The interweaving of vivid love stories, intrigues and secrets in the life of Anna of Austria, the wife of the French king Louis XIII, still inspires writers, artists and poets. What of all this is really true, and what is fiction?
Spanish Infanta Anna of Austria
Anna Maria Maurizia, Infanta of Spain, was born on September 22, 1601 in the city of Valladolid. Her father was the king of Spain and Portugal, Philip III (from the Habsburg dynasty). The mother was his wife, daughter of the Austrian Archduke Karl Margarita of Austria.
Anna, like her younger sister Maria, was brought up in an atmosphere of strict morals and strict observance of etiquette inherent in the Spanish royal court. The education received by the infante was very decent for her time: she mastered the basics of European languages, scripture and the genealogy of her own dynasty, studied needlework and dancing. Anna of Austria, whose portrait was first painted when she was only one year old, grew up as a sweet and pretty girl, promising to turn into a true beauty over time.
The fate of the young princess was a foregone conclusion in her earliest years. In 1612, when a war was about to break out between Spain and France, Philip III and Louis XIII, then occupying the French throne, signed an agreement. Infanta of Spain Anna was to become the wife of the French king, and the sister of Louis XIII Isabella - to marry the son of the monarch of Spain, Prince Philip. Three years later, this agreement was implemented.
Queen and King: Anna of Austria and Louis XIII
In 1615, a fourteen-year-old Spanish infante arrived in France. On October 18, she was married to Louis XIII, who was only five days older than his bride. The Queen, named Anna of Austria, entered the throne of the French state.
At first, Anna seemed to really captivate the king - and yet the family life of the crowned couple did not work out. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the naturally passionate queen did not like a gloomy and weak husband. A couple of months after the wedding, the relationship between the spouses noticeably cooled. Louis cheated on his wife, Anna also did not keep him faithful. In addition, she showed herself well in the field of intrigue, trying to pursue a pro-Spanish policy in France.
The situation was aggravated by the fact that the marriage of Louis and Anna remained childless for twenty-three years. Only in 1638 the queen finally managed to give birth to a son, the future Louis XIV. And two years later, his brother Philip I of Orleans was born.
"Politics you made a poet ...": Anna of Austria and Cardinal Richelieu
Many legends go about the unrequited love of the powerful cardinal to the beautiful queen, some of which are reflected in famous works of art.
History really confirms that from the very first days of Anna's stay in France, her royal mother-in-law, Marie de Medici, who was regent during the dofing of Louis XIII, assigned Cardinal Richelieu to the daughter-in-law. Fearing that she would lose power if Anna could take control of a weak-willed spouse, Maria Medici hoped that the “red duke”, a loyal person to her, would report on every step of the queen. However, she soon fell out of favor with her own son and went into exile. The heart of the cardinal, according to rumors, was won by the young beauty Anna of Austria.
Anna, however, according to the same sources, rejected Richelieu's courtship. Perhaps a significant difference in age played a role (the queen was twenty-four years old, the cardinal was almost forty). It is also possible that she, brought up in strict religious traditions, simply could not see a man in a clergyman. Whether personal motives actually took place or whether it all came down solely to political calculation is probably unknown. However, between the queen and the cardinal, hostility gradually emerges, based on hatred and intrigue, which at times is quite open.
During the life of Louis XIII, a party of aristocrats was formed around the queen, dissatisfied with the harsh rule of the almighty first minister. In royal words, this party in fact was guided by the Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs - the cardinal’s enemies on the political stage. Participation in conspiracies against Richelieu finally aggravated the relationship between the king and the queen - for a long time they lived completely apart.
Queen and Duke: Anna of Austria and Buckingham
The Duke of Buckingham and Anna of Austria ... The biography of the beautiful queen is full of romantic legends and secrets, but it was this novel that earned the fame of "love of the whole century."
Thirty-three-year-old handsome Englishman George Villiers arrived in Paris in 1625, having a diplomatic mission - to organize the marriage of his king Charles, who recently ascended to the throne, with the sister of the French monarch Henrietta. The visit of the Duke of Buckingham to the royal residence was fatal. Seeing Anna of Austria, he spent the rest of his life trying to get her disposition.
History is silent about the secret meetings of the queen and the duke, however, according to the memoirs of their contemporaries, the story with pendants described by Alexander Dumas in the immortal novel about three musketeers really took place. However, she did without the participation of D'Artagnan - the really existing Gascon at that time was only five years old ...
Despite the return of jewelry, the king with the filing of Richelieu finally quarreled with his wife. Queen Anne of Austria was isolated in the palace, and Buckingham was barred from entering France. The enraged duke vowed to return to Paris with the triumph of military victory. He supported from the sea the rebellious Protestants of the French fortress-port of La Rochelle. However, the French army managed to repulse the first attack of the British and take the city under siege. In the midst of preparations for the second offensive of the fleet, in 1628, Buckingham was killed in Portsmouth by an officer named Felton. There is an assumption (however, it has not been proved) that this man was a cardinal spy.
The news of the death of Lord Buckingham stunned Anna of Austria. Since that time, her confrontation with Cardinal Richelieu reaches its climax and lasts until the death of the latter.
Queen Regent. Anna of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin
Richelieu died in 1642, and a year later the king was gone. Anna of Austria received regency with her young son. The parliament and the nobility, who supported the queen in this, hoped to restore their rights, weakened by the politics of Richelieu.
However, this was not destined to happen. Anna gave her confidence to the successor of Richelieu, the Italian Mazarin. The latter, taking the Cardinal rank, continued the political course of his predecessor. After a difficult internal struggle with the Fronde and a number of foreign policy successes, he further strengthened the position of ministers at the French court.
There is a version that the queen and Mazarin were connected not only by friendship, but also by love relationships. Anna Austrian herself, whose biography is sometimes known to us from her words, refuted this. However, among the people, evil couplets and jokes about the cardinal and the queen were very popular.
After the death of Mazarin, in 1661, the Queen considered that her son was already old enough to rule the country on her own. She allowed herself to fulfill a long-standing desire - to retire to the Val de Graz Monastery, where she lived the last five years of her life. January 20, 1666 Anna of Austria died. The main secret - what was more in the history of this French queen: truth or fiction - will never be revealed ...