Mary of Hungary

The daughter of Queen Joanna and King Philip the Handsome of Castile, Mary married King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia in 1515. The marriage was happy, short, and childless. When Louis died at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, Mary governed Hungary as regent for her brother Ferdinand I. Four years later, after their aunt Margaret's death in 1530, her eldest brother Charles V asked her to take on the Netherlands and raise their nieces, Dorothea and Christina of Denmark. The job was difficult - riots, a strained relationship with the Emperor, endless diplomacy to keep peace between Charles and the King of France. She succeeded in uniting the provinces and securing them a degree of independence from both France and the Holy Roman Empire. After her final resignation, frail and spent, she moved to Castile and died there in 1558.