ABSTRACT
On 12 December 1581, Empress Maria disembarked at Collioure, the first Catalan port, and set foot in the Iberian Peninsula for the first time after thirty years. The ambassadors, however, discreetly attempted to stifle and boycott Maria’s negotiations with Philip II and Rudolf II, as the whispers of those religious men and ladies-in-waiting were thought to undermine the authority of the two sovereigns. Maria’s move to Spain was untimely in terms of dynastic strategy and involved serious underlying financial problems which neither Philip II nor Rudolf II was willing to address. Maria and her supporters had limited influence over the king and the emperor to obtain permission for her return to Spain. The logistical effort was both substantial and costly: as much as Maria wanted to spend the rest of her life in sober retirement, she needed an entourage of around a thousand people to make the journey, including the entire imperial household and Margarita, her only unmarried daughter.
