ABSTRACT
Empress Isabel’s death in Toledo on 1 May 1539, as a result of complications from her seventh childbirth, completely disrupted the tranquil family life that Infanta Maria had enjoyed until then. The wedding of Philip and Maria Manuela fulfilled the plans of dynastic rapprochement that had been underway since the death of Empress Isabel of Portugal in 1539. Maria’s education during the crucial years of her adolescence prepared her to be a perfect wife, mother, and princess of the House of Austria. While the terms of the marriage contract were being negotiated, it was decided that Maximilian would travel to Spain, where the wedding would take place and the two would remain as Governors of the Iberian kingdoms. Maria’s single life had ended. In her first twenty years, she did not show broad cultural interests, but she did show a firm and exigent Catholic faith.
