Mariana of Austria, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III and Empress Maria Ana of Austria, married her uncle King Felipe IV by proxy in 1648, and arrived in Spain in November 1649. Madame d’Aulnoy, a French noblewoman, noted the following event in Mariana's journey to the Madrid court: in a town near Madrid, a hosier approached the young Mariana to offer her some tights. The First Steward found the gift so unseemly that he threw them to the ground, shouting ‘You should know that Queens of Spain have no legs!’, meaning they were of such high standing that they floated above everyone else. According to the Countess d’Aulnoy, Mariana of Austria interpreted the words of her steward literally and began to sob, believing her legs would be removed when she arrived at the Spanish court.

Madame d’Aulnoy recorded this anecdote in the memoirs of the trip to Spain she made in 1679 and wrote this text in 1690, four decades after this supposed episode took place. The historians Gabriel Maura and Gonzalez de Amezua concluded that the French lady did visit Madrid on those dates but that the truth of the events recorded in her memoirs is highly questionable. Madame d’Aulnoy probably heard this anecdote in Madrid and transcribed it literally eleven years later, without considering whether it was true. It is highly likely that this story was part of the myths told about the Austrian wives in Spain.