Isabella Clara Eugenia

Together with her husband Albert, who died in 1621, Isabella Clara Eugenia, infanta of Spain and Portugal, was sovereign of the Netherlands in the Low Countries and after his death she was appointed the Governor of the Netherlands. Their reign brought a Golden Age, with peace and stability. Albert and Isabella first sought to make the Netherlands independent from Spain, something that proved impossible, so instead they worked to reincorporate the Southern Provinces into the Spanish monarchy. This was not popular among the Flemish social classes, but they did not give up their political agenda. The visual arts became their preferred tool and it proved perfect. The baroque had become popular and with Isabella's and Albert's patronage of artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Coebergher, the De Nole family, the Van Veens and many others, the growth of this artistic movement was simulated and the Flemish Baroque painting created. The court at Brussels became full of people of all sorts, from artists and diplomats to defectors, spies and penitent traitors, from English musicians, Italian counsellors, Spanish confessors, Burgundian functionaries, German bodyguards to the Belgian Nobles. Brussels is now considered a vital link in the politics of Europe, much thanks to Albert and Isabella Clara Eugenia.