Historica Olomucensia 1 (2025), 43-65 | DOI: 10.5507/ho.2025.014

"Your Protegee, Sacrificed to the Dispositions of Your Majesty and Those of Her Majesty the Queen of Spain." The Spanish Monarchy and the Negotiations for the Marriage Between Archduchess Claudia Felicitas of Austria-Tyrol and James, Duke of York (1671–1673).

Rocío Martínez López
Department of Early Modern History of the Universidad Autonoma of Madrid

Between 1671 and 1673, the possible marriage between the then Duke of York, James, heir of the English throne, and Archduchess Claudia Felicitas of Tyrol, was subjected to important and complex negotiations between the members of the Stuart and Habsburg dynasties. Queen Regent Mariana of Austria and the Spanish Monarchy played a central role in them as the most interested party in the Habsburg dynasty to see this alliance come to fruition. The development of these marriage negotiations, focusing especially on two considerations, is analysed in this article. First, the central role that Queen Regent Mariana of Austria and the interests of the Spanish Monarchy had in the negotiation of this marriage, which they hoped would help to break the alliance between France and England, and bring back Charles II of England to the former Triple Alliance with the threatened United Provinces. This article will also highlight the political role that women were expected to play after their wedding, this being one of the bases of the system of dynastic marriage alliances in the Ancien Régime.

Keywords: dynastic alliance; marriage; Habsburg dynasty; Claudia Felicitas of Austria-Tyrol; James II of England; Mariana of Austria; diplomacy

Received: April 8, 2025; Revised: August 8, 2025; Accepted: September 24, 2025; Published: December 2, 2025  Show citation

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Martínez López, R. (2025). "Your Protegee, Sacrificed to the Dispositions of Your Majesty and Those of Her Majesty the Queen of Spain." The Spanish Monarchy and the Negotiations for the Marriage Between Archduchess Claudia Felicitas of Austria-Tyrol and James, Duke of York (1671–1673). Historica Olomucensia, 66(1), 43-65. doi: 10.5507/ho.2025.014
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    • References

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    24. Aichinger, Wolfram. "Midwife Diplomacy. The Recruitment of a Midwife for Empress Margarita María Teresa de Austria (1666-1673)." Memoria y civilización. Anuario de Historia 23 (2020): 583-602. Go to original source...
    25. Bérenger, Jean. Léopold Ier (1640-1705). Fondateur de la Puissance Autrichienne. Paris: PUF, 2004.
    26. Brinkmann, C. "The Relations between England and Germany, 1660-1688." The English Historical Review 24, no. 94 (April 1909): 247-77. Go to original source...
    27. Esteban Estríngana, Alicia. "El 'Flandes separado', de remedio pacificador a enfermedad de la Monarquía de Felipe III. Terapias sanadoras a comienzos del reinado (1598-1605)." Hispania. Revista Española de Historia 82, no. 271 (2022): 321-54. Go to original source...
    28. Höbelt, Lothar. "Madrid vaut bien une guerre? Marriage negotiations between the Habsburg Courts, 1653-1657." In La dinastía de los Austria: las relaciones entre la Monarquía Católica y el Imperio. Vol. 3, ed. José Martínez Millán, and Rubén González Cuerva, Rubén, 1421-36. Madrid; Polifemo, 2011.
    29. Martínez López, Rocío. "Tu, Feliz Austria, nube. La posibilidad del aumento territorial de la monarquía a través del primer matrimonio de Carlos II." In II Encuentro de Jóvenes Investigadores en Historia Moderna. Líneas recientes de investigación en Historia Moderna, ed. Félix Labrador Arroyo, 457-75. Madrid: Universidad Rey Juan Carlos-Fundación Española de Historia Moderna, 2015.
    30. Martínez López, Rocío. "'The infanta will marry the person who provides the Peace or the one who gives us the means to continue the war.' The negotiations for the marriage between Infanta Maria Teresa of Austria and Emperor Leopold I (1654-1657)." Royal Studies Journal 3, no. 1 (2016): 6-27. Go to original source...
    31. Martínez López, Rocío. "Los derechos sucesorios femeninos en la dinastía Habsburgo: diferentes y enfrentamientos (1500-1740)." In Mulheres da realeza ibérica: mediadoras políticas e culturais, ed. Gonzalo del Puerto, Mercedes Llorente and Renato Epifâmio, 67-94. Lisbon: Instituto Cervantes-MIL, 2019.
    32. Martínez López, Rocío. "Consequences of the Dynastic Crisis of the Seventeenth Century in the Matrimonial Market and Their Influence in the European International Policy: the case of Maria Anna of Neuburg (1667-1740)." In Gender and Diplomacy. Women and Men in European Embassies from the 15th to the 18th centuries, ed. Roberta Anderson, Laura Oliván and Suna Suner, 149-84. Vienna: Hollitzer, 2021. Go to original source...
    33. Martínez López, Rocío. "Con la esperanza de un sucesor. El uso político de la fertilidad en las negociaciones matrimoniales de los Habsburgo durante la segunda mitad del siglo XVII." Hipogrifo 9, no.1 (2021): 799-808. Go to original source...
    34. Mitchell, Silvia. "Marriage plots. Royal women, marriage diplomacy and international politics at the Spanish, French, and Imperial Courts, 1665-1679." In Women, Diplomacy and International Politics since 1500, ed. Glenda Sluga, and Carolyn James, 86-106. New York: Routledge, 2015. Go to original source...
    35. Mitchell, Silvia. Queen, Mother and Stateswoman. Mariana of Austria and the Government of Spain. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania University Press, 2019. Go to original source...
    36. Oliván Santaliestra, Laura. "Giovane d'anni ma Vecchia di giudizio": La Emperatriz Margarita en la corte de Viena." In La Dinastía de los Austria. Las relaciones entre la Monarquía Católica y el Imperio. Vol. 2, ed. José Martínez Millán, and Rubén González Cuerva, 837-908. Madrid: Polifemo, 2011.
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    38. Pribram, Alfred Francis. "Ein Habsburg-Stuart'sches Heiratsprojekt." Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 29, no. 3 (1908): 423-66. Go to original source...
    39. Redworth, Glyn. The Prince and the Infanta. The cultural politics of the Spanish Match. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003.
    40. Smí¹ek, Rostislav. "Claudia Felicitas of Austria through the Lens of Christoph Traut's Funeral Sermon of 1676." Opera Historica 25 (2024): 57-82. Go to original source...
    41. Spielman, John P. Leopold I of Austria. London: Thames and Hudson, 1977.
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    43. Strickland, Agnes. Lives of the Queens of England from the Norman Conquest. Vol. VI. London: George Bell and sons, 1885.
    44. Taddei, Elena. "An Intercultural Royal Marriage and Experiences of Difference at the English Court. Mary of Modena (1658-1718) as a Carrier of Culture and Political Influencer." In The British and German Worlds in an age of divergence (1600-1850), ed. Niels Grüne, and Stefan Ehrenpreis, 227-47. New York: Routledge, 2024. Go to original source...
    45. Tercero Casado, Luis. "Infelix Austria: Relaciones entre Madrid y Viena desde la Paz de Westfalia hasta la Paz de los Pirineos (1648-1659)." Ph.D. diss. University of Vienna, 2017.
    46. Tercero Casado, Luis. "Otros asuntos de familia. Relaciones entre España y el Tirol tras la paz de Westfalia." Chronica Nova 44 (2018): 55-83.

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