ABSTRACT
The reign of Philip II saw a divergence of the paths of women and men. The connection between education at the Spanish court and a governing office in the monarchy was developed over two generations of nephews: the more nephews started to serve as governors, the more this became an expectation for later generations of nephews. Philip II's nephew Archduke Albert of Austria (1559–1621) personified the pinnacle of this development in the sixteenth century, as a cardinal and archbishop of Toledo, governor of Portugal and groom of his cousin Infanta Isabella who received the Low Countries as her dowry. In a parallel development, the inner circle's women – mostly sisters, who had always been such loyal governors – retreated from governing roles: preferring a life behind monastery walls instead, they cultivated the family piety while developing their monastery into a parallel courtly space. Rather in the same way that individuals like Archduke Albert established new roles for men, Juana did so for women.
