Diego Felix of Austria, Prince of Asturias and Portuguese (August 15, 1575 - November 21, 1582) is the fourth son of King Philip II of Spain and the third son from marriage with his fourth wife Anna of Austria .
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Biography
At the time of the birth of Diego, his elder brother, Prince Ferdinand , was still heir to the throne . After the death of Ferdinand in 1578, Diego became the heir. Diego also had another older brother, Carlos Lorenzo, who died in infancy. His mother, upon learning of the death of Carlos Lorenzo, was so shocked by the news of the death of her little son that she began a preterm birth. Thus, Diego was born prematurely.
March 1, 1580, Diego was officially declared Prince of Asturias [1] . The poet Cristobal de Viruses dedicated the sonnet to the little prince, in which he suggested Diego to follow the instructions of his father [2] .
In 1580 his father became king of Portugal, which made Diego the heir to the Spanish and Portuguese throne at the same time. His mother, Anna, died during a trip to their new kingdom. Diego and his brothers and sisters remained in Madrid under the care of their elder sisters, Isabella Clara Eugenia and Catalina Michaela . The letters of Philip II clearly show that he was extremely proud of Diego: he wrote that by the age of five his son had already learned the alphabet and knew how to dance. In a letter dated 1582, the king wrote a letter to the Indian viceroy Francisco de Mascarenhas, in which he ordered an elephant to be brought to the Prince of Asturias. Philip II taught his son Portuguese, so that one day Diego, as king, could speak with his Portuguese subjects in their native language. In addition, Philip II planned to betray Diego with one of the daughters of João , the duke of Bragança and Catherine of Portugal.
However, Diego never became king. At the end of 1582 he fell ill with smallpox and died at the age of 7 years. After his death, Philip II was inconsolable, since the only heir to the throne remained the small and painful Infante Philip , who became the new prince of Asturias. The king ordered the continued prayers for the health of the remaining royal children in the temple of Our Lady in Zaragoza.
Diego's younger brother became king Philip III after the death of his father in 1598.
Pedigree
Notes
- ↑ Friedrich Christoph Schlosser, Georg Ludwig Kriegk: World History for the German People , Vol. 13, Varrentrapp, 1852, p. 202.
- ↑ Freiherr von Münch: Book for Latin and English literature , Ferd. Dümmler, 1860, p. 159.