Maria of Austria, Holy Roman Empress (1528-1603) by Rubén González Cuerva

Author:Rubén González Cuerva [Cuerva, Rubén González]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, Spain & Portugal, Renaissance, Modern, 16th Century, Germany
ISBN: 9781000468939
Google: Vi5AEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2021-10-31T16:04:27+00:00

6.2 Solitude and crisis

Maria’s activity during the first months of her widowhood, focused on the future of her children and the advance of the Catholic reform in the entourage of the new emperor, aroused hopes that she would retain a complementary role at the imperial court. Circumstances, however, had changed profoundly since the death of Maximilian II. The empress had expressed, already since the end of 1576, her wish to spend the rest of her life away from the imperial court and withdraw to a religious house, if possible, to the Descalzas Reales in Madrid, which had been founded by her sister Juana of Austria. Both Rudolf II and Philip II, as well as the pope, opposed her demand.34 However, their objections were based on a structure of relations that quickly collapsed, namely, on the continued collaboration between the emperor and the empress and the contribution of the authoritarian Spanish ambassador. In April 1577, shortly after the solemn funeral of Maximilian II in the cathedral of Prague and while Maria was staying in the city, the ambassador Monteagudo and Rudolf II left.

Monteagudo’s dismissal, despite authorisation in 1576, was delayed by Philip II until the arrival of his substitute, Juan de Borja, in December 1577. Desperate to resume his affairs in Spain, Monteagudo asked for the empress’s permission to return under the pretext of announcing to the king in person her wish to retire. It seems that Maria did not readily accede to Monteagudo’s pleas, as their relationship was broken quite abruptly, and his family disappeared almost immediately from the circle of imperial patronage.35

The empress was isolated in Prague. Although Monteagudo assured her that Dietrichstein and Pernstein would be at her service after his departure, Rudolf II also left a few days later for more than a year, taking with him most of the imperial court. Maria was thus deprived of her two most trusted men and their wives in a dismembered imperial household without a high steward since the departure of Francisco Laso de Castilla in 1570. The presence of Monteagudo and those two courtiers had allowed her to maintain a certain order, although the one who had taken up the reins of the household’s daily activities was the first lady of the bedchamber, Ana de Cardona, who died in February 1577. Only two gentlemen remained in Maria’s service after April 1577, Rudolph Khuen and Georg Pruskovsky.36

The empress often used the resources of the emperor’s household for her own service, but after Rudolf left her in Prague substantial deficiencies came to the fore. Although she led the austere life of a nun and had long abandoned her proverbial largesse, expenses increased exponentially due to the unsustainable debts and the reduced access to loans after the failed attempts of 1576 to secure the Polish throne for Archduke Ernst.37 In April 1577, the household’s accounts were reviewed for the first time since 1560. There were 173 servants, despite the recent vacant offices, who cost around 25,000 florins per year in wages.38 There

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