Mariana of Austria. Mariana of Austria or Maria Anna was Queen of Spain from 1649 until her husband and uncle, Philip IV, died in 1665.
She was then appointed regent for their three-year-old son Charles II, and due to his ill health remained an influential figure until her own death in 1696. Her regency was overshadowed by the need to manage Spain's post-1648 decline as the dominant global power, internal political divisions and the European economic crisis of the second half of the 17th century.
The inability of her son Charles to produce an heir led to constant manoeuvring by other European powers, which ultimately ended in the 1701 to 1714 War of the Spanish Succession. Maria Anna was born on 24 December 1634 in Wiener Neustadt, second child of Maria Anna of Spain and her husband Ferdinand, who became Holy Roman Emperor in 1637.
Her parents had six children, of whom only Maria Anna and two brothers survived to adulthood; Ferdinand, and Leopold, elected emperor in 1658. The Habsburgs often married within the family to retain their lands and properties, and in 1646 Maria Anna was betrothed to her cousin and heir to the Spanish throne, Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias.
His death three months later left her without a prospective husband and her widowed uncle Philip IV without an heir. On 7 October 1649, Philip married his fourteen-year-old niece in Navalcarnero, outside Madrid; from then on, s
She was then appointed regent for their three-year-old son Charles II, and due to his ill health remained an influential figure until her own death in 1696. Her regency was overshadowed by the need to manage Spain's post-1648 decline as the dominant global power, internal political divisions and the European economic crisis of the second half of the 17th century.
The inability of her son Charles to produce an heir led to constant manoeuvring by other European powers, which ultimately ended in the 1701 to 1714 War of the Spanish Succession. Maria Anna was born on 24 December 1634 in Wiener Neustadt, second child of Maria Anna of Spain and her husband Ferdinand, who became Holy Roman Emperor in 1637.
Her parents had six children, of whom only Maria Anna and two brothers survived to adulthood; Ferdinand, and Leopold, elected emperor in 1658. The Habsburgs often married within the family to retain their lands and properties, and in 1646 Maria Anna was betrothed to her cousin and heir to the Spanish throne, Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias.
His death three months later left her without a prospective husband and her widowed uncle Philip IV without an heir. On 7 October 1649, Philip married his fourteen-year-old niece in Navalcarnero, outside Madrid; from then on, s
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