Habsburg Spain Coat of Arms
1668-1700
Cross of Burgundy
1506-1700
The St. Augustine Royal Family portrays and honors this historic Spanish Royal Family because of their role in the history of preserving our city. After an attack in 1668 by the English pirate Robert Searle which burned the town to the ground, Queen Regent Mariana recognized the importance of protecting the town of St. Augustine. The city had been protected over the years by wooden forts, but they were deemed inadequate. So Queen Mariana approved the construction of a masonry fortification to protect the city, the Castillo de San Marcos. Construction began on October 2, 1672 and lasted twenty-three years, with completion in 1695.

Queen Regent Mariana

Queen Mariana, age 22 (1656)
Mariana was born in Austria on December 24, 1634. She was the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III and Maria Anna of Spain. On October 7, 1649, at age 14, she married King Philip IV of Spain, her uncle. Marriage within the same extended family was then common among the nobility, but the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs were unusual in the extent to which they followed this practice. Philip and Mariana being one of two unions between an uncle and his niece. They had 5 children, but only 2 survived infancy. The oldest was Margarita Theresa, who was born on July 12, 1651. Mariana's second daughter, Maria Ambrosia, lived only fifteen days, followed by two sons, Philip Prospero and Ferdinand Thomas. On November 6, 1661, Mariana gave birth to her last child, a son, the future King Carlos II.
King Philip IV died on September 17, 1665, which elevated 3 year old Carlos to be the new King of Spain. With Carlos too young to rule, his mother was appointed Queen Regent and ruled in his name. Due to Carlos' poor health, Mariana remained as Queen Regent until Carlos was well into adulthood. Queen Mariana was eventually sent into exile due to political complications. She died May 16, 1696, at the age of 61.

King Carlos II

King Carlos II, age 12 (1673)
Carlos II was born on November 6, 1661. He was the only surviving son of Philip IV of Spain and his second wife, his niece, Mariana of Austria. Intra-marriage accentuated the so-called "Habsburg jaw", a physical characteristic common in both Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs. The precise causes of Carlos's ill-health remain disputed, especially as his elder sister, Margaret, did not have similar health issues. After his birth, he was entrusted to the royal governess Mariana Engracia Alvarez de Toledo. Under her supervision, he survived multiple childhood health attacks. He also had rickets, which required him to wear leg braces until the age of five.
Carlos's first wife, Marie Louise, was blamed for his failure to produce an heir and was subjected to primitive fertility treatments that caused her severe health problems. She died in February 1689. A new wife was selected from a family famous for its fertility, Maria Anna of Neuburg. A proxy marriage took place in August 1689 before a formal ceremony in May 1690. Maria Anna also failed to produce an heir, almost certainly because Carlos was incapable of doing so.
King Carlos II died November 1, 1700, just short of his 39th birthday. He was the last monarch from the House of Habsburg, which had ruled Spain since 1516. His death without children resulted in the 1701 to 1714 War of Spanish Succession.

Princess Margarita Theresa

Princess Margarita Theresa, age 19 (1670)
Margarita Theresa was born on July 12, 1651. The first child of King Philip IV of Spain and his second wife, his niece, Mariana of Austria. The marriage of her parents was purely made for political reasons, mainly the search for a new male heir for the Spanish throne. Despite the close kinship of her parents, Margarita did not develop the serious health issues and disabilities that her younger brother, Carlos II, had shown since his birth.
Since Margarita's childhood, her parents decided that she would marry a relative from the Austrian branch of the Habsburgs in order to maintain her succession rights within the dynasty. The main marriage candidate was the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, her maternal uncle. The Spanish court hesitated to agree to this proposal because Margarita could inherit the Spanish crown if Carlos died. The title of Holy Roman Emperor was one of the highest-ranking and most prestigious in Europe at that time, so this was a perfect match for Margarita and for the Spanish crown. In February 1660, Emperor Leopold officially asked for the hand of Margarita in marriage. Margarita was only 8 years old when she became engaged. On April 6, 1663, the betrothal between Margarita and Leopold I was finally announced to the public and the marriage contract was signed on December 18, 1663. On April 28, 1666, Margarita started her travel from Madrid to Vienna for her marriage to Leopold. She formally entered Vienna on December 5, 1666 and the marriage ceremony was celebrated seven days later. The celebrations were among the most elaborate and lasted almost two years.
During their six years of marriage, Margarita had six pregnancies - four live childbirths and two miscarriages, of whom only one survived infancy. Weakened by the back to back pregnancies and four months into her seventh pregnancy, Margarita died on March 12, 1673, at the age of 21. After Margarita's death, her rights over the Spanish throne were inherited by her only surviving daughter Maria Antonia, who in turn passed them to her only surviving son Prince Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria when she died in 1692.