15 May

Archduchess Maria, the daughter of Emperor Ferdinand I and Anna of Bohemia, and the sister of the future Emperor Maximilian II, was born on 15 May 1531. She was said to have been small for her age and in fragile health. Together with her siblings, she received a strict Catholic upbringing and was educated in languages and music.

The story of her marriage was a strange tangle of political and personal passions revolving around the relatively unimportant Duchy of Guelders. William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves (the brother of Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of Henry VIII of England), claimed the territory in opposition to Emperor Charles V, Maria’s uncle. Seeking French support, he married Jeanne d’Albret, the niece of François I, when she was just 12 years old—despite her fierce protest. To make things even more curious, Jeanne had previously been considered as a potential bride for Charles’s son, Philip.

Four years later, William reached a settlement with the Emperor, annulled his marriage, and was granted permission to choose a new wife from among Ferdinand’s daughters. The young archduchesses were sent to Düsseldorf, unaware of which one of them would be chosen. It was only during the marriage negotiations that William made his selection in favour of Maria.

After this unpromising beginning, little is known about Maria’s life at the court in Düsseldorf. Some indirect signs suggest that—despite bearing six children in eight years—she harboured serious doubts about the legality of her marriage due to her husband’s earlier union with Jeanne. Moreover, her physical weakness gradually gave way to mental instability. It may have been a hereditary condition, as her younger son, John William, later developed a severe mental illness.

Archduchess Maria died after a short illness in 1581, at the age of 50.