Mariana of Austria

Uncommon card · No. 81386

Mariana of Austria (24 December 1634 – 16 May 1696) was Queen of Spain from 1649 until her husband Philip IV of Spain died in 1665. Appointed Regent for their infant son Charles II, she remained an influential figure until her own death in 1696. Her regency was overshadowed by the decline of Spain in the second half of the 17th century, and internal political divisions, combined with a general European economic crisis. Charles died without children in 1700, leading to the 1701 to 1714 War of the Spanish Succession. The Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean are named after her following the Spanish colonization in the 17th century; so is the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on Earth.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Diego Velázquez, Public domain