Elisabeth of Austria (1554–1592)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of France (painting by François Clouet , 1572)

Elisabeth of Austria (also Elisabeth von Habsburg ; Élisabeth d'Autriche ; Isabelle d'Autriche ; * July 5, 1554 in Vienna ; †  January 22, 1592 ibid) from the House of Habsburg was the wife of King Charles IX. from her marriage on November 26th 1570 to the death of her husband on May 30th 1574 Queen of France .

biography

Elisabeth, who signed her name with Ysabel , was the fifth child and the second daughter of Maximilian II , who was made emperor in 1564, and his cousin, the Spanish Infanta Maria , daughter of Emperor Charles V and sister of King Philip II of Spain. In 1570 Elisabeth was with the French King Charles IX. married, who died in 1574. The couple had a daughter who was less than six years old.

youth

Elisabeth had 15 siblings, some of whom, however, did not survive childhood. In her childhood Elisabeth lived with her older sister Anna and her brother Matthias in a pavilion in the garden of the Stallburg in Vienna, which was built at the time . They had a happy childhood there. Her father Maximilian visited her often and Elisabeth seems to have been his particular favorite. She resembled him not only in appearance, but also in character: Elisabeth was just as intelligent and just as charming as her father.

She was considered one of the most beautiful princesses in Europe, with reddish blonde hair, dark brown eyes, a graceful face and an enchanting smile. But she was not only beautiful: the (historically often unreliable) writer and chronicler Brantôme , who is one of the main sources for Elizabeth's life in France, writes about her that she was “one of the best, gentlest, cleverest and most virtuous queens ever since who ruled the kingdom ”. Contemporaries agree on their intelligence, their shyness, their meekness, their compassionate heart and - above all - their sincere piety. Very beautiful, very clever, very worthy, very charming and very lovable - Elisabeth could have become a great queen.

Elisabeth's brothers were tutored by Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq , a well-traveled and highly educated Flemish. The curious Elisabeth joined the small group of her own accord and after a short time outperformed the boys. Her mother María took care of the religious upbringing of her daughters and already at a young age Elisabeth was impressed by her namesake Elisabeth von Thuringia , a Hungarian princess who, widowed at an early age, founded a hospital and a convent in Marburg , where she cared for the poor and nursed the sick had dedicated. The life of these saints appears like a model for that of Elizabeth.

Very early on, in 1559, the plan to marry Elizabeth and Charles (IX) of France was discussed. In 1562 the French Maréchal de Vieilleville reached Vienna as a member of an embassy to Emperor Ferdinand and fell in love with the eight-year-old princess. "Your Majesty, this is the Queen of France!" He exclaimed. Although Vieilleville was not entitled to make such an offer, Ferdinand, Elisabeth's grandfather, appeared interested. Presents were exchanged and then life in Vienna went on as before. She was introduced to life at court, but it was not considered necessary to teach the princess French.

Short marriage to the French King Charles IX.

Archduchess Elisabeth von Habsburg

1569, after the failure of other marriage projects with the Danish King Friedrich III. or with the Portuguese King Sebastian I , people remembered the "French offer". Catherine de Medici , who held the strings of French politics, first wanted the elder Archduchess Anna for her son Charles IX. (King since 1560), but Anna was chosen as a bride by her uncle Philip II of Spain. The French Queen Mother was content with the younger one, as France absolutely needed a Catholic marriage in order to be able to take action against the Protestant parties.

After signing a marriage contract on January 14, 1570, Elizabeth's arduous journey to France began on October 2 of the same year. First of all, on October 22nd, 1570 , the long-distance wedding ceremony led by the Archbishop and Elector of Mainz took place in Speyer Cathedral , during which Elisabeth's uncle, Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol , assumed the role of bridegroom. After long celebrations, Elisabeth left Speyer on November 4, 1570, accompanied by a high-ranking German entourage, including the Archbishop and Elector of Trier. In their travel destination France, the third religiously motivated civil war in a decade had just been resolved in August 1570. Since it was raining a lot and the streets were partly impassable, the French court decided to drive towards their new queen. The wedding was to take place in Mézières-en-Champagne (now Charleville-Mézières ), a small town on the border. In Sedan Elisabeth was received by Heinrich , Duke of Anjou and younger brother of the French king. Charles IX, curious about his future wife, disguised himself as a soldier and watched Elisabeth, who was walking with Heinrich at the castle of Sedan. It is said that he returned to Mézières delighted to see her appearance.

On November 26, 1570, a Sunday, the 16-year-old Elisabeth and the 20-year-old Karl were married by Cardinal Charles de Bourbon in the Church of Notre-Dame de Mézières . An enormous splendor was displayed at the wedding celebrations. Dressed in white satin with silver, Elisabeth wore a violet velvet coat embroidered with lilies, a train 20 cubits long and an extremely valuable crown set with precious stones. The bride now filled the position of French queen, which had been vacant for 10 years and was last held briefly by the Scottish Queen Maria Stuart as the wife of Francis II , the older brother of Charles IX.

At the beginning of 1571 Elisabeth was very ill due to the stresses of traveling and the cold weather. Since the wedding took place far away from Paris, the Franco-German friendship was celebrated again with many lavish parties in the spring. On March 25, 1571, Elisabeth was crowned by the Archbishop of Reims in the Saint-Denis basilica , and the painter François Clouet immortalized her in a painting. On March 29, 1571, Elisabeth made her pompous, artistically choreographed entry into Paris. After that she disappeared from public life.

In the beginning the marriage was happy: Elisabeth was so in love with her husband that she was not afraid to kiss him in public - much to the amusement of those present. But after the first passions, the king should return to his mistress Marie Touchet , who said of the new queen: “The German doesn't scare me.” Katharina von Medici encouraged her royal son's relationship with Marie Touchet. Elisabeth, on the other hand, did not succeed in gaining the love of her husband in the long term, but at least he respected her very much and said he had the wisest and most virtuous wife not only in France and Europe, but in the whole world.

Katharina von Medici, eager to keep Elisabeth away from politics, gave her as few duties and responsibilities as possible. Karl, with whom Elisabeth had amused herself at the beginning of their marriage (they once borrowed frocks and went for a stroll in Paris unrecognized), withdrew from her. Although Elisabeth mastered four languages ​​( Spanish , which was her primary language, as well as German , Latin and Italian ), she learned French with great difficulty: she could not cope with the colorful life at the French court, felt lonely and had few friends, too to which, surprisingly, her fun-loving sister-in-law Margarete von Valois , Reine Margot , also belonged. Busbecq, who had accompanied Elisabeth to France, acted as her court marshal.

Elisabeth avoided the amusements of the extravagant French court and instead devoted herself to embroidery, reading and, above all, practicing charitable and pious works. She promoted Catholic aspirations, was dismayed by the presence of the Huguenots, whom she regarded as heretics , and, according to Margarete von Valois, forbade the Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny to kiss her hand. Nevertheless, according to German reports, Elisabeth is said to have campaigned for the lives of Protestants during Bartholomew's Night (August 24, 1572). She pleaded with her husband to “spare the innocent” and finally obtained a ban on harming foreign (especially the numerous German) Protestants. According to Brantôme, the plan for the atrocities of St. Bartholomew's Night was kept secret from Elizabeth; she only found out about it the next morning, asked in horror whether her husband knew about it, and when he replied that he himself had been the initiator, prayed for him that God would forgive him.

On October 27, 1572, after an easy birth, Elisabeth and Karl's daughter Marie-Elisabeth (named after her two godparents, her grandmother Empress Maria and Queen Elisabeth I of England) was born in Amboise Castle . This birth of a girl could hardly increase the political influence of the young French queen. Charles' already poor health deteriorated noticeably, and after long suffering, in which Elisabeth gave him silent support and prayed for his recovery, he died on May 30, 1574 - at the instigation of his mother without his wife being present.

After 40 days of mourning, Elisabeth decided, now known as pure blanche (“White Queen”), to return to Vienna. It was considered, Elizabeth with the new French King Henry III. to get married, but she spoke out against her renewed marriage. As Wittum, Elisabeth received the Duchy of Berry , then after 1577 the Auvergne and Bourbonnais . During a visit to Amboise on August 28, 1575, she saw her barely three-year-old daughter for the last time. On December 5, 1575, she finally left Paris and had to leave her little daughter in the care of Catherine de Medici. On the occasion of her departure from France, she is said to have taken a number of devotional objects with her, such as a finger of John the Baptist .

Foundation and management of a monastery near Vienna

Elisabeth of Austria in widow costume
Queen Elisabeth's coffin in the Duke's Crypt in St. Stephen's Cathedral

In Vienna, Elisabeth first lived in the Stallburg . After the death of her beloved father Maximilian II (October 12, 1576), her brother Rudolf II became the new emperor. Her little daughter Marie-Elisabeth died on April 2, 1578. When Philip II of Spain proposed marriage to Elisabeth after the death of his fourth wife Anna (1580), she refused, according to Brantôme, because of close relatives and out of respect for the memory of her deceased husband and remained unmarried.

In France, where Busbecq was the administrator of her property, Elisabeth zu Bourges had a Jesuit college set up. The widow's allowances from France to which she was entitled, however, was far from being received in full.

Elisabeth bought land in the vicinity of the Stallburg and founded the Poor Clare Monastery of Maria, Queen of Angels there in the early 1580s . She financed this with funds that flowed from the property rights of the closed Benedictine convent Erlakloster transferred by the monastery council by order of Elisabeth's brother, Archduke Ernst . From then on, Elisabeth dedicated her life to the practice of piety, poor relief and nursing, following the example of her saint namesake. Impoverished noble daughters also found their support. It also financed the rebuilding of the All Saints Chapel, which was ravaged by fire in 1541, on Prague's Hradschin .

Elisabeth acquired several relics for her Poor Clare monastery. Her brother, Archduke Maximilian , as coadjutor of the Teutonic Order, obtained power of disposal over the relics of Elisabeth of Thuringia kept in Marburg and in 1588 sent some of them to his sister Elisabeth for her monastery.

Elisabeth maintained regular correspondence with her sister-in-law Margarete von Valois, ceded half of her income from France and, according to Brantôme, sent her two self-authored papers. One of these two now lost books by Elisabeth was a religious work Sur la parole de Dieu , the other a historical work Sur les événements considérables qui arrivèrent en France de son temps .

Elisabeth died of pleurisy on January 22, 1592 at the age of 38. She was buried under a simple marble slab in the choir of the church of the convent she founded. When the monastery was dissolved by Emperor Joseph II in 1782 and soon afterwards the St. Elisabeth Church became the Lutheran City Church , the first Evangelical Lutheran church in Vienna, their remains were transferred to the ducal crypt of St. Stephen's Cathedral.

In her will, Elisabeth not only donated for the poor and the sick, but also donated funds for the holding of masses for her deceased husband, Charles IX. in their monastery church. Elisabeth left her library of Spanish, German, French, Italian and Latin works, including several works by the Jesuit preacher Georg Scherer , a book with prophecies by the French astrologer Nostradamus for the year 1571 or the tragedy Antigone by the ancient Greek poet Sophocles Brother Emperor Rudolf II, her wedding ring to her other brother Archduke Ernst.

literature

Web links

Commons : Elisabeth von Österreich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Brantôme: Œuvres complètes. Volume 9: Des Dames (Suite). Renouard, Paris 1876, p. 594.
  2. Jump up ↑ Gerd: The French queens. 1996, p. 261.
  3. ↑ Brigitte Hamann (ed.): The Habsburgs. 1988, p. 88.
  4. ↑ Elisabeth d'Autriche. In: Nouvelle biography générale. Vol. 15, Col. 862.
predecessor Office successor
Maria Stuart Queen of France
1570–1574 		Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont
personal data
SURNAME Elisabeth of Austria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian princess, queen of France
DATE OF BIRTH July 5, 1554
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH January 22, 1592
Place of death Vienna