La infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia de Austria, la formación de una princesa europea y su entorno cortesano

Abstract

This study pretends to analyze the figure of Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia in an essential period of her life. Before she became sovereign and governess to the Low Countries she expended three decades in Philip II’s Court. We want to study these years as a way to understand the period she lived in the Court of Brussels. We are going to study the Household and servants that surrounded the Infanta; her education as princess and the familiar circle that defined her role at Court. Also, the study of the political scenario and how it affected Isabel Clara is very important: especially the matters concerned with marriage negotiations and dynastic plans. As a final conclusion the “construction” of the Infanta: how their contemporaries perceived her, and how the memory of her has been transmited to the present age.