Married to Alberto Pio.

ISABELLA CLARA EUGENIA.

Died Dec 1 1633

Full lengthed from an original portrait painted by Reginald Eustache.
N. 10 of the series of full length authentic colored portraits.

Court Magazine, NII. Carey street Lincoln's inn London.

MEMOIR

OF

ISABELLA CLARA EUGENIA,

Born anno 1566, died Dec. 1, 1633.

DAUGHTER OF PHILIP II. OF SPAIN, CONSORT OF MARY 1. of ENGLAND. INFANTA OF SPAIN, DUCHESS OF AUSTRIA AND BURGUNDY-PRINCESS OF BELGIA, &c.-AND WIFE OF ALBERT, ARCHDUKE OF AUSTRIA.

Embellished with a full-length colored Portrait, after Reginald Eustache, (No. 110, of this series of full-length, colored, authentic-ancient Portraits).

WE might have been better pleased and our readers, too, had this Memoir of Isabella Clara Eugenia fallen aptly in its proper place immediately after that of Mary I. and Philip II., her father, which the interval of a month might probably have enabled us to have accomplished.

And here we must beg a wider glance than ordinary at our Memoirs in order to arrive at the full enjoyment of this more than usually interesting period of English and of general history.

We will, then, at once, enter upon a brief analysis of the family history connected with the subject of our present biography, and by so doing make a clear and comprehensive opening into the subject-matter of her family pedigree, and unite into a whole several of our necessarily disjointed Memoirs.

Now, Catherine de Medicis (see Memoir, July, 1836, Portrait 41) was married to Henry II. of France, of whom was born Elizabeth of France, after her marriage emphatically called by the Spaniards Isabella, who was married to Philip II. of Spain (see Portrait, No. 107, April, 1842). This Elizabeth or Isabella died leaving two daughters, the elder the celebrated Clara Eugenia, the favorite child of Philip II. her father, the younger Catherine, who became the wife of Emanuel, Duke of Savoy.

In order to make still clearer the past, present and future Memoirs, the following is the brief pedigree of the husband of Elizabeth, or Isabella, the father of Clara Eugenia :

PEDIGREE OF PHILIP II.-The youngest daughter of Henry VII. of EnglandMary-by Elizabeth of York (in whose person terminated the bloody wars of the houses of York and Lancaster, by the union of the red and white roses, see April, 1841, Portrait No. 96), was married to Prince Charles of Castile, afterwards the great emperor Charles V., whose mighty prowess in arms astonished all Europe, and the knowledge of whose valiant and surprising deeds has been the theme of

admiration in every subsequent age. The issue of that marriage was Philip II. of Spain.

This Philip's first wife was the Princess Mary of Portugal, mother of Don Carlos. His second wife was Mary I., Queen of England, by whom he had no issue. His third, the just mentioned Elizabeth of France (Isabella of Spain), who was sister to three reigning kings of France, and to a Queen-Consort.

And here it is not the least remarkable circumstance in the supposed murders of Don Carlos, son of his first wife, and Queen Elizabeth or Isabella, his third wife, that the prince (Carlos) was his only son, and that his queen, Elizabeth or Isabella was in the family-way at the time, so that Philip's line was entirely cut off with the exception of the infant princesses, his two daughters, by Elizabeth just mentioned.

His fourth wife was the Archduchess Anne of Austria, by whom he had Philip III. his successor; and it is singularly remarkable that this his fourth wife had been contracted to Don Carlos (his son by his first marriage), after Philip, his father, had seized on, and appropriated to himself his other bride, Elizabeth (Philip's third wife), as if some mysterious fate or cruel circumstance had decreed that neither should his son marry nor event exist, to make a line of descent contrary to his father's wishes.

But we have not yet arrived at the end of these intermarriages.

PEDIGREE OF ALBERT, HUSBAND OF CLARA EUGENIA.-The emperor, Maximilian II., was married to Marie, daughter of Charles V. They had issue Rodolph, Ernest, Matthias, Maximilian, and Albert (whose union with Clara Eugenia and history are presently mentioned), and Vencestas, who died young their daughters were Anna Maria, married to Philip, King of Spain, and Elizabeth, wife of Charles IX.

ISABELLA of Austria, as this princess is usually designated, the daughter of Philip II., King of Spain and of Elizabeth of France, was born in the year 1566. A splendid destiny seemed to await her, in the union of several crowns under one head, and there was every probability of her ascending the throne of France itself in right of her mother. But this more brilliant portion of the prospect before her proved, like the dreams of royalty too often are, illusory, new events having combined to confer it upon another princess.

When the Infanta had attained her eighteenth year, Philip, ambitious to extend his influence in the French court, proposed, notwithstanding his strong religious scruples, to marry her to the heretic king of Navarre (1584), if he would consent to repudiate his then consort, Margaret of Valois. Mornay, Henry's envoy, rejected this singular offer in his master's name. "You are little aware," replied the Spanish minister, "what you are doing—all was prepared;" a reply which strongly evinced the desire of the Spanish court to obtain a pretext for interfering in the designs of the existing league. Indeed, the emissaries of the wily monarch soon began to throw off the mask. At the ensuing conferences of Soissons they insinuated that the Bourbons, being virtually excluded as heretics, the Salic law became in

itself annulled, and that the French crown consequently devolved upon the Infanta Isabella, as the niece and nearest heiress of Henry III., the reigning monarch. The Duke of Mayence was highly exasperated at this declaration: "Do you take the French," he retorted on the ambassador Mendoza, " for so many wild Indians, that you imagine you will ever bring them to submit to a foreign thraldom? It is too bitter a jest for their digestion." The "Sixteen" (members of the Conference), nevertheless, appeared anxious to show they entertained no patrioti: scruples of the kind, and even addressed a letter to Philip, written in the most factious spirit, dated the 20th September, 1591, conjuring him either to take possession of the French crown on his own behalf, or in right of the Infanta, his daughter. Philip, by no means discouraged at the result of his first efforts, furnished the Duke de Feria, his confidential envoy, with fresh instructions, and the latter in a general council held at Paris, advanced the Spanish claims in language still more open and decisive. He was replied to with warmth by Roze, Bishop of Senlis, who declared that the heretic of Bearne had no party more zealous in his cause than the ministers of Spain, and that for his part he preferred at once to acknowledge that prince rather than violate all the provisions of the Salic law in so shameless a manner. He then, forgetting his religious habit, attacked the amiable princess herself in the most gross and revolting terms, till silenced by the indignation of the assembly.

Many of the league, however, adopted the bishop's views, especially when they learnt that the projected marriage of Isabella with Archduke Ernest, son of the Emperor Maximilian would place France in the position of a province of the Austrian empire. The Spanish envoy upon this wrote that he was instructed to say that if the Infanta were once recognised as queen of France in her own right, he would consent that a consort should be selected for her among the French nobility. The favorite object of the Spanish court appeared now upon the eve of being realized. So great was the alarm excited in the breasts of all other claimants that the duke of Nemours, brother of the duke of Mayence, the duke of Guise, son of the hero who perished at Blois; and, lastly, the young cardinal of Bourbon, nephew of him whom the League at one moment declared King, under the title of Charles X. eagerly renewed their efforts. It was now the Parliament of Paris, so long the slave of faction, resolved to re-assert its energy and independence. On the 28th June, 1593, it decreed the Salic law a part of the monarchy, and every treaty entered into to place a foreign house upon the throne of France to be null and void. "We will have no Infantas, exclaimed Molé, the procureur-general, nor the husbands of Infantas! I am a true Frenchman, and will abide it to the death!" Nevertheless, Philip and his ministers were not dismayed. With apparent frankness, they proposed the duke of Guise for the hand of the young Infanta. They asked Brittany as a separate sovereignty for her dower, founding their claim upon the French law itself, which had always held that duchy in the character of a female fief. Should the duke, her consort, die without male issue, his widow, it was to be stipulated, might espouse any other French noble; and so far did this overture proceed, that for some days the young duke was subjected to the established formalities of an anticipated court, in the expectation of honors and splendors, which, as in the

princess's own case, were never to arrive. The ephemeral monarch of a day, speculating on the beauty of his intended queen and the glories of a royal title, and of a Parisian court, the secret ambition of his heroic predecessors, the head of the house of Guise was doomed to wake from this splendid dream of the royal Infanta and a throne, with even more abruptness than he had been deluded by it. The duke of Mayence startled at the idea of becoming the subject of his nephew and of a Spanish Infanta, put every engine to work in counteracting the Spanish monarch's views. The most absurd means of success were pointed out in the exorbi:tant demands made by the Spanish ministers. He first attacked them by requiring that Isabella should not be recognised and proclaimed Queen of France until after the consummation of her marriage; and, at the time fixed upon by himself, that if she died without issue, the crown should devolve by right upon the heir of the house of Guise; and to put a climax to his modest request-that he should receive, as a distinct sovereignty for himself the whole duchy of Mayence, Champagne, and Burgundy. But what was his astonishment when the Spanish court intimated its acceptance of these strange demands! Nay, the Infanta was on the point of setting out; and no resource seemed left to the wily minister and guardian, fairly caught in his own net. In this extremity he had recourse to his old safety-valve; a new assembly of the Leaguers. He presented himself; summoned them to proclaim the new Queen, Isabella; and her fortunes and the young duke's appeared to every one almost beyond the power of fate to mar.

At that eventful moment one of the creatures of Mayence rose, and proposed that before proceeding to proclaim the Infanta Queen of France, it would be only proper to raise a French army in her behalf, if only to keep in check the force of Henry IV. It met with general approbation, at an assembly of the States: the ministers of Philip were invited to take their seats on the 4th July, 1593; they received the thanks of the Assembly for the zeal displayed by the Spanish court to support their interests; but at the same time assured them that the situation of affairs rendered it impossible to enter upon the royal inauguration of the Infanta, his daughter, at that time. Philip's confidential envoy replied with feigned moderation and disinterestedness, that his royal master having only had the happiness of France in view, would regret that he could not ensure it upon a permanent foundation.

In so strange and almost ludicrous a manner terminated the long repeated efforts of the Spanish cabinet to raise a member of the Imperial family of Austria to the throne of France in the face of competitors, each of whom seemed to outvie the other in zeal for its success. So unaccountably and even preposterously do political events often terminate, even in cases where the very contrary result is confidently anticipated by nearly every party interested.

Thus it was on this memorable occasion; and so much noise was raised by its discussion in every European court, that poets and dramatists caught up the idea, and the incidents connected with it figured upon more than the diplomatic stage. Among others, the authors of the celebrated Satire Menippée, gave a humorous caricature of the meeting of the States at Paris; and the portrait of the fair Infanta was drawn as the " Epousée de la Ligue," and appears suspended over the head of