Magdalena S. Sanchez

Professor Sánchez’s 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.  Her book, The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun (JHU Press, 1998), looks at three Habsburg women at the Spanish court during the reign of Philip III (1598-1621) and explores the informal ways that women could influence politics. 

Her current research is on the Spanish king Philip II’s younger daughter, Catalina Micaela (1567-97), who married the duke of Savoy and lived in Turin from 1585 until her death.  Her biographical study of Catalina, drawing heavily on a correspondence comprising some 3000 letters between her and husband, is under contract with Yale University Press.