Margarete von Österreich

Margaretha of Austria was born in Vienna on 26 June 1395 and died on 24 December 1447. She belonged to the House of Habsburg and was the eldest daughter of Duke Albert IV of Austria and his wife, Joanna Sophia of Bavaria. She was born five years after her parents’ wedding. Two months later, following the death of his father, Albert III, her father became Duke of Austria. Two years after Margaretha’s birth, the family welcomed a son, who was also named Albert. Margaretha’s childhood was marked by early losses. Her father died during the siege of Znaim when she was nine years old. Her mother did not remarry and devoted herself chiefly to securing her children’s futures and arranging suitable marriages. Joanna Sophia died when Margaretha was fifteen. By then, Margaretha’s own marriage had already been arranged: in 1405, she became engaged to Henry XVI, Duke of Bavaria-Landshut. Margaretha married Henry at the age of seventeen. He was twenty-six at the time. Their wedding took place in Landshut on 25 November 1412. The marriage produced six children. One of the couple’s residences was Burghausen Castle, where all of Margaretha’s sons were born. She usually lived there alone with the children, however. From her accounts, it appears that she regarded her husband as merciless and complained about his frugality, which in her view came close to miserliness. The couple’s eldest daughter was Joanna, born in 1413 and deceased in 1444. She married Otto I, Count Palatine of Mosbach, and had nine children with him. Their son Albert was born in 1414 but died in 1418 at the age of four. Frederick, born in 1415, lived for only one year and died in 1416. Their son Louis, born in 1417, survived his siblings and later became Duke of Bavaria-Landshut himself. He held the office from 1450 to 1479. Louis was married to Amalia of Saxony, and they had four children. Margaretha’s second daughter, Elisabeth, was born in 1419 and died in 1451. She married Ulrich I, Count of Württemberg-Stuttgart, and also had four children. The youngest daughter, Margaretha, was born in 1420 and later entered a convent as a nun. Margaretha of Austria died on Christmas Eve in 1447. She was buried at Seligenthal Abbey. Her life combined her Habsburg origins with her role as Duchess of Bavaria-Landshut and mother of a large family whose members were closely connected through dynastic marriages. Among her six children, Joanna, Louis, and Elisabeth in particular reached adulthood and established further family ties through their marriages. Louis ultimately continued the rule of Bavaria-Landshut himself.