[ES] Entre el siglo xvi y el siglo xix, la m?xima instancia del poder, es decir, la corona, descans? siempre sobre unas sienes masculinas, aunque distintos miembros femeninos de la familia real desempe?aron cargos pol?ticos, como regentes, gobernadoras o virreinas. Este art?culo examina la regencia de Mariana de Austria en el contexto de la lucha por el poder que constituye el tel?n de fondo del reinado de Carlos II, mostrando c?mo todo el debate pol?tico estuvo mediatizado por el sexo de la reina, que condicion? el enjuiciamiento de sus modos de gobernar y las im?genes, tanto positivas como negativas, de la soberana.

[EN] Between the sixteenth and the nineteenth centuries, the supreme power of monarchy was almost always in the hands of men, although women of the royal dinasties had political responsabilities as regents, governors or vice-queens. This article analyzes the regency of Mariana de Austria in seventeenth- century Spain in the context of fights for power during the reign of Carlos II of Habsburg, showing how political debate was permeated by the implications of the queen's gender, which determined judgements about her style of government and images of her, positive as well as negative.