Margaret Theresa of Spain

Margaret Theresa of Spain
Empress Margaret Theresa, in theater dress (by Jan Thomas van Ieperen)
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	Maria Antonia, Electress of Bavaria
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 consort of Austria, Queen consort of Hungary and Bohemia. Daughter of King Philip IV of Spain and 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 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 Archduchess Mariana of Austria. Because of this avunculate marriage, Margaret's mother was nearly thirty years younger than her father.

On her father's side, Margaret's grandparents were King Philip III of Spain and his wife Archduchess Margaret of Austria. On her mother's side her grandparents were Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Infanta Maria Anna of Spain.

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.