Maria Anna of Spain
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1630 (59,5 x 45,5 cm)
Museo del Prado, Madrid
Maria Anna (18 August 1606 – 13 May 1646), also known as Maria Anna of Austria, Infanta of Spain, was the youngest daughter of King Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria. She was later a Holy Roman Empress and queen of Hungary.
She was a younger sister of Anne of Austria and Philip IV of Spain. She was also an older sister of Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand.
In the early 1620s, James I of England envisioned Maria Anna as a possible bride for his son and heir, the future Charles I of England and Scotland. Charles even visited Madrid to meet the young Maria Anna. This romantic endeavor of the future king of England is set forth in the fictional Captain Alatriste by Arturo Perez-Reverte published first in English in 2005. However negotiations failed, and Charles eventually married Henrietta Maria of France.
She was married instead to her first cousin, the future Ferdinand III, then the titular king of Hungary, on 20 February 1631. They were parents to six children:
- Ferdinand IV of Hungary (8 September 1633–9 July 1654).
- Mariana of Austria (23 December 1634–16 May 1696). Married her maternal uncle Philip IV of Spain. They were parents to Charles II of Spain, the degenerated last Habsburg monarch of Spain.
- Philip August, Archduke of Austria (1637–1639).
- Maximilian Thomas, Archduke of Austria (1638–1639).
- Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor (9 June 1640–5 May 1705).
- Maria of Austria (1646).
[edit] References
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