Overview

The first full biography of Catalina Micaela, infanta of Spain and duchess of Savoy Catalina Micaela was the younger daughter of Philip II and granddaughter of Catherine de Medici. Aged just seventeen, Catalina married Carlo I, duke of Savoy, and moved from the royal court in Madrid to Turin to begin a new life as a duchess. Overlooked by historians and little known today, Catalina was nonetheless a key figure in sixteenth-century Europe. A woman of intelligence, forceful personality, and strong feeling, she energetically and effectively governed her husband's dukedom during his long absences from Turin on military campaigns. In this widely researched account, Magdalena Sánchez traces Catalina's life from her childhood to her early death shortly after giving birth to her tenth child. Drawing on thousands of letters Catalina exchanged with her husband, Sánchez paints an intimate portrait of a young Spanish woman adapting to a new husband, a new land, and the demands of governance.

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9780300282832

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Reviews

“A captivating, much-needed biography of a lesser-known woman early modern elite woman.”—Gonzalo Verasco Berenguer, History Extra “Based on the more than 3000 letters between Catalina Micaela, the daughter of Philip II of Spain, and her husband, the duke of Savoy, Sánchez’s rich, intimate portrait of this largely unstudied princess reveals how she conscientiously fulfilled early modern expectations of a royal woman, becoming a devoted wife, a dedicated mother, and a skilled diplomat.”—Allyson Poska, author of Women and Authority in Early Modern Spain “A sensitive and impressively researched account of the life, career and untimely death of one of the notable and cultured elite women of sixteenth-century Europe.”—Henry Kamen, author of Early Modern European Society “In this first book-length study dedicated to Infanta Catalina Micaela, Magdalena Sánchez expertly explores the Spanish infanta’s political agency at the Savoy court through her stunningly copious correspondence with her often-absent husband, the duke of Savoy. Thanks to Sánchez’s illuminating research, Philip II’s younger daughter finally assumes her rightful place in early modern history.”—Anne J. Cruz, University of Miami

“Based on the more than 3000 letters between Catalina Micaela, the daughter of Philip II of Spain, and her husband, the duke of Savoy, Sánchez’s rich, intimate portrait of this largely unstudied princess reveals how she conscientiously fulfilled early modern expectations of a royal woman, becoming a devoted wife, a dedicated mother, and a skilled diplomat.”—Allyson Poska, author of Women and Authority in Early Modern Spain “A sensitive and impressively researched account of the life, career and untimely death of one of the notable and cultured elite women of sixteenth-century Europe.”—Henry Kamen, author of Early Modern European Society “In this first book-length study dedicated to Infanta Catalina Micaela, Magdalena Sánchez expertly explores the Spanish infanta’s political agency at the Savoy court through her stunningly copious correspondence with her often-absent husband, the duke of Savoy. Thanks to Sánchez’s illuminating research, Philip II’s younger daughter finally assumes her rightful place in early modern history.”—Anne J. Cruz, University of Miami

Author Information

Magdalena S. Sánchez is professor of early modern European history at Gettysburg College and the author of The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun: Women and Power at the Court of Philip III of Spain.

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