Catalina and João III of Portugal and a Speculum for a Queen-To-Be1

chapter 8 Inside Perspectives: Catalina and João III of Portugal and a Speculum for a Queen-to-be1

Núria Silleras-Fernández

On November 14, 1543, in the city of Salamanca, Princess Maria Manuela of Portugal (1527–45) was married in a splendid ceremony to her double first cousin, Felipe, Prince of Asturias. Thirteen years later in 1556, after the abdication of his father, Emperor Carlos V, he would become King Felipe II of Spain (b. 1527, r. 1556–98) and would rule over an empire in which “the sun never set.”2 As was customary for the period, this marriage was arranged by their parents, Catalina and João III of Portugal, on the one hand, and Carlos V, on the other (the emper or’s wife, Isabel of Portugal, having already passed away). The agreement was part of a dual betrothal that united not only Maria Manuela and Felipe but also Maria Manuela’s younger brother, João Manuel, the heir to the crown of Portugal, with Juana of Austria, Felipe’s sister. This double marriage duplicated what had hap- pened a generation earlier, when Catalina of Habsburg had been married to João III, while the Portuguese king’s sister Isabel had married the Spanish emperor, Carlos V. In this manner the Avis dynasty of Portugal and the Habsburg dynasty of the Spanish Kingdoms (and the Empire) were becoming increasingly entangled, sealing their political commitment to each other through these overlapping marital alliances. Typically, it was the bride who left her family and her kingdom to take up residence in the home of her husband, and it was she who would have to adjust to life in a new family, a new court, and a new land. In the case of Maria Manuela, the closeness of her own and her husband’s families mitigated these

1 I would like to thank the editor, Laura Delbrugge, for her careful planning of the volume, and her assistance with my article. The first part of this article, regarding the texts written by Catalina and João, was presented at a session, also organized by Dr. Delbrugge, at the 49th International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, mi) in May 2014 (“Looking in the Mirror: Catalina, João III of Portugal, and a Speculum for a Queen- to-Be.”) The section referring to Maria Manuela’s entourage in Spain was presented at the Third Kings and Queens Conference, Entourage, at the University of Winchester (uk) in July 2014 (“An Entourage Proper for a Princess: Maria Manuela of Portugal in the Spanish Court (1543–1544)”). I want to thank the public participants for their comments and questions. 2 The marital agreement dates from December 1, 1542, and the actual signature of the union from May 12, 1543. The wedding ceremonial is described in several accounts: Entrada en España de la princesa María de Portugal, hija del rey de Portugal D. Juan, i su casamiento con el

CATALINA AND JOÃO III OF PORTUGAL 227 pressures to some extent, in that the new environment was hardly culturally alien. Nevertheless, she would have to navigate through the personal politics of an unfamiliar court. There would be no mother-in-law to compete with or to mentor her; her aunt, Empress Isabel, having died four years earlier, in 1539. As for Felipe’s sisters, these would neither present competition nor provide support; Maria and Juana were young and, in any event, would soon be sent off as brides to foreign courts. Hence, from the moment the 16-year-old Maria Manuela arrived she would be the most important woman at the imperial palace —a role she would face very much on her own. Felipe not only was heir to the throne but also was already serving his father as regent in Spain; Maria Manuela would become, for all intents and purposes, a sort of reigning queen, with all of the responsibility that this entailed, as regards to developing networks of power and influence and crafting the royal image. In fact, it was likely that she too would eventually serve as regent, as Empress Isabel had, and as so many other Habsburg queens and princes ses ended up doing—an empire that stretched from the Iberian Peninsula across Europe and to the Americas and beyond could not be effectively controlled without engaging members of the royal family as viceroys and lieutenants.3 She also bore a

príncipe D. Felipe II en Salamanca (bne, sig. 11907, fols 7r–16v); Nuevas noticias de las fiestas que se hicieron en Salamanca a la entrada de la princesa doña María de Portugal el 10 de noviembre de 1543, con motivo de su matrimonio con el príncipe de Asturias, Felipe (Real Academia de la Historia (rah), sig. 9/48); and Recibimiento que se hiço en Salamanca a la princesa Doña María de Portugal viniendo a casarse con el príncipe Don Felipe II (bne, ms 4013, fols 13r–58v). See Fernando Rodríguez de la Flor and Ester Galindo, Política y fiesta en el Barroco (Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, 1997), 15. Maria Manuela and Felipe were double first cousins because Maria Manuela’s father and Felipe’s mother (João III and Isabella of Portugal) were the children of Manuel I of Portugal and Maria of Aragon, and Maria Manuela’s mother and Felipe’s father (Catalina of Habsburg and Carlos V) were the children of Juana I of Castile and Felipe of Habsburg. 3 In 1529 Carlos V appointed his step-great-grandmother, Germana de Foix, along with her husband, as viceroys of Valencia. Likewise, his wife was regent of Spain; his aunt, Margaret of Austria, was regent in the Low Countries for 11 years; in 1531 her niece, Mary of Hungary, replaced the latter. During Felipe II’s reign (1556–98), his sister Juana (Princess of Portugal) was regent of Spain, and his half sister Margaret of Parma was regent of the Low Countries, only to be replaced by the king’s own daughter, Isabel Clara Eugenia, and her husband. See Jane de Iogh, Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands (New York: Norton, 1953); Dagmar Eichberger, ed. Women of Distinction: Margaret of Work/Margaret of Austria (Louvain: Brepols, 2005); Orsolya Rethelyi, ed., Mary of Hungary: The Queen and Her Court 1521–31 (Budapest: Budapest History Museum, 2005); and Cordula Van Wyhe, ed., Isabel Clara Eugenia: Female Sovereignty in the Court of Madrid and Brussels (Madrid: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica, 2012). For an overview on queenship, see Theresa Earenfight, Medieval Queenship (New York: Palgrave, 2013); and William Monter, The Rise of Female Kings in Europe 1300–1800 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012).