Anna of the Austrian biography

Meanwhile, this woman played an outstanding role in the events of the stormy XVII century. She was loved and hated by the cardinals of Richelieu and Mazarini, the king of France and the Duke of Bekingham. Who was Queen Anna Austrian - a humble victim of circumstances or a skilled intriguer who performed the fate of Europe? Portrait of Anna of the Austrian brush of Rubens.

A strip of gilded carriages, a caravan of mulm with baggage and a whole guard army accompanied just one person - a frightened girl of fourteen years old. She had to reconcile the long -hostile dynasties of the Habsburgs and French Bourbon. The poor thing woven from longing in a foreign country, while the young Spaniard was quite mastered in France, where she received the name of Anna of Austrian.

What does Austria have to do with it? The fact is that the Habsburgs came from this country, and besides, Anna Margarita’s mother was an Austrian princess. Therefore, the girl was not like a Spaniard little: blond, slightly curly hair, white skin, a small elegant nose. And the corporate sign of the Habsburgs is a capriciously protruding lower lip. Only dark brown, almost black, eyes talking about the ardor of feelings, resembled the Spanish blood.

However, these feelings almost never broke out: the princess was brought up in the indestructible traditions of court etiquette, which turned crowned persons into real martyrs. For example, the king did not have the right to pour his fault - this was done by the vine, who transferred the cup to the court doctor, two ministers and only then to the king. An empty cup with the same ceremonies was returned to its place.

From the difficulties of etiquette, foreigners unusual for it were especially suffering. On the way to the Madrid of the Austrian Princess Maria - the future second wife of Philip IV - was a gift from silk stockings, but the Majord immediately threw a gift, cutting off: "The Queen of Spain has no legs." Poor Maria fainted, deciding that her legs would sacrifice the monster of etiquette.

Anna Philip III’s father died of a fucker: his chair stood too close to the fireplace, and the only Grand that could push him away was led somewhere. But it was Philip IV that brought etiquette to perfection. They said that he smiled no more than three times in his life and demanded the same from his loved ones. The French messenger Berto wrote: "The king acted and walked with the appearance of a revived statue ...

He took the close associates, listened and answered them with the same expression on his face, and only his lips moved from all parts of his body." The same etiquette forced the Spanish monarchs to remain prisoners of the palace, because beyond its borders it was unthinkable to observe hundreds of rules and conventions. The grandfather of Anna Philip II, the great sovereign and the bloody executioner of the Protestants, built a luxurious and gloomy castle of Escoral near Madrid, but his descendants preferred a more modest Alcasar.

Juan Pantoha de la Cruz. Children's portrait of Anna Austrian. In the afternoon, court, jesters and dwarfs were teemed in both in both teeming, but after sunset, not a single man except the king could remain in the female territory. The honor of the Queen or Princess was supposed to remain beyond suspicion. Even a touch to the hand of crowned ladies was punishable by death.

There is a known case when two officers pulled the infanta Maria Teresia from the saddle of the furious horse. They immediately had to jump to the border at full speed, saving their lives. The life of Anna born in September, like other Spanish princesses, was subordinated to a strict routine. Early upsurge, prayer, breakfast, then a watch of study. Young infantics were trained in sewing, dancing and writing, crammed the sacred history and genealogy of the reigning dynasty.

This was followed by a solemn dinner, daytime sleep, then the games or chatter with maids of honor every princess had its own court of the court. Then again, long prayers and going to bed - exactly ten in the evening. Of course, the girls had the best toys and unprecedented goodies brought from the overseas possessions of Spain. Anna especially loved chocolate, to which she later chopped the French.

But, in truth, she lived not particularly fun - strict dukes since childhood did not allow her to laugh, to run, nor play with her peers. Add to this tough and uncomfortable dresses with a frame of a whale mustache and a train dragging on the ground. In addition, she knew that she was deprived of all freedom of choice - at three years she was enlightened for the French dofin Louis.

The feelings of the infanta itself did not play any role. What will her groom turn out to be - handsome or freak, kind or evil? Anna was exhausted with curiosity while her motorcade slowly moved along the roads of France. France Pourbus the Younger. The French courtyard, where he grew up, was not at all like Spanish. Here, laughter and sebaceous jokes were heard, marital treason was discussed, and the king and the queen were almost openly cheating on each other.

Heinrich IV, forever busy with business, loved his son, but almost did not pay attention to him, and his mother, Italian Maria Medici, visited him only to put the slap in the face or whip off with rods for any fault. It is not surprising that Dauphin grew up with a closed, changeable, obsessed with many complexes. One of them, as Guy Breton writes, was the attitude to the future wife.Already at three years old he said about her like this: "She will sleep with me and give birth to a child to me." And then he frowned: “No, I do not want her.

She is a Spaniard, and the Spaniards are our enemies. ” Now he was exhausted from the desire to get acquainted with his bride as soon as possible. Without waiting for her arrival in Bordeaux, he galloped towards and first saw Anna in the carriage window. She seemed so beautiful to Louis that he was scorched and could not say a word to her. The same story repeated in the evening at a solemn banquet on the occasion of the engagement.

In Paris, after the wedding of the young, the wedding bed was waiting, but Louis was so scared that his mother had to almost force him to push him into the bedroom where Anna was waiting. Together with the young spouses, two maids spent the night there, who in the morning presented a crowd of court evidence that "the marriage was carried out properly." However, the desired heir was never conceived - neither that night, nor for the next ten years.

However, the Queen Maria and her lover were refueling all the affairs - the greedy and cowardly Italian death. They were hated by the whole country, but Konchini, who wore the title of the first minister, was held with the help of intrigues and bribery. And when the gathered parliament demanded his resignation, the young Bishop Luzon with skillful arguments bowed the gathered to the side of the Italian.

The bishop was called Arman-Jan de Richelieu, and in the near future it was he who was to become the true Lord of France. Charles Eduar business. Cardinal Richelieu and his cat Source: Wikimedia Commons Louis also did not endure his death and did not have warm feelings for his mother. He expressed his youthful protest in the fact that he tried not to resemble them. They changed bright outfits daily - he wore a simple dry caftan.

They arranged holidays - he spent days in prayers. They liberated - he decided to become a model of chastity. They say that after the first wedding night, he "did not look at his wife's bedroom for four years." He heard the sermons of the Holy Fathers, he sincerely considered all the women to be insidious tempters. Not only his wife, but also to all court ladies, he forbade to wear too frank neckline and tight -fitting dresses so that their appearance would not distract him from pious thoughts.

At the same time, the king very gently behaved with pretty young states, which gave rise to a wave of rumors in Paris. One of these favorites, Albert de Luin, was a master of bird training, and Louis spent whole days with him on a falcon hunt, completely forgetting about his wife. Together, they developed a conspiracy against a hated favorite. In April, Konchini was stopped by the guards at the gates of the palace and was immediately struck by three bullets.

The next day, King Mary was put under house arrest, and then sent to Blois. The faithful Queen Bishop Richelieu was also expelled. But soon he received a red hat of the cardinal, and the sudden death of de Luyna freed the chair of the first minister for him. Returning to the capital, he took an important place at the court. He was helped by a sharp mind, unique memory and cold ruthlessness when achieving his goals.

Since the year, Richelieu ruled France, suppressing folk riots and conspiracies of the nobility with an iron hand. An extensive secret service worked for him, which was headed by a devoted “Gray Cardinal” - father Joseph Du Tramble. Richelieu spies appeared not only in all layers of French society, but also in many European courtyards. Portrait of Anna Austrian. About a year source: Wikimedia Commons has so far been in the country, the young queen led a boring life in the Louvre.

Louis found a lot of classes - he prayed, hunted, grown fruits and cooked jam from them. After death, someone composed a malicious epitaph to him: “What an excellent servant would come out of this worthless monarch! It took the efforts of the Roman pope and the Spanish ambassador so that Louis appeared in his wife’s bedroom, but the “honeymoon” and this time turned out to be short -lived.

Nevertheless, the queen did not want to cheat on her husband, despite the persuasion of her closest girlfriend - a burned intriguer and libertine of the Duchess Marie De Sheverez. And here, Cardinal Richelieu unexpectedly joined the “education” of the Queen. Despite his rank, he was not alien to women. They talked about his close relations with Queen Maria after the death of death.

Now he decided to win the Queen's heart. Parisian gossipers claimed that the cardinal hopes to do what Louis failed - to conceive the heir and build him to the throne of France. It is more likely that he just wanted to keep the queen “under the cap”, preventing her from getting involved in any conspiracy. It cannot be excluded that Richelieu was simply carried away by Anna, whose beauty reached the heyday of her 24 years, he was almost 40 years old.

She was conquered by the mind of the Cardinal, delighted his eloquence, but the male spell left her indifferent.