Archduchess Margaret of Austria (1567–1633)

Born in Wiener Neustadt, Margaret was the fifteenth child and fifth daughter of her parents' sixteen children, of whom eight survived infancy.^{[1][better source needed][2]} From early childhood, she was deeply influenced by her mother's strict Catholicism. In 1582, Empress Maria returned to her homeland Spain permanently, taking her youngest surviving child Margaret with her, promised to marry Philip II of Spain, who had lost his fourth wife, her sister, Anna of Austria, in 1580.^{[citation needed]}

Margaret refused marriage to Philip II and took the veil under the name of Sister Margaret of the Cross as a Poor Clare nun in the Monastery of Santa Clara de las Descalzas RealesinMadrid.^{[citation needed]}

Her mother was also resident in the convent until her death in 1603. Margaret was the dedicatee of the first published edition of the requiem which was composed for her mother's funeral by the composer and priest Tomás Luis de Victoria. Margaret died, aged 66, and was buried in her convent.^[3]

• Richard Reifenscheid: Die Habsburger in Lebensbildern, Piper Verlag (2007).