succeeded their aunt Margaret as Charles's regent of the Low Countries. Serving the absent ruler as viceroy or regent in his chief holdings became a family obligation.

Charles married Isabel of Portugal. Their eldest daughter, Maria, married her Austrian cousin, future emperor Maximilian II (ruled 1564–1576). Their youngest, Joanna, married the prince of Portugal. Maria, Maximilian, and Joanna served as regents in Spain. Charles acknowledged two bastards. The first, Margaret (1522–1586), eventually married the duke of Parma, grandson of Pope Paul III (1534–1549). Both she and her son Alexander Farnese served as regents in the Low Countries, as did Charles's natural son, John of Austria (1547–1578), who also commanded Spain's Mediterranean fleet. Male bastards, potential threats to the legitimate line, did not marry.

Charles's heir, Philip II of Spain (ruled 1556–1598), married successively Maria Manuela of Portugal, mother of the unfortunate Don Carlos (1545–1568); childless Mary Tudor of England; Elisabeth de Valois of France; and his niece Ana of Austria, who mothered Philip III (1598–1621). Philip's eldest daughter by Elisabeth, named Isabel, married her cousin Archduke Albert. Philip endowed them with the Low Countries, but when Albert died childless, title reverted to Spain, while Isabel continued as regent. Her sister Catalina (1567–1597) married Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy (1580–1630).

Philip brought four of Maximilian II's sons to Spain for their education. Private instructions penned by him and Charles V became part of the family heritage. His monastery-palace, El Escorial, remains Spain's enduring monument to the Habsburg dynasty.

Europe's division between Catholic and Protestant limited Spain's Habsburgs to marriages with consanguineous Catholic dynasties, primarily Austria and France. (Portugal ceased being an option while annexed to Spain [1580–1640].) Philip II considered marriage to Elizabeth I of England (ruled 1558–1603) for himself or an Austrian archduke if she became Catholic. In the early 1620s, Spanish diplomats dangled the prospect of marriage to an infanta, or princess, before Protestant Charles Stuart (ruled 1625–1649), who, as prince of Wales, traveled to Madrid only to be rejected.

Philip III married his second cousin Margaret of Austria. His heir, Philip IV (ruled 1621–1665), married French princess Elisabeth de Bourbon, but only a daughter, Maria Teresa (1638–1683), survived to marry Louis XIV of France (ruled 1643–1715), son of Louis XIII (ruled 1610–1643) and Philip IV's sister Anne of Austria (1601–1666). Another sister married Emperor Ferdinand III (1637–1657), whose daughter Mariana married Philip after Elisabeth's death. Mariana bore Charles II (ruled 1665–1700), and Margarita, who married her uncle Emperor Leopold I (ruled 1658–1705).

Philip IV embellished his court with the art of the Spanish painter Velázquez (1599–1660). He also sired bastards. One, Juan José de Austria (1629–1679; also known as John Joseph of Austria) served in military and viceregal offices for his father, and as minister to Charles II. Because Charles was sickly from birth, Juan José hinted that he should marry Margarita and reign if Charles died, outraging Philip. Charles first married Marie Louise d'Orléans, niece of Louis XIV, then Mariana of Neuburg, daughter of the elector palatine and sister of Leopold's second wife, Eleanor.

Philip IV and Charles continued to employ brothers and Austrian relations as viceroys and regents, particularly in the Spanish Netherlands. Charles's last representative there, Elector Max Emmanuel of Bavaria, married Maria Antonia, daughter of Margarita and Leopold.

Charles did not conceive an heir. Some thought him bewitched and tried exorcisms as a cure. Questions remain about his genes; his parents were uncle and niece, his grandparents cousins, his great-grandparents, all but one, Habsburgs. Austrian Leopold took charge of Habsburg fortunes, irritating Madrid, anxious about Spain's future. Leopold considered the Spanish monarchy Habsburg patrimony, and promoted his second son by Eleanor, Archduke Charles, to succeed Charles. Louis XIV promoted his and Maria Teresa's grandson Philip, duke of Anjou. Outside Spain and Austria, most favored a partitioned inheritance, with the son of Max Emanuel and Maria Antonia, Joseph Ferdinand, receiving Spain and the Indies, while Philip and Charles divided the rest. Charles accepted Joseph Ferdinand but not partition.

In 1699 Joseph Ferdinand died. Pressured by his council of state, Charles willed his inheritance to the Bourbon Philip of Anjou. When Charles died on 1 November 1700, the Spanish Habsburg dynasty became extinct. Spain's fundamental law of female succession validated Philip V's (ruled 1700–1724, 1724–1746) descent from Philip IV through Maria Teresa, regardless of her renunciation, toppling Leopold's claim that Habsburg possessions passed only through the male line.

SPAIN

BIBLIOGRAPHY