Elizabeth of Austria (1526–1545)

File:Elżbieta Habsburg.jpg]]

Elizabeth was the first born child of Anna and Ferdinand, the couple had been married for five years before giving birth.

Elizabeth spent most of her childhood in the Hofburg, Innsbruck.

As both of Elizabeth's parents had a love of learning, she and her siblings received a strict and thorough education from the humanist Kaspar Ursinus Velius. Learning German, Italian and French,{{Cite book |last=Dairsie |first=Heather R. |title=Children of the House of Cleves |publisher=Amberley Publishing |year=2023 |isbn=9781445699431}} as well as receiving a Catholic religious education.{{Cite journal |last1=Gu |first1=Jenny |last2=Bourne |first2=Philip |date=2009-06-16 |title=The uses of humanism |url=https://doi.org/10.4016/11616.01 |access-date=2025-01-04 |website=SciVee|doi=10.4016/11616.01 }} Both Elizabeth's parents were devout Catholics. Ferdinand, on one occasion threatened to have anyone who exposed his children to Lutheranism executed after he discovered that a tutor of Elizabeth's had Lutheran sympathies and had joked about cardinals. Elizabeth and her sisters were also taught to play keyboard instruments{{Cite book |last=Weaver |first=Andrew H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5_P_DwAAQBAJ |title=A Companion to Music at the Habsburg Courts in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries |publisher=Brill |year=2020 |isbn=9789004435032 |pages=156}} and to dance.

Elizabeth was not taught the Polish language despite her early arranged marriage to Sigismund II Augustus.Duczmal (2012), p. 165 The marriage plan was first discussed when Elizabeth was only one year old. Louis, King of Hungary and Bohemia, died in August 1526 without leaving an heir. The Hungarian throne was contested between Louis' brother-in-law Ferdinand I and John Zápolya. Louis's uncle Sigismund I the Old and Hungarian nobility supported Zápolya. The marriage of Elizabeth to Sigismund's son was proposed as the means to end Polish support to Zápolya. The Polish Queen and Lithuanian Grand Duchess Bona Sforza opposed the wedding as she opposed the growing influence of the Habsburgs.Duczmal (2012), pp. 165–167

In February 1530, ten-year-old Sigismund II Augustus was co-crowned vivente rege as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (his father was still alive and in good health) to secure his inheritance in Poland.Duczmal (2012), p. 525 Envoys of George, Duke of Saxony, attended the coronation ceremony and negotiated the marriage between Elizabeth and Sigismund August on behalf of Ferdinand.Duczmal (2012), p. 166 Great Chancellor of the Crown Krzysztof Szydłowiecki supported the match and organized a preliminary marriage treaty, signed on 10–11 November 1530 in Poznań. According to the treaty, the marriage was to take place in 1533 when Elizabeth reached the age of seven. Her dowry was 100,000 ducats. In exchange, the Poles would grant her the cities of Nowy Sącz, Sanok, Przemyśl, Biecz as her dower.

Sigismund Augustus and Elizabeth were first cousins once removed. (Casimir IV Jagiellon was a great-grandfather of Elizabeth and a grandfather of Sigismund August). This close relationship required a matrimonial dispensation, which was issued by Pope Clement VII on 24 August 1531. The final marriage treaty, delayed mostly due to the opposition by Bona Sforza, was signed only on 16 June 1538 in Breslau (now Wrocław) by Johannes Dantiscus. The treaty did not differ from the preliminary treaty of 1530 other than the age of the bride which was now set at 16. The betrothal ceremony took place on 17 July 1538 in Innsbruck. Bona continued to lobby against the marriage and instead proposed Princess Margaret of France.Duczmal (2012), pp. 166–167

In October the same year, Elizabeth and her younger siblings Maximilian, Ferdinand and Anna traveled with their father to Linz before traveling on to Vienna. This so that they could gain some experience in handling themselves in a formal court environment and also prepare for being confirmed in the Catholic faith. The confirmation took place in October 1539 in the royal chapel, with a Venetian envoy acting as Elizabeth's godfather. The cardinal Girolamo Aleandro, who conducted the ceremony, thought the young archdukes and archduchesses resembled "a chorus of angels".{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}

Elizabeth and her family would return to Innsbruck in 1541.

Elizabeth and a twelve-person escort departed Vienna on 21 April 1543.Duczmal (2012), p. 167 She was met at Olomouc by Samuel Maciejowski, Bishop of Płock and a retinue of 1,500 knights. On 5 May 1543, Elizabeth entered Kraków and met Sigismund Augustus for the first time. The same day, 16-year-old Elizabeth married 22-year-old Sigismund Augustus in Wawel Cathedral. The wedding celebrations continued for two weeks. She was also crowned as Grand Duchess of Lithuania and Queen of Poland, which only increased the ire of Bona Sforza, who detested her title of "Old Queen".

File:Royal sarcophagus on display in Vilnius Cathedral.jpg

The marriage was not a happy one. Sigismund Augustus, who already had several mistresses, did not find Elizabeth attractive and continued to have extramarital affairs.Duczmal (2012), pp. 167–168 Raised in a strict household to be obedient, Elizabeth was too timid and meek to object to this. The long journey from Austria to Poland had further deteriorated her already frail state of health. She was diagnosed with epilepsy and started having seizures. At the same time Bona openly expressed her dislike of Elizabeth and continued to search for ways to destroy the marriage. Bona questioned the wording of the matrimonial dispensation; a new dispensation was issued on 17 May 1544.Duczmal (2012), p. 168–169 On the other hand, Polish nobility liked and sympathized with Elizabeth – a young, pleasant woman who was ignored by her husband and taunted by her ambitious mother-in-law.Duczmal (2012), p. 170 Her father-in-law Sigismund I the Old was also sympathetic to her, but was too weak to protect her from Bona.Duczmal (2012), p. 171

Two months after the wedding, plague reached Kraków and the royal family departed the capital city.Duczmal (2012), p. 168 Sigismund Augustus left for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, while Sigismund I the Old, Bona, and Elizabeth toured various cities in Poland. After a year of separation, the couple met again in Brest. Sigismund Augustus liked living independently in Lithuania and convinced his father to entrust him with ruling the grand duchy.Duczmal (2012), p. 169 In fall 1544, Elizabeth and Sigismund Augustus moved to Vilnius. For a few months Sigismund Augustus attempted to keep up appearances of a successful marriage to appease the Habsburgs, but soon started ignoring his wife and continued his affair with Barbara Radziwiłł.

In April 1545, Elizabeth's health deteriorated and she was tormented by her increasingly frequent seizures. On 8 June 1545, Sigismund Augustus went to Kraków to receive Elizabeth's dowry, leaving his wife alone in Vilnius. In Kraków, Sigismund Augustus inquired about treatments and asked Ferdinand I to send his own doctors. But it was too late. On 15 June, the young queen-grand duchess died exhausted by her many epileptic seizures. She was buried on 24 July 1545 (after her husband returned from Kraków) in Vilnius Cathedral next to her husband's uncle, King Alexander Jagiellon.

After Elizabeth's death Sigismund Augustus married his mistress Barbara Radziwiłł and, after her death, Elizabeth's younger sister, Catherine of Austria. Sigismund had no children with any his three wives.{{citation needed|date=July 2018}}

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| 1 = 1. Elizabeth of Austria

| 2 = 2. Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor

| 3 = 3. Anne of Bohemia and Hungary

| 4 = 4. Philip I of Castile{{cite wikisource |wslanguage=de |plaintitle=Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich |trans-title=Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire |chapter=X |plainchapter=Habsburg, Philipp I. der Schöne von Oesterreich |volume=7 |year=1861 |page=112 |editor-first=Constantin |editor-last=von Wurzbach |editor-link=Constantin von Wurzbach}}

| 5 = 5. Joanna I of Castile{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Joanna |volume=15}}

| 6 = 6. Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary{{Britannica|631580|Vladislas II, King of Bohemia and Hungary}}

| 7 = 7. Anne of Foix-Candale{{cite book |first=Matei |last=Cazacu |title=Dracula |editor-first=Stephen W. |editor-last=Reinert |publisher=Brill |year=2017 |page=204}}

| 8 = 8. Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Maximilian I. (emperor) |volume=17 |first=Arthur William |last=Holland}}

| 9 = 9. Mary, Duchess of Burgundy{{cite EB1911 |last=Poupardin |first=René |wstitle=Charles (Duke of Burgundy)|display=Charles, called The Bold, duke of Burgundy |volume=5 |authorlink=René Poupardin}}

| 10 = 10. Ferdinand II of Aragon{{Britannica|9034018|Ferdinand II, King of Spain}}

| 11 = 11. Isabella I of Castile{{Britannica|295037|Isabella I, Queen of Spain}}

| 12 = 12. Casimir IV Jagiellon{{Britannica|97968|Casimir IV, King of Poland}}

| 13 = 13. Elisabeth of Austria{{cite wikisource |wslanguage=de |plaintitle=Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich |trans-title=Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire |chapter=X |plainchapter=Habsburg, Elisabeth von Oesterreich (Königin von Polen) |volume=6 |year=1860 |page=167 |editor-first=Constantin |editor-last=von Wurzbach |editor-link=Constantin von Wurzbach}}

| 14 = 14. Gaston de Foix, Count of Candale{{cite book |title=The Lord's First Night: The Myth of the Droit de Cuissage |first=Alain |last=Boureau |translator-first=Lydia G. |translator-last=Cochrane |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |year=1995 |page=96}}

| 15 = 15. Catherine of Foix{{cite book |title=Revue de l'Agenais |trans-title=Review of the Agenais |volume=4 |publisher=Société académique d'Agen |editor-first=P. |editor-last=Noubel |year=1877 |page=497}}

}}

{{reflist|20em}}

• {{cite book |last=Duczmal |first=Małgorzata |title=Jogailaičiai | location=Vilnius |year=2012 |publisher=Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos centras |isbn=978-5-420-01703-6 | language= Lithuanian |translator=Birutė Mikalonienė |translator2=Vyturys Jarutis}}

{{Commons category|Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of Poland (1545)}}

• [http://resgestae.up.krakow.pl/article/view/2873 Przemysław Jędrzejewski, ELŻBIETA AUSTRIACZKA – KRÓLOWA POLSKA I WIELKA KSIĘŻNA LITEWSKA (1526–1545)]

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{{s-hou|House of Habsburg|9 July|1526|15 June|1545|name=Elizabeth of Austria}}

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{{s-bef|before=Bona Sforza|as=sole queen}}

{{s-ttl|title=Queen consort of Poland
Grand Duchess consort of Lithuania|years=1543–1545|regent1=Bona Sforza}}

{{s-aft|after=Bona Sforza|as=sole queen}}

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{{Royal consorts of Poland}}

{{Royal consorts of Lithuania}}

{{Austrian archduchesses}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elizabeth Of Austria}}

Category:1526 births

Category:1545 deaths

Category:Burials at Vilnius Cathedral

Category:Wives of Sigismund II Augustus

Category:16th-century House of Habsburg

Category:16th-century Austrian women

Category:Neurological disease deaths in Lithuania

Category:Deaths from epilepsy

Category:Royalty and nobility with epilepsy

Category:Daughters of emperors

Category:Children of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor

Category:People from Innsbruck

Category:People from Linz

Category:Austrian royalty and nobility with disabilities

Category:Daughters of dukes