This is a study of the influence of female members of the households of the queen consorts of Philip III and Philip IV of Spain—the world in which the meninas of Velázquez's famous painting lived out their lives. Male aristocrats like the duke of Montalto and the marquis of Osera certainly took care to cultivate female networks. However, their efforts yielded no tangible results. This suggests that the influence of women at the seventeenth-century Spanish court may have been cultivated primarily as a cautionary measure, rather than as a direct means to an end. Otherwise, the significance of Spanish aristocratic women is to be found in domestic and cultural spheres, as is apparent in Mariana of Austria's passive, but still very significant role in defining the character of the court of Madrid during the 1650s.