Isabella of Austria

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Isabella of Austria, Queen of Denmark

Isabella of Austria (Spanish: Isabel de Austria y Trastámara ) (* July 18, 1501 in Brussels , † January 19, 1526 in Zwijnaarde near Gent ) was Infanta of Spain , Archduchess of Austria and, through her marriage to Christian II, Queen of Denmark , Sweden and Norway .

Descent, youth and marriage to Christian II of Denmark

Isabella was the third child of Philip the Fair , Duke of Burgundy , from the House of Habsburg , and of Juana, known as the Mad , from the House of Trastámara . She was baptized in Brussels by the Bishop of Cambrai, Henri de Berghes . After the death of her maternal grandmother, Isabella of Castile († November 26, 1504), her mother Juana became queen of Castile , León and Granada . Isabella's brothers were the future Roman-German Emperors Karl V and Ferdinand I , their sisters Eleonore , Maria and Katharina all also became queens, in Portugal and France, in Bohemia and Hungary and in Portugal respectively.

After the early death of Philip the Fair (September 25, 1506), Isabella grew up in the Netherlands under the tutelage of her aunt, the governor Margarete , with whom she developed a strong emotional bond. Margaret engaged the future Pope Hadrian VI as Isabella's teacher .

In 1513 the Oldenburg Christian II , also called Christians, became King of Denmark and Norway and - after unsuccessful recruitment for Isabella's older sister Eleonore - asked for Isabella's hand. He hoped for powerful political support from this marriage, among other things, as Isabella's grandfather was Emperor Maximilian I. Isabella was married to Christian II, 20 years older , at a proxy wedding in Brussels on June 11, 1514 at the age of thirteen and left the following year the Netherlands. She was almost shipwrecked in a storm on the way to her new home on the coast of Zealand . However, she survived this storm and made her solemn entry into Copenhagen on August 10, 1515 to the cheers of the population , where she was married in person to Christian II two days later.

queen

The Danish king preferred his Dutch lover Dyveke Sigbritsdatter to his cultured and educated wife and was also heavily influenced by the widowed mother of his mistress, Sigbrit Villoms . Christian II made his mistress Isabella's partner. Isabella therefore had to endure a humiliating life. In 1516, Emperor Maximilian sent the diplomatically inexperienced Siegmund von Herberstein to Denmark in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade Christian II to send Dyveke home. Archbishop Erik Valkendorf also unsuccessfully urged the Danish ruler to remove his mistress. When she died - allegedly poisoned - in 1517, her mother, Sigbrit Villoms, continued to exercise considerable power as advisor and financial expert to the king and took over the education of Isabella's son Johann. In 1516, the politically active Danish noblewoman Anne Meinstrup became the Queen's first lady-in-waiting .

Nevertheless, Christian II showed a certain attention to his wife by settling Dutch colonists on the island of Amager near Copenhagen in 1521 for her sake . The king endowed them with certain privileges such as the right to choose their magistrates themselves, retained their local customs and legal practices and supplied various types of vegetables for the queen's table, who liked to talk to them in their mother tongue. Isabella also conveyed some of the fashion and pomp of the gleaming Burgundian court to the Copenhagen palace.

In 1520 Christian II recaptured Sweden, which had not submitted to his rule after taking office. After his coronation as King of Sweden, he arranged this on 7/8. September 1520 carried out Stockholm bloodbath , the opposition Swedish aristocrats and prelates fell victim. This event earned him the nickname the tyrant ; he was therefore dubbed the Nero of the North . The successful rebellion of the Swedes under Gustav I. Wasa followed soon after the mass execution . Isabella had not followed her husband to Sweden, but acted as the regent of Denmark during his stay there.

Since the early 1520s, Christian II sympathized with the teachings of Martin Luther , but Isabella initially did not want to know anything about them. The sovereign, showing early absolutist tendencies, also created a strong opposition in Denmark through his attempts to limit the strong influence of the nobility and clergy while he had the bourgeoisie and the peasants behind him. Finally, there was a revolt against him by the nobility, which deposed him on January 20, 1523. The Danish aristocrats continued to regard Isabella as a legitimate queen and explained in their declaration of deposition from Christian II that they had been decisively induced to act because of his heartless and unfaithful behavior towards his virtuous wife. Isabella, however, did not take advantage of the possibility of a regency for her underage son, but accompanied her husband with her three children who were still alive, Johann, Dorothea and Christina, when he was on April 14, 1523 with his treasures and Sigbrit Villoms in a fleet of 20 ships the Netherlands fled.

Exile and death

During the time of her exile, Isabella loyally represented her husband's efforts to recapture his empire, where his uncle Friedrich I now ruled. The dethroned Danish royal couple first settled in Mechelen and made a futile trip to England to persuade King Henry VIII to support them; Later, the governor Margarethe instructed the couple to stay in the city of Lier , which was named "Court of Denmark".

Isabella and her husband traveled through Germany in 1523/1524 in the futile hope of receiving help in returning to the Danish throne from Christian's brother-in-law, Elector Joachim I of Brandenburg , and from Elector of Saxony, Frederick the Wise . Isabella now also turned to Luther's teachings and visited him with her husband in Wittenberg . In 1524 she moved to a Reichstag in Nuremberg , where she was not granted the requested financial support. Rather, the orator Charles V severely reprimanded her for her sympathy for Luther's religious views. Denmark offered her to return, but she returned to Flanders with her husband .

In the spring of 1525, Isabella contracted a serious illness, which did not improve in the summer, but instead worsened during an autumn trip with Isabella with her husband due to a storm that had fallen on the couple. She was brought to the castle of Zwijnaarde near Ghent, where she died on January 19, 1526 at the age of only 24 in the presence of her husband, children and several prominent personalities. In her final hours Thomas Blanckaert, apostolic notary and pastor of Zwijnaarde, had given her spiritual support. Blanckaert also wrote a detailed account of her final days. A letter that Christian wrote to Luther proves on the one hand his deep sorrow, on the other hand Isabella's commitment to Protestants who were persecuted as heretics by her aunt Margarete, the governor of the Netherlands.

Isabella's body was buried in the monastery of Saint Peter in Ghent and her son Johann, who died in 1532, was placed in her grave. This was destroyed by Calvinist iconoclasts in 1578, renovated in 1652 and devastated a second time by the sans-culottes in 1798 . In 1883 Isabella's remains were transferred to St. Knuds Church in Odense .

progeny

The following children were born from the marriage of Isabella and Christian II:

  • Christian (* 1516; † as a toddler)
  • Johann (1518–1532)
  • Maximilian (* 1519; † as a toddler)
  • Philipp (* 1519; † as a toddler)
  • Dorothea (1520–1580) ⚭ 1535 Friedrich II. (1482–1556), Elector Palatinate
  • Christina (1521–1590)
    1. ⚭ 1533 Francesco II Sforza (1495–1535), Duke of Milan
    2. ⚭ 1541 Francis I (1517–1545), Duke of Lorraine

ancestors

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Emperor Friedrich III. (1415–1493)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Eleonore Helena of Portugal (1436–1467)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Philip I of Castile (1478–1506)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Charles the Bold (1433–1477)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mary of Burgundy (1457–1482)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Isabelle de Bourbon (1437-1465)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Isabella of Austria (1501–1526)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 John II of Aragón (1397–1479)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ferdinand II of Aragón, the Catholic (1452-1516)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Juana Enríquez (1425–1468)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Joan of Castile (1479–1555)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 John II of Castile (1405-1454)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Isabella I of Castile, the Catholic (1451–1504)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Isabella of Portugal (1428–1496)
 
 
 
 
 
 

literature

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ursula Tamussino: Maria von Ungarn , 1998, ISBN 3-222-12641-0 , p. 158.
  2. ^ Martin Schwarz Lausten: The Reformation in Denmark (writings of the Association for Reformation History 208), Gütersloh 2008; Pp. 25-27
Predecessors Office Successors
Christina of Saxony Queen of Denmark and Norway
1514–1523 		Sophia of Pomerania
Kristina Nilsdotter Gyllernstierna Queen of Sweden
1520–1521 		Catherine of Saxony-Lauenburg
personal data
SURNAME Isabella of Austria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Elisabeth of Austria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish queen
DATE OF BIRTH July 18, 1501
PLACE OF BIRTH Brussels
DATE OF DEATH January 19, 1526
Place of death Zwijnaarde near Ghent