The interweaving of vivid love stories, intrigues and secrets in the life of Anne of Austria, wife of the French King Louis XIII, inspires writers, artists and poets to this day. What of all this is real, 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, the daughter of the Austrian Archduke Karl Margaret of Austria.
Anna, like her younger sister Maria, was brought up in an atmosphere of strict morals and strict adherence to the rules of etiquette inherent in the Spanish royal court. The education received by the Infanta was very decent for her time: she mastered the basics of European languages, Holy Scripture and the genealogy of her own dynasty, studied needlework and dances. 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 in time.
The fate of the young princess was sealed in her earliest years. In 1612, when war was about to break out between Spain and France, Philip III and Louis XIII, who then occupied the French throne, signed an agreement. Infanta Anna of Spain was to become the wife of the French king, and Louis XIII's sister Isabella was to marry the son of the monarch of Spain, Prince Philip. Three years later, this agreement was fulfilled.
Queen and King: Anne of Austria and Louis XIII
In 1615, a fourteen-year-old Spanish infanta came to 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.
Anna at first seemed to really charm 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 her gloomy and weak husband. A couple of months after the wedding, relations between the spouses cooled noticeably. Louis cheated on his wife, Anna also did not remain faithful to him. 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 for twenty-three years the marriage of Louis and Anna remained childless. Only in 1638 did the queen finally manage to give birth to a son, the future Louis XIV. And two years later, his brother, Philip I of Orleans, was born.
"Policy you madepoet…": Anne of Austria and Cardinal Richelieu
There are many legends about the unrequited love of a powerful cardinal for a 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 Dauphine XIII, assigned Cardinal Richelieu to her daughter-in-law as confessor. Fearing to lose power in the event that Anna manages to take control of her weak-willed spouse, Marie de Medici counted on the fact that the "red duke", a person loyal to her, would report on the queen's every step. 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 age difference 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 the spiritual person. Whether there were actually personal motives, or whether it all came down solely to political calculation, is not known for sure. However, a feud based on hatred and intrigue gradually develops between the queen and the cardinal, which at times comes out quite openly.
During the life of Louis XIII, a party of aristocrats formed around the queen, dissatisfied with the harsh rule of the almighty firstminister. In words royal, this party in fact was guided by the Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs - the enemies of the cardinal on the political stage. Participation in conspiracies against Richelieu finally aggravated the relationship between the king and queen - for a long time they lived completely apart.
The Queen and the Duke: Anne 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 gained fame as "the love of the whole century".
Thirty-three-year-old handsome Englishman George Villiers arrived in Paris in 1625, having a diplomatic mission to arrange the marriage of his king Charles, who had recently ascended the throne, to the sister of the French monarch, Henriette. The visit of the Duke of Buckingham to the royal residence turned out to be fatal. Seeing Anne of Austria, he spent the rest of his life wooing her.
The story is silent about the secret meetings between the Queen and the Duke, but if you believe the memoirs of their contemporaries, then the story of the pendants described by Alexandre Dumas in the immortal novel about the Three Musketeers really took place. However, she did without the participation of D'Artagnan - the real Gascon at that time was only five years old …
Despite the return of the jewelry, the king, at the suggestion of Richelieu, finally quarreled with his wife. Queen Anne of Austria was isolated in the palace, and Buckingham was banned from entering French territory. Furious duke vowed to return to Paris in triumphmilitary victory. He provided support from the sea to the rebellious Protestants of the French fortress-port of La Rochelle. However, the French army managed to repel the first British attack and put the city under siege. In the midst of preparations for a second fleet offensive, in 1628, Buckingham was killed at Portsmouth by an officer named Felton. There is an assumption (however, it has not been proven) that this person was a spy for the cardinal.
The news of the death of Lord Buckingham stunned Anne of Austria. From that time on, her confrontation with Cardinal Richelieu reaches its climax and lasts until the latter's death.
Queen Regent. Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin
Richelieu died in 1642, and a year later the king was gone. Anna of Austria received the regency with her infant son. Parliament and the nobility, who supported the queen in this, expected to restore their rights, weakened by Richelieu's policy.
However, this was not to be. Anna gave her trust to Richelieu's successor, the Italian Mazarin. The latter, having taken the rank of cardinal, 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 of Austria herself, whose biography is known to us in places from her words, denied this. However, among the people, evil couplets and jokes about the cardinal and the queen were very popular.
After the death of Mazarinin 1661, the queen considered that her son was already old enough to rule the country on his own. She allowed herself to fulfill a long-standing desire - to retire to the monastery of Val-de-Grâce, where she lived for the last five years of her life. On January 20, 1666, Anna of Austria passed away. The main secret - what was more in the history of this French queen: truth or fiction - will never be revealed …
