Isabella Clara Eugenia (Spanish: Isabel Clara Eugenia; 12 August 1566 – 1 December 1633), sometimes referred to as Clara Isabella Eugenia, was sovereign of the Habsburg Netherlands, and the Free County of Burgundy, from 1598 to 1621, ruling jointly with her husband Archduke Albert VII of Austria. After Albert's death, those regions were returned to the Spanish Habsburgs, and she continued to rule as governess of the Spanish Netherlands until her death.
Their reign is considered the Golden Age of the Habsburg Netherlands, which saw a revival of its economy and arts after a peace was concluded with the break-away Dutch Republic. Isabella was one of the most powerful women in 16th- and 17th-century Europe.
Isabella Clara Eugenia of Austria was born in the Palace of Valsain, Segovia on 12 August 1566. She was the first surviving daughter of King Philip II of Spain and his third wife, Elisabeth of Valois.
Her father was reportedly overjoyed at her birth and declared himself to be happier on the occasion than he would have been at the birth of a son. He already had a male heir, Carlos, Prince of Asturias, but due to the Prince's mental illness and emotional instability, father and son had never developed a close rapport and frequently lived in conflict with one another.
Isabella was baptized by Juan Bautista Castaneo, apostolic nuncio, later Pope Urban VII. Her godfather was her uncle John of Austria. She was named after her mother, the day of her birth, and the devotion to St. Eugenio, whose body her father had transferred the year before from Saint Dionysius of Paris to Toledo with her mother's help through her brother, King Charles IX of France.
A year later, Isabella's younger sister, Catalina, was born. Their parents were very close to their daughters, buying them jams, dolls, toys, and more. However, their mother miscarried a daughter in 1568 and died the same day.
Isabella and Catherine grew up beloved by their father and stepmother, Anna of Austria, Philip's fourth wife. The sisters developed a close relationship. Their father ultimately fathered five children by Anna, all of whom died in early childhood except his heir, Philip.
Isabella and Catherine were raised under the care of Margarita de Cardona, their stepmother's lady-in-waiting, and some of their mother's own ladies-in-waiting, such as Claude de Vineulx. Both sisters were described as intelligent and well aware of their high social status.
Isabella had a very good education. Her studies presumably included good manners, mathematics, and the languages Dutch, French and Italian besides her native Spanish. Famous artist Sofonisba Anguissola, who served as court painter at the time, influenced the Infanta's artistic works. Isabella was the only person whom King Philip permitted to help him with his work, sorting his papers and translating Italian documents into the Spanish language for him.
Candidate to the French throne
After her maternal uncle, Henry III of France, was assassinated by the fanatical young monk Jacques Clément on 2 August 1589, Philip II claimed the French crown on Isabella's behalf despite France's Salic law, which forbade cognatic succession.
At any rate, her mother had ceded any claim to the French crown with her marriage to the Spanish king. However, the Parlement of Paris, in power of the Catholic party, gave verdict that Isabella was "the legitimate sovereign" of France, provided she married a suitable husband in the nobility. Philip's first choice, that of Archduke Ernest of Austria, also a member of the House of Habsburg, was overwhelmingly rejected. Searching for an option more palatable to the French nobility, Philip then chose the Duke of Guise, to the joy of the League, but the Duke of Mayenne blocked the proposed election of a king.
The Huguenot leader, Henry III of Navarre, the actual heir by traditional French inheritance laws, ultimately made his claim to the throne, converted to Catholicism and was crowned in 1594.
Candidate to the English throne
Following the 1587 execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, Isabella was suggested as a Catholic candidate in the succession to Elizabeth I as she was a legitimate descendant of John of Gaunt (unlike the Tudors) and her father had been King of England by his earlier marriage to Queen Mary I of England.
As Infanta of Spain and Portugal, Isabella was quite eligible on the political marriage market, though she ended up marrying late for her time.
At the age of two, Isabella was promised to marry her cousin Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612), son of her aunt Maria. However, Isabella had to wait for more than 20 years before the eccentric Rudolf declared that he had no intention of marrying anybody. Meanwhile, she served as her father's primary caretaker during the last three years of his life, when he was plagued by gout and frequent illness.
In 1598, Philip decided to cede the Spanish Netherlands to Isabella on condition that she marry her cousin, Albert VII, Archduke of Austria. He was her former fiancé's younger brother, the former viceroy. They were to reign over the Habsburg Netherlands jointly and be succeeded by their descendants according to the male-preference cognatic primogeniture but should a daughter succeed, she was required to marry the King of Spain or the person chosen by the King of Spain. It was stipulated that, should they have no children, the Netherlands would revert to Spanish Habsburgs upon the death of either spouse.