Catherine of Austria (1533–1572)
Catherine of Austria (born September 15 or September 25, 1533 in Innsbruck , † February 28, 1572 in Linz ) was Queen of Poland and Duchess of Mantua.
biography
Katharina was born as the seventh child of the Roman-German King and later Emperor Ferdinand I and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary in Innsbruck and was mainly raised there. At the age of 16 she was born on October 22, 1549 in Mantua with Franz III. Gonzaga , Duke of Mantua , who died four months after the marriage on February 21, 1550.
On July 31, 1553, Catherine married the Polish King Sigismund II August in Cracow . She was his third wife; previously he was married to Katharina's older sister Elisabeth for the first time .
Relations between the royal spouses remained cool from the start, but Katharina was able to develop good relationships with important personalities at the Polish court. She suffered from epilepsy just like her sister, and in 1558 it was also announced that she could not have children. Since 1559, the king, who had already had two childless marriages, tried to get a divorce. In the winter of 1562/1563 he separated from his wife and was not ready for any further married life despite the most violent efforts on various sides. Katharina therefore left Poland in October 1566 and withdrew with her servants to the castle in Linz in October 1567 , where she had a stately garden laid out. In a conversation with the papal nuncio Giovanni Francesco Commendone , she blamed the king's advisors for their unhappy marriage. For years the king sought a divorce in vain and only survived Katharina by a few months.
Katharina was buried in 1614 in the monastery crypt of the St. Florian Monastery near Linz.
literature
- Constantin von Wurzbach : Habsburg, Katharina (Queen of Poland) . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 6th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1860, p. 402 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Walter Pillich: Queen Catherine of Poland in Linz. In: Historisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Linz 1966. Linz 1967, pp. 169–198, online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at.
- Brigitte Hamann : The Habsburgs, a biographical lexicon. Verlag Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna 1988, p. 236 f.
Web links
Individual evidence
| predecessor | Office | Successor |
|---|---|---|
| Barbara Radziwiłł | Queen of Poland 1553–1572 |
Anna Jagiellonica |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Catherine of Austria |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Katarzyna Habsburżanka |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | by marriage Queen of Poland and Duchess of Mantua |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 15, 1533 or September 25, 1533 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | innsbruck |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 28, 1572 |
| Place of death | Linz |