Anna of Austria, as the eldest daughter…
October 1570 CE
Anna of Austria, as the eldest daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II and Maria of Spain, is a desirable party for marriage at the European courts.
Her parents think of a Spanish marriage for its links between the Austrian and Spanish Habsburg families.
Don Carlos of Spain, the only son of her maternal uncle Philip II of Spain, had been a strong contender but these plans had been shattered in 1568 with Don Carlos’s death.
Philip has been married three times: firstly to his double first cousin Maria Manuela, Princess of Portugal, secondly to first cousin, one removed Mary I of England and thirdly to Elisabeth of Valois.
Now a widower with two young daughters, Philip is now looking for his fourth wife, as he has no male heirs.
Anna's engagement to her uncle Philip II had been announced in February 1569, and they had married by proxy in May 1570.
Anna had traveled from Austria in the autumn of 1570 accompanied by her brothers Albert and Wenzel to Spain.
They had traveled through the Netherlands, where Anna was accosted by friends and relatives of Floris Montigny, the younger brother of the Earl of Horne, who the Duke of Alba had executed.
Montigny had been imprisoned in Spain since 1567.
Now that the king had entered a new marriage, Montigny's family and friends dare to hope for leniency.
They received the promise of the future queen that she would do her utmost to free Montigny.
Anna arrives on Spanish soil on the third of October, 1570, but before she can reach the king, Floris is on October sixteenth secretly put to death .
The historian John Brewer believes that Philip had him hastily executed, soon after the King's first meeting with Anna, in which he refused to free Floris.