Spanish Historical Royal of the Month: Joanna of Austria

Joanna, Archduchess of Austria, Infanta of Castile and Aragon, Princess of Burgundy was born in Madrid on the 24th of June 1535. Joanna was the second surviving daughter of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Isabella of Portugal.

Joanna of Austria

In 1552, she was married to Infante João Manuel of Portugal and their only surviving child was the future King Sebastian of Portugal. Following the death of Infante João Manuel in 1554, Joanna returned to Spain and acted as Regent for her brother, the future Philip II of Spain, who was in the Spanish Low Countries and England. Her brother Philip married Queen Mary I of England in July 1554 at Winchester Cathedral.

Though Joanna never returned to Portugal, she did keep in contact with her son and had several portraits of him painted. Joanna joined an impressive line of effective female Habsburg Regents – her aunt Maria of Hungary was also Regent of the Low Countries.

Noted for her devout Catholicism, Joanna founded the Poor Clares Convent of Las Descalzas Reales in Madrid in 1557. Following the return of her brother Philip II to Spain in 1559, Joanna’s Regency came to an end and she retired from politics, dying on September 7th, 1573 at the Monasterio de El Escorial outside Madrid.

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3. Spanish Royal Family host Audience for Olympic Team
4. Queen Sofia Presides Over Spanish Olympic Reception in London
5. Spanish Royal Family Host an Audience for National Football Team

4 Responses to Spanish Historical Royal of the Month: Joanna of Austria

1. Suze says:

   September 12, 2012 at 11:15 am

   I like this article. I enjoy reading about historical royal history and I would enjoy seeing more articles like this.
2. Artemisia says:

   September 12, 2012 at 3:54 pm

   I just love reading about royals of the past (especially female royals); some of them had such interesting, colourful lives, and yet are all but forgotten in our times. Great article, An Ard Ri!
3. Lady Daphne says:

   September 12, 2012 at 7:10 pm

   The only real comment I can make on this one, is that I visited Portugal several years ago and was stunned at all the wonderful sights/sites of Portugal. Living in the U.S. we never heard much about Portugal, but when I visited the Palace at Pena I couldn’t believe it wasn’t ‘world famous’. The site of the palace was breathtaking……..and visiting the Countryside, Byron’s hideouts, and fincas (I think they are called that in Portugal as well as Spain) of ‘important people’
   was a wonderful vacation. Don’t remember too much about the food, but I stayed at York House, an old converted convent. Nice Memories…….
4. Ana Pieloiu says:

   October 23, 2012 at 7:25 am

   Thank you for your useful work. I hope that the constitutional monarchy became the next entire european police.