Joanna of Austria(GermanJohanna von Österreich,ItalianGiovanna d'Austria) (24 January 1547 – 11 April 1578) was anArchduchess of Austria.By marriage toFrancesco I de' Medici,she was the Grand Princess of Tuscany and later theGrand Duchess of Tuscany.One of her daughters wasMarie de' Medici,second wife of KingHenry IV of France.
| Joanna of Austria | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byGiuseppe Arcimboldoc.1562 | |
| Grand Duchess consort of Tuscany | |
| Tenure | 21 April 1574 – 11 April 1578 |
| Born | 24 January 1547 Prague,Kingdom of Bohemia,Holy Roman Empire |
| Died | 11 April 1578(aged 31) Florence,Grand Duchy of Tuscany |
| Burial | |
| Spouse | Francesco I de' Medici |
| Issue among others... | Eleanor, Duchess of Mantua and Montferrat Anna de' Medici Maria, Queen of France and Navarre Philip, Grand Prince of Tuscany |
| House | Habsburg |
| Father | Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor |
| Mother | Anna of Bohemia and Hungary |
Early years
editJoanna was born inPrague,the youngest of 15 children, the youngest daughter ofFerdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor[1]andAnna of Bohemia and Hungary.She never knew her mother and eldest sister as her mother died two days after Joanna's birth and her sisterElisabeth of Austria,Queen of Poland, died two years before Joanna was born.
Her paternal grandparents werePhilip I of CastileandJoanna of Castile.Her maternal grandparents were KingVladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary,andAnna of Foix-Candale.Through her father, Joanna was also a descendant ofIsabella I of CastileandMary of Burgundy.
In the winter of 1547, the widowed Emperor Ferdinand I entrusted all his unmarried daughters to the care of nuns in the monastery inInnsbruck.Only once, in 1552, during the invasion of theTyrolby theProtestantarmy under the command ofMaurice, Elector of Saxony,did Joanna and her sistersMagdalena,Margaret,BarbaraandHelena,spend some time outside the monastery at Bruneck Castle.[2]
Joanna received a deeply religious Catholic upbringing. The characteristic features of her education, based on the writings of theJesuitsPeter CanisiusandDiego Laynez,were religiosity and charity. Her confessors were also Jesuits.[2]
Marriage
editIn November 1565, she and her sister Barbara, who was betrothed to marryAlfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara,arrived inTrento,wherePope Pius IVsent his legates to conduct a double marriage ceremony; however, because of the renewed conflict between the grooms, the brides had to go to the respective capitals (FerraraandFlorence) of their future spouses to be wedded.[2]
Her marriage toFrancesco I de' Medici,took place on 18 December 1565 inFlorence,[1]after she solemnly arrived in the city by thePorta al Prato.On the occasion Cosimo had ordered twelvetriumphal archesto be erected each an allegory of victory,religion and joy.[3]Giorgio Vasari[4][3]andVincenzo Borghini,[4]with the help ofGiovanni Caccinimade big festivities to celebrate the wedding. This involved a procession of gods and godesses alluding to the union between Joanna and Francesco being likened to the wedding ofPeleus and Thetis[4].The party was also taken to the Medici villa inPoggio a Caiano.
Nevertheless, Joanna was homesick and unhappy. Her new husband who was of a taciturn and secretive character was noted to "set little store in virtue"[5]was a womanizer who ignored Joanna and instead occupied himself with his mistressBianca Cappello.Joanna was also despised by the Florentines for her Austrian hauteur, she never felt at home in Florence.[5]Joanna was however praised for her virtue and honesty by many Florentine scholars.[6]
Her father-in-law,Cosimo I de' Medici,was reasonably kind to Joanna. He had the courtyard of thePalazzo Vecchiospecially decorated for her; the lunettes were painted with murals of Austrian towns by pupils of Vasari, andVerrocchio'sPutto with Dolphinfountain was brought down from theCareggi villawhere it had been set up in the garden byLorenzo de' Medici.
The position of Joanna in the Florentine court was a difficult one: between 1567 and 1575, she gave birth to six daughters, of whom only three survived infancy. The absence of a male heir to continue the dynasty was the cause of constant conflict with her husband, who preferred the company of his mistressBianca Cappello,who gave birth to a son, Antonio, in 1576.
Joanna now desperate to give birth to a son, in 1573 made a pilgrimage toLoretoand theBasilica della Santa Casawhere she prayed to the Virgin Mary for a son.[7]
Finally, in 1577 Joanna gave birth to the long-awaited heir, baptisedFilippoin honour of KingPhilip II of Spain,Joanna's first cousin. The birth was celebrated with great joy by the court, as now the succession of the grand duchy was secured and any ambitions of Bianca Cappello to have her son Antonio as heir of Tuscany were eliminated. However Filippo was to die young, and Joanna's brother-in-law,Ferdinando,succeeded Francesco as grand duke.
Death
editOn 10 April 1578, Joanna – heavily pregnant with her eighth child – fell from the stairs at the Palazzo Vecchio inFlorence.Some hours later, she prematurely gave birth to a son, who died immediately. She died the next day on 11 April. Francesco subsequently married his mistress,Bianca Cappello,making hergrand duchess.
The mysterious circumstances around this accident caused rumours accusing her husband and his mistress of murdering her, so that they could be married. However, modern medical investigation of her remains confirm the official reports of her death as caused by the birth (the child presented arm first, and Joanna suffered a ruptured uterus). Joanna suffered fromscoliosis:her spine and pelvis were severely deformed. It is clear from the condition of her pelvis that her previous births had been difficult, and it seems remarkable that she had survived them.[8]
Issue
editThe eight children of Francesco and Joanna were:
- Eleonora de' Medici(28 February 1567 – 9 September 1611) marriedVincenzo I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantuaand had issue.
- Romola de' Medici (20 November 1568 – 2 December 1568) died in infancy.
- Anna de' Medici(31 December 1569 – 19 February 1584) died unmarried.
- Isabella de' Medici (30 September 1571 – 8 August 1572) died in infancy.
- Lucrezia de' Medici (7 November 1572 – 14 August 1574) died in infancy.
- Maria de' Medici(26 April 1575 – 3 July 1642) marriedHenri IV of Franceand had issue.
- Filippo de' Medici(20 May 1577 – 29 March 1582) died in childhood.
- Stillborn son (10 April 1578 – 10 April 1578).
Out of a total of eight children, only two daughters, Eleanora and Maria (Marie) lived to adulthood, the rest of the children died young.
Ancestry
edit| Ancestors of Joanna of Austria, Grand Duchess of Tuscany |
|---|
References
edit
- ^abvan Veen 2013,p. 190.
- ^abcRill, Gerhard (1964)."Barbara d'Asburgo, duchessa di Ferrara".Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani – Volume 6(in Italian). treccani.it.Retrieved10 February2023.
- ^abRichter, Susan (16 September 2019).Entsagte Herrschaft: Mediale Inszenierungen fürstlicher Abdankungen im Europa der Frühneuzeit(in German). Böhlau Köln.ISBN978-3-412-51564-5.
- ^abcBull, Malcolm (27 April 2006).The Mirror of the Gods: Classical Mythology in Renaissance Art.Penguin Books Limited.ISBN978-0-14-191262-2.
- ^abHibbert, Christopher (6 December 2001).The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici.Penguin Books Limited.ISBN978-0-14-192714-5.
- ^Richardson, Brian (26 March 2020).Women and the Circulation of Texts in Renaissance Italy.Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-1-108-47769-7.
- ^Currie, Elizabeth (28 July 2016).Fashion and Masculinity in Renaissance Florence.Bloomsbury Publishing.ISBN978-1-4742-4977-5.
- ^Gino Fornaciari, Angelica Vitiello, Sara Giusiani, Valentina Giuffra, Antonio Fornaciari, Natale Villari,The Medici Project: First Anthropological and Paleopathological ResultsArchived22 July 2011 at theWayback Machine(retrieved 23 January 2011); includes photographs of her bones.
- ^abcdChisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911)..Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^abcdPriebatsch, Felix (1908). "Wladislaw II.".Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie(in German). Vol. 54. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. pp.688–696.
- ^abWurzbach, Constantin von,ed. (1861)..Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich[Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire] (in German). Vol. 7. p. 112 – viaWikisource.
- ^Boureau, Alain (1995).The Lord's First Night: The Myth of the Droit de Cuissage.Translated by Cochrane, Lydia G. The University of Chicago Press. p. 96.
- ^Noubel, P., ed. (1877).Revue de l'Agenais[Review of the Agenais]. Vol. 4. Société académique d'Agen. p. 497.
Sources
edit- van Veen, Hendrik Thijs (2013).Cosimo I De' Medici and His Self-Representation in Florentine Art and Culture.Cambridge University Press.