In The Empress, the Queen, and the Nun, historian Magdalena Sanchez offers an intriguing examination of the political power wielded by these three women. Each woman used traditional networks within the court and worked within the boundaries of acceptable women's roles to frustrate Philip's favorite, the Duke of Lerma, in his project to keep Spanish Habsburg wealth in the Iberian peninsula instead of allowing it to be siphoned off to support Austrian Habsburg campaigns.

"As women", writes Sanchez, "Empress Maria, Margaret of Austria, and Margaret of the Cross knew to negotiate and work through informal and indirect ways, as well as through formal avenues of power. They knew to use personal contacts to reach councillors and rulers, and they knew to write or meet directly with influential individuals". Sanchez examines the important and powerful ways that women used religious piety, childbearing, illnesses such as melancholy, and marriage arrangements to sway political decisions. These women, explains Sanchez, employed distinct strategies and languages at informal locations such as meals, masquerade celebrations, and religious ceremonies to influence the political scene.