Born into royalty but destined for a tragically short life, Margarita Theresa of Spain was a key figure in European alliances. In 1666, she married her uncle and first cousin, Leopold I of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor.
She was a child bride, only about 12 years old at the time, and their wedding was one of the grandest celebrations of the European Baroque era.
The festivities included operas, firework displays, and an equestrian ballet. Their union had been planned since her childhood. She was the first of his three wives.
Margarita Theresa was born on July 12, 1651, at the Royal Alcazar in Madrid, Spain. She was the eldest of all her siblings, but besides her, only one of them survived childhood.
She was raised with many servants and ladies-in-waiting at her disposal, receiving an excellent education under the strict etiquette of the Spanish court.
She was part of the Spanish Habsburg line, which was known for its inbreeding. The House of Habsburg ruled in Spain.
They had built their empire through marriage and wanted to keep everything they gained in the family. So, they began to marry among themselves.
Normally, a person in the fifth generation has 32 different ancestors, but Margarita Theresa only had 10 different ancestors in the fifth generation.
Her own parents were uncle and niece by blood. She did not develop serious health problems, but she did have the distinct Habsburg jaw from the inbreeding.
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Leopold and Margarita Theresa’s marriage was one of strategy. It was needed to strengthen the positions of Spain and Austria against the Kingdom of France.
Despite it being a political move, the couple had a happy marriage while living in Austria. They had four children together, but only one survived to adulthood.
Margarita was very devoted to the Catholic faith and blamed the presence of Jews in Austria for the deaths of her children.
She believed God was punishing her for letting them live in her adopted kingdom. She begged Leopold to drive them out of Vienna.
During the Corpus Christi festival of 1670, he ordered the expulsion of all but the richest Jewish residents from Vienna.
He also called for the destruction of their synagogue. According to their family’s standards, it was a nice gesture, but ultimately a useless one as Margarita died soon after.
Centuries of Hapsburg inbreeding had made her too weak to bear the trauma of six pregnancies in six years. She died on March 12, 1673, at only 21 years old. She was buried in the Imperial Crypt at the Capuchin Church in Vienna.
Several months later, Leopold married Archduchess Claudia Felicitas of Austria, who was unable to produce any heirs.
Once she died from tuberculosis, he married his third wife, Eleonore Magdalene of Neuberg, who finally provided him with two male heirs. Eventually, they both became Holy Roman Emperors.
Margarita Theresa may have a somewhat negative reputation, but without her immortalization in Las Meninas, a 1656 painting by Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish baroque, she could have been forgotten altogether. The painting now hangs in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.
