Archduchess Maria Amalia was born on February 26, 1746. She was the fourth surviving daughter of Maria Theresa and Francis Stephan. As there was a remarkable age difference between her and her elder and younger sisters, she grew up somewhat lonely and withdrawn. Unlike her siblings, she developed a great love of animals and enjoyed […]
Emperor Matthias I was born on 24 February 1557. As the second son of Maximilian II, he was not originally intended to become a monarch. Raised in the shadow of his elder brother Rudolf, he was a rather average personality, with no remarkable talents or ambitions. Matthias stood in stark contrast to Rudolf, arguably the […]
Ferdinand III and Maria Anna of Spain married on 20 February 1631. As was often the case among the Spanish and Austrian branches of the Habsburgs, they were closely related on both their fathers’ and mothers’ sides. The most renowned of Maria Anna’s siblings was probably her elder sister, Anna, who married Louis XIII of […]
Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II died on 15 February 1637. As a grandson of Ferdinand I, he was not originally destined to become emperor but succeeded to the throne only after his nephews, Rudolf II and Matthias I, died childless. Ferdinand was a staunch supporter of the Counter-Reformation. Unlike his predecessors, he made no attempt […]
Drumroll for the wedding of the 18th century, please! Maria Theresa of Austria and Francis Stephan of Lorraine were married on 12 February 1736. As Heinz Rieder charmingly notes in his book “Maria Theresa: Schicksalstunde des Habsburgs,” at first glance and from the perspective of the Empire, the marriage did not seem to promise anything […]
I must beg your pardon for starting this post with a cheap sensational announcement. However, to the best of my knowledge, 10 February marks the first recorded instance of a caesarean section being performed on a Habsburg princess. On this day in 1595, Archduchess Anna (born 1573), Queen of Poland and Sweden, passed away. As […]
It is rare for the death of a young child to shift the balance of European power and trigger a full-scale war. Yet that is precisely what happened when six-year-old Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria died on 6 February 1699. By the late 1690s, it was clear that Charles II would be the last Spanish Habsburg […]
Archduchess Johanna Gabriela of Habsburg-Lorraine, the eighth daughter of Maria Theresa and Francis Stephan, was born on 4 February 1750. As she died at the age of 12, little is known about her life. She was closest to her sister Maria Josepha, who was only a year younger. The two girls were raised and educated […]
On 2 February 1622, Emperor Ferdinand II married his second wife, Eleonora of Gonzaga (1598–1655). In addition to both being grandchildren of Emperor Ferdinand I, her future husband—20 years her senior—was also her godfather. As a result, a double dispensation from the Holy See was required for their marriage. Eleonora became a loving stepmother to […]
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