May 22, 1581: Birth of Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana of Austria

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Archduchess Anna of Austria, Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana of Austria, Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria, Emperor Ferdinand I, House of Habsburg, King Philip III of Spain, King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland, Prince of Asturias, Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria

Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana of Austria (May 22, 1581 – September 20, 1597) was a member of the House of Habsburg.

She was the daughter of Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria and his wife/niece, Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria.

Her father was Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria was the son of Emperor Ferdinand I (1503–1564) from his marriage with the Jagiellonian princess Anna of Bohemia and Hungary (1503–1547).

Her mother was Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria daughter of Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria and Archduchess Anna of Austria. Archduchess Anna of Austria was one of the fifteen children of Emperor Ferdinand I and Princess Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. As mentioned, Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria and her husband, Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria, were uncle and niece.

Archduchess Anna of Austria’s paternal grandparents were King Felipe I of Castile (Archduke Philipp of Austria, Duke of Burgundy) and his wife Queen Joanna of Castile. Her maternal grandparents were King Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary and his third wife Anne of Foix-Candale.

Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana’s elder brother, Archduke Ferdinand, succeeded as Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II in 1619.

Life

Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana of Austria was born in Graz, her godparents were Pope Gregory XIII and her maternal aunt, Princess Maximiliana Maria of Bavaria. Named after both godparents, Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana was described as an extremely pious Princess that had the closest relationship to her mother among her siblings.

Amongst her siblings was the aforementioned Emperor Ferdinand II, Archduchess Margaret and Archduchess Anna and Archduchess Constance, who through their subsequent marriages to King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland, became Queens of Poland.

In addition to the Habsburg inferior lip, Gregoria Maximiliana suffered from a deformed shoulder and a scarred face.

In 1596, the Admiral of Aragon arrived to Graz and had deliver to the Spanish court portraits of Gregoria Maximiliana and her two younger sisters in marriageable age, Archduchess Eleanor and Archduchess Margaret.

Shortly after, Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana was betrothed to the Prince of Asturias, future King Felipe III of Spain. Although the Prince, after seeing the portraits, preferred her sister Archduchess Margaret, his father King Felipe II of Spain chose Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana as his bride, mainly because she was the older sister.

On September 17, 1597, the Prince of Asturias made a visit to the Imperial court in Graz. At this time, Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana was seriously ill and she compared her suffering to the prisoners of the Turkish sultan. Three days later, she died aged sixteen, and was in buried in Seckau Abbey. Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana’s fiancé (future King Felipe III of Spain) married her sister Archduchess Margaret, and his first choice, in 1599.

Is King Charles III of the United Kingdom German? Part I

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George V of the United Kingdom, German, Giuseppe Garibaldi, House of Bourbon, House of Habsburg, House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, House of Windsor, King Charles III of the United Kingdom, Kingdom of Naples, Kingdom of Sicily, Kingdom of the Two-Sicilies, Unification of Italy

Is King Charles III of the United Kingdom German?

I was going to address this topic when the King visited Germany. I was also going to discuss this topic before the Coronation. Oh, well……better late than never.

I saw many comments on social media about the King and the Royal Family being German. It seems to be a popular belief, and also a very popular insult, to see King Charles III as being German.

I want to approach this issue not just as an historian, but as if I were a lawyer building my case. So here we go!

Question: Is King Charles III of the United Kingdom German?

My answer: No he is not!

Does he have German ancestry?

My answer: Absolutely!

I think this is an important distinction between nationality, ethnicity and ancestry which I’d like to explain and I’d like to explain why I think these distinctions is important.

First of all, why I think nationality is important I believe it is important because perception of nationality is important. Perception of a monarchs nationality has led to some problems. I would like to discuss two cases.

In the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily and the succeeding Kingdom of the Two-Sicilies being perceived as a foreign dynasty was part of the reason why the reigning Bourbon Dynasty was deposed in 1861 under Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Free to permit my indulgence here as I briefly relay the history of the kingdom of Sicily to demonstrate my point.

The Kingdom of Sicily was a state that existed in the south of the Italian Peninsula from its founding by Count Roger II of Sicily in 1130 until 1816. It was a successor state of the County of Sicily, which had been founded in 1071 during the Norman conquest of the southern peninsula.

Capetian Dynasty

Charles I (early 1226/1227 – January 7, 1285), commonly called Charles of Anjou, was a member of the royal Capetian Dynasty and the founder of the second House of Anjou. Charles was the youngest son of King Louis VIII of the Franks and Infanta Blanche of Castile.

The Capetian House of Anjou, or House of Anjou-Sicily, was a royal house and cadet branch of the direct French House of Capét. It is one of three separate royal houses referred to as Angevin, meaning “from Anjou” in France.

In 1263, after years of negotiations, Charles of Anjou accepted the offer of the Holy See to seize the Kingdom of Sicily from the German Hohenstaufens. Pope Urban IV declared a crusade against the incumbent Manfred of Sicily and assisted Charles in raising funds for the military campaign. Charles was crowned King of Sicily in Rome on January 5, 1266.

In 1282, a revolt against Angevin rule, known as the Sicilian Vespers, threw off Charles of Anjou’s rule of the island of Sicily. The Angevins managed to maintain control in the mainland part of the kingdom, which became a separate entity, a separate sovereign kingdom, also styled the Kingdom of Sicily, although it is commonly referred to as the Kingdom of Naples, after its capital.

Sicily eventually passed to the Kingdom of Aragon and then back to the main Royal line of France and eventually to the imperial House of Habsburg.

In 1734, in the aftermath of the War of the Polish Succession, Naples was reconquered by King Felipe V of Spain, a French Prince of the House of Bourbon, who installed his younger son, Charles, as Duke of Parma, and he also became as King Charles VII of Naples, starting a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon. He also became King of Sicily with the name of Charles V of Sicily the next year.

Charles (Carlos) succeeded to the Spanish throne in 1759 upon the death of his childless half-brother King Fernando VI. He became King Carlos III of Spain. But treaty provisions made him ineligible to hold all three crowns simultaneously therefore on October 6, Carlos III abdicated his Neapolitan and Sicilian titles in favour of his third son, because his eldest son Philip had been excluded from succession due to mental instability and his second son Infante Carlos was heir-apparent to the Spanish throne.

The third son became King Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples and King Ferdinand III of the Kingdom of Sicily. Ferdinand III-IV was the founder of the cadet House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.

During the Congress of Vienna of 1815, after the Napoleonic Wars, the kingdom of Naples and Sicily were restored and united as one singular Kingdom, with Ferdinand III-IV becoming King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies under the House of Bourbon.

On April 4, 1860 the latest revolt against the Bourbon regime broke out. Giuseppe Garibaldi, funded and directed by the Piedmontese prime minister Cavour, assisted the revolt.

On October 21, 1860, a Plebiscite regarding the unification of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies with Italy was conducted. The outcome of the referendum was 432,053 (99%) in favour and only 667 in opposition to the unification. Despite claims and evidence of the Plebiscite being “obviously rigged”, many Sicilians viewed the unification as an acceptance of the House of Savoy which were Kings of Sardinia-Peidmont.

King Francis II was the last King of the Two Sicilies from 1859 to 1861. After successive invasions by Giuseppe Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia ultimately brought an end to his rule, as part of Italian unification. After he was deposed, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Kingdom of Sardinia-Peidmont were merged into the newly formed Kingdom of Italy. Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia-Peidmont became the first King of Italy.

It wasn’t just the House of Bourbon in the Two Sicilies that was deposed, the House of Bourbon as Dukes of Parma were also deposed as well as the House of Habsburg which ruled Tuscany as its Grand Dukes.

The United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom In 1917, the name of the British Royal House was changed from the German Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the English Windsor because of anti-German sentiment in the United Kingdom during the First World War.

King Edward VII and, in turn, his son, King George V, were members of the German ducal House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha by virtue of their descent from Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Consort, husband of Queen Victoria, herself the last British monarch from the House of Hanover.

High anti-German sentiment amongst the people of the British Empire during the First World War reached a peak in March 1917, when the Gotha G.IV, a heavy aircraft capable of crossing the English Channel, began bombing London directly and became a household name. In the same year, the King and his family were finally persuaded to abandon all titles held under the German Crown and to change German titles and house names to anglicised versions. Hence, on July 17, 1917, a royal proclamation issued by George V declared:

Our House and Family shall be styled and known as the House and Family of Windsor, and that all the descendants in the male line of Our said Grandmother Queen Victoria who are subjects of these Realms, other than female descendants who may marry or may have married, shall bear the said Name of Windsor….

The name had a long association with monarchy in Britain, through the town of Windsor, Berkshire, and Windsor Castle; the link is alluded to in the Round Tower of Windsor Castle being the basis of the badge of the House of Windsor. It was suggested by Arthur Bigge, 1st Baron Stamfordham.

Of the deposing of the House of Bourbon and it’s Italian kingdoms and the name change of the British royal house during World War I raises a question for me.

How many generations does a family need to live within a region or country to be considered a native of that country?

The concludes Part I. Join me back tomorrow as I will answer some of these questions and conclude this topic of “Is King Charles III of the United Kingdom German?”

April 20, 1544: Birth of Renata of Lorraine, Duchess of Bavaria

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Archduchess Isabella of Austria, Archduke Philipp of Austria, Charles I of Spain, Christian II of Denmark-Norway, Christina of Denmark, Duke of Burgundy, Duke William V of Bavaria, Emperor Charles V, Francis I of Lorraine, House of Austria, House of Habsburg, House of Lorraine, House of Wittelsbach, King Philip I of Castile, King Philip II of Spain, Queen Joanna of Castile, Renata of Lorraine

Renata of Lorraine (April 20, 1544 – May 22, 1602) was a French noblewoman who became a Duchess of Bavaria by her marriage to Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria

Early life

By birth a member of the House of Lorraine born in Nancy, she was the second child and eldest daughter of François I, Duke of Lorraine and his wife, Christina of Denmark, younger surviving daughter of King Christian II of Denmark and Norway and Archduchess Isabella of Austria, herself the daughter of Archduke Philipp of Austria, ruler Burgundian Netherlands and titular Duke of Burgundy from 1482 to 1506, as well as the first Habsburg King of Castile (as Felipe I) for a brief time in 1506 as the husband of Queen Joanna of Castile. Archduchess Isabella of Austria was the sister of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, King Carlos I of Spain.

Renata was described as a beauty and a desirable match. In 1558, after the death of his first wife Prince Willem I the Silent of Orange expressed a desire to marry Renata. Her mother, Christina, liked the idea, and it was further cemented after the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis. This match was however prevented by King Felipe II of Spain. Christina declined the plan of Cardinal of Lorraine to arrange a marriage between Renata and Henri I, Duke of Guise and Prince of Joinville, and also a match proposed by the Spanish king to marry Renata to Juan d’Austria, the natural son born to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his mistress Barbara Blomberg.

In 1561, Renata’s mother planned to marry her to King Frederick II of Denmark and Norway. However, the outbreak of the Nordic Seven Years’ War between Denmark and Sweden in 1563, interrupted these plans. From 1565 to 1567, Christina negotiated with King Eric XIV of Sweden to create an alliance between Sweden and Denmark through his marriage to Renata. The plan was for Christina to conquer Denmark with the support of Sweden, a plan Eric supported.

However, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I opposed the plan due to the destructive effect it could have on the balance of power among the German states of the Empire, if Saxony (being strongly allied with Denmark) opposed Christina’s claims. Neither did she manage to acquire the support of King Felipe II of Spain. The planned marriage alliance between Lorraine and Sweden was finally ended when King Eric XIV married his non-noble lover Karin Månsdotter in 1567.

Duchess consort of Bavaria

Finally, on February 22, 1568, Renata married her paternal second, but maternal first cousin Wilhelm, hereditary Duke of Bavaria, in a large, elaborate ceremony and celebration in Munich that lasted 18 days. The event was described in detail by Massimo Troiano in his Dialoghi (1569). Approximately 5,000 riders took part in it, and the music was composed by Orlande de Lassus.

Despite their large wedding and status, Renata, along with her husband, led a life of charity and humility. They left the Munich Residenz and lived in the Jesuit Kollegienbau west of Munich. Renata cared for the sick, the poor and religious pilgrims. In this task, she was completely supported by her husband. They had ten children, but only six of them lived to adulthood.

After her husband inherited the duchy in 1579 as Wilhelm V of Bavaria, Renata spent much of her time in the Herzogspitalkirche in Munich, founded in 1555 by her father-in-law. She died in Munich, aged 58. Her grave is located in the St. Michael’s Church in Munich, the consecration of which was the last high point in both her and her husband’s lives. She was revered as a saint by the people, but never canonized. Her husband, who abdicated in 1597, survived her by twenty-four years, dying in 1626.

All current monarchs of the three Scandinavian countries (Harald V of Norway, Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and Margrethe II of Denmark) are Renata’s direct blood descendants. Other direct descendants included Josephine of Leuchtenberg, who married the future King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway in 1823; Carl XV of Sweden and Norway who ascended the throne in 1859; Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria; his brother Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico; and King Christian X of Denmark, who ascended the throne in 1912, among other numerous descendants.

Marriages of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

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Anne of Brittany, Archduke of Austria, Bianca Maria Sforza, Emperor Maximilian I, House of Habsburg, Mary of Burgundy, Philip I of Castile, Philip of Burgundy, Pope Alexander VI, Pope Julius II, Royal Marriage

Emperor Maximilian was married three times, but only the first marriage produced offspring.

Maximilian I (March 22, 1459 — January 12, 1519) was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death. He was never crowned by the Pope, as the journey to Rome was blocked by the Venetians. He proclaimed himself elected emperor in 1508 (Pope Julius II later recognized this) at Trent, thus breaking the long tradition of requiring a papal coronation for the adoption of the Imperial title. Maximilian was the only surviving son of Friedrich III, Holy Roman Emperor, and Infanta Eleanor of Portugal. Since his coronation as King of the Romans in 1486, he ran a double government, (with a separate court), with his father until Friedrich III’s death in 1493.

Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

Maximilian’s first wife was Mary of Burgundy (1457–1482).

Mary (February 13, 1457 – March 27, 1482), nicknamed the Rich, was a member of the House of Valois-Burgundy who ruled a collection of states that included the duchies of Limburg, Brabant, Luxembourg, the counties of Namur, Holland, Hainaut and other territories, from 1477 until her death in 1482.

As the only child of Charles I the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and his wife Isabella of Bourbon, a daughter of Charles I, Duke of Bourbon and Agnes of Burgundy, Mary inherited the Burgundian lands at the age of 19 upon the death of her father in the Battle of Nancy on January 5, 1477. In order to counter the appetite of the French king Louis XI for her lands, she married Archduke Maximilian of Austria.

They were married in Ghent on August 19, 1477, and the marriage was ended by Mary’s death in a riding accident in 1482. Mary was the love of his life. Even in old age, the mere mention of her name moved him to tears (although, his sexual life, contrary to his chivalric ideals, was unchaste).

Mary of Burgundy

The grand literary projects commissioned and composed in large part by Maximilian many years after her death were in part tributes to their love, especially Theuerdank, in which the hero saved the damsel in distress like he had saved her inheritance in real life.

Beyond her beauty, the inheritance and the glory she brought, Mary corresponded to Maximilian’s ideal of a woman: the spirited grand “Dame” who could stand next to him as sovereigns. To their daughter Margaret, he described Mary: from her eyes shone the power (Kraft) that surpassed any other woman.

The marriage produced three children:

1. Philipp of Burgundy (1478–1506) who inherited his mother’s domains following her death, but predeceased his father. He married Joanna of Castile, becoming king-consort of Castile upon her accession in 1504, ruled Castile via the concept Jure uxoris (a Latin phrase meaning “by right of (his) wife”) and is known as King Felipe I of Castile. He and was the father of the Holy Roman Emperors Charles V and Ferdinand I.

The meeting of Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy

2. Margaret of Austria (1480–1530), who was first engaged at the age of 2 to the French dauphin (who became Charles VIII of France a year later) to confirm peace between France and Burgundy. She was sent back to her father in 1492 after Charles repudiated their betrothal to marry Anne of Brittany. She was then married to the crown prince of Castile and Aragon Juan, Prince of Asturias, and after his death to Philibert II of Savoy, after which she undertook the guardianship of her deceased brother Philipp’s children, and governed Burgundy for the heir, Charles.

3. Francis of Austria, who died shortly after his birth in 1481.

Maximilian’s second wife was Anne of Brittany (1477–1514) the eldest child of Duke Francis II of Brittany and his second wife Margaret of Foix, Infanta of Navarre.

Anne of Brittany

They were married by proxy in Rennes on December 18, 1490, but the contract was dissolved by Pope Alexander VI in early 1492, by which time Anne had already been forced by the French king, Charles VIII (the fiancé of Maximilian’s daughter Margaret of Austria) to repudiate the contract and marry him instead.

The drive behind this marriage, to the great annoyance of Maximilian’s father, Emperor Friedrich III (who characterized it as “disgraceful”), was the desire of personal revenge against the French (Maximilian blamed France for the great tragedies of his life up to and including Mary of Burgundy’s death, political upheavals that followed, troubles in the relationship with his son and later, Philipp’s death ).

Maximilian, as the young King of the Romans, had in mind a pincer grip against the Kingdom of France, while Friedrich III wanted him to focus on expansion towards the East and maintenance of stability in newly reacquired Austria. But Brittany was so weak that it could not resist French advance by itself even briefly like the Burgundian State had done, while Maximilian could not even personally come to Brittany to consummate the marriage.

Maximilian’s third wife was Bianca Maria Sforza (1472–1510). She was the eldest legitimate daughter of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan by his second wife, Bona of Savoy, daughter of Louis, Duke of Savoy and Anne de Lusignan of Cyprus.

Bianca Maria Sforza

They were married in 1493, the marriage bringing Maximilian a rich dowry and allowing him to assert his rights as imperial overlord of Milan. The marriage was unhappy, and they had no children. In Maximilian’s view, while Bianca might surpass his first wife Mary in physical beauty, she was just a “child” with “a mediocre mind”, who could neither make decisions nor be presented as a respectable lady to the society.

Benecke opines that this seems unfair, as while Bianca was always concerned with trivial, private matters (Recent research though indicates that Bianca was an educated woman who was politically active), she was never given the chance to develop politically, unlike the other women in Maximilian’s family including Margaret of Austria or Catherine of Saxony.

Despite her unsuitability as an empress, Maximilian tends to be criticized for treating her with coldness and neglect, which after 1500 only became worse. Bianca, on the other hand, loved the emperor deeply and always tried to win his heart with heartfelt letters, expensive jewels and allusions to sickness, but did not even get back a letter, developed eating disorders and mental illness, and died a childless woman.

Joseph Grünpeck, the court historian and physician, criticized the emperor, who, in Grünpeck’s opinion, was responsible for Bianca’s death through neglect.

In addition, he had several illegitimate children, but the number and identities of those are a matter of great debate. Johann Jakob Fugger writes in Ehrenspiegel (Mirror of Honour) that the emperor began fathering illegitimate children after becoming a widower, and there were eight children in total, four boys and four girls.

March 19, 1452: Papal Coronation of Emperor Friedrich III

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Cardinal Francesco Condulmer, Duke of Austria, German Emperor Friedrich III, Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich III, House of Habsburg, Iron Crown of Lombardy, King Duarte of Portugal, King of Prussia Infanta Eleanor of Portugal, Papal Coronation, Pope Nicholas V

Friedrich III (September 21, 1415 – August 19, 1493) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1452 until his death. He was the fourth king and first emperor of the House of Habsburg. The previous Habsburg rulers of the empire were Kings of the Romans while Friedrich III was the first Habsburg to be crowned Emperor. He was the penultimate emperor to be crowned by the pope, and the last to be crowned in Rome.

Early life

Born at the Tyrolean residence of Innsbruck in 1415, Friedrich was the eldest son of the Inner Austrian duke Ernest the Iron, a member of the Leopoldian line of the Habsburg dynasty, and his second wife Cymburgis of Masovia. According to the 1379 Treaty of Neuberg, the Leopoldinian branch ruled over the duchies of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, or what was referred to as Inner Austria.

Emperor Friedrich III

Only three of Friedrich’s eight siblings survived childhood: his younger brother Albrecht (later to be Albrecht VI, Archduke of Austria), and his sisters Margaret (later the electress of Saxony) and Catherine. In 1424, nine-year-old Friedrich’s father died, making Friedrich the Duke of Inner Austria, as Friedrich V, with his uncle, Duke Friedrich IV of Tyrol, acting as regent.

From 1431, Friedrich tried to obtain majority (to be declared “of age”, and thus allowed to rule) but for several years was denied by his relatives. Finally, in 1435, Albrecht V, Duke of Austria (later Albrecht II, the King of the Romans), awarded him the rule over his Inner Austrian heritage.

Almost from the beginning, Friedrich’s younger brother Albrecht asserted his rights as a co-ruler, as the beginning of a long rivalry. Already in these years, Friedrich had begun to use the symbolic A.E.I.O.U. signature as a kind of motto with various meanings. In 1436 he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, accompanied by numerous nobles knighted by the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, which earned him great reputation.

Upon the death of his uncle Duke Friedrich IV in 1439, Friedrich took over the regency of Tyrol and Further Austria for the duke’s heir Sigismund. Again he had to ward off the claims raised by his brother Albrecht VI; he prevailed by the support of the Tyrolean aristocracy.

Likewise he acted as regent for his nephew Ladislaus the Posthumous, son of late King Albrecht II and his consort Elizabeth of Luxembourg, in the duchy of Austria (Further Austria). (Ladislaus would die before coming of age). Friedrich was now the undisputed head of the Habsburg dynasty, though his regency in the lands of the Albertinian Line (Further Austria) was still viewed with suspicion.

Previous Habsburg ruler of the Empire, Albrecht II, King of the Romans

Prior to his imperial coronation, he was Duke of the Inner Austrian lands of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola from 1424, and also acted as regent over the Duchy of Austria from 1439.

As a cousin of late King Albert II, Friedrich became a candidate for the 1440 imperial election. On February 2, 1440, the Prince-Electors convened at Frankfurt and unanimously elected him King of the Romans as Friedrich III; his rule was still based on his hereditary lands of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, or Inner Austria.

In 1442, Friedrich allied himself with Rudolf Stüssi, burgomaster of Zurich, against the Old Swiss Confederacy in the Old Zurich War (Alter Zürichkrieg) but lost. In 1448, he entered into the Concordat of Vienna with the Holy See, which remained in force until 1806 and regulated the relationship between the Habsburgs and the Holy See.

Marriage and Imperial Coronation

Infanta Eleanor of Portugal

In 1452, at the age of 37, Friedrich III travelled to Italy to receive his bride and to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor. His fiancée was the 18-year-old infanta Eleanor of Portugal, daughter of King Duarte of Portugal and his wife Eleanor of Aragon, daughter of King Fernando I of Aragon and Eleanor of Alburquerque.

Infanta Eleanor of Portugal landed at Livorno (Leghorn) after a 104-day trip. Her dowry would help Friedrich alleviate his debts and cement his power. The couple met at Siena on February 24, and proceeded together to Rome. As per tradition, they spent a night outside the walls of Rome before entering the city on March 9, where Friedrich and Pope Nicholas V exchanged friendly greetings.

Because Friedrich had been unable to retrieve the Iron Crown of Lombardy from the cathedral of Monza where it was kept, nor be crowned King of Italy by the archbishop of Milan (on account of Friedrich’s dispute with Francesco Sforza, lord of Milan), he convinced the pope to crown him as such with the German Crown, which had been brought for the purpose.

This coronation took place on the morning of March 16, in spite of the protests of the Milanese ambassadors, and in the afternoon Friedrich and Eleanor were married by Pope Nicholas V.

Picture of Crowns: Imperial Crown of Friedrich III, second row, third from left.

Finally, on March 19, Friedrich and Eleanor were anointed in St Peter’s Basilica by the Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church, Cardinal Francesco Condulmer, and Friedrich was then crowned with the Imperial Crown by the Pope . Friedrich III was the last Holy Roman Emperor to be crowned in Rome. His great-grandson Emperor Charles V was the last emperor to be crowned, but this was done in Bologna.

During his reign, Emperor Friedrich III concentrated on re-uniting the Habsburg “hereditary lands” of Austria and took a lesser interest in Imperial affairs. Nevertheless, by his dynastic entitlement to Hungary as well as by the Burgundian inheritance, he laid the foundations for the later Habsburg Empire. Despite being mocked as “Arch-Sleepyhead of the Holy Roman Empire” during his lifetime, he is today increasingly seen as an effective ruler.

Imperial Crown of Friedrich III

Historian Thomas A. Brady Jr. credited Friedrich III with leaving a credible claim on the imperial title and a secure grip on the Austrian lands, now organized as a single state, for his son. This imperial revival (as well as the rise of the territorial state) began under the reign of Frederick.

His reign of 53 years is the longest in the history of the Holy Roman Empire or the German monarchy. Upon his death in 1493 he was succeeded by his son Maximilian.

A little trivia about the name Friedrich.

German Emperor Friedrich III, King of Prussia

When German Emperor Wilhelm I died in March of 1888 there was some confusion on what the regnal name of his successor should be.

Logically, the new Emperor Friedrich should have taken as his regnal name either Friedrich I (if the Bismarckian Empire was considered a new entity) or Friedrich IV (if the German Empire was considered a continuation of the old Holy Roman Empire, which had had three emperors named Friedrich); technically this was a new Empire, though Friedrich himself preferred the latter.

However, on the advice of Bismarck that this would create legal problems, he opted to simply keep the same regnal name he had as King of Prussia. There had been two previous Kings of Prussia named Friedrich (Friedrich II the Great being the most recent) so the new German Emperor became Friedrich III.

The Golden Bull of 1356

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Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke Friedrich the Fair of Austria, Duke of Bavaria, Emperor Charles IV, Emperor Ludwig IV, Holy Roman Empire, House of Habsburg, House of Wittelsbach, Prince-Elector, The Golden Bull of 1356

The Golden Bull of 1356 was a decree issued by the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire at Nuremberg and Metz (Diet of Metz, 1356/57) headed by Emperor Charles IV which fixed, for a period of more than four hundred years, important aspects of the constitutional structure of the Holy Roman Empire. It was named the Golden Bull for the golden seal it carried.

Though the election of the King of the Romans by the chief ecclesiastical and secular princes of the Holy Roman Empire was well established, disagreements about the process and papal involvement had repeatedly resulted in controversies, most recently in 1314 when Ludwig IV of Bavaria and Friedrich of Austria had been elected by opposing sets of electors.

Ludwig, who had eventually subdued his rival’s claim on the battlefield, made a first attempt to clarify the process in the Declaration of Rhense of 1338, which renounced any papal involvement and had restricted the right to choose a new king to the Prince-Electors. The Golden Bull, promulgated by Ludwig’s s successor and rival, Charles IV, was more precise in several ways.

Prince-Electors

Firstly, the Bull explicitly named the seven Prince-Electors who were to choose the King and also defined the Reichserzämter, their (largely ceremonial) offices at court:

Secondly, the principle of majority voting was explicitly stated for the first time in the Empire. The Bull prescribed that four (out of seven) votes would always suffice to elect a new King; as a result, three Electors could no longer block the election. Thirdly, the Electoral principalities were declared indivisible, and succession to them was regulated to ensure that the votes would never be divided.

Finally, the Bull cemented a number of privileges for the Electors, confirming their elevated role in the Empire. It is therefore also a milestone in the establishment of largely independent states in the Empire, a process to be concluded only centuries later, notably with the Peace of Westphalia of 1648.

Codification of Prince-Electors, though largely based on precedence, was not uncontroversial, especially in regard to the two chief rivals of the ruling House of Luxembourg:

The House of Wittelsbach ruled the Duchy of Bavaria as well as the County Palatinate. Dynastic divisions had caused the two territories to devolve upon distinct branches of the house. The Treaty of Pavia, which in 1329 restored the Palatinate branch, stipulated that Bavaria and the Palatinate would alternate in future elections, but the Golden Bull fixed the electoral vote upon the Palatinate and not upon Bavaria, partly because Charles’s predecessor and rival Ludwig IV was of that branch.

Ludwig IV’s sons, Ludwig V and Stephan II of Bavaria, protested this omission, feeling that Bavaria, one of the original duchies of the realm and their family’s chief territory for over 170 years, deserved primacy over the Palatinate. The omission of Bavaria from the list of Prince-Electors also allowed Bavaria, which had only recently been reunited, to fall into dynastic fragmentation again.

Brandenburg was in the hands of the Bavarian Wittelsbachs (though held by a junior member of the house) in 1356; they eventually lost the territory to the Luxemburgs in 1373, leaving the Bavarian branch without representation in the electoral college until 1623.

The House of Habsburg, long-time rivals of the Luxembourgs, were completely omitted from the list of Prince-Electors, leading to decreased political influence and dynastic fragmentation. In retaliation, Duke Rudolph IV, one of the dukes of fragmented Austria, had the Privilegium Maius forged, a document supposedly issued by Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa.

The document gave Austria – elevated to the position of an Archduchy – special privileges, including primogeniture. While ignored by the Emperor and other princes at the time, the document was eventually ratified when Friedrich of Austria himself became Emperor in the 15th century. Still, the Habsburgs remained without an electoral vote until they succeeded to the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1526.

Procedures

The bull regulated the whole election process in great detail, listing explicitly where, when, and under which circumstances what should be done by whom, not only for the prince-electors but also (for example) for the population of Frankfurt, where the elections were to be held, and also for the counts of the regions the prince-electors had to travel through to get there.

The decision to hold the elections in Frankfurt reflected a traditional feeling dating from days of the Kingdom of East Francia that both election and coronation ought to take place on Frankish soil. However, the election location was not the only specified location; the bull specified that the coronation would take place in Aachen, and Nuremberg would be the place where the first diet of a reign should be held. The elections were to be concluded within thirty days; failing that, the bull prescribed that the Prince-Electors were to receive only bread and water until they had decided.

Besides regulating the election process, the chapters of the Golden Bull contained many minor decrees. For instance, it also defined the order of marching when the Emperor was present, both with and without his insignia.

A relatively major decision was made in chapter 15, where Charles IV outlawed any conjurationes, confederationes, and conspirationes, meaning in particular the city alliances (Städtebünde), but also other communal leagues that had sprung up through the communal movement in mediaeval Europe. Most Städtebünde were subsequently dissolved, sometimes forcibly, and were re-founded, their political influence was much reduced. Thus the Golden Bull also strengthened the nobility in general to the detriment of the cities.

The pope’s involvement with the Golden Bull of 1356 was basically nonexistent, which was significant in the history of relations between the popes and the emperors. When Charles IV laid down procedure for electing a King of the Romans, he mentioned nothing about receiving papal confirmation of the election. However, Pope Innocent VI did not protest this because he needed Charles’s support against the Visconti. Pope Innocent continued to have good relations with Charles IV after the Golden Bull of 1356 until the former’s death in 1362.

History of the Kingdom of East Francia: Conclusion

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Bavaria, Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa, Emperor Maximilian I, Franconia, Hohenstaufen Dynasty, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Empire, House of Habsburg, House of Hohenstaufen, House of Wittelsbach, King of the Romans, Kingdom of East Francia, Kingdom of Germany, Lotharingia (Lorraine), Saxony, Stem Duchy, Swabia (Alemannia).

I would like to briefly summarize not only the History of the Kingdom of East Francia but also it’s relevant and associated titles.

In 800 Charlemagne, King of the Franks, was crowned “Emperor of the Romans” by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day. This Empire, which was to be a restart of the old Roman Empire, is known as the Carolingian Empire. When Emperor Charlemagne died in 814 he left this Empire fully intact to his son Louis the Pious.

However, upon Louis’s death in 840 he divided the empire amongst his three surviving sons. After a brief Civil War between the royal brothers, it lead to the signing of the Treaty of Verdun in 843 which effectively divided the Empire. The third son of Louis the Pious, known as Louis the German, inherited the eastern portion of the Empire, logically known as the Kingdom of East Francia.

After the Carolingian Dynasty died out in the Kingdom of East Francia, the elective monarchy became the possession of the Dukes of Saxony with Heinrich the Fowler as the first German elected King of East Francia.

When his son, King Otto I of East Francia, was crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope John XII in 962 we see a transition from a Frankish Kingdom into a Germanic Kingdom, and from there the title of the monarch transitioned from King of East Francia to the King of Germany. Although as noted elsewhere in the series the title King of East Francia was still in usage for many many more years.

In other words, during the time of the Ottonian Dynasty there seems to be overlap with the titles “King of East Francia”, “King of Germany” and “King of the Romans” with these titles being used interchangeably, at least by modern historians.

Therefore, from the reign of King/Emperor Heinrich II the title King of the Romans was used by the German King following his election by the princes within the Empire, until he was crowned Emperor by the Pope.

In 1508, Emperor Maximilian I, adopted the title “Emperor Elect”, with papal approval, and dispensed with the Papal Coronation. Subsequent rulers adopted that title after their elections as kings. Using the title ” King of the Romans” became unnecessary due to the fact that the elected monarch did not need that title prior to a Papal Coronation that no longer existed.

Emperor Maximilian I

At the same time, the custom of having the heir-apparent elected as “King of the Romans” in the emperor’s lifetime resumed. For this reason, the title “King of the Romans” (Rex Romanorum) came to mean heir-apparent, the successor elected while the emperor was still alive.

Thus far I have been mostly talking about titles. However, the Kingdom of East Francia was not just a title. The kingdom had borders and land associated with the titles. But with the transformation from a Frankish Kingdom to a Germanic Kingdom and later the Holy Roman Empire, what became of the land known as the kingdom of East Francia?

The Kingdom of East Francia consisted of a series of tribal regions known as the Stem Duchies.

A stem duchy meaning “tribe”, in reference to the Franks, Saxons, Bavarians and Swabians was a constituent duchy of the Kingdom of East Francia at the time of the extinction of the Carolingian dynasty (death of Louis the Child in 911) and through the transitional period leading to the formation of the Ottonian Empire or, the Holy Roman Empire.

The Carolingians had dissolved the original tribal duchies of the Empire in the 8th century. As the Carolingian Empire declined, the old tribal areas assumed new identities. The five stem duchies (sometimes also called “younger stem duchies” in contrast to the pre-Carolingian tribal duchies) were: Bavaria, Franconia, Lotharingia (Lorraine), Saxony and Swabia (Alemannia).

Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa

The Salian Emperors (reigned 1027–1125) retained the stem duchies as the major regions of the lands that compromised the Kingdom Germany or corresponding to the Kingdom of East Francia. The rest of the regions of the Holy Roman Empire lay outside the German territories which mainly consisted of Italian lands such as the Kingdom of the Lombards, also known as the medieval Kingdom of Italy.

As the stem duchies became increasingly obsolete during the early high-medieval period, under the Hohenstaufen Dynasty, specifically Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa, who finally abolished the Stem Duchies in 1180 in favour of more numerous territorial duchies.

An example of the fate of one Stem Duchy, Swabia, mirrors the fate of many of the Stem Duchies. In the 13th century the Duchy of Swabia was in complete disarray, with its territories falling to the Wittelsbach, Württemberg, and Habsburg families. The main core territory of Swabia continued its existence as the County of Württemberg, which was raised to the status of a Duchy in 1495, which in turn became the Kingdom of Württemberg within 19th-century Germany.

With new territories rising from the ashes of the abolished Stem Duchies, these new territories became increasingly autonomous; and with that occurrence the Kingdom of East Francia can be considered to have drifted into the shadows of history by this time.

Nevertheless, there are relatively few references to a German kingdom distinct from the Holy Roman Empire.

March 2, 1835: Death of Emperor Franz I of Austria, Last Holy Roman Emperor

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Austrian Hereditary Lands, Bohemia, Croatia, Emperor of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor Franz II, Holy Roman Empire, House of Austria, House of Habsburg, Hungary, Napoléon of France, Treaty of Pressburg, War of the Third Coalition

Franz II or I (February 12, 1768 – March 2, 1835) was the last Holy Roman Emperor as Franz II (from 1792 to 1806), and the founder and Emperor of the Austrian Empire as Franz I (from 1804 to 1835).

Franz was a son of Emperor Leopold II (1747–1792) and his wife Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain (1745–1792), daughter of King Carlos III of Spain and Maria Amalia of Saxony.

Franz was born in Florence, the capital of Tuscany, where his father reigned as Grand Duke from 1765 to 1790. Though he had a happy childhood surrounded by his many siblings, his family knew Franz was likely to be a future Emperor (his uncle Joseph had no surviving issue from either of his two marriages), and so in 1784 the young Archduke was sent to the Imperial Court in Vienna to educate and prepare him for his future role.

After the death of Emperor Joseph II in 1790, Franz’s father became Emperor. He had an early taste of power while acting as Leopold’s deputy in Vienna while the incoming Emperor traversed the Empire attempting to win back those alienated by his brother’s policies.

The strain took a toll on Leopold and by the winter of 1791, he became ill. He gradually worsened throughout early 1792; on the afternoon of March 1, Emperor Leopold II died, at the relatively young age of 44. Francis, just past his 24th birthday, was now Emperor, much sooner than he had expected.

As the head of the Holy Roman Empire and the ruler of the vast multi-ethnic Habsburg hereditary lands, Franz II felt threatened by the French revolutionaries and later Napoleon’s expansionism as well as their social and political reforms which were being exported throughout Europe in the wake of the conquering French armies.

Emperor Franz II had a fraught relationship with France. His aunt Marie Antoinette, the wife of King Louis XVI and Queen consort of France, was guillotined by the revolutionaries in 1793, at the beginning of his reign, although, on the whole, he was indifferent to her fate.

Later, he led the Holy Roman Empire into the French Revolutionary Wars. He briefly commanded the Allied forces during the Flanders Campaign of 1794 before handing over command to his brother Archduke Charles. He was later defeated by Napoleon. By the Treaty of Campo Formio, he ceded the left bank of the Rhine to France in exchange for Venice and Dalmatia. He again fought against France during the War of the Second Coalition.

In the face of aggressions by Napoleon I, who had been proclaimed “Emperor of the French” by the French constitution on May 18, 1804, Franz II feared for the future of the Holy Roman Empire and wished to maintain his and his family’s Imperial status in case the Holy Roman Empire should be dissolved.

Therefore, on August 11, 1804 he created the new hereditary title of “Emperor of Austria” for himself and his successors as heads of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. For two years, Franz carried two imperial titles: being Holy Roman Emperor Franz II and “by the Grace of God” (Von Gottes Gnaden) Emperor Franz I of Austria.

The move of taking the title Emperor of Austria technically was illegal in terms of imperial law. Yet Napoleon had agreed beforehand and therefore it happened.

The reason Franz’s assuming the Imperial title for Austria was against imperial law was due to the fact the title of Holy Roman Emperor provided the highest prestige among European monarchs. Because at it’s onset the empire was considered by the Roman Catholic Church to be the only successor of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Thus, in theory and diplomacy, the Emperors were considered primus inter pares, regarded as first among equals among other Roman Catholics, and after the Reformation, the monarchs across Europe.

Therefore, the taking of another imperial title when the title of Holy Roman Emperor was considered primus inter pares was deemed taking a lesser title.

For the two years between 1804 and 1806, Francis used the title and style by the Grace of God elected Roman Emperor, ever Augustus, hereditary Emperor of Austria and he was called the Emperor of both the Holy Roman Empire and Austria.

Members of the House of Austria, the Habsburg Dynasty, had been the elected Holy Roman Emperors since 1438 (except for a five-year break from 1740 to 1745) and mostly resided in Vienna. Thus the term “Austrian emperor” may occur in texts dealing with the time before 1804, when no Austrian Empire existed.

In these cases the word Austria means the composite monarchy ruled by the dynasty, not the country. A special case was Maria Theresa; she bore the imperial title Empress as the consort of Emperor Franz I (r. 1745–1765), but she herself was the monarch of the Austrian Hereditary Lands including the Kingdoms of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia.

During the War of the Third Coalition, the Austrian forces met a crushing defeat at Austerlitz, and Emperor Franz II had to agree to the Treaty of Pressburg, which greatly weakened Austria and brought about the final collapse of the Holy Roman Empire.

In July 1806, under massive pressure from France, Bavaria and fifteen other German states ratified the statutes founding the Confederation of the Rhine, with Napoleon designated Protector, and they announced to the Imperial Diet their intention to leave the Empire with immediate effect.

Then, on July 22, Napoleon issued an ultimatum to Francis demanding that he abdicate as Holy Roman Emperor by August 10. Five days later, Emperor Franz II bowed to the inevitable and, without mentioning the ultimatum, affirmed that since the Peace of Pressburg he had tried his best to fulfil his duties as emperor but that circumstances had convinced him that he could no longer rule according to his oath of office, the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine making that impossible.

He added that “we hereby decree that we regard the bond which until now tied us to the states of the Empire as dissolved” in effect dissolving the empire. At the same time he declared the complete and formal withdrawal of his hereditary lands from imperial jurisdiction. After that date, he reigned as Franz I, Emperor of Austria.

On March 2, 1835, 43 years and a day after his father’s death, Franz died in Vienna of a sudden fever aged 67, in the presence of many of his family and with all the religious comforts.

His funeral was magnificent, with his Viennese subjects respectfully filing past his coffin in the chapel of Hofburg Palace for three days. Franz was interred in the traditional resting place of Habsburg monarchs, the Kapuziner Imperial Crypt in Vienna’s Neue Markt Square. He is buried in tomb number 57, surrounded by his four wives.

His eldest son succeeded him as Emperor Ferdinand of Austria and as King Ferdinand V of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia.

The Mutual Pact of Succession. Part I.

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Emperor Charles VI, Emperor Joseph I, Emperor Leopold I, House of Habsburg, King Carlos II of Spain, King Felipe V of Spain, The Mutual Pact of Succession, War of the Spanish Succession

Joseph I (July 26, 1678 – April 17, 1711) was Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy from 1705 until his death in 1711. He was the eldest son of Emperor Leopold I from his third wife, Eleonor Magdalene of Neuburg. Joseph was crowned King of Hungary at the age of nine in 1687 and was elected King of the Romans at the age of eleven in 1690. He succeeded to the thrones of Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire when his father died.

Marriage and lack of heirs

Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I, King of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia and Archduke of Austria

On February 24, 1699, he married Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg in Vienna. Wilhelmine Amalia was the youngest daughter of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Brunswick-Calenberg, and Princess Benedicta Henrietta of the Palatinate of the Rhine.

They had three children and their only son, Archduke Leopold Joseph, died of hydrocephalus before his first birthday. Joseph had a passion for love affairs (none of which resulted in illegitimate children) and he caught a sexually transmittable disease, probably syphilis, which he passed on to his wife while they were trying to produce a new heir. This incident rendered her sterile.

The Mutual Pact of Succession was devised by Emperor Leopold I, on the occasion of Archduke Charles’s departure for Spain. It stipulated that the claim to the Spanish realms was to be assumed by Archduke Charles, while the right of succession to the rest of the Habsburg hereditary dominions would rest with his elder brother Archduke Joseph, thereby again dividing the House of Habsburg into two lines.

The Pact also specified the succession to the brothers: they would both be succeeded by their respective heirs male but should one of them fail to have a son, the other one would succeed him in all his realms.

Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, King of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia and Archduke of Austria

However, should both brothers die leaving no sons, the daughters of the elder brother (Joseph) would have absolute precedence over the daughters of the younger brother (Charles) and the eldest daughter of Joseph would ascend all the Habsburg thrones.

The Mutual Pact of Succession was secretly signed by archdukes Joseph and Charles of Austria, the future emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, in 1703.

In 1700 the senior line of the House of Habsburg became extinct with the death of King Carlos II of Spain. The War of the Spanish Succession ensued, with Louis XIV of France and Navarre claiming the throne of Spain for his grandson Philippe, Duke of Anjou and Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I claiming them for his son Archduke Charles.

The Kingdom of Portugal, Kingdom of England, Scotland, Ireland and the majority of the Holy Roman Empire endorsed Archduke Charles’s candidature for the Spanish throne.

King Felipe V of Spain

Archduke Charles, as King Carlos III, as he was known, disembarked for his kingdom in 1705, and stayed there for six years, only being able to exercise his rule in Catalonia.

During the smallpox epidemic of 1711, which killed Louis, le Grand Dauphin and three siblings of the future Holy Roman Emperor Franz I, Emperor Joseph became infected. He died on April 17 in the Hofburg Palace. He had previously promised his wife to stop having affairs, should he survive.

At this point Archduke Charles “Carlos III of Spain” returned to Vienna to assume the imperial crown where he was elected as Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI.

Not wanting to see Austria and Spain in personal union again, the new Kingdom of Great Britain withdrew its support from the Austrian coalition, and the War of the Spanish Succession culminated with the Treaties of Utrecht and Rastatt three years later. The former, ratified in 1713, recognised Philippe, Duke of Anjou as King Felipe V of Spain.

The Life of Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of Further Austria and Count of Tyrol

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Anna de'Medici of Florence, Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria, Archduke Ferdinand Charles of Further Austria and Count of Tyrol, Claudia de'Medici of Florence, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, Holy Roman Empire, House of Habsburg, Philip III of Spain, Philip IV of Spain, Thirty Years War

Ferdinand Charles (May 17, 1628 – December 30, 1662) was the Archduke of Further Austria, including the County of Tyrol, from 1646 to 1662.

The Habsburgs, like all German Royal Families, would divide thier lands amongst the sons of the sovereign. This lead to various branches of the Hapsburg family ruling different parts of Austria. Archduke Ferdinand Charles was the ruler of Further Austria.

Further Austria, also called Outer Austria or Anterior Austria, was the collective name for the early (and later) possessions of the House of Habsburg in the former Swabian stem duchy of south-western Germany, including territories in the Alsace region west of the Rhine and in Vorarlberg.

Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of Further Austria and Count of Tyrol

While the territories of Further Austria west of the Rhine and south of Lake Constance (except Konstanz itself) were gradually lost to France and the Swiss Confederacy, those in Swabia and Vorarlberg remained under Habsburg control until the Napoleonic Era.

The various branches of the House of Habsburg, technically known as the House of Austria, was not united under one monarch until the extinction of the Tyrolean branch of the House of Habsburg in 1665, Further Austria and the County of Tyrol then came under the direct control of Emperor Leopold I. More on that below.

Archduke Ferdinand Charles was the son of Archduke Leopold V of Further Austria (1586 – 1632) and his wife Claudia de’ Medici a daughter of Ferdinando I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Christina of Lorraine.

Archduke Leopold V of Further Austria was the son of of Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria, (younger brother of Emperor Ferdinand II) and his wife, who was also his niece, Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria, the daughter of Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria and Archduchess Anna of Austria the third of fifteen children of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I (1503–1564) from his marriage with the Jagiellonian Princess Anna of Bohemia and Hungary (1503–1547).

Marriage

Anna de’ Medici

Archduke Ferdinand Charles married his double first cousin, Anna de’ Medici, a daughter of Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Archduchess Maria Magdalena of Austria († 1631) the youngest daughter of Charles II, Archduke of Inner Austria, and his wife Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria. The match was negotiated by Ferdinand Charles’ formidable mother.

Previously there were plans for Anna de’ Medici to marry Gaston, Duke of Orléans, the third son of King Henri IV of France and Navarre and his second wife, Marie de’ Medici, but that plan fell through.

Instead she became engaged to Archduke Ferdinand Charles of Further Austria. In 1646, Anna left her native Florence for Innsbruck to be married on June 10.

The couple preferred the attractions of the opulent Tuscan court to the mountains of Tyrol, and consequently were more often at Florence than at Innsbruck.

Archduke Ferdinand Charles succeeded his father as Archduke of Further Austria upon the latter’s death in 1632. His mother, Claudia de’ Medici, became regent for her son. Claudia was successful in keeping Tyrol out of the Thirty Years War.

Archduke Ferdinand Charles took over his mother’s governatorial duties when he came of age in 1646. To finance his extravagant living style, he sold goods and entitlements.

For example, he wasted the exorbitant sum which France had to pay to the Tyrolean Habsburgs for the cession of their fiefs west of the Rhine (Alsace, Sundgau and Breisach). He also fixed the border to Graubünden in 1652.

Archduke Ferdinand Charles was an absolutist ruler, did not call any diet after 1648 and had his chancellor Wilhelm Biener executed illegally in 1651 after a secret trial. On the other hand, he was a lover of music: Italian opera was performed in his court.

Ferdinand Charles and Anna de’Medici had three children:

1. Archduchess Claudia Felicitas of Austria (May 30, 1653 – April 8, 1676).
2. Daughter (born and died 19 July 1654), died at birth.
3. Archduchess Maria Magdalena of Austria (August 17, 1656 – January 21, 1669).

Archduke Ferdinand Charles of Further Austria died in Kaltern at the age of 34.

Widowhood of Anna, Archduchess of Further Austria

As Archduke Ferdinand Charles and Anna de’ Medici only had two surviving daughters, his younger brother Archduke Sigismund Franz, inherited his titles as Count of Tyrol and Archduke of Further Austria.

Archduke Sigismund Franz, Archduke of Further Austria and Count of Tyrol

On the eve of his marriage to another princess however, Sigismund Franz died in 1665. He was more able than his brother and could have made him a good ruler, but with his early death in 1665 the younger Tyrolean line of the Habsburg house ended.

This meant that the county reverted to direct rule from Vienna, as Emperor Leopold I, who as the heir male succeeded Sigismund Franz, took direct control over the government of Further Austria and Tyrol.

Despite the efforts of Anna to preserve some vestige of power for herself as Dowager Countess, she was unable to persuade Emperor Leopold to maintain some authority in Further Austria.

Her actions also stemmed from the fact that Anna wanted to protect the rights of her two daughters. This dispute would not be remedied until 1673, when her only surviving daughter, Archduchess Claudia Felicitas (Maria Magdalena had died in 1669) married her second cousin Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, the man responsible for the seizure of Further Austria and the County of Tyrol in the first place. Both were great-grandchildren of Charles II, Archduke of Inner Austria.

Archduchess Claudia Felicitas

She was his second wife. Emperor Leopold I had been previously married to Infanta Margaret Theresa of Spain, the elder full-sister of King Carlos II, the last of the Spanish Habsburgs.

Infanta Margaret Theresa was the first child of King Felipe IV of Spain born from his second marriage with his niece Archduchess Mariana of Austria, the second daughter of Emperor Ferdinand III and Infanta Maria Anna of Spain, daughter of King Felipe III of Spain and Archduchess Margaret of Austria, herself the daughter of the daughter of Archduke Charles II of Inner Austria and Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria.

Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor

Her parents had six children, of whom only Maria Anna and two brothers survived to adulthood; Ferdinand IV, King of the Romans, Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia (1633-1654), and Emperor Leopold I (1640-1705).

The Archduchess Claudia Felicitas, married the Emperor with the consent of her relatives, rejecting other suitors of her hand, including the widower James, Duke of York and future King of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Anna not only survived her husband by fourteen years but also outlived her eldest surviving daughter, who would die soon after her marriage to Emperor Leopold I. On September 11, 1676 in Vienna, Anna died aged sixty.