November 30, 1699: Birth of Christian VI, king of Denmark and Norway

Tags

Augustus II of Poland, Augustus the Strong, Christian VI of Denmark and Norway, Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, Count Christian Ernst of Stolberg-Wernigerode, Queen of Poland, Sophie Magdalene of Brandenburg-Kulmbach

Christian VI (November 30, 1699 – August 6, 1746) was King of Denmark and Norway from 1730 to 1746. The eldest surviving son of Frederik IV and Louise of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, he is considered one of Denmark-Norway’s more anonymous kings, but he was a skilled politician, best known for his authoritarian regime.

He was the first king of the Oldenburg dynasty to refrain from entering in any war. During his reign both compulsory confirmation (1736) and a public, nationwide school system (1739) were introduced. His chosen motto was “Deo et populo” (for God and the people).

Early years

From 1706, Christian came to understand Danish but used German for everyday speaking and writing. He got a better education and acquired more knowledge than his father and grandfather. As Crown Prince he was allowed by his father to find a wife by himself. During a trip through Europe accompanied by Chancellor Ulrik Adolf Holstein, the Crown Prince decided on Sophie Magdalene of Brandenburg-Kulmbach.

Sophie Magdalene of Brandenburg-Kulmbach was born in Castle Schonberg, Bavaria, to Christian Heinrich, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth-Kulmbach by his wife, Countess Sophie Christiane of Wolfstein. Sophie Magdalene of Brandenburg-Kulmbach was raised at the court of the Queen of Poland, Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. Sophie Magdalene was one of the ladies-in-waiting at the court of the Saxon-Polish Queen Christiane Eberhardine. Christiane Eberhardine was the wife of Augustus II the Strong, was Elector of Saxony from 1694 as well as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.

Sophia Magdalene came from a minor margraviate (not greater than Lolland-Falster) of the Hohenzollern dynasty where able consciousness was inversely proportional to the funds; half of the land was mortgaged, and her father died young. She had 13 siblings and was considered an unequal match for the Danish Prince, but the king gave his permission. In Christian’s letters, he describes his feelings for the princess’s intense religiosity, which reminded him of his own. They were married on August 7, 1721, while Christian was crown prince. The wedding was held at Pretzsch in Saxony.

The king was shy and introverted by nature, and stayed away from the public. Christian’s indignation at his father’s bigamy and general promiscuity – the reason for the great sorrow of his late mother – led him to one of his first government actions: reversing his father’s will and depriving widow Queen Anna Sophie, (Frederik IV’s third wife if all “marriages” are counted, second wife if bigamous marriages excluded), of a large part of the wealth she had inherited before exiling her to the Clausholm estate, her childhood home.

For the first ten years of his government he consulted often with his cousin, Count Christian Ernst of Stolberg-Wernigerode. The count took part in almost everything, from the dismissal of cooks in the Queen’s kitchen to determining alliance policy. He encouraged the king as long as possible to maintain the English alliance, which led to the marriage between Louise, the daughter of George II of Great Britain with the king’s elder son Frederick Louis, Prince ofWales.

In 1733, the royal couple travelled to Norway. A poem/speech by Peter Höyer was performed in his honor when he visited the city of Trondheim on July 18.

Christian’s central domestic act was the introduction of the so-called adscription of 1733 (in Danish, stavnsbånd), a law that forced peasants to remain in their home regions, and by which the peasantry was subjected to both the local nobility and the army. Though the idea behind this law was probably to secure a constant number of peasant soldiers, it later was widely regarded as the ultimate subjugation of the Danish peasantry, and damaged Christian VI’s reputation. The act would later be abolished in 1788.

Christian’s foreign policy was a peaceful one and Denmark-Norway kept strictly neutral. In both trade and commerce, it was an age of advancement; some new companies and banks were founded. His plans to make their only daughter, Princess Louise, Queen of Sweden never came to fruition. During the election of the heir to the Swedish throne, both the prince of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld and the prince of Mecklenburg were considered as candidates to be heir to the childless King Frederick I of Sweden. In 1743, Adolf Frederik of Holstein-Gottorp was elected Swedish heir.

From his youth, Christian VI was sickly and chronically ill. On August 6, 1746 – the day before his silver marriage anniversary – the king died on Hirschholm Palace. Christian VI was interred in Roskilde Cathedral. The neoclassical memorial designed and produced by sculptor Johannes Wiedewelt was commissioned by the king’s widow who upon his death.
The marble monument was completed in 1768, but not installed at Roskilde Cathedral until 1777.

The monument includes a sarcophagus and two female figures, “Sorgen” (“Sorrow”) and “Berømmelsen” (“Fame”). This was the first neoclassical sarcophagus in Denmark and is considered to mark the start of neoclassicism in that country.

Archduchess Catherine of Austria, Queen of Poland: Conclusion

Tags

Archduchess Catherine of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, House of Jagiellon, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Queen of Poland, Sigismund II Augustus of Poland

Failed marriage

As Sigismund lost all hope of children by his third bride; he was the last male Jagiellon in the direct line so the dynasty was threatened with extinction. He sought to remedy this by adultery with two of the most beautiful of his countrywomen, Barbara Giza and Anna Zajączkowska but was unable to impregnate either of them.

The Sejm was willing to legitimize, and acknowledge as Sigismund’s successor, any male heir who might be born to him; however, the King remained childless.

In October 1562, at the wedding of Catherine Jagiellon and Duke John of Finland, the couple saw each other for the last time. Catherine lived in Vilnius and Hrodna before being sent to Radom in April 1563. 40-year-old Sigismund sought to obtain annulment of the marriage as he wanted to marry for the fourth time and secure a male heir.

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 July 1564, Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, died and was succeeded by his son 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 8 October 1566.

In a letter written to Albert, Duke of Prussia, a day before her departure, Catherine expressed her resolve to one day return to Poland.
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.

Sigismund 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.

The King’s marriage was a matter of great political import to Protestants and Catholics alike. The Polish Protestants hoped that he would divorce and remarry and thus bring about a breach with Rome at the very crisis of the religious struggle in Poland.

Catherine died on February 28, 1572 and was buried in castle’s chapel. When Rudolf 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.

King Sigismund II Augustus was now free to remarry but he followed Catherine to the grave less than six months later. Sigismund died at his beloved Knyszyn on July 6, 1572, aged 51. After a brief interrex, Henri de Valois of France was elected in the first royal elections as monarch of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1573. However, he soon fled to France after the death of his brother Charles IX of France to inherit the French throne as King Henri III. He was deposed by the Sejm on May 12, 1575 after not returning to Poland. Shortly thereafter, Sigismund’s sister, Anna, was crowned Queen on December 15. She later married Stefan Batory who ruled Poland jure uxoris since May 1, 1576.

Archduchess Catherine of Austria, Queen of Poland. Part I.

Tags

Anna of Hungary and Bohemia, Catherine of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, House of Jagiellon Kingdom of Poland, Queen of Poland, Sigismund II of Poland

Catherine of Austria (September 15, 1533 – February 28, 1572) was one of the fifteen children of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. Her mother, Anna of Bohemia and Hungary was the elder child and only daughter of King Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary (1456–1516) and his third wife Anne of Foix-Candale. King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia was her younger brother. Her paternal grandparents were King Casimir IV of Poland (of the Jagiellon dynasty) and Elisabeth of Austria, herself a daughter of Albert II of Germany, Archduke of Austria, and his wife Elizabeth of Luxembourg, daughter of Emperor Sigismund.

Anna of Bohemia and Hungary was the heiresses of the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Duchy of Luxembourg and the Duchy of Kujavia. Her maternal grandparents were Gaston de Foix, Count of Candale, and Catherine de Foix, an Infanta of the Kingdom of Navarre. She is maternally, 9 times great grandmother to Her Majesty, Queen Victoria.

Catherine of Austria spent most of her childhood at Hofburg, Innsbruck and received education based on discipline and religion. She learned Italian and Latin languages. On March 17, 1543, Catherine was betrothed to Francesco III Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Marquess of Montferrat, reflecting her father’s desire to strengthen Habsburg influence against France in northern Italy, particularly Milan.

Both Catherine and Francesco were 9 and 10 years old at the time, so the wedding took place six years later on October 22, 1549. In October 1549, Catherine with a dowry of 100,000 Rhine florins was escorted by her elder brother Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria from Innsbruck to Mantua. The marriage lasted only four months as Francesco drowned in Lake Como on February 21, 1550, and a widowed Catherine returned home to Innsbruck. To improve Catherine’s chances of a better second marriage, the Habsburgs claimed that the marriage was not consummated.

In May 1551, after the death of his second scandalous wife Barbara Radziwiłł, King Sigismund II Augustus became a widower. Emperor Ferdinand I pursued the marriage between his daughter Catherine and Sigismund to create a pro-Habsburg group within the Polish court.

Particularly, Emperor Ferdinand wanted to prevent Polish assistance to Sigismund’s sister Isabella Jagiellon and her son John Sigismund Zápolya in the succession disputes over the Kingdom of Hungary. Both Catherine and Sigismund personally opposed the marriage. Catherine blamed Sigismund of mistreating and causing the early death of her older sister and his first wife Elizabeth of Austria. Sigismund feared that Catherine would be similarly unattractive and of frail health as Elisabeth. However, the Habsburgs threatened to create an anti-Polish alliance with the Tsardom of Russia.

In early 1553, Mikołaj “the Black” Radziwiłł traveled to the court of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, in an attempt to persuade the emperor to cease his assistance to Czar Ivan IV the Terrible. Radziwiłł had further orders to travel to investigate marriage opportunities with Mechthild of Bavaria or one of the daughters of Ercole II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara.

However, the Emperor convinced Radziwiłł that marriage between Catherine and Sigismund was best. Radziwiłł wrote enthusiastic letters to Sigismund, who soon gave in and gave his consent on April 10, 1553. The papal dispensation (they were first cousins once removed) was received on May 20, and the wedding treaty was signed on June 23. The same day the per procura wedding took place. The actual wedding was delayed due to Sigismund’s ill health from July 1 to July 30. The celebrations lasted 10 days. Catherine’s dowry was 100,000 florins as well as 500 grzywnas of silver, 48 expensive dresses, and about 800 jewels.

Life with Sigismund

Catherine spoke Italian and therefore could communicate with Queen mother Bona Sforza and her family. She was ambitious and tried to gain political influence in the Polish court which caused Sigismund’s ire. At least at first, he attempted to do right by his wife – he needed an heir and was acutely aware of the criticism of his treatment of his first wife Elizabeth of Austria.

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 25 May 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.

Relatively normal, albeit somewhat distant, the marriage continued for a few more years. It seems that Catherine accompanied her husband to general sejm in spring 1555 and to the per procura wedding of Sophia Jagiellon and Heinrich, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg in January 1556. She also continued to mediate between her husband and her father, carried frequent correspondence with Albert, Duke of Prussia, and was known for generally favorable views on Protestantism. Catherine’s dowry was paid by her father at the end of 1555 or very early 1556, and on 19 January 1556, she received the towns of Wiślica, Żarnów, Radom, Nowy Korczyn, Kozienice, Chęciny, and Radoszyce.

In the spring of 1556, the Queen mother Bona Sforza returned to her native Italy and her two yet-unmarried daughters, Anna Jagiellon and Catherine Jagiellon, moved to Vilnius. It seems that the three women became close. In summer 1558, the royal family returned to Poland. In October, Catherine became severely ill, but the cause of the illness is unknown as she would not allow Polish doctors near her. When her father sent a couple of Austrian doctors, they reported only high fever and chills.

She recovered somewhat only in spring 1559 but her recovery was interrupted by frequent travels in summer 1559 to avoid a plague outbreak. Catherine returned to Vilnius only in early 1560 and became ill again. Sigismund was convinced that it was epilepsy, the same disease that tormented his first wife and Catherine’s sister. Their marriage became very distant.

July 7, 1528: Birth of Archduchess Anna of Austria, Duchess consort of Bavaria.

Tags

Albert V of Bavaria, Archduchess Anna of Austria, Archduke of Austria, Archduke of Austria and Johanna, Barbara, Catherine, Charles II, Duchess consort of Bavaria, Duchess of Ferrara, Duchess of Mantua, Duchess of Tuscany, Eleanor, Elizabeth, Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, House of Habsburg, House of Wittelsbach, Maximilian II, Queen of Poland

Archduchess Anna of Austria (July 7, 1528 – October 16, 1590), was a member of the Imperial House of Habsburg, and she was Duchess of Bavaria from 1550 until 1579, by her marriage with Duke Albrecht V.

Born at the Bohemian court in Prague, Anna was the third of fifteen children of King Ferdinand I (1503–1564) from his marriage with the Jagiellonian princess Anna of Bohemia and Hungary (1503–1547). Her siblings included: Elizabeth, Queen of Poland, Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria, Catherine, Queen of Poland, Eleanor, Duchess of Mantua, Barbara, Duchess of Ferrara, Charles II, Archduke of Austria and Johanna, Duchess of Tuscany.

Archduchess Anna of Austria

Anna’s paternal grandparents were King Felipe I of Castile and his wife Queen Joanna I. Her maternal grandparents were King Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary and his third wife Anne de Foix.

Life

Young Anna was engaged several times as a child, first to Prince Theodor of Bavaria (1526–1534), the eldest son of Duke Wilhelm IV, then to Charles d’Orléans (1522–1545). However, both died at a young age.

Anna finally married on July 4, 1546 in Regensburg at the age of 17, Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria the younger brother of her first fiancé. Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria (1528-1579) was Duke of Bavaria from 1550 until his death. He was born in Munich to Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria and Princess Maria Jacobäa of Baden.

The wedding gift was 50,000 Guilder. This marriage was part of a web of alliances in which her uncle Emperor Charles V hoped to secure Duke Wilhelm IV’s support before embarking on the Schmalkaldic Wars. Indeed, Duke Wilhelm IV, though he remained formally neutral, granted the passage of Imperial troops to march against the forces of the Schmalkaldic League which besieged the Ingolstadt fortress.

Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria

After their marriage, the young couple lived at the Trausnitz Castle in Landshut, until Albrecht became duke upon his father’s death on March 7, 1550. At the Munich Residenz, Anna and Albrecht had great influence on the spiritual life in the Duchy of Bavaria, and enhanced the reputation of Munich as a city of art, by founding several museums and laying the foundations for the Bavarian State Library.

Anna and Albrecht were also patrons to the painter Hans Muelich and the Franco-Flemish composer Orlande de Lassus. In 1552, the duke commissioned an inventory of the jewelry in the couple’s possession. The resulting manuscript, still held by the Bavarian State Library, was the Jewel Book of the Duchess Anna of Bavaria (“Kleinodienbuch der Herzogin Anna von Bayern“), and contains 110 drawings by Hans Muelich.

A religious woman, Anna made extensive donations to the Catholic abbey of Vadstena in Sweden and generously supported the Franciscan Order. She also provided a strict education of her grandson, the later Elector Maximilian I of Bavaria.

When her husband died on October 24, 1579 and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Wilhelm V, Anna as Dowager Duchess maintained her own court at the Munich Residenz. 150 years after her death in 1590, her descendant Elector Charles I of Bavaria used her marriage treaty with Albrecht as a pretext to claim the Austrian and Bohemian crown lands of the Habsburg Monarchy.