Girlish Devotions: The Piety of Habsburg Archduchesses in the Late Sixteenth Century

The proposed paper will discuss the varieties of religious piety expressed by a number of Habsburg archduchesses and infantas who lived in the later sixteenth century in order to compare their devotional practices to those outlined by Anna Coreth in her seminal work Pietas Austriaca (1959, 1982). In what ways do Coreth’s images correspond with the evidence from the lives of the young women who moved among the various Habsburg courts of the period?Archduchesses to be discussed include Anna (1549-1580, Queen of Spain), Elisabeth (1554-1592, Queen of France), and Margaret “of the Cross” (1567-1633). Some discussion of the young empress Marķa (1528-1603) and the Regent of the Netherlands Isabella Clara Eugenie (1566-1633) will also be included. An analysis of the particular saints venerated, the types of convents founded, and the exact types of patronage undertaken will reveal the specific ways that these women, scattered across Europe as they were, promoted specific forms of “pietas austriaca” outside the confines of the central European courts.