isabella (2)

Since 1568, at the age of two...

Isabella Clara Eugenia was promised to marry her cousin Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor [1552–1612], son of Emperor Maximilian II and her aunt Maria. Isabella Clara Eugenia, however, had to wait for more than 20 years before the eccentric Rudolf declared that he had no intention of marrying anybody.

After her uncle, Henry III of France, was assassinated...

by the fanatical young monk Jacques Clément on 2 August 1589...

Philip II claimed the French crown on behalf of Isabella Clara Eugenia despite France's Salic law, which forbade cognatic succession. At any rate, Isabella Clara Eugenia's mother had ceded any claim to the French crown with her marriage to Philip II.

However the Parlement de Paris, in power of the Catholic party, gave verdict that Isabella Clara Eugenia was "the legitimate sovereign" of France. The Huguenot leader, Henry III of Navarre, the rightful King of France by traditional French inheritance laws, ultimately made good his claim to the throne, converted to Catholicism and was crowned in 1594.

Her father decided to cede the Spanish Netherlands to her on condition that she marry her cousin, Albert VII, Archduke of Austria. They were to reign over the Netherlands jointly as duke/count and duchess/countess. They were to be succeeded by their descendants according to the male-preference cognatic primogeniture but should a female succeed, she was required to marry the King of Spain or the person chosen by the King of Spain. It was also stipulated that, should they have no children, the Netherlands would revert to the King of Spain upon the death of either spouse.

On 18 April 1599, being 33 years old, she married Albert, the younger brother of her former fiancé Emperor Rudolf II. Albert was the joint sovereign of the Seventeen Provinces and the former viceroy of Portugal. As Albert also was the Archbishop of Toledo, he had to be released from his religious commitments by Pope Clement VIII before the wedding could take place.

Shortly before Philip II died on 13 September 1598, he resigned the thrones of the Netherlands in favor of Isabella and her fiancé.


~wikipedia~