The empress, the queen, and the nun

by Magdalena S. Sánchez

In the early seventeenth century, when Spanish interests often competed with those of the House of Austria, three women in the court of Philip III of Spain - Empress Maria, Philip's grandmother; Margaret of Austria, Philip's wife; and Margaret of the Cross, Philip's aunt - worked behind the scenes to win favor for the causes of the Austrian Habsburgs. In The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun, historian Magdalena Sanchez offers an intriguing examination of the political power wielded by these three women. Each used traditional networks within the court and acted within the boundaries of acceptable women's roles to frustrate Philip's favorite, the Duke of Lerma, in his project to keep Spanish Habsburg wealth in the Iberian peninsula instead of allowing it to be siphoned off to support Austrian Habsburg campaigns.