Philip Prospero, Prince of Asturias
| Philip Prospero | |
|---|---|
| Prince of Asturias | |
Prince Philip Prospero (1659 portrait by Diego Velázquez)
|
|
| Born |
28 November 1657 Madrid, Spain |
| Died | 1 November 1661 (aged 3) Madrid, Spain |
| Burial | El Escorial |
| House | House of Habsburg |
| Father | Philip IV of Spain |
| Mother | Mariana of Austria |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Philip Prospero, Prince of Asturias (Felipe Próspero José Francisco Domingo Ignacio Antonio Buenaventura Diego Miguel Luis Alfonso Isidro Ramón Víctor; 28 November 1657 – 1 November 1661) was the first son of Philip IV of Spain and Mariana of Austria to survive infancy. Philip IV had no male heir since the death of Balthasar Charles, his son by his first wife, Elisabeth of France, eleven years before, and as Spain's strength continued to ebb the issue of succession had become a matter of fervent and anxious prayer.
After Balthasar Charles's early demise, Philip was left with his daughter Maria Theresa as heir presumptive. In early 1657, astrologers assured Philip that another child was to be born to him and it would be a boy who would live. A strict and devout Roman Catholic, Philip ate nothing but eggs on the first day of the Vigil of the Presentation of the Virgin, in hopes of his wife really delivering a male child. Indeed, at 11:30 in the morning on November 28 of the same year, Mariana of Austria delivered a son. She soon fell sick of the birthing fever, but nobody seemed to mind; they were all rejoicing upon the birth of a male heir. Barrionuevo, a chronicler of the time, wrote of this rejoicing:
Following Roman Catholic custom, the infant was called only "the prince" until his baptism. Astrologers predicted nothing but greatness for his future, while Philip was still unsure that he had not thanked God enough for this immense joy. In a letter to his friend Sor María de Ágreda, he wrote that "the newborn babe is doing well," but also made a reference to the bitter memory of his eldest son's demise. On December 6, 1657, Philip rode into the decorated streets of Madrid, where the preparations for the prince's baptism were almost ready: dances, masques and music greeted the King.
The baptism took place exactly one week later on December 13, performed by the Archbishop of Toledo. The Holy Water was brought from the Jordan River by some friars who had recently returned from Jordan. The same Barrionuevo wrote that "the Prince screamed lustily when he was baptized, and, attracted by the loud, resonant voice, the King, who was looking through the jalousies, exclaimed, 'Ah! that does sound well; the house smells of a man now'". The christening cost Philip 600,000 ducats. However, due to generations of inbreeding (his mother was his father's niece), Philip Prospero was severely epileptic. The inbreeding was so widespread in his case that all of his eight great-grandparents were descendants of Joanna of Castile and Archduke Philip of Austria.
...
Wikipedia