Event Type: HA

Takes Place: 29th April 2026

Time: 7.30pm

Venue: Online

Description: Catalina Micaela was the younger daughter of Philip II of Spain who wrote extensively to her husband Carlo Emanrele I of Savoy. Those letters reveal what the life of a female Spanish royal was like, the events at court and the pressures on the families, providing an insight into Spain and the Spanish Empire. In this talk Professor Sanchez will discuss the research she carried out for her book on Catalina and how the correspondence affects our understating of life and politics at that time. Magdalena Sánchez is professor of early modern European history at Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania. Her research centers on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spanish history, focusing on the women of the 'House of Austria,' as the Habsburg family was known in Spain. In her first book, The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), Sánchez looked at three Habsburg women at the Spanish court during the reign of Philip III (1598-1621) and explored the informal ways that women could influence politics. She has also published articles and scholarly essays on the two daughters of Philip II of Spain. Her most recent publication focuses on the younger of these two daughters and is titled Infanta: The Short, Remarkable Life of Catalina Micaela (Yale University Press, 2025).

How to book: Book via Zoom link below

Price: Free & open to all. Recordings of talk will be available to HA members.

Website: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__Na5L5htRS686HLCRmv5Kg

Organiser: HA

Lecturer: Magdalena Sánchez