Maria Anna of Spain

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Maria Anna (18 August, 1606 – 13 May, 1646), also known as Maria Anna of Austria, Infanta of Spain, Archduchess of Austria, and after marriage, The Holy Roman Empress and Queen of Hungary, was the youngest daughter of King Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria.

She was a younger sister of Anne of Austria, queen consort of Louis XIII of France, 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 Pérez-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, degenerate 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).

During the Thirty Years War, the imperial family moved to Linz, where she died of poisoning during her last pregnancy. The child she was carrying, Maria, was still alive, and was born by cesarean section, but died soon after. Mother and daughter were buried together in a single coffin.

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References

• Worldroots.com

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