Margaret Theresa of Spain | |
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Margaret Theresa, around 1665
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Holy Roman Empress; German Queen; Queen consort of Hungary and Bohemia; Archduchess consort of Austria | |
Tenure | 25 April 1666 – 12 March 1673 |
Born |
12 July 1651 Royal Alcazar, Madrid, Spain |
Died |
12 March 1673 (aged 21) Hofburg Palace, Vienna, Austria |
Burial | Imperial Crypt, Vienna, Austria |
Spouse | Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor |
Issue |
Archduke Ferdinand Wenceslaus Maria Antonia, Electress of Bavaria Archduke John Leopold Archduchess Maria Anna Scholastica |
House | Habsburg |
Father | Philip IV of Spain |
Mother | Mariana of Austria |
Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Margaret Theresa of Spain (Spanish: Margarita Teresa, German: Margarete Theresia; 12 July 1651 – 12 March 1673) was, by marriage, Holy Roman Empress, German Queen, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia. She was the daughter of King Philip IV of Spain and the elder full-sister of Charles II, the last of the Spanish Habsburgs. She is the central figure in the famous Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez, and the subject of many of his later paintings.
Margaret Theresa was born on 12 July 1651 in Madrid as the first child of King Philip IV of Spain born from his second marriage with his niece Mariana of Austria. Because of this avunculate marriage, Margaret's mother was nearly thirty years younger than her father.
Margaret's paternal grandparents were King Philip III of Spain and his wife Archduchess Margaret of Austria. Her maternal grandparents were Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, the daughter of her paternal grandparents.
The marriage of her parents was purely made for political reasons, mainly the search for a new male heir for the Spanish throne after the early death of Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias in 1646. Besides him, the other only surviving child of Philip IV's first marriage was the Infanta Maria Theresa, who later became the wife of King Louis XIV of France. After Margaret, between 1655 and 1661, four more children (a daughter and three sons) were born from the marriage between Philip IV and Mariana of Austria, but only one survived infancy, the future King Charles II of Spain.