RSJ/CCCU Article Prize Winner: "The Infanta will marry the person who provides the Peace or the one who gives us the means to continue the War”. The negotiations for the marriage between Infanta María Teresa of Austria and Emperor Leopold I (1654-1657).

Abstract

Prince Baltasar Carlos’s death in 1646 turned his little sister, María Teresa, into the direct heiress of King Felipe IV of Spain. For this reason, her marriage became a key issue regarding the European politics of the central decades of the seventeenth century. Her marriage with the heir of Emperor Ferdinand III was the option chosen by Felipe IV as the most convenient for his territories as long as there was no male heir for his throne. But the negotiations to achieve that end were far from easy. In this essay, we will examine the negotiations conducted between Madrid and Vienna during the years 1654 and 1657, to arrange the marriage between Infanta María Teresa and the future emperor Leopold I, through the correspondence interchanged between King Felipe IV and his ambassadors in the imperial court..

Keywords

• felipe iv
• infanta maría teresa
• succession
• empire
• spanish monarchy
• leopold i.