Queen, Mother, & Stateswoman. Mariana of Austria and the Government of Spain by Silvia Z. Mitchell (review)

With her monograph, Silvia Z. Mitchell has determinedly and successfully resuscitated the reputation of Mariana of Austria, queen-dowager of Spain and regent for her son Carlos II. Mariana has not infrequently been considered an immature and ineffective regent, particularly by male historians who were unable to see beyond the surface tensions she confronted during these turbulent and difficult times for the Spanish branch of the house of Habsburg. Mitchell achieves this by homing in on official and institutional sources rather than the less scholarly demanding repository of pamphlets, political satires, and populist publications that past biographers and scholars have less fittingly made their first port of call. Mitchell has also confronted and reassessed the idea that Carlos II's reign monolithically represented a period of decline and decay for Spain and its monarchy—despite that she over does this to a certain extent. More importantly, Mitchell adds to the burgeoning catalogue of case studies evidencing the unexceptionality of premodern female government and the exercise of gendered power and influence by medieval and early modern elite women. However, in foregrounding Mariana's agency, Mitchell does seem to be having her cake and eating it too by suggesting that Mariana was at once both exceptional and unexceptional for her rank and position. Given the body of research now available to scholars of gender and women's history, such soi-disant unexceptionality is now a difficult proposition to sustain.

Chapter 1 foregrounds how it was that her late husband, Felipe IV, specifically instructed the Council of State to confer with Mariana within a month of his death. In keeping with long-standing Iberian rulership norms, he would have been confident in Mariana's ability to govern for his underage heir. That he had also formed a Junta de Gobierno (Government Committee) ought not to be viewed as a lack of confidence in his widow's governing abilities but rather that this would act as a buttress to Mariana's authority and agency, especially in light of the potential ambitions of his natural son, Don Juan of Austria. Chapter 2 surveys Castilian legislation dealing specifically with female guardianship and regencies within a Habsburg context and highlights the institutional and household innovations Mariana husbanded through both the Council of State and the Junta de Gobierno.

With the skilful and careful use of previously unpublished archival sources, in Chapter 3 Mitchell favours the reader with a review of Mariana's early foreign policy initiatives. Mitchell demonstrates how Mariana was able to achieve peace with Portugal, thereby enabling her to push back at France from 1667 and safeguard Flanders. Mitchell also reveals how Mariana endeavoured to expedite the marriage of her daughter, the infanta Margarita Teresa, to her uncle (Mariana's brother) and first cousin, the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, to secure essential military support for Spain. Chapter 4 unpicks the position of the Jesuit Everard Nithard. Mitchell argues that Nithard wasn't really Mariana's court favourite, instead confirming, through the use of archival sources excavated from the archive of the Dukes of Medinaceli, the rise of the Marquis of Aytona. Mitchell outlines how Aytona assisted Mariana in court reform, whilst inserting himself in a variety of areas such as political, military, and financial undertaking. She also offers insights into the circumspect political relationship Mariana cultivated with her stepson, the illegitimate Don Juan of Austria.

Mitchell's final three chapters are her most ground-breaking. Chapter 5 uncovers a hitherto unrealized Mariana who, unlike earlier portrayals of an immature and unready-to-govern widow, emerges as a determined and potent regent with a clear-eyed and lucid blueprint for success in international relations. Chapter 6 explores the letters exchanged between Carlos II and Mariana during her exile into the political wilderness once he had secured his emancipation to rule. Here, we visualize...