Bulletin of the Comediantes

IN RECENT DECADES, scholars of early modern Spain have reclaimed for the historical record the lives and deeds of women who wielded political power. Relegated for centuries to the sidelines, female rulers are finally being given proper credit for their significant contributions to the politics of their age. Sylvia Z. Mitchell's book is a welcome addition to the work by historians such as Magdalena S. Sánchez, Theresa Earenfight, and Grace E. Coolidge, to name only three.

Mariana of Austria—the daughter and sister of two Holy Roman Emperors, the second wife of Philip IV, and the mother to the last Spanish Habsburg monarch, Charles II—has traditionally been depicted as a contumacious, unintelligent woman who was a singularly incompetent ruler. Expanding on the work of other historians, prominently Laura Oliván Santaliestra, Mitchell offers a definitive corrective to this biased and misogynist view. In this meticulously researched book, the author weaves a compelling tale of the fortunes of a woman who would spend nearly fifty years at the Spanish court and who would assume many roles: adolescent bride, queen consort, queen mother, and—after Philip's death—regent, tutor, governor, and curator. Divided into seven chapters, plus an introduction and a conclusion, the book is not just a biography of a remarkable woman but also a fascinating study of the gender politics within the Habsburg court at a particularly fraught historical period.

Chapter 1 begins with a description of the dynastic matrimonial policies that led to Mariana's marriage to her much older uncle, Philip IV. Mitchell describes the education and training Mariana received from an early age in Austria before undertaking the year-long journey to Spain to become queen consort. Her primary responsibility, like that of all queens consort, was to provide an heir to the throne, and Mitchell describes how Mariana's body and its reproductive potential were subject to intense vigilance and commentary within and beyond the Spanish court. Mitchell is a clear-eyed, nonsentimental [End Page 175] writer who does not exploit the young queen's circumstances for melodrama, but there is nonetheless pathos in many of the descriptions of Mariana's life, as when we learn that she experienced "five recorded pregnancies and births in addition to several miscarriages in her sixteen years as queen consort" (37). The chapter ends with Philip's death and the beginning of Mariana's regency, at age thirty, on behalf of the three-year-old heir to the throne, Charles.

Chapter 2 deals with the complex system of governance and the intricate workings of the court that Mariana had to navigate as regent. Attention is given to the spatial configuration of power in the Alcázar, with its separation of the king's and queen's households. Mariana's regency created a unique situation at the court: the disappearance of the king's household and the preeminence of the queen's as the center of power. Of particular interest is the description of the gendered nature of her household and the challenges from courtiers chafing under the feminization of the court. In addition, Mariana inherited a war with Portugal, a monarchy deeply in debt, and an imminent military threat from France. Mitchell provides an important corrective to misconceptions about Mariana's reign, notably the role of the Junta de Gobierno, the consultative organ of government that Philip decreed should be established upon his death. This move has been interpreted by historians as the dying king's recognition of his wife's inexperience and incompetence in matters of government. Mitchell shows that, on the contrary, Philip had great confidence in his wife's intelligence and invested her with full sovereignty. At the same time, the author vividly recounts the intense challenges Mariana faced and the strategies she had to repeatedly deploy to assert her authority. Occasionally, the author seems to protest too much. In the same section where Mitchell insists on Mariana's exceptional...