Pregnancy and childbirth in the letters of Mariana de Austria
II Death before life
Mariana de Austria (1634–1696), queen of Spain, wife to her own uncle and mother of the last Habsburg to ascend the Spanish throne, was only sixteen and a half years old when she first gave birth to a daughter. Although five more pregnancies within eight years were to follow her first one, the Spanish succession remained precarious. Mariana’s second son, Fernando Tomás (born 1658), died two months before his first birthday and her firstborn, Felipe Próspero (born 1657), did not reach adulthood.
Thanks to her close relationship with one of her former court ladies, Johanna Theresia von Harrach, and the correspondence between her and her mother, that arose from it, we gain insight about Mariana’s daily life. While being pregnant with Carlos (1661-1700), the future king of Spain, she repeatedly discussed maternal health issues. Three months after conception she expressed her relief about the absence of her migraines. The continuous sickness she was troubled with on the other hand was «nothing new» to her, as it used to be «part of every pregnancy». Shortly after, she happily mentioned the last and unmistakable sign of growing life inside her womb, Carlos’ first perceptible movements.
His birth took place under exceptional circumstances. Only five days before he saw the light of day, his brother Felipe Próspero, by then heir to the throne and not yet four years old, died of a severe illness. What has been regarded as a serious threat to the existence of a whole dynasty both by contemporaries and historians, must have been a heart-breaking tragedy for the heavily pregnant mother: «You cannot imagine the suffering of my child. The doctors have tormented him so much that they put him to the grave all the earlier». Against this backdrop, the birth of another prince a few days after the death of his brother was deemed to be a miracle. In the words of his mother, Carlos was «strong and in good health»; she had «soon gave way to disillusion and frustration»: Carlos, «the prettiest child I ever had», as Mariana wrote to her friend, could not have children of his own. The multiple marriages within the family that were meant to strengthen the alliance between the two branches of the House of Habsburg revealed him to be infertile.
The correspondence of Mariana de Austria with Johanna Theresia von Harrach and Maria Judith Eleonora Rebekka von Lamberg is preserved in the Harrach familiy archive, today incorporated in the Österreichisches Staatsarchiv in Vienna: ÖSTA AVA FA Harrach Fam. in spec 321.58 and 322.1. [Christian Standhartinger]