ABSTRACT
In October 1600, Rochepot, the new French ambassador to Madrid, “was very happy to speak to the greatest woman in the world,” Empress Maria of Austria. Royal women in medieval and early modern times, in both the Iberian and Central European theatres, have attracted more attention through the notions of queenship/gynaecocracy, a model of rule based on partnership with the king and greater access to government and power. Since the 1990s, the renewed thematic agenda of new political history has emphasised the importance of court studies and gender roles. The Aristotelian distinction between the male public and political spheres and the female private and domestic spheres was as functional as it was porous. Empress Maria’s extensive personal correspondence is now largely lost, as she did not keep a personal archive and her female relatives used to destroy their letters.
