Elizabeth of Valois

Elizabeth of Valois (April 2 1545 – October 3 1568) was a daughter of Henry II of France.

She married Philip II of Spain, son of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Isabel of Portugal, and known as Philip the Catholic. 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 Catherina Michaella (October 10, 1567 – November 6, 1597)

The Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia became the major vehicle of her father's unsuccessful claims to the thrones of England and France. Philip married her to her Habsburg cousin, Archduke Albert (1559-1621), who was made regent of the Spanish Netherlands, 1598. The 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. They were the subjects of an exhibition in Brussels in 1998-1999 [1]

Catherina Michaella, the lesser vehicle, 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 in a doomed romance (without historical basis) furnished the subject of Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlos.