Introduction

María Anna of Austria was born in Neustadt on 23 December 1634. She was the daughter of Emperor Ferdinand III and the Infanta María, who was the sister of Philip IV. María Anna was supposed to have married Prince Baltasar Carlos, son of Philip IV, but when her cousin Baltasar Carlos died, she married her own uncle – who was the prince's father and king – instead. This is an early indication of the extraordinary degrees of consanguinity in marriages between the Spanish and Austrian branches of the royal family. These marriages had complicating consequences for generation after generation since, as Alexandra Bridarolli has pointed out, between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries the Habsburg family ruled the Holy Roman Empire and the ‘kings of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, and of the Habsburg house in general, are known to frequently marry close relatives in such a way that uncle-niece, first cousins and other consanguineous unions were prevalent in that dynasty’.

The new queen consort arrived in Madrid in 1649; in Spain she was called Mariana, the name by which she has come to be known. She gave birth to five children but only two survived to adulthood: the Infanta Margarita and King Carlos II. After the death of Philip IV, Queen Mariana became regent, guardian-tutor, and guardian-carer of her son, the child-King, and she ruled the Spanish kingdoms in his name. It was, indeed, the first time in nearly two hundred years that Spain had had a Regency period, and during that time, Mariana had both to invent her role and to create a new image for herself as governor. When King Carlos II reached his majority, Queen Mariana continued to play an important role as guardian-carer. However, it was only when Carlos II married María Luisa of Orléans that a new period began for Mariana, namely as a queen mother – as the first queen mother in the Spanish Monarchy since medieval times, she became a key figure in factional struggles for the future succession to the Spanish throne. Carlos II was to be the last Habsburg king of Spain, and Mariana passed away on 16 May 1696 in Madrid.

Queen Mariana is depicted in Las Meninas as a queen consort. The source of her power and significance resided in her status as wife to King Philip IV.