EL ARCHIDUQUE ALBERTO

At a young age Archduke Albert (1559–1621) was sent to the Court of Madrid, where King Philip II took charge of his education and future career. The two men proved to have much in common. They never seemed to grow tired of the business of government, of reading through the endless flow of state papers or of listening almost motionless for hours to the requests that were made during audiences. Intensely pious, they were both convinced of that they had been given a mission to rule for the benefit of their dynasty, their faith and their subjects. At first the Prudent King had groomed the Archduke to play an important role at the court of his son and heir. Albert was therefore made a cardinal and served an apprenticeship in the art of government as viceroy of Portugal, but an unexpected turn of events led Philip II to decide that Albert would resign from the clergy and marry his eldest daughter, the Infanta Isabel Clara Eugenia, who was given the Habsburg Netherlands as her dowry. By ceding the Low Countries Philip II hoped to bring an end to the ongoing Dutch Revolt and reunite these provinces under Habsburg rule and in the Roman Catholic faith. The next step would be to ensure Albert’s election as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.