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Albert of Prussia, Archduchess Catherine of Austria, Emperor Ferdinand I, Emperor Maximilian II, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Henry V of Brunswick-Lüneburg, King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, Pope Pious IV
With the death of Queen Barbara Radziwiłł, five months after Catherine’s coronation and under distressing circumstances, compelled Sigismund to contract a third, purely political union with his first cousin, the Austrian Archduchess Catherine, to avoid an Austro-Russian alliance.
Archduchess Catherine was also the sister of his first wife, Elizabeth. Catherine, unlike previous queens, was considered dull and obese. Sigismund Augustus found her immensely unattractive despite accepting the marriage and organizing a pompous wedding ceremony on July 30, 1553.
On the other hand, Catherine showed resentment towards Sigismund because of how he treated her sister and first wife, Queen Elizabeth. She accused him of negligence and indifference during her sudden illness, which caused premature death. The correspondence between the two remained purely formal and political for the remainder of their lives.
Understandably their marriage was not happy and they had no children together.
As the couple were somewhat distant, the marriage continued for a few more years.
In February 1554, the royal couple separated for the first time. Catherine was in Parczew while Sigismund attended general Sejm in Lublin. According to royal secretary Michał Trzebuchowski, the queen was very upset by the separation and kept crying. When Sigismund visited his wife on April 9–10, Catherine informed him that she was pregnant.
At the end of April, the royal couple traveled to Lithuania and on May 25 reached Vilnius where with short breaks Catherine lived for nine years. It is unclear whether it was a miscarriage, false pregnancy, or an intrigue, but there was no birth in October 1554.
In July 1564, Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, died and was succeeded by his son as Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II. The new emperor sent his diplomats Andreas Dudith and Wilhelm von Kurzbach to try to reconcile the couple, or if that failed, to convince Sigismund to allow her to leave Poland. The plan for Catherine to leave was discussed in May 1565.
Initially Sigismund refused, fearing that it would only increase the anti-Polish sentiment in the Habsburg court, but later changed his mind because he believed that Catherine’s departure would make it easier to obtain a divorce. In late 1565, she departed to Wieluń, but Polish nobles interfered and her departure to Vienna was delayed until October 8, 1566.
It seems that Catherine accompanied her husband to general sejm in spring 1555 and to the per procura wedding of Sophia Jagiellon and Heinrich V, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg in January 1556. She also continued to mediate between her husband and her father, carried frequent correspondence with Albrecht, Duke of Prussia, and was known for generally favorable views on Protestantism.
In January 1565, Sigismund complained to papal nuncio Giovanni Francesco Commendone that marriage to Catherine was sinful because she was a sister of his first wife, that she hated Poland, that she caused the miscarriage in 1554, and that he was physically disgusted by his wife due to her epilepsy. Due to Habsburg influence, Pope Pius IV did not allow the divorce.
In 1565, Catherine returned to Austria. Catherine did not receive a warm welcome in Vienna as she was blamed for the failed marriage. Emperor Maximilian II extended her stay and wanted to meet with Sigismund personally to discuss the issue, but he refused.
In March 1567, Andreas Dudith relayed that Sigismund categorically refused to live with Catherine (reportedly, he once said that he would gladly become a monk if that meant he could get rid of Catherine) and that he would not protest if Catherine remained in Austria.
In a letter written to Albrecht, Duke of Prussia, a day before her departure, Catherine expressed her resolve to one day return to Poland.
King Sigismund II Augustus would not specify where Catherine should live if she returned to Poland and would not allot money for her court, in effect precluding her from returning. In June 1567, Catherine became seriously ill with what doctors called melancholia. After recovering, in October, she moved to Linz to live out the remaining five years of her life.
According to a witness, Catherine lived like a widow. She received 28,000 guldens annually from Sigismund for her court of more than fifty people. She was visited by her family, she studied the Bible and other theological works, and established a garden for medicinal herbs which produced various herbal remedies.
It seems that she still wanted to return to Poland: she tearfully asked Giovanni Francesco Commendone for help when he visited her twice and kept writing letters to her husband. In her last will, she asked her husband for forgiveness and left him all the jewellery she had received from him. The majority of her money was left for charity.
Catherine died on February 28, 1572 and was buried in castle’s chapel. When Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor, ordered reconstruction of the castle, her body was moved to the St. Florian Monastery on September 22, 1599. A funeral was not organized until September 22, 1614 during the reign of Emperor Matthias. The surviving sarcophagus was built in 1781.