Anna von Österreich-Tirol

Anna of Austria-Tyrol, also known as Anna of Tyrol, was born on October 4, 1585, in Innsbruck and died on December 14, 1618, in Vienna. She belonged to the House of Habsburg and was the daughter of Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria and Count of Tyrol, and his wife, Anna Catherine of Mantua, of the House of Gonzaga. Through her father, she was a granddaughter of Emperor Ferdinand I and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary, the last representative of the Jagiellonian dynasty in those kingdoms. Through her mother, she was related to the dukes of Mantua and Montferrat and once again to the House of Habsburg. Anna was the third and youngest child of her parents. Her elder sister, Anna Eleonora, died in infancy, while her sister Maria survived. All the children in the family were in poor health. Anna’s baptism was nevertheless celebrated with great ceremony. Her cousins, Archduke Maximilian and Duke Ferdinand of Bavaria, organized the event. The emperor was regarded as her godfather and was represented at the baptism by Archduke Ernst; the ceremony was conducted by the Bishop of Brixen. Anna spent her childhood at the Innsbruck court, which under her parents had become a center of Renaissance culture. She lived, among other places, in Ambras Castle, the Hofburg, and Ruhelust. To protect her delicate health, her mother prepared a special cookbook for her in 1590. When Anna was ten, her father died. The widowed countess then devoted considerable attention to educating her daughters. After Anna’s musical talent became apparent, her family acquired a clavichord, an instrument that was rare and expensive at the time, and hired a teacher for her. Anna’s love of music remained with her throughout her life. At the same time, her mother raised her in a strict form of Catholic piety. Religious practices of the period included self-flagellation. Even as empress, Anna resorted to it whenever she believed she had sinned. Her mother frequently undertook pilgrimages but did not take her daughters with her because of their fragile health. In 1606, she founded a convent for Servite nuns in Innsbruck. After arranging Anna’s marriage, she entered the order herself and took the name Anna Juliana. Anna’s sister Maria followed her example and became a nun in the same convent under the name Anna Catherine. Once Anna reached adulthood, she received several marriage proposals. In 1603, Sigismund III, King of Poland, sought her hand, but the emperor rejected the match. Emperor Rudolf II then considered marrying Anna himself and commissioned his court painter to produce a portrait of the prospective bride. Anna’s mother consequently stopped considering other proposals, but Rudolf ultimately decided against marriage. Finally, his younger brother Matthias asked for Anna’s hand. After some time, Rudolf approved his brother’s marriage to the former imperial bride. On December 4, 1611, Anna married Matthias in Vienna’s Augustinian Church. The couple were related: Matthias’s father, Emperor Maximilian II, was the elder brother of Anna’s father, Ferdinand II. Matthias was already over fifty, while Anna was just over twenty-five. Nevertheless, the king hoped to have children of his own. Four years after the wedding, court rumors claimed that Anna was pregnant after she had gained some weight. Soon, however, mockers joked that her fuller figure was due not to pregnancy but to her excellent appetite. The marriage remained childless. On May 21, 1612, Matthias was elected King of the Romans and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Anna was crowned in Frankfurt on June 15 of that year, two days after her husband. Matthias thereby revived the tradition of having emperors’ wives crowned as well; Anna was the first crowned empress since Eleanor Helena of Portugal. In 1613, she was crowned Queen of Hungary in Pressburg, and in 1616 she was crowned Queen of Bohemia in Prague. Contemporaries described Anna as a kind and loving empress. She exercised great influence over Matthias, much as his former mistress Susanna Wachter had done before her. Together, the couple became known as the “Working Pair.” Matthias moved the imperial court from Prague to Vienna. Under their joint leadership, Vienna developed into an important center of European culture. Anna showed particular favor to people from Tyrol, helping them obtain positions at court. In religious matters, Anna firmly supported the Catholic Counter-Reformation. As empress, she avoided contact with Protestant subjects. Like her mother, she collected relics, especially the remains of saints, and supported the Capuchins. This recently established order would later play an important role in the Catholic renewal in Austria. For her special loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Paul V awarded her the Golden Rose. Anna also supported the construction of a family crypt. Matthias had brought Capuchin monks to Vienna as early as 1600 and given them the Church of Saint Ulrich. In 1617, at his wife’s request, he had a new Capuchin church built beside the imperial residence. On November 10, 1618, construction began there on a crypt for Anna and Matthias. Anna supervised the work and, with her husband’s approval, contributed money from her personal fortune. Only a month later, on December 14, 1618, she died in Vienna. Matthias followed her on March 20, 1619. The couple were initially buried in a Poor Clares convent in Vienna. After construction was continued by their cousin and successor, Emperor Ferdinand II, their coffins were transferred in 1633 to the completed crypt. Anna and Matthias were buried side by side. Under Emperor Ferdinand III, the complex, known as the Imperial Crypt, ultimately became the family burial place of the Habsburg imperial family.