But Isabel's time had come. On the 17th October 1629 she gave birth to a healthy baby son who was called Baltasar Carlos Domingo Lucas Felipe. It was her greatest triumph after 14 years, more than half of her life, living in Spain. There were some years in which Isabel didn't get pregnant, partly because felipe was away many times, as Cataluña and Portugal were giving him many head aches! Then, in 1635, Isabel gave birth to another girl, María Antonia Dominica Jacinta, who quickly became the apple of her father's eye, only to die aged two, in 1637. Isabel had just become pregnant when María Antonia died, giving birth to another baby girl, María Teresa, on September 20th, 1638. Of the rest of her pregnancies, no more children will be born. Isabel miscarried a girl in 1640, a foetus of 2 months in 1642 and a boy in 1644.
Spain's situation was growing more unstable each day. Olivares had good intentions, he was not a corrupt ruler as Felipe III's valido, the Duke of Lerma, had been. But he wasn't succesful in his campaigns, nor in his politics both in the country and internatinally speaking. In 1643, Isabel went to talk to Felipe qwith her son Baltasar by her hand. She told her husband that if he wanted to give his vast empire entirely to his son, then he should be thinking in dismissing Olivares. Felipe was amazed by his wife's character and political views, as she gave him so many reasons, that Felipe dismissed Olivares that same night. Felipe started to rule again on his own with Isabel by his side and Spain started to grow again!
Some months after this event, Felipe recognised his bastard son, Juan José of Austria, and he gave him a royal residence (the Zarzuela Palace). One day, when Isabel was with her ladies-in-waiting, she received a message from the King in which he recognised Juan José as his son. The message said that the Queen should adress her stepson as "son" and Baltasar and María Teresa should call him "brother". Isabel, furious by what she considered an affront (oh, it surely was!) said to her ladies-in-waiting: "Oh, of course I will call the bastard son, I will call him son of a b!tch". Then, she shut her door to her husband for a while, until she forgave him. By the way, Baltasar called his half-brother Don Juanísimo, laughing at his ambitious character.
When Isabel died of erysipelas on the 6th October 1644, Felipe was in Cataluña and couldn't get to her death bed in time. He retired to a monastery for some time and declared that, as he had a son and heir, he would never marry again. He wrote to one of his most important advisors, the nun Sister Maria of Agreda: "I am full of unbearing grief, as in one person I have lost everything I could lose in this earthly world". Well, his statement proved wrong... two years later Baltasar died and Felipe had to marry again, this time the bride was his teenager (could say a girl) niece Mariana of Austria. But that is another story...
I hope you have all liked it!
