Anna of Austria and Anna Stuart. The fate of these two women has something in common: both stood at the head of great states, both married out for political reasons, both lived in an atmosphere of intrigue and conspiracy, and in addition, their life paths intersected in time, albeit for a little. But one was quite happy with her husband, the second was exhausted from his coldness. The first became the heroine of the brightest, albeit unhappy love story in the history of France, the second could not give her husband an heir, although she was pregnant 17 times.
Both Great Britain and France had queens called Annami. But each has its own life path and the history of coming to power, described below. Also from this article it will be possible to learn about what the Stuart dynasty and the pirate Blackbeard have in common, and whether the Gascon D'Artagnan really traveled to England for pendants, saving the honor of his queen.
Anna of Austria: Origin
The future Queen of France was born and raised in 1601 in Valladolid (Spain). Her family tree included the Habsburgs - one of the most influential and powerful ruling dynasties in all of medieval Europe, Austrian in origin. The young Infanta was educated more than strictly: the Spanish court was distinguished by its restrained mores, modest outfits and great religiosity. Inheriting from her mother blond curly hair and snow-white skin, the future Queen Anna was known as the first beauty of Europe and, among other things, an enviable bride, since the Habsburgs had a huge influence on the politics of that time.
Marriage
It is known that crowned persons cannot marry or marry for love. Parents decide everything for them, and children often become bargaining chips in the political game. The same thing happened with Anna. When she was only three years old, her parents married her cousin Ferdinand. But in 1610, Maria Medici began to rule France , who very much wanted to enter into a diplomatic alliance with Spain, because both countries were on the brink of war. In order to save the situation, in 1612 they agreed on two marriages - the French princess Isabella and the Spanish infante Philip, as well as King Louis XIII and Anna, later named Austrian. So, at 11 years old, the future of the young infante was determined, and after 3 years she was brought to Paris for a wedding ceremony.
Failed family life
At first, the young Louis, who was the same age as Anna, was captivated by the beauty of his wife, but that was all - they did not experience any family happiness. The king was cold, preferred to spend time with his favorites, cheated on him openly, did not pay attention to his wife at all, and instead spent time hunting. Their family was childless for 23 years, only in 1638, and then in 1640, Anna gave birth to sons. In addition, the king’s mother, who once arranged this marriage, tried her best to quarrel the spouses, palm off her lovers' son, and also wanted to convince him that Queen Anna was immoral, because she spent a lot of time in the company of the king’s brother.
Anna, on the contrary, was alien to the depravity and emancipation of the French court, where treason to her husband and all sorts of liberties were in the order of things. And although she was once looked after by many, even Cardinal Richelieu himself , she rejected the gentlemen with enviable stamina.
Only once her heart could not resist.
Duke of Buckingham
In 1625, he arrived in the retinue of the English king Charles I for the matchmaking of the sister of Louis XIII Henrietta. Buckingham was tall, handsome, gallant, and was also known as a skilled dancer. This smoothie easily won the heart of Anna, who lacked her husband's attention. And soon Buckingham himself fell in love with the king’s beautiful wife. A few dances, a couple of secret dates - and the duke was supposed to leave, accompanying the future English queen to London .
The story of the pendants
When parting in Boulogne, Queen Anna gave him 12 diamond pendants - a gift from her husband. They figured in the novel by Dumas. The cunning Richelieu found out about this and reported to the king, who asked Anna to put on his present for the upcoming ball. If the fact that they had Buckingham were made public, an international scandal would not have been avoided. The Queen could be accused of high treason, and a war could break out between countries. For the success of his plan, Richelieu suspended for the time being all the servants devoted to the Queen, so that she could not send a messenger to London.
Meanwhile, the cardinal sent a letter to England to one of the duke's mistresses, Lady Clairek, and asked to steal the jewel, of course, for a fee. She furtively cut off two pendants in a masquerade, where the duke put on a queen's present. But Buckingham's valet noticed the loss. In one night, an exact copy of the missing elements was made (although there was no time left to cut real diamonds, it was a skillful fake), and the jewel was delivered to Paris, despite the fact that all the ports of England were closed. Alas, this was not done by the Gascon D'Artagnan, because the character was actually 5 years old that year.
Anna of Austria, Queen of France, put on pendants at the ball and thereby saved herself from imminent death.
Policy Impact
Surprisingly, the relationship between the states in which they lived directly depended on the development of a love affair between Anna and Buckingham. In 1628, these countries were already on the verge of war, since Louis forbade the duke to enter France, and he desperately sought meetings with his beloved. Of course, it is not completely known whether these were real feelings or political calculation, and also whether love was purely platonic, these are already the secrets of the queen. Anna of Austria all the time of separation exchanged letters with the duke, bearing both personal and political character. But then the omnipotent Richelieu again intervened. Most likely, it was at his command that Buckingham was killed in 1628 by the religious fanatic Felton.
Anna of Austria tried her best to bring France and Spain closer, but the cardinal resisted this, so they became the worst enemies. Queen Anne, whose revenge for Buckingham’s death was expressed in constant conspiracies against Richelieu, only at the end of his life somehow reconciled with him.
Since Louis died in 1643, and the future successor was 5 years old, Anna was regent of France from 1643 to 1651. During these years, her right hand was the new Cardinal Giulio Mazarin.
In fact, he ruled the country, not Anna of Austria, Queen of France. There is evidence that they were united not only by politics. When her son Louis began to rule, she was on the Royal Council until 1661. Anna of Austria died in 1666 from breast cancer.
Anna - Queen of England
She was born in 1665. Queen Anne became the last representative of the Stuart dynasty on the English throne. Her uncle, King of England Carl, raised her and her older sister Mary as Protestants. Her father was a Catholic, and therefore did not have the support of the people, as a result of which he was deposed from the throne. But the throne was seated by her sister Maria and her husband Wilhelm, after whose death it was Anna who got the reins of government. So, from 1702 she became the queen of England and Scotland, and from 1707 to 1714, i.e. to death, Anna is the queen of Great Britain.
A family
Although her marriage was also appointed for diplomatic reasons (the Danish prince George became her husband, since Denmark was loyal to the Protestants), the spouses were faithful and loyal to each other. The only thing that clouded their happiness was the absence of children. Although Anna had 17 pregnancies, they ended either in the death of newborns or in miscarriages.
State activity
During her reign, a bipartisan system began to operate in parliament. An alliance was also made with Scotland, which became part of the United Kingdom. In addition, England participated in the Spanish Succession War, as a result of which it received new colonies on the American continent. The period of Anna's reign was rather calm and favorable for the development of culture, economy, science.
Queen Anne's Revenge Ship
In 1763, the British Empire defeated its mighty rivals - France and Spain. Since that time, she became the mistress of the seas.
Under wartime laws, it was not unlawful to rob an adversary’s court: to become a pirate, one had only to obtain a license. This was done by Edward Teach, who later became known as Blackbeard.
On one of his campaigns in 1717, he captured the French slave ship Concord and made it his flagship, before giving him a new name - Queen Anne's Revenge.
There is a version that he wanted to pretend that he did not know about the end of the war and the death of the queen, thereby declaring that he acted in her interests. Others suggest that this refers to the girl Boleyn - another Queen Anne, whose revenge for the death of which embodied the actions of the pirates, but this version is far from the truth.
Edward Teach equipped the ship with 40 guns, it was a team of 300 sailors. For a year, Blackbeard traded on this terrifying ship in the waters of the Caribbean. He boarded and sacked dozens of ships. In 1718, the ship ran aground off the coast of South Carolina.
These were the main facts from the biography of both queens - Anna of Austria and Anna Stewart. First of all, they were just women, and not just statesmen. And, unfortunately, both could not fully experience happiness in their personal lives. Perhaps if they were not born into the families of monarchs, things would have turned out differently.