Queen, Mother, and Stateswoman is the first study of Mariana of Austria (1634–1696), who ruled the Spanish Empire while her son Carlos II, was a minor. Mariana employed successful political, diplomatic, and military strategies at a difficult juncture for the Spanish global monarchy in the later seventeenth century. Establishing her role in European international politics, this investigation reveals the authority she wielded as a Spanish Habsburg queen and mother, even during her court exile.