Archduchess Mary of Austria (September 15, 1505 – October 18, 1558), also known as Mary of Hungary, was Queen of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia as the wife of King Louis II of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia, and was later governor of the Habsburg Netherlands.
Archduchess Mary of Austria was the fifth child of King Felipe I of Castile and Queen Joanna of Castile. King Felipe was born a member of the House of Habsburg as Archduke Philipp of Austria the son of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, by his first wife Mary, Duchess of Burgundy. Archduke Philipp succeeded his mother as reigning Duke of Burgundy.
Archduchess Mary’s mother, Queen Joanna of Castile, was the daughter of Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Fernando II of Aragon. Infanta Joanna was married by arrangement to the Austrian Archduke Philipp the Handsome on October 20, 1496.
Following the deaths of her elder brother Infante Juan of Castile, elder sister Infanta Isabella, and nephew Infante Miguel da Paz, Prince of Portugal, between 1497 and 1500, Infanta Joanna became the heir presumptive to the crowns of Castile and Aragon. When her mother died in 1504, she became Queen Regnant of Castile.
Her father, King Fernando II of Aragon, proclaimed himself governor and administrator of Castile. King Fernando II of Aragon was also King of Castile from 1475 to 1504 (as King Fernando V). He reigned jointly with Isabella over a dynastically unified Spain; together they are known as the Catholic Monarchs.
King Fernando II-V of Castile and Aragon is considered the de facto first king of Spain, and was described as such during his reign, even though, legally, Castile and Aragon remained two separate kingdoms until they were formally united by the Nueva Planta decrees issued between 1707 and 1716.
Queen Joanna’s siblings were Infanta Isabella, Queen of Portugal; husband of King Manuel I of Portugal, Infante Juan, Prince of Asturias; Infanta Maria, Queen of Portugal; the second wife of King Manuel I of Portugal,and Infanta Catherine, Queen of England and Lady of Ireland; first wife of King Henry VIII of England and Ireland.
Archduchess Mary’s birth was very difficult; the Queen’s life was in danger and it took her a month to recover. On September 20, she was baptized by Nicolas Le Ruistre, Bishop of Arras, and named after her paternal grandmother, Mary of Burgundy, who had died in 1482. Her godfather was her paternal grandfather, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I.
On March 17, 1506, Emperor Maximilian I promised to marry her to Prince Louis of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia the first son of King Vladislaus II of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia and his third wife, Anne of Foix-Candale.
At the same time, the two monarchs decided that Archduke Ferdinand of Austria (future Emperor Ferdinand I) a brother of Archduchess Mary would marry Vladislaus’ daughter Princess Anne as stipulated by the First Congress of Vienna in 1515. At the time Archduke Ferdinand was a governor on behalf of his brother Emperor Charles V.
After King Vladislaus II’s death in 1516, the minor King Louis II ascended to the throne of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia. King Louis II was adopted by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I in 1515. When Maximilian I died in 1519, Louis’s cousin Georg, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, became his legal guardian.
Also in 1515 Archduchess Mary married King Louis II of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia. Their marriage was happy but short and childless. Upon her husband’s death following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, Queen Mary governed Hungary as regent in the name of the new king, her brother, Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria.
As Louis II’s brother-in-law Louis II, Ferdinand inherited and ruled as King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia (1526–1564). These Kingdoms formed a major part of the Habsburgs hereditary lands outside of the Holy Roman Empire and along with the Archduchy of Austria would form the Austrian Empire in 1804.
Following the death of their aunt, Archduchess Margaret in 1530, Mary was asked by her eldest brother, Emperor Charles V, to assume the governance of the Netherlands. Archduchess Margaret was the second child and only daughter of Hoy Roman Emperor Maximilian and Duchess Mary of Burgundy.
Margaret was named after her step-grandmother, Margaret of York, (1446 – 1503) was by marriage Duchess of Burgundy as the third wife of Charles the Bold. She was a daughter of Richard, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, and the sister of two kings of England, Edward IV and Richard III.
Emperor Charles V also asked Queen Mary to take over the guardianship over his nieces, Dorothea and Christina of Denmark, daughter’s of King Christian II of Denmark and Norway and Archduchess Isabella of Austria, sister of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
In 1532, Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan, proposed a marriage with Princess Christina of Denmark and Norway, who was then 11 years old. Charles agreed to the marriage and allowed its immediate consummation. Mary determinedly opposed this decision, explaining to Emperor Charles that Christina was too young for consummation of the marriage.
Emperor Charles ignored her, but she nevertheless managed to delay the marriage. She first told the Milanese envoy that her niece was ill and then took her to another part of the Netherlands for “serious affairs”. Christina was finally married on September 28, 1532, but Mary managed to postpone her departure until March 11, 1533.
Princess Christina and Francesco had no children. Francesco II Sforza died in October 1535, leaving her widowed when she was thirteen. On July 10, 1541, Christina married François, Duke of Lorraine in Brussels. François had been betrothed to Anne of Cleves, who became the fourth wife of Henry VIII of England.
As governor of the Netherlands, Mary faced riots and a difficult relationship with the Emperor. Throughout her tenure she continuously attempted to ensure peace between the Emperor and the King François I of France.
Although she never enjoyed governing and asked for permission to resign several times, the Queen succeeded in creating a unity between the provinces, as well as in securing for them a measure of independence from both France and the Holy Roman Empire. After her final resignation, the very frail Queen moved to Castile, where she died.