The Tragic Wives of King Philip II

Back in the 16th century, one monarch ruled an empire that stretched across vast continents, commanded immense armies, and possessed unimaginable wealth. This was King Philip II of Spain, and at the absolute height of his long reign, he stood as the most powerful ruler in the entire world. Yet, behind the formidable strength of his expansive empire lay a far more fragile and deeply human story. His marriages, primarily forged for strategic alliances and dynastic preservation, were marked by relentless loss and sorrow. Four queens would share his crown, yet none would ultimately survive him. To understand the man, we must meet the women who became his wives and contemplate their tragic fates.

Before we explore the intimate lives of his wives, it is necessary to examine Philip himself. He was born on the 21st of March, 1527, in the Palacio de Pimentel in the city of Valladolid, Spain. He was the eldest son of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Isabella of Portugal. By this time, Charles V had become one of the most powerful rulers in European history. He had ascended to the throne of Spain in 1516, succeeding his mother, Joanna of Castile. Back in 1496, Joanna had married Philip the Handsome of the House of Habsburg, a dynasty that ruled over Austria. Consequently, Charles V and his son Philip were prominent members of the powerful Habsburg family. This dynastic connection, combined with immense political influence and vast financial support, helped secure Charles’s election as Holy Roman Emperor in 1519.

Consequently, he did not merely rule Spain; he also controlled large parts of Italy, the entirety of the Low Countries, and served as the central figure in the politics of Germany as the Holy Roman Emperor. Furthermore, he governed the world’s first truly global empire, with vast domains in the Americas and, later, the Philippines in Asia. The relentless flow of gold and silver from the Americas, following the conquests of the Aztec and Inca empires, ensured that Spain became the wealthiest nation on earth. As the heir to such a vast and rapidly growing empire, Philip received the finest education available, meticulously trained in languages, governance, and the heavy responsibilities of rule from an early age. Though his future dominions would eventually span multiple continents, Philip identified most strongly with Spain and felt truly at home there. As a boy and young man, he was known for his serious and disciplined nature, showing an early, innate preference for order and duty. While often reserved rather than warm, he could be both courteous and controlled. In his youth, Philip was also considered quite handsome, and all these qualities meant that every royal family in Europe was anxious to marry one of their daughters to him. Soon, a bride was chosen.

Philip’s first marriage was to Maria Manuela of Portugal. She was the daughter of King John III of Portugal, who ruled the smaller Iberian kingdom between 1521 and 1557. Maria was born in October 1527 in Coimbra, just five months after Philip. Her mother was Catherine of Spain, Charles V’s sister and thus Philip’s aunt. Furthermore, Philip’s mother, Isabella of Portugal, was John III’s sister, meaning that Philip’s mother was Maria’s aunt. While this sounds inherently confusing, to put it in simple terms, Philip and Maria were double first cousins. At this time, both Spain and Portugal were rising as significant global powers, and their respective rulers viewed this marriage as a vital way to bind the two kingdoms even closer together, securing stability on the Iberian Peninsula while ensuring that power, wealth, and influence remained firmly within the family. Therefore, despite their extremely close blood ties, Philip and Maria were married at just sixteen years old on the 12th of November, 1543, in a highly opulent ceremony in Salamanca.

Yet, their marriage would not last for long. In the winter of 1544, news spread through the court that Maria was pregnant, and widespread celebrations followed as their heir seemed assured. She spent the next several months in the royal palace at Valladolid, where on the 8th of July, 1545, she gave birth to a son, Carlos. But the joy quickly turned into absolute tragedy. Maria suffered severe complications after the birth and began to hemorrhage. Despite all possible efforts to save her, she died just four days later. She was only seventeen years old. For Philip II of Spain, the marriage had secured an heir, but at a devastating, personal cost. He would not remarry for ten years, though during that time, he took various lovers, and later, even as king, he maintained some mistresses alongside his queens. With only one heir and still very young, Philip knew he needed to remarry. And when he finally chose his next wife, the match would be far more powerful and far more controversial than anyone could have possibly expected.

Philip next married Mary Tudor, the daughter of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. She was born on the 18th of February, 1516, at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, England. As a child, Mary was a princess of great promise—well-educated, confident, and initially favored by her father. But everything changed when she was still young. By the time Mary was ten, Henry had become infatuated with Anne Boleyn and was increasingly desperate for a male heir. So, when Pope Clement VII refused to annul his marriage to Catherine, Henry grew enraged and broke with Rome, divorcing Catherine in 1533 and declaring Mary illegitimate. Cast aside and separated from her mother, Mary’s world was turned upside down. The experience left her deeply committed to the Catholic faith and closely tied to her Spanish heritage, a connection reinforced by the support of Spanish diplomats during her long years of isolation.

During this time, Mary lived a diminished and often difficult life. She was frequently sick with irregular menstruation and depression and was later forced to serve in the household of her younger half-sister, Elizabeth I, while being pressured to accept her father’s religious reforms. Then, in 1536, Mary reconciled with her father and was allowed to return to court. Now entering her twenties, attention turned to her marriage. She was briefly courted by Philip of Neuburg, but as a committed Lutheran, his suit was entirely unacceptable. In 1539, negotiations were opened for Mary to marry William, Duke of Cleves, a match considered suitable in both age and status. Yet, once again, the proposal came to nothing. It was not until the final years of Henry VIII’s reign that she was restored to the line of succession, though she remained officially illegitimate. Finally, in 1547, her father, Henry VIII, died, and her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded as king. By 1553, he was terminally ill. Knowing Mary was next in line and that she would reverse the Protestant reforms that had taken place during his reign, he attempted to remove her from the succession. This ultimately failed, and she became Queen of Ireland and England in July 1553.

Now aged thirty-seven, Mary faced mounting pressure to secure her throne and produce an heir before her half-sister, Elizabeth I, could succeed her. Convinced that her position and England’s future depended on a powerful alliance, Mary turned to the Habsburgs. And so, she made her choice: she would marry Philip II of Spain. This match was agreed upon, and their wedding took place at Winchester Cathedral on July 25th, 1554, just days after their first meeting. He was twenty-seven; she was thirty-eight—an unusual reversal in royal marriages of the time. The pair shared no common language, so they communicated through a mixture of Spanish, French, and Latin. It may come as no surprise that the newlyweds were also cousins. Mary’s mother, Catherine of Aragon, was the daughter of Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon, the rulers whose marriage had united the Kingdom of Spain in the late 15th century. Philip was a great-grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella. Thus, he was Mary’s first cousin once removed.

Before Mary and Philip married, an unusual arrangement was reached whereby they would be co-rulers of England. England had never had an undisputed Queen Regnant before, and there was a lack of clarity as to what position Philip would hold. Instead of becoming merely a consort—a spouse of the monarch with no regal authority—Philip became King Regnant, something which was deeply controversial in England, where the nobles and politicians feared that England would be subsumed into Spain’s growing empire as a vassal kingdom. And the marriage was troubled in other ways. Mary was already in her late thirties, and the time was rapidly slipping away as she was nearing the end of her childbearing years. This aside, she appeared to have become pregnant shortly after marrying Philip, but she then lost a child, if she was ever, in fact, pregnant at all. Historians still do not know exactly what occurred in 1555. The most likely explanation is that she experienced a phantom pregnancy, one in which she believed she was pregnant when, in fact, she wasn’t. Mary had noticed changes in her body, but these could have been signs of something far more sinister.

Soon after the humiliation of her false pregnancy, Philip left England, departing for Flanders to command his armies against France. From that moment on, he would spend very little time at his wife’s side. As his father, Charles V, began to relinquish his vast dominions, Philip’s attention shifted ever more towards Spain and the Low Countries. Whatever personal bond may have existed between them quickly faded. To Philip, the marriage had always been a matter of politics—a means to draw England into Spain’s orbit and secure its return to Catholic rule after the upheavals of Edward VI’s reign. But for Mary, it was something far more personal. She was utterly devoted to her husband, longing for the kind of loving family life that had been denied to her in her youth. One contemporary observed that she was “extraordinarily in love” with Philip, a devotion that would go painfully unrequited. By May 1558, Mary had grown weak and increasingly ill. In constant pain, likely from ovarian cysts or uterine cancer, her condition steadily worsened. On November 17th, 1558, at St. James’s Palace, she died at forty-two years of age, her hopes for an heir and for a lasting marriage unfulfilled.

Far away in Brussels, Philip received the news. Writing to his sister, Joanna of Austria, he remarked only that he felt a “reasonable regret” at her passing. As Philip and Mary did not have any children, Mary’s throne passed to her half-sister, Elizabeth I, who promptly restored Protestantism as the state religion. Thus, the plan to keep England in the Catholic fold via Philip’s marriage to Mary had completely failed. Despite this, Philip had no wish to sever his ties with England and sent a proposal of marriage to Elizabeth. However, she delayed in answering, and in that time, learned that Philip was also entertaining other options. Just months earlier, back in September 1558, his father, Charles V, died, passing his vast dominions to his son. And with that, Philip II of Spain became the most powerful monarch in the world. At just thirty-three, he stood at the height of his power. Yet, his dynasty remained dangerously fragile. He had only one surviving heir, the thirteen-year-old Don Carlos. And so, once again, Philip turned to marriage. This time, it was not just for alliance, but for survival.

Philip was married for a third time just seven months later to Elizabeth of Valois. She was born in April 1546 in the Château de Fontainebleau near Paris. Elizabeth was the daughter of King Henry II of France and his wife, the infamous Catherine de’ Medici. In 1550, Elizabeth’s father opened negotiations to betroth her to the young King Edward VI, with the marriage intended to take place once she came of age. But as we saw earlier, Edward died in 1553 while Elizabeth was still a child. As was typical for a royal child, Elizabeth was raised under the careful supervision of a governor and provided an excellent education. As a young girl, she was described as shy and timid, often in awe of her mother, though contemporaries also noted her beauty and charm. By 1559, negotiations were underway between Spain and France to bring an end to the long and bitter Italian Wars, which had raged since 1494. In April of that year, the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis was signed, finally securing peace between the two great rivals. As part of the agreement, a marriage was arranged between Don Carlos and the young French princess. But in a sudden twist of dynastic diplomacy, those plans were abandoned, and instead, Elizabeth would marry Philip himself, sealing the peace between the two rival empires.

And so it was that on the 22nd of June, 1559, Philip and Elizabeth were married by proxy. At the time of the proxy marriage in France, she was fourteen years old, while Philip was thirty-two. The formal ceremony would take place in Spain the following spring. Ironically, Henry II was killed in a jousting accident during festivities in Paris to celebrate the peace treaty and the marriage just three weeks after the proxy wedding. Uniquely amongst Philip’s four wives, Elizabeth was not a cousin of his—a rare break from Habsburg tradition. Their marriage proved unexpectedly warm, and he even renounced having any mistresses for several years in the mid-1560s. Elizabeth grew genuinely fond of her husband, and Philip took pleasure in entertaining her with tournaments. At court, Elizabeth of Valois formed a close and seemingly easy bond with her stepson, Don Carlos, the very prince she had originally been intended to marry. While Carlos’s behavior grew increasingly unstable, he appears to have treated Elizabeth with unusual gentleness, and she, in turn, met him with patience and grace.

Elizabeth’s life was troubled in other areas, though. She had a difficult natal history that included a stillbirth late in 1560 when she was fourteen years old. She miscarried twin daughters four years later. In 1566, she gave birth to Isabella Clara Eugenia, and the couple rejoiced at the birth of a healthy daughter. She was followed by another healthy child, Catalina Micaela. Then, on the 3rd of October, 1568, Elizabeth gave birth to another daughter named Joan. Tragically, both mother and infant died the day that Joan was born, owing to complications from the birth. Elizabeth was only twenty-two years old at the time. After Elizabeth’s untimely death, Catherine de’ Medici offered the grief-stricken Philip her younger daughter, Margaret, as a bride, but Philip declined the offer. Instead, he would turn once again to his own family.

Philip only waited slightly longer to marry his fourth and final wife. This was Anna of Austria. She was born on the 2nd of November, 1549, at Cigales near Valladolid in Spain. Her father was the future Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, and her mother was Maria of Austria. Anna spent her earliest years at the Spanish court, but when she was four, she moved to Vienna, where she was raised and educated. She was the eldest of her parents’ eventual sixteen children and was her father’s favorite. Given her position, Anna of Austria was destined for a powerful marriage alliance from an early age. Plans were eventually made for her to wed her first cousin, Don Carlos, who, as we have seen, was Philip’s only surviving son and heir to the Spanish throne. Not only were they close in age, they were also politically and personally well-matched, though they were first cousins. But in 1567, Don Carlos began to show clear signs of severe psychological instability. By his early twenties, he was notorious for violent outbursts, erratic behavior, and growing unpredictability. Alarmed, Philip placed him under confinement. Just months later, in July 1568, Carlos was dead. His sudden end gave rise to rumors of starvation, poisoning, and darker secrets within the Spanish court.

At this point in time, Elizabeth was still alive and well. But as we have seen, she died only a few months later. All of this left Philip II in a desperate position. He had lost both his heir and his wife. And so, Philip made a shocking proposal. As Anna could no longer marry his son, then perhaps she should marry him. The match defied not only convention but also the objections of Pope Pius V, who was appalled by the union. Not only was Anna twenty-three years younger than Philip, but she was also his niece. Her grandfather was Ferdinand I, Philip’s uncle, while Anna’s mother was Maria, Philip’s sister. Philip was, therefore, her cousin on her father’s side and her uncle on her mother’s side. Despite this, Anna’s father agreed to the marriage, and so the twenty-year-old Anna married her forty-two-year-old uncle by proxy in May 1570, while she was still in Vienna.

Anna arrived in Spain on October 3rd, 1570, and quickly adapted to court life with surprising ease. Bright and cheerful, she softened the rigid formality of the Spanish court and soon became Philip’s most beloved wife. Diplomats noted that the king was genuinely devoted to her, visiting her chambers daily, and the two, sharing a similar temperament, formed a close and affectionate bond. Soon she was pregnant, and in December 1571, the hoped-for son arrived, but died from dysentery in 1578. Another son, Charles, died a few weeks before his second birthday in 1575, before two further sons, Diego Felix and Philip, were born in 1575 and 1578. Finally, in 1580, Anna gave birth to their only daughter, Maria. That same year, a domestic crisis in Portugal opened the door for Philip to press his claim to the Portuguese throne. As Spanish forces moved to secure the crown, Anna traveled with the court, but soon after arriving, she fell gravely ill. On October 26th, 1580, in Badajoz, she died just days before her thirty-first birthday.

Now fifty-three years old, Philip was at the height of his power, but what would become of him and the empire he had built? After his fourth wife died, Philip felt his duty to provide an heir was finally done. He chose not to marry again, trading the busy life of the court for the quiet stone halls of El Escorial. He spent his later years living almost like a monk, obsessed with the endless paperwork of his massive empire. From his desk, he launched the Spanish Armada and fought religious wars across Europe, working tirelessly until his health began to fail. As we have seen, Philip’s only surviving son with Maria Manuela was Carlos, who grew up to be mentally unstable and died in 1568. With Mary, he had no children, but his children from his last two marriages would carry on the family line.

His first surviving daughter from his third marriage to Elizabeth of Valois was Isabella Clara Eugenia. He had planned to marry her to her cousin, Rudolph II, of the Austrian branch of the family. This marriage never materialized, though, as the eccentric Rudolph remained a bachelor. Isabella instead married another Austrian cousin, Archduke Albert. They ruled the Spanish Netherlands, centered on modern-day Belgium, between 1598 and Albert’s death in 1621. She was the longest-lived of the children from Philip’s marriages and lived until 1633, dying at age sixty-seven, though she had no children. Philip’s other surviving daughter from that marriage was Catalina Micaela. She went on to marry Charles Emmanuel I, the Duke of Savoy, in 1585. A twelve-year period followed in which she was almost continuously pregnant. Almost all of her children would survive into adulthood, but sadly, she died in childbirth in 1597 during her tenth pregnancy at thirty years of age.

As we have seen, several of Philip’s sons from his final marriage to Anna predeceased them. This trend continued after her death. Diego died in 1582, while her and Philip’s daughter, Maria, passed away the next year. This meant that at the end of four marriages, all of Philip’s hopes for a stable succession rested on his youngest and only surviving son, Prince Philip. One of the daughters could have succeeded King Philip, but his own grandmother’s succession as queen at the start of the 16th century had created a royal crisis, and this was something Philip wished to avoid. Luckily, Prince Philip survived. During his final years, King Philip lived simply, though he remained the most powerful man in the world until the end. On September 13th, 1598, at the great monastery palace of El Escorial, Philip II of Spain died after a long and agonizing illness, likely cancer. He was seventy-one years old. He was succeeded by his twenty-year-old son, Philip III, who inherited a vast empire, spanning continents, rich in power, yet dangerously strained by debt and war. He would rule until 1621, and his son and grandson held the throne until 1700 as King Philip IV and King Carlos II.