Wife and Children

Isabella of Portugal was born in 1503, the eldest daughter of Manuel I, King of Portugal and his second wife, Maria, the younger sister of Charles’ mother, Juana. She received an excellent education, learning several languages, Latin, Spanish and French, as well as reading widely in the classics and the work of more modern writers from her extensive library. She was known to be highly intelligent, devout, and developed into a beautiful young woman. As the eldest sister of the Portuguese king, John III, she commanded a large dowry. All of these factors, together with the fact that a Portuguese match would strengthen Charles position internationally and be popular in Spain, played a part in the successful negotiations for her marriage to Emperor Charles V, her first cousin. As part of the same agreement her older brother, King John III, married Charles’ youngest sister, Catherine in 1525. Isabella travelled to Spain for her marriage early in 1526 and they married in the Reales Alcazares in Seville in March. (Link to Seville in In Charles Footsteps section)

Although the couple had never previously met there seems little doubt that neither had cause to regret the decision. Their relationship is difficult to determine from their letters since they reveal little emotion. The correspondence was formal, matter of fact, dealing largely with matters of state, with advice from Charles on how to deal with particular issues or requests for money, and questions from Isabella about the length of his absence. This was typical of Charles who was invariably measured and restrained in both speech and writing. Nevertheless there is nothing to show that they did not have an affectionate relationship. Isabella always seemed keen for Charles to return. Although Charles had intimate relations with women both before and after his marriage, he did not, unlike Henry VIII and Francis I, openly keep mistresses at court during his marriage or indeed have affairs. On Isabella’s death most monarchs would have remarried, especially with only one son, but Charles had no intention of doing so. He had Titian paint portraits and miniatures for him and it is said always carried one with him.

Isabella was appointed regent in his absence on three occasions – in 1529-32 for his coronation in Rome and visits to Germany the Low Countries and Vienna, in 1535-36 when he captured Tunis and travelled through Italy, and in 1538-39 while he negotiated with the pope and Francis I in Nice and Aigues-Mortes. She performed her duties ably and effectively. Charles set up clear structures, with an experienced royal council which had access to all papers and considerable powers to advise her. Her role necessitated frequent travel around Spain, for instance to Toledo, Valladolid, Avila, and Barcelona. Isabella had been brought up in a royal household, so standing in for Charles at court came naturally to her. In many ways her personality matched his. She took her responsibilities seriously, controlled her emotions in public and commanded respect. She would defend royal power, had a deep understanding of the problems of Spain and Portugal, and took effective action when required, such as in the defence of the Spanish coast against attacks by pirates.

Whether she relished the role is more doubtful. She sometimes tried to put pressure on Charles to return home as soon as possible, even though she consoled herself that his absences were ‘in the service of God’. In the thirteen years of their marriage she had seven pregnancies. The first two resulted in the birth of a son, Philip, in May 1527, and a daughter, Maria, in June 1528. In June 1535 a second daughter, Juana, was born. Two other sons died within eight months of their birth – Ferdinand (November 1529 – June 1530) and Juan (October 1537 – March 1538). Isabella also miscarried in June 1534. At these difficult times Isabella would have welcomed the support of her husband but he was often away. Thus while in Bologna for his coronation he was informed of the birth of his son Ferdinand, only to be told eight months later of his death, and he was en route to Tunis when Juana was born. Juan’s birth in 1537 had been difficult and Charles later recorded in his memoirs that ‘the Empress suffered much after her confinement, and since then …was in very bad health’.

Isabella suffered increasingly from tertian fever and malaria. Ill-health forced her to remain in Valladolid in 1538 when Charles travelled to Aigues Mortes to meet Francis I. In early 1539 she became pregnant again. After three months a fever caused complications and she had another miscarriage in April from which she never recovered. She died on 1st May, aged thirty-five. Her remains now lie with Charles’ in the Royal Pantheon of Kings at El Escorial. Charles was deeply affected by her death, writing to his brother Ferdinand about her ‘devout life’, to his sister Mary of his ‘anguish and sorrow’, and in his memoirs that ‘It pleased God to call her to Himself’. He immediately withdrew to a monastery near Toledo for several weeks. He realised the value of what he had lost in emotional as well as political terms.

Philip was born on 21st May 1527 in the Palacio de Pimental in Valladolid. He was given the Burgundian name of Philip, after Charles’ father. He was brought up at the Castilian court under the supervision of his mother and Don Juan de Zuniga, one of his godfathers and a confidante of Charles, who became more influential after Isabella’s death in 1539. He encouraged Philip’s enjoyment of outdoor, physical pursuits – hawking, riding, sword fighting – at which he excelled. Charles was later to set a weekly limit on the number of animals that might be killed! He was tutored by many of the best academics in Spain, although he was no natural scholar, and his education had significant gaps. Besides Spanish, he learned Latin, on the grounds that this would be understood throughout Europe, but never mastered French, German or Italian, something that would hinder him in the future. Charles also became more involved with his son after 1539, beginning his instruction in the art of government and instilling the belief in the need for hard work. He showed care and attention to Philip’s political education.

Philip was first appointed regent in Spain in 1543 at the age of sixteen. Charles recognised that ‘you are still young to bear such a burden’, but left him three documents of advice and instruction, covering his powers and duties, some limitations on these powers, especially in appointments, and more personal advice about his role and his behaviour in public and private. He outlined his political ideas, and warned him to expect financial difficulties. (For more details see Ch. 22 in ‘Dynasty and Duty: Emperor Charles V and his Changing World 1500-1558’). He also informed Philip that Zuniga had been instructed to speak sharply to him ‘if he must’ and appointed a powerful council to advise his son.

In the same year Philip married Maria Manuela of Portugal, the eldest daughter of John III of Portugal and his wife Catherine. Philip was seventeen and Maria just sixteen. They were ‘double’ cousins, in other words cousins on both their fathers’ and mothers’ side, an example of a marriage between close relatives that was becoming frequent in the Habsburg family. Charles warned his son of overindulgence in the ‘pleasures of marriage’ since this could ‘not only injure your health….(but) even cut short your life’ referring to the ‘excesses’ of Prince Juan (Charles’ uncle) who married Margaret of Austria in 1497 only to die six months later. He let Philip know that he had instructed Zuniga to ensure that his wishes were followed. Having taken to bed on their wedding night, after two and half hours Zuniga took Philip off to another bed chamber. In fact it was Maria who paid the price, dying after giving birth to a son, Don Carlos, in July 1545. Philip was badly shaken by the loss. In 1546 and 1547 Philip’s three main advisers – Tavara, Cobos and Zuniga - all died, and Charles recognised that by the age of twenty Philip was ready for greater freedom of action. Philip resisted his father’s demands for money from Spain and started appointing his own men to government positions. By the late 1540s Charles had decided that Philip should inherit the Low Countries as well as Spain and summoned him to travel there to be acknowledged as heir. This was his first major journey outside Spain. Leaving from Barcelona in October 1548 he sailed to Genoa, travelled through northern Italy to Innsbruck, then on to Munich and Heidelberg, arriving in Brussels on 1st April. (The ‘Ommegang’ pageant held in Brussels each July is a re-enactment of the 1549 celebration held after Philip’s arrival). Philip was never accepted in the Low Countries. He was regarded as reserved and haughty, a foreigner who did not speak their language, with little appreciation of the traditional institutions of the provinces. He was never able to overcome these problems.

Philip returned to Spain in 1551. He was refused permission by Charles to join military ventures in Italy or against the French at Metz, and his father continued to press him for money. Charles then sent instructions that Philip should travel to the Low Countries with large sums to pay for the following year’s military campaign in the war with France. Philip had begun negotiations for his marriage to another Maria, this time the daughter of his aunt Eleanor and her first husband Manuel I of Portugal, but the death of Edward VI in England in July 1553 changed the situation. Edward’s successor was Mary, daughter of Henry VIII, thirty years earlier a possible wife for Charles. When that idea was resurrected Charles would not countenance it, but decided that Philip would be an excellent match for the Catholic queen, bringing together England and the Low Countries, and restoring England to the Catholic faith. The arrangements were made and Philip travelled to England in July 1554, where they were married in Winchester.

Many people believed that Philip still lacked independence and merely followed Charles’ instructions. However on his departure from Spain he ignored his father’s wishes regarding the regency in his absence and appointed his young sister, Juana, recently widowed in Portugal. He also made numerous appointments to the council and other administrative and ecclesiastical posts, thus ensuring that he would keep control of Spain in his absence. His time in England however was not successful, despite Philip’s desire for a positive political outcome. Even though he made considerable efforts to establish good relationships and do his duty, the marriage agreement made in his absence had limited his powers in England, the English were generally hostile and he found it difficult to reciprocate Mary’s affections. He left the country in September 1555 and took part in Charles’ abdication ceremony the following month. In January 1556 Philip formally became King Philip II, but he remained in the Low Countries when Charles sailed for Spain later in the year. Still at war with France, Philip’s troops achieved a major victory at St. Quentin in August 1557, but the loss of Calais, in English hands since 1347, in January 1558 was a major blow to Mary. The English queen had believed that she was pregnant in 1555 but there had been no child. In late 1557, now aged forty-two, she once more announced a pregnancy. By April 1558, nine months after Philip had last left England it became clear that she was again mistaken. Her health deteriorated and she died on 17th November, less than two months after Philip’s father.

After 1558

Death was a constant feature in Philip’s personal life. He was to marry twice more. In 1559 he married Elizabeth of Valois, the eldest daughter of Henry II of France and Catherine de Medici as part of the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis with the French king. They had two surviving children, much loved daughters Isabella and Catherine. Philip’s son from his first marriage, Don Carlos, had early on shown himself to be unreliable and a disappointment to his father. In January 1568 he was arrested and imprisoned and six months later he died in circumstances that remain unclear. Elizabeth died in childbirth later the same year. In 1570 Philip married his niece, Anne of Austria, the daughter of Emperor Maximilian and Maria, Philip’s sister. They had four sons and a daughter, four of whom died before the age of eight, leaving the youngest son, Philip, born in 1578, to succeed his father twenty years later. Anne died in 1580.

Philip remained in Spain for much of his reign, making Madrid his capital city and building the monastery and royal palace of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, where he spent much of his time when not in Madrid or his palace at Aranjuez. He worked long hours, reading state papers, issuing instructions and often becoming engrossed in the detail of the numerous issues that he had to deal with as ruler of Spain, the Low Countries, much of Italy and the Americas. In 1580 he became King of Portugal. He had to struggle with enormous financial difficulties, declaring Spain bankrupt on a number of occasions.

Philip remains a controversial figure. He is sometimes regarded as merely a religious bigot, responsible for the on-going inquisition and persecution of Protestants. During his reign of forty years there were only nine months when he was not at war in some part of his realm. Most damaging was the rebellion in the Low Countries, over political and religious issues, which he was unable to quell and after his death eventually led to their division into a Spanish controlled area and the independent United Provinces (now the Netherlands). He is best known in England for the sending of the ill-fated Armada against Elizabeth I in 1588, but probably more significant was the defeat of the Ottoman navy at the battle of Lepanto in 1571. His reign also consolidated Habsburg power in Europe, and is often referred to as Spain’s ‘Golden Age’, even though it had the seeds of its own decline. Often referred to in Spain as ‘Philip the Prudent’, Geoffrey Parker’s 2014 biography ‘Imprudent King: A New Life of Philip II’ provides a thorough and thought provoking examination of his life.

Sebastian became king in 1557 and his grandmother Catherine (the daughter of Charles V) acted as regent, followed by his great-uncle Cardinal Henry. He never married and was killed in the battle of Alcacer Quibir in Morocco in 1578. He was succeeded by Cardinal Henry, also childless on his death in 1580, opening the way for Philip II to become king of Portugal.