Habsburg Female Regents in the Early 16Th Century
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Faculty of Arts University of Helsinki HABSBURG FEMALE REGENTS IN THE EARLY 16TH CENTURY Tupu Ylä-Anttila DOCTORAL DISSERTATION To be presented for public discussion with the permission of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Helsinki, in lecture hall P673, Porthania, on the 14th of December 2019 at 10 o’clock. Helsinki 2019 ISBN 978-951-51-5700-3 (pbk.) ISBN 978-951-51-5701-0 (PDF) Unigrafia Helsinki 2019 ABSTRACT In this work, I examine the education of princesses and forms of female power in the 16th -century through three women of the Habsburg family – Margaret of Austria (1480–1530), Mary of Hungary (1505–58) and Juana of Austria (1535–73) – all of whom acted as regents for Emperor Charles V (1500–1558) either in the Netherlands or in Spain. Great hopes had been laid on Charles, in his youth, as the ruler who would unite Christendom and bring peace. Erasmus of Rotterdam dedicated his Institutio principis Christiani to Charles in 1516. My work asks, what happened when the Habsburg princes shared their power with their sisters and daughters? I argue that female regency in the Habsburg family needs to be considered as a form of queenship. The three princesses studied in this work reflect the changes in the expanding empire of Charles V. At the same time, the image of an ideal queen was evolving. One aspect of the queen-like regency was their status as childless widows combined with a motherly role towards royal children in their care. This, I argue, reveals how they used the regency to resist marriage plans, and in turn, remained unmarried to maintain their regency. This work gives a new interpretation to previous studies that have considered these women mainly as parts of the Habsburg imperial political machinery. Here, the means and limits of female political power are investigated by asking how they acquired the skills they needed for governing, persuading the emperor and arguing their viewpoint. I want to challenge the view of the princesses as exceptionally cultivated women, and offer instead a more variable picture of how the regents, with inadequate education for ruling, faced the challenges of governing. The principle of hereditary rule gave the Habsburg princesses unforeseen possibilities as regents. However, all the dynasty's princesses were educated to become queen consorts. On the one hand, I study the influence of the regents’ advisors. On the other hand, I consider the impact of the contemporary ideals on queenship, as well as the influence of humanist thought and religious reformers. Through a case study of these three regents, my work shows how and with what tools the Habsburg women were able to act as alter-egos of the emperor and to adjust to the changing political situations. The princess regents’ correspondence forms the central part of the sources used for this work. The regency formally required the princess only to represent the authority of the absent ruler. The crucial role of the princesses was, nevertheless, to use their correspondence as the ruler’s connection to the region’s government. The correspondence was also their channel for persuasion and influence. CONTENTS Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. 1 Abbreviations .......................................................................................................... 2 Introduction............................................................................................................ 3 Princesses – the past and the new approach ..................................................... 3 Educated to marry, appointed to rule ................................................................ 9 Sources ............................................................................................................. 17 Structure ...........................................................................................................22 Part I Education....................................................................................................26 1 Educating princesses ................................................................................... 27 Daughters to keep the realms content ............................................................. 27 Ideal queenship and exemplary queens .......................................................... 32 Sophisticated angels and good Christian women ........................................... 40 Music, Latin and libraries for women ............................................................. 46 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 55 2 Margaret of Austria 1480–1504 .................................................................. 57 Couronne Margaritique – Margaret and her crown ...................................... 57 Preparing for queenship, 1482–1500 .............................................................. 59 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 65 3 Mary of Hungary 1505–1529 ...................................................................... 69 Princess of Burgundy in Austria ..................................................................... 69 Imperial granddaughter, 1505–1521 ............................................................... 71 Queen of Hungary and Christian widow, 1521–1530 ...................................... 78 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 88 4 Juana of Austria 1535–1554 ....................................................................... 90 Legacy of Isabel the Catholic .......................................................................... 90 The little sister (1535–1548) ............................................................................ 94 Princess of Portugal (1548–1554) .................................................................. 101 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 106 PART II Regents ................................................................................................. 109 5 Regency in the reign of Charles V ............................................................. 110 Princess regents in the service of the dynasty ............................................... 110 ’I am only one and I can’t be everywhere’ ...................................................... 117 The most suitable persons ............................................................................. 123 Consorts of an absent ruler ............................................................................ 128 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 131 6 Margaret — rather the regent than the queen consort ............................. 132 Introduction ................................................................................................... 132 Ready to serve her nephew, his country and his subjects ............................. 134 Tutoring the novice regent ............................................................................. 143 From good daughter to dear aunt ................................................................... 151 For peace and ladies’ honour – Margaret as a diplomat ................................161 7 Mary of Hungary – counsel and consolation for the Emperor .................. 171 Introduction .................................................................................................... 171 Madame ma bonne soeur – Mary and Charles, language and letters........... 174 Mary on war, honour and regency ................................................................. 182 The retired queen ........................................................................................... 188 8 Juana – Princess of Portugal as a prince in Spain .................................... 195 Introduction ................................................................................................... 195 Serenisima princesa – Juana, Philip and the emperor ................................. 198 The retired princess ...................................................................................... 205 The Jesuit princess ......................................................................................... 210 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 214 Genealogy .......................................................................................................... 220 Archival sources .................................................................................................. 221 Bibliography ...................................................................................................... 222 Printed sources .............................................................................................. 222 Literature ....................................................................................................... 228 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank first my supervisor Professor Markku Peltonen. My work started around the themes he suggested, and he has patiently guided me and the Habsburg princesses for nine years towards a finished dissertation. The fine tuning of the work profited immensely from the erudite comments of my external examiners,