Anna of Austria (1573-1598)
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Anna of Austria
Coronation	as Queen of Poland on May 31, 1592 in the Wawel Cathedral, Kraków, Poland as Queen of Sweden on March 1, 1594 in the Uppsala Cathedral, Uppsala, Sweden
Coat of Arms
Parents	Charles II of Austria Maria Anna of Bavaria
Consort	Sigismund III Vasa
Date of Birth	August 16, 1573
Place of Birth	Graz, Austria
Date of Death	February 10, 1598
Place of Death	Warsaw, Poland
Place of Burial	Wawel Castle, Kraków, Poland

Anna of Austria, or Anna of Habsburg (Polish:Anna Austriaczka,^[1] Anna Habsburżanka, Anna Rakuszanka) (Graz August 16, 1573 - Warsaw February 10, 1598) was and Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Poland and Sweden.

Biography

Anna was a daughter of Charles II of Austria and Maria Anna of Bavaria. Her paternal grandparents were Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anne of Bohemia (1503–1547), daughter of King Ladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary and his wife Anne de Foix. Her maternal grandparents were Albert V, Duke of Bavaria and Anna of Austria.

She was also a younger sister of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, Margaret of Austria, Leopold V of Austria and an older sister of Constance of Austria.

Anna became the first wife of Sigismund of Poland and Sweden on May 31, 1592. This marriage was opposed by many nobles (szlachta) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, who were opposed to the alliance with the Habsburgs that Sigismund pursued.

When Sigismund sent a diplomatic mission, lead by Cardinal Radziwill, to Prague for his bride, the anti-Habsburg party with chancellor Jan Zamoyski guarded the borders to prevent the Archprincess from entering the country. Anna evaded the guards, arrived in Kraków and was crowned in May 1592 by Primas Karnkowski as the Queen of Poland and two years later, in 1594, in Sweden, as the Queen of Sweden. During her stay in Sweden, she became involved in a conflict with Dowager Queen Gunilla Bielke.

Although not very beautiful, she and Sigismund fell in love and Anna gained the friendship and respect of many of her former enemies with her politeness and culture. It was during her lifetime that Sigismund moved the capital of the Commonwealth from Kraków to Warsaw.

They had five children, but only Wladislaw lived to become an adult:

1. Anna Maria (23 May 1593 - 9 February 1600)
2. Catherine (19 April 1594 - 16 May 1594)
3. Vladislaus (9 June 1595 - 20 May 1648), (reigned 1632-1648 as Władysław IV Waza of Poland)
4. Catherine (27 September 1596 - 2 June 1597)
5. Christopher (10 February 1598 - 10 February 1598)

Anna died on February 10, 1598 and Sigismund III then married her sister Constance Renate of Habsburg.

Ancestors

Gallery

Anna of Austria in Spanish dress (saya), portraited by Polish court painter Marcin Kober in the 1590s.

Vasa Gate at the Wawel built in 1595 by king Sigismund III to commemorate the birth of his heir.

Her coffin in the Sigismund's Crypt under the Wawel Cathedral (second from the left).

Notes

1. ^ Anna Austriaczka is more often used for the Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII of France.