Infanta: The Short, Remarkable Life of Catalina Micaela

by Magdalena S. Sanchez

The first full biography of Catalina Micaela, infanta of Spain and duchess of Savoy

Catalina Micaela was the younger daughter of Philip II and granddaughter of Catherine de Medici. Aged just seventeen, Catalina married Carlo I, duke of Savoy, and moved from the royal court in Madrid to Turin to begin a new life as a duchess.

Overlooked by historians and little known today, Catalina was nonetheless a key figure in sixteenth-century Europe. A woman of intelligence, forceful personality, and strong feeling, she energetically and effectively governed her husband's dukedom during his long absences from Turin on military campaigns. In this widely researched account, Magdalena Sánchez traces Catalina's life from her childhood to her early death shortly after giving birth to her tenth child. Drawing on thousands of letters Catalina exchanged with her husband, Sánchez paints an intimate portrait of a young Spanish woman adapting to a new husband, a new land, and the demands of governance.

Genres: Nonfiction

416 pages, Hardcover

Published November 4, 2025

Reviews

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The younger daughter of Phillip II of Spain, Catalina was raised an infanta until her marriage at 17 made her Duchess of Savoy, her position at her death at the age of 30. In between, she wrote thousands of letters, which form the basis of Sanchez's study of her. The surviving letters between Catalina and her husband Carlo reveal an intimate look at their marriage and their partnership in ruling Savoy, where Catalina was often regent while Carlo fought various wars. Told chronologically, Sanchez also focuses on important cultural aspects to flesh out Catalina's world. She examines Spanish court etiquette and its integration into the Savoy court, the art of letter writing, governing by letters, courtship and child-raising, and the physical aspects of Catalina's Catholicism - particularly in regards to relics like the Shroud of Turin.