Queen, Mother, and Stateswoman

When Philip IV of Spain died in 1665, his heir, Carlos II, was three years old. In addition to this looming dynastic crisis, decades of enormous military commitments had left Spain a virtually bankrupt state with vulnerable frontiers and a depleted army. In Silvia Z. Mitchells revisionist account, Queen, Mother, and Stateswoman, Queen Regent Mariana of Austria emerges as a towering figure at court and on the international stage, while her key collaboratorsthe secretaries, ministers, and diplomats who have previously been ignored or undervaluedtake their rightful place in history. Mitchell provides a nuanced account of Mariana of Austrias ten-year regency (166575) of the global Spanish Empire and examines her subsequent role as queen mother. Drawing from previously unmined primary sources, including Council of State deliberations, diplomatic correspondence, Marianas and Carloss letters, royal household papers, manuscripts, and legal documents, Mitchell describes how, over the course of her regency, Mariana led the monarchy out of danger and helped redefine the military and diplomatic blocs of Europe in Spains favor. She follows Marianas exile from court and recounts how the dowager queen used her extensive connections and diplomatic experience to move the negotiations for her sons marriage forward, effectively exploiting the process to regain her position. A new narrative of the Spanish Habsburg monarchy in the later seventeenth century, this volume advances our knowledge of womens legitimate political entitlement in the early modern period. It will be welcomed by scholars and students of queenship, womens studies, and early modern Spain.