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Anne of Austria (1601–1666), queen of France. Anne of Austria, the eldest daughter of Philip III of Spain (ruled 1598–1621), married King Louis XIII of France (ruled 1610–1643) in 1615. After Louis's death, she became regent of the realm from 1643 to 1654 under the minority of her son Louis XIV (ruled 1643–1715). Her destiny illustrates how difficult the life of an early modern princess could be. Her wedding to the French king was a political tool used to strengthen the political and religious ties between the Spaniards and the French. The bride and groom were barely fourteen years old, and their characters were close to incompatible. Anne rarely if ever received a nightly visit from her husband for the four years that followed their wedding. But they became closer, and the queen was pregnant in 1622. A miscarriage due to her carelessness—she fell while running through the Louvre with her two closest friends—drew them apart. Louis became suspicious of his wife. As they had to fulfil their political and religious duties, they continued to have a marital life marked by other miscarriages and finally the births of two sons.
Anne, who wanted to play a political role in France, never won the trust of her husband and his principal minister, Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642). Things went from bad to worse when the duke of Buckingham, a favorite of the English king, fell in love with the queen. Deeply offended, Louis decreed that henceforth no male could visit her quarters unless he was present. Their relationship deteriorated as Louis tried to take control of the queen's entourage. In answer Anne involved herself in political plots. As a Spanish princess, she was especially outraged by the anti-Habsburg policy of Louis and Richelieu. France and Spain were at war, but she developed a secret correspondence with her brother, King Philip IV of Spain (ruled 1621–1665). Although she did not reveal any political secrets, she did write some strong anti-French sentiments. This was close to treason, and Anne narrowly escaped repudiation in 1637. Louis forgave her, and Anne gave birth to their first son on 5 September 1638.
Anne's priorities changed with the birth of the future Louis XIV and, two years later, the birth of her second son Philip. Afraid she could be deprived of their care, she grew closer to the policies adopted by her husband's government. This was too little too late, as the king did not have complete confidence in his wife. As he neared death, Louis XIII tried to limit her grip on power, bequeathing to Anne a regency council whose votes were to be binding. When Louis XIII died, she had his will broken by the Parlement of Paris. For the next ten years she governed France with the help of Cardinal Jules Mazarin (1602–1661), who succeeded Richelieu as principal minister.
Anne inherited a disastrous financial situation. She also had to face a political crisis as many grandees who had fled the authoritarian rule of the previous government came back to France. The regent had to satisfy their pleas to return to some benefits while satisfying as well the demands of those who had served her late husband. The number of solicitors was simply too large for what the regent had to offer. A movement nicknamed the "cabal of the important" loudly voiced the indignation of its adherents. Anne reacted quickly by arresting its leader, the duke of Beaufort. She thereby demonstrated that she had a strong will and that she intended to keep France on track for Louis XIV.
To the surprise of many, the Spanish regent and her Italian minister continued the financial and political policies of Louis XIII and Richelieu. Although everyone prayed for a peace with Spain, Anne was not ready to sacrifice her son's interests in favor of her Spanish relatives. Despite increased tensions within the realm, she raised old taxes and created new ones to meet the country's military needs. In doing so she was not afraid to attack some of the privileged members of French society. This policy had its dangers, and a period of civil wars known as the Fronde plagued the kingdom from 1648 to 1652. Even though the rebels' principal target was Cardinal Mazarin, Anne was not spared by her enemies. Nevertheless the two managed to put an end to the conflict. The return of peace within the kingdom allowed the queen to educate her son politically, and the war with Spain finally came to an end in 1659. With the help of Mazarin, Anne distilled in Louis's mind the idea of a king's greatness. A shaky marriage to a man who was indifferent toward her, an attachment to her native land, and the difficulties she had faced in the Fronde, during which she never failed France, did not prevent this Spanish princess from passing France's heritage to the Sun King.
Bibliography
Kleinman, Ruth. Anne of Austria: Queen of France. Columbus, Ohio, 1985.
Moote, A. Lloyd. Louis XIII the Just. Berkeley, 1989.
—MICHEL DE WAELE
| Wikipedia: Anne of Austria |
| Anne of Austria | |
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| Anne of Austria by Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1625 | |
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| Tenure | 24 November 1615 – 14 May 1643 |
| Spouse | Louis XIII of France |
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| Louis XIV of France Philippe I, Duke of Orléans |
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| House | House of Habsburg House of Bourbon |
| Father | Philip III of Spain |
| Mother | Margaret of Austria |
| Born | 22 September 1601 Benavente Palace, Valladolid, Spain |
| Died | 20 January 1666 (aged 64) Paris, France |
Anne of Austria (22 September 1601 – 20 January 1666) was Queen Consort of France and Navarre and regent for her son, Louis XIV of France. During her regency (1643–1651) Cardinal Mazarin served as France's chief minister. She is one of the central figures in Alexandre Dumas's novel, The Three Musketeers.
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Born at Benavente Palace in Valladolid, Spain, and baptised Ana María Maurícia, she was the daughter of Habsburg parents, Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria. She was styled Infanta of Spain and of Portugal, Archduchess of Austria, Princess of Burgundy and of the Low Countries.
Anne was betrothed at age 10 to Louis XIII. On 24 November 1615, they were married by proxy in Burgos while Louis's sister, Elizabeth, and Anne's brother, Philip IV of Spain, were married by proxy in Bordeaux. These marriages followed the tradition of cementing military and political alliances between France and Spain that began with the marriage of Philip II of Spain to Elisabeth of Valois in 1559 as part of the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis. Anne and Elisabeth were exchanged on the Isle of Pheasants, between Hendaye and Fuenterrabía.
Anne and Louis, both 14 years old, were pressured to consummate the marriage in order to forestall any possibility of future annulment, but Louis ignored his bride. Louis's mother, Marie de' Medici, continued to conduct herself as Queen of France, without any deference to her daughter-in-law. Anne, surrounded by her entourage of high-born Spanish ladies-in-waiting, continued to live according to Spanish etiquette and failed to improve her French.
In 1617, Louis conspired with Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes to dispense with the influence of his mother in a palace coup d'état, having her favorite Concino Concini assassinated on 26 April of that year. During the years he was in the ascendancy, the duc de Luynes attempted to remedy the formal distance between Louis and his queen. He sent away the Spanish ladies and replaced them with French ones, notably the princesse de Conti and Marie de Rohan-Montbazon, his wife, and organized court events that would bring the couple together under amiable circumstances. Anne began to dress in the French manner, and in 1619 Luynes pressed the King to bed his Queen: some affection developed, to the point where it was noted that Louis was distracted during a serious illness of the Queen.
A series of miscarriages disenchanted the King and served to chill their relations. On 14 March 1622, while playing with her ladies, Anne fell on a staircase and suffered her second miscarriage, for which Louis blamed her and was angry with Mme de Luynes for having encouraged the Queen in what was seen as negligence. Henceforth, the King had less tolerance for the influence the duchesse de Luynes had over Anne, and the situation deteriorated after the death of Luynes (December 1621). The King's attention was monopolized by his war against the Protestants, while the Queen defended the remarriage of her inseparable companion, center of all court intrigue, to her lover, the duc de Chevreuse, in 1622.
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| Emperor Charles V (King Charles I) |
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| Children |
| Philip II of Spain |
| Maria, Holy Roman Empress |
| Joan of Spain |
| Don John (illegitimate) |
| Margaret of Parma (illegitimate) |
| Philip II |
| Children include |
| Carlos, Prince of Asturias |
| Isabella of Spain |
| Catherine, Duchess of Savoy |
| Philip III of Spain |
| Maria of Spain |
| Philip III |
| Children include |
| Anne, Queen of France |
| Philip IV of Spain |
| Maria Ana, Holy Roman Empress |
| Infante Carlos |
| Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand |
| Philip IV |
| Children include |
| Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias |
| Maria Theresa, Queen of France |
| Margaret, Holy Roman Empress |
| Charles II of Spain |
| Charles II |
Louis turned now to Cardinal Richelieu as his advisor; Richelieu's foreign policy of struggle against the Habsburgs, who surrounded France on two fronts, inevitably created tension between himself and Anne, who remained childless for another sixteen years, while Louis depended ever more on Richelieu, who was his first minister from 1624.
Under the influence of la Chevreuse, the Queen let herself be drawn into political opposition to Richelieu and became embroiled in several intrigues against his policies. Vague rumors of betrayal circulated in the court, notably her supposed involvement with the conspiracies of the comte de Chalais that La Chevreuse organized in 1626, then of the king's treacherous lover, Cinq-Mars, who had been introduced by Richelieu.
In 1635, France declared war on Spain, placing the Queen in an untenable position. Her secret correspondence with her brother Philip IV of Spain passed beyond the requirements of sisterly affection. In August 1637, Anne was suspected, with enough cause that Richelieu forced her to sign covenants regarding her correspondence, which was henceforth open to inspection. The duchesse de Chevreuse was exiled and close watch was kept on the Queen.
Surprisingly, in such a climate of distrust, the Queen was soon pregnant once more, a circumstance that contemporary gossip attributed to a single stormy night that prevented Louis from travelling to Saint-Maur and obliged him to spend the night with the queen[1]. The Dauphin Louis Dieudonné was born on 5 September 1638, securing the Bourbon line.
The birth soon afterwards of a second son failed to reestablish confidence between the royal couple. It was at Saint-Germain-en-Laye that Anne gave birth to her second son; Philippe de France, duc d'Anjou and later the founder of the modern House of Orléans.
Richelieu made Louis a gift of his palatial hôtel, the Palais Cardinal, north of the Louvre in 1636, but the King never took possession: Anne fled the Louvre to install herself there with her two small sons, and remained as Regent (hence the name Palais-Royal the structure still carries) Louis tried to prevent Anne from obtaining the regency after his death, which came in 1643, not long after that of Richelieu.
Anne was named regent upon her husband's death. With the aid of Pierre Séguier, she had the Parlement de Paris revoke the will of the late king, which would have limited her powers. Their four-year-old son was crowned King Louis XIV of France. Anne assumed the regency but to general surprise entrusted the government to the chief minister, Jules Cardinal Mazarin, who was a protegé of Richelieu and figured among the council of the regency. Mazarin left the hôtel Tuboeuf to take up residence at the Palais Royal near Queen Anne. Before long he was believed to be her lover, and, it was hinted, even her husband.
With Mazarin's support, Anne overcame the revolt of aristocrats, led by Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, that became known as the Fronde. In 1651, when her son Louis XIV officially came of age, her regency legally ended. However, she kept much power and influence over her son until the death of Mazarin.
In 1659, the war with Spain ended with the Treaty of the Pyrenees. The following year, peace was cemented by the marriage of the young King to Anne's niece, the Spanish Habsburg princess Maria Theresa of Spain.
In 1661, on the death of Mazarin, Anne, always a principal patron of the Compagnie du Saint-Sacrament. It was in that year that an heir to the throne was born, her first grandchild Louis de France. Many children would follow but all would die apart from Louis. Some time after, Anne retired to the Compagnie's convent of Val-de-Grâce where she later died of breast cancer. Her lady-in-waiting, Madame de Motteville wrote the story of the queen's life in her Mémoires d'Anne d'Autriche. Many view her as a brilliant and cunning woman and she is one of the central figures in Alexandre Dumas, père's novel, The Three Musketeers.
 Anne as Infanta of Spain |
 Anne by Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1622-1625 |
 Anne of Austria by Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1577-1640 |
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Anna of Austria (1601-1666) |
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Anne of Austria
Born: 22 September 1601 Died: 20 January 1666 |
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| French royalty | ||
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| Preceded by Marie de' Medici |
Queen consort of France 24 May 1615–14 May 1643 |
Succeeded by Maria Theresa of Spain |
| Queen consort of Navarre 24 November 1615–1620 |
Unification titularly Maria Theresa of Spain
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| Portuguese royalty | ||
| Preceded by Infante Philip |
Princess of Portugal 1601–1605 |
Succeeded by Infante Philip |
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