Isabel de Valois (Elisabeth de Valois), Queen of Spain

[umigon]

Isabel was very much in love with Felipe, she just adored him. In 1565, when she met her mother and her brothers in Bayonne, her mother said to her: "You act in a very Spanish manner" Isabel answered: "Because I am Spanish, but I am still the daughter that left France five years ago".


She also loved dearly her daughters, with whom she played dayly, unlike many queens of the Renaissance. Her daughters also must have loved her very much: when Isabel died in 1568, Isabel Clara Eugenia was only two years old. However, when in 1570 Felipe remarried his niece Anna of Austria, the infantas were told by their governess that their mother had returned from Heaven. When Anna appeared, Catalina quickly embraced her. But Isabel Clara Eugenia, very seriously said: "This is not my mother, my mother was dark-haried and this woman is blonde!"  After hearing this, Anna said to Isabel Clara: "That is true, darling, I am not your mother, but I will love you as if I were". And she did...

[Prince_Lieven]

Was Isabel popular with the Spanish people? Were her daughters?

[trentk80]

As has been noted, Felipe was very fond of Elisabeth (or Isabel, whichever you like), but how did she feel about him? And did she have a good relationship with her daughters?

Elisabeth (or Isabel) loved her husband. In 1564 she wrote to her mother Catherine of Medici: "Je suis la plus hereuse femme du monde".

It is also worth mentioning that it was partly because of her that the court moved from Toledo to Madrid. Elisabeth considered Toledo very cold, so Philip moved with his court to Madrid so the queen could enjoy a better weather.

[umigon]

She was a very popular Queen, well, in Spain most kings and queens have been popular! But she was loved by the King, the Court and the commoners. When she died all of Madrid mourned her with much sentiment.


Her daughters were also very popular. They were seen as charming and atractive-.  Isabel C.E. lived in Spain
much longer than Catalina, so she was best known. When Catalina married in 1585 in Zaragoza many people went there to see the ceremony.

[trentk80]

Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia was engaged to her cousin, emperor Rudolph II. However, he delayed the marriage for so long that Isabel ended marrying his brother Albert instead of him and they became governors of the Spanish Netherlands.

Rudolph remained single for the rest of his life but he fathered many illegitimate children. One of his best known children is the cruel Julio Cesar, who liked to torture girls. His mother was the emperor's lovely Italian mistress, Catarina da Strada.

[umigon]

Catarina was the daughter of a famous painter, Jacopo da Strada.


Julius Caesar murdered brutally Marketa Pichlerova, after which he was imprisoned in his own rooms. One day he managed to open one of the windows and he committed suicide by throwing himself off the window (June 25, 1609).

[Prince_Lieven]

Did Queen Isabel have any stillborn sons or sons who died young? Any miscarriages?

[umigon]

Did Queen Isabel have any stillborn sons or sons who died young? Any miscarriages?

Yes:

August 12, 1564: She miscarried twin girls of three moths of pregnancy.

October 3, 1568: She gave birth to a baby girl of five months of pregnancy. The baby was born alive and was quickly baptised with the name Juana. She died only an hour and a half after. Isabel died the same day.

[Prince_Lieven]

Thanks umigon!  

twins, huh? royal twins are so rare I often wonder what things would have been like if a set had been born in those days, particularly if they were boys.

[umigon]

That was surely something that had to do with Catherine de Medici's blood. Catherine's last children were twin daughters, Victoire and Jeanne, both born and dead in 1556.

Then Elizabeth miscarried twin daughters and Elizabeth's younger sister, Claude, died after giving birth to twin daughters in 1575! It was obviously quite common in the Valois family!

[trentk80]

Do you know what Don Carlos' relationship with his stepmother Isabel de Valois was like?

[umigon]

Yes, that part of their lives is widely known. Legend wanted that these two youngsters had an affair... untrue! Isabel was indeed kind to her stepson (who was one year her senior) and he corresponded to her friendly treatment. There wasn't more between them!


When Don Carlos, in a fit of rage, planned his scape and conquest of the Netherlands (he then wanted to kill his father), he told his secret to his bastard uncle, Don Juan of Austria. Don Juan, loyal to his brother, told Felipe what were Carlos's intentions , which led to Carlos's imprisonment. When his rooms were examined, they found a sheet in which the Prince had written in one face: My Enemies and on the other: My friends.

The first one started with Felipe II and continued with many other people. The second one started with Isabel de Valois and finished with his second and only friend: Juan de Austria.


Just one of Carlos's acts nearly makes him lose the Queen's love. One day, in one of his fits of rage, he entered the Queen's rooms when Isabel was playing with her daughters. He shouted at her that 'those whores will not steal my Crown!'. Hours later, after realising what he had done, he begged Isabel's pardon and she pardoned him and embraced him in tears, as if anything had happened.

[trentk80]

Umigon, do you know what was Don Carlos and Isabel de Valois' relationship with the Austrian archdukes, Rudolph and Ernest, who were living in Spain at the time?

[umigon]

Don Carlos doesn't seem to have hated them, but he was certainly jealous of them. They all (Carlos, Rudolph, Ernest, Juan de Austria and Alessandro Farnesio) went together to University in Alcalá de Henares, so they were probably friends, at least to some extent.

As for Isabel, she called Rudolph and Ernest 'my nephews' and she kept talking to Felipe about marrying Isabel Clara Eugenia to Rudolph, so she must have liked him!

[Prince_Lieven]

Where did the 'Clara' and 'Eugenia' in Isabel's name come from? Anyone know?