Elisabeth of Valois
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Elizabeth de Valois (April 2 1545 – October 3 1568) was a daughter of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici.
She married Philip II of Spain ("Philip the Catholic"), son of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Isabel of Portugal. The marriage was a consequence of the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559).
Although she did not produce him an heir, they had two daughters, Isabella Clara Eugenia (December 8, 1566; Segovia – December 12, 1633; Brussels) and Catherine Micaela of Spain (October 10, 1567 – November 6, 1597). Sofonisba Anguissola, the first Italian woman artist to win international recognition, served as Elizabeth's lady-in-waiting from 1559 to 1569, and painted Elizabeth's portrait.
Elizabeth died in 1568 giving birth to an infant that, had it survived, would have become Philip's new male heir.
The Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia became the major vehicle of her father's unsuccessful claims to the thrones of the Kingdom of England and France. Philip married her to her Habsburg cousin, Archduke Albert (1559-1621), who was made regent of the Spanish Netherlands in 1598. Their joint reign coincided with a golden age for the Habsburg Netherlands.
After Albrecht died, the archduchess ruled as a governor in the name of her nephew, the king of Spain, for the last twelve years of her life. They had no children.
Catherina Michaella, Elizabeth's younger daughter, was married to Carlo Emanuele I, Duke of Savoy, and was the mother of Vittorio Amedeo.
Friedrich Schiller's romantic tragedy linking Don Carlos of Spain with Elizabeth of Valois in a doomed romance (without historical basis) furnished the subject of Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlos.
They were the subjects of an exhibition in Brussels in 1998-1999 [1]
| Preceded by: Jeanne d'Albret | Duchess Consort of Guelders 1559-1568 | Succeeded by: Anne of Austria |
| Preceded by: Mary I of England | Queen Consort of Spain, Naples and Sicily Duchess Consort of Brabant, Limburg, Lothier and Luxembourg Countess Consort of Flanders, Burgundy, Artois, Hainaut and Namur 1559-1568 | Succeeded by: Anne of Austria |
| Countess Consort of Holland, Zeeland and Zutphen 1559-1568 | Succeeded by: lost to the United Provinces |
ca:Isabel de Valois de:Elisabeth von Valois es:Isabel de Valois fr:Élisabeth de France (1545-1568) ja:エリザベート・ド・ヴァロワ pl:Elżbieta de Valois pt:Isabel de Valois
