Emperor Maximilian II was born on 31 July 1527, the eldest son of Ferdinand I and Anne of Bohemia. In his youth, he was regarded as a promising commander, serving under his uncle Emperor Charles V in Italy and in religious conflicts against the Protestant Schmalkaldic League in Germany. As heir to the throne, Maximilian […]
Princess Luisa of Naples and Sicily was born on 27 July 1773. Through her mother, Queen Maria Karolina of Naples and Sicily, she was a granddaughter of Empress Maria Theresa. Luisa’s life was marked by the widespread belief that she was ugly — a judgement curiously resistant to rational analysis. A well-known story tells of […]
Emperor Joseph I was born on 26 July 1678 and grew up in a large family. From an early age, Joseph showed a deep love for the arts and music. After ascending the throne in 1705, he had the Vienna opera house built – at the time, the largest in Europe. Unlike many of his […]
Francis, Duke of Reichstadt, passed away on 22 July 1832. Had history taken a different course, the world might have remembered the event as the death of Napoleon II, Emperor of the French. He was the only legitimate son of Napoleon I Bonaparte, born in 1811 to his second wife, Marie Louise, the eldest daughter […]
Archduchess Maria Amalia and Ferdinand, heir to the Duchy of Parma, were married on 19 July 1769. The bride was the daughter of Empress Maria Theresa; the groom, a nephew of King Charles III of Spain. Their union formed part of the Empress’s broader policy to strengthen alliances with the Bourbons, who — besides ruling […]
Archduchess Isabella, the daughter of Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile, was born on 18 July 1501. Together with her sisters and her elder brother, the future Emperor Charles V, she was carefully raised and educated in the humanist spirit at the Brussels court by their aunt Margaret, Regent of the Austrian Netherlands. At […]
15 July marks two weddings between Habsburg archduchesses and Wittelsbach dukes of Bavaria, exactly fifty years apart. Both unions were intended to strengthen the alliance between the two houses against the French Bourbons. The marriage of Maria Anna, daughter of Emperor Ferdinand II, to her maternal uncle Maximilian I of Bavaria in 1635 was considered […]
Archduke Alexander died tragically on 12 July 1795. He was born in Florence as the fourth son of Leopold and Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain, then Duke and Duchess of Tuscany. From an early age, he excelled in the sciences, particularly chemistry, although he was expected to pursue the more traditional path of a military […]
Emperor Ferdinand II was born on 9 July 1578. His father, Charles of Inner Austria, was the younger son of Emperor Ferdinand I, representing a cadet branch of the Habsburgs. The main line appeared safe and secure with Charles’s elder brother Maximilian and his sons, Rudolf and Matthias, who indeed succeeded one another on the […]
Archduchess Anna, daughter of Ferdinand I and Anne of Bohemia, was born on 7 July 1528. As a child, she was educated in music and languages. After long and complicated negotiations in which princes and princesses were moved like chess pieces, Anna married Albert, Duke of Bavaria, just a few days before her 18th birthday, […]
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