Constanze of Austria

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Joseph Heintz the Elder - Constanze of Austria, Queen of Poland, around 1605
Frans Pourbus the Younger - Archduchess Constanze (1588–1631), Queen of Poland in a black dress, around 1603, Kunsthistorisches Museum , Vienna

Constanze of Austria (born December 24, 1588 in Graz , † July 10, 1631 in Warsaw ) from the House of the Habsburgs was an Archduchess of Austria and by marriage Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania .

Life

Constanze was a daughter of Archduke Karl II of Austria-Styria (1540–1590) from his marriage to Maria Anna (1551–1608), daughter of the Bavarian Duke Albrecht V.

On December 11, 1605, Constanze married the widower of her older sister Anna , King Sigismund III, in Warsaw . Wasa of Poland, only son of King John III. of Sweden and his first wife Princess Katharina Jagiellonka , sister of the Polish King Sigismund II August , who was also King of Sweden until 1599. The wedding celebrations were held with great effort.

The re-marriage of the king to a strictly Catholic sister of Emperor Ferdinand II and the feared influence of Spanish Jesuitism and a papal universal monarchy caused considerable political unrest in Poland. When the Thirty Years' War broke out , Sigismund joined the Catholic imperial family.

Musically gifted, Constanze composed some pieces of music. The figured bass Asprilio Pacelli taught the queen singing. Constanze was considered pious and meek. Constanze stayed in Vilna for two years during the siege of Smolensk . During a conflagration there, she moved her saved treasures to feed her staff. During a plague epidemic in Warsaw, she provided the poor with food and clothing for over three months. The marriage of the royal couple, who by the way were both not Poles, was considered happy, and the death of his wife shook King Sigismund badly. Constanze was buried in the Wawel Cathedral in Krakow , where her sarcophagus is in the crypt under the Vasa Chapel .

progeny

Their marriage had seven children:

  • Johann Casimir (1607-1608)
  • John II Casimir (1609–1672), King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Titular King of Sweden
⚭ 1649 Princess Luisa Maria Gonzaga von Nevers (1611–1667), widow of his half-brother Władysław IV. Wasa
  • Johann Albrecht (1612–1634), Bishop of Cracow, Prince-Bishop of Warmia, Cardinal
  • Karl Ferdinand (1613–1655), Bishop of Breslau and Płock, Prince of Neisse, Duke of Opole and Ratibor
  • Alexander Karl (1614–1634)
  • Anna Konstantina (* / † 1616)
  • Anna Katharina Konstanze (1619–1651)
⚭ 1642 Count Palatine and Duke Philipp Wilhelm von Neuburg (1615–1690)

literature

Web links

Commons : Constance of Austria  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jean-Henri Schnitzler: History of the Russian Empire from the earliest times to the death of Emperor Nicholas , G. Senf, 1865, p. 102
  2. ↑ Joachim Bahlcke, Arno Strohmeyer: Confessionalization in East Central Europe: Effects of Religious Change in the 16th and 17th Centuries in State, Society and Culture , Franz Steiner Verlag, 1999, p. 257
  3. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from March 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Linda Maria Koldau : Frauen-Musik-Kultur: a handbook on the German language area of ​​the early modern period , Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar, 2005, p. 79
predecessor Office Successor
Anna of Austria Queen of Poland
1605–1631 		Cäcilia Renata of Austria
personal data
SURNAME Constanze of Austria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Constance of Austria, Constantia; Konstantia; Konstancja
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Queen of Poland and Sweden
DATE OF BIRTH December 24, 1588
PLACE OF BIRTH Graz
DATE OF DEATH July 10, 1631
Place of death Warsaw