Tags
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.