Maria von Ungarn

Maria of Austria, usually known as Mary of Hungary, was born on September 15, 1505, at the Coudenberg Palace in Brussels. She was the second-youngest of the six children of the Habsburg heir Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile, known as “Joanna the Mad.” After her father’s early death in 1506, Maria grew up with her siblings in the Netherlands under the care of her aunt, Margaret of Austria. Her education reflected her high rank and was closely supervised by her grandfather, Emperor Maximilian I. She learned Latin and German at an early age, developed a particular passion for music, and played several instruments. Through her family’s humanist circle, she was also introduced to literature, art, politics, and law. Maximilian pursued an ambitious dynastic policy through Maria’s marriage. As a child, she was promised to the Hungarian king Louis II of the Jagiellonian dynasty. The marriage was intended to strengthen the Habsburg connection with Hungary. After lengthy preparations, the union was symbolically concluded in Vienna in 1515 and renewed through a proxy marriage in 1520. Maria eventually traveled to Hungary under difficult conditions and overcame opposition from nobles hostile to the Habsburgs. On December 11, 1521, she was crowned queen of Hungary at Székesfehérvár; the definitive wedding followed in January 1522. That same year, the couple was also crowned king and queen of Bohemia in Prague. Despite the political tensions, Maria and Louis initially led a shared life shaped by hunting, festivities, and ceremonial obligations. Maria nevertheless intervened forcefully in government and tried to uphold the authority of the crown against the powerful Hungarian magnates. In 1525, she thwarted a coup. Her position remained difficult, however, as rival groups competed for influence over the young king and the Ottoman threat continued to grow. In August 1526, Louis II fell at the Battle of Mohács and drowned while fleeing. The marriage had remained childless. Faced with political chaos and the Ottoman advance, Maria fled Buda and resolved never to remarry. While John Zápolya was elected king, Maria convened the Hungarian Diet at Pressburg and secured the election of her brother Ferdinand as king of Hungary. This further divided the country. Ferdinand initially deprived her of her revenues, and Maria repeatedly faced financial hardship. For a time she served as regent for her brother, but in 1527 she requested to be relieved of her duties for health reasons. She firmly rejected several marriage proposals arranged by Ferdinand. In 1529, after the Ottomans captured Buda, she was forced to flee to Linz. Following the death of her aunt Margaret of Austria at the end of 1530, Maria accepted the position of governor of the Habsburg Netherlands at the request of her brother, Emperor Charles V. On July 6, 1531, she was presented to the States General in Brussels. She held the office for almost a quarter of a century and enjoyed unusually broad independence. Charles placed the Council of State, the Privy Council, and the Council of Finance under her authority and allowed her to make decisions independently in emergencies. She could convene meetings, control the organization of votes, and sign important letters herself. Although she often presented herself outwardly as her brother’s obedient servant, she resisted his decisions whenever she believed they were harmful. Maria’s government was dominated by the wars of Charles V. She had to secure approval for financial levies, take out loans, supply troops, and organize the defense of the Netherlands. During her 24 years as governor, the Netherlands experienced about twelve years of war. She inspected fortresses, planned defensive works, strengthened coastal defenses, and established a system of beacons. She negotiated several truces with France while also directing military preparations and occasionally visiting the front herself. Financing the wars made her unpopular, since she repeatedly had to impose heavy taxes. At the same time, she defended economic interests by promoting trade treaties, supporting the construction of canals and locks, and repeatedly urging her brother to seek peace in order to protect commerce and prosperity. Maria also had to deal with several revolts. Brussels was shaken by unrest in 1532 after political and economic tensions intensified in the city. In 1537, a serious rebellion began in Ghent against the financial contributions demanded by Charles. Maria initially tried to mediate but could not resolve the conflict. In 1540, Charles V crushed the uprising with great severity. Religious policy presented her with another difficult conflict. Maria was interested in the Bible and remained close to humanist circles. Her sympathy for reformist ideas and her contacts with Protestants aroused suspicion, even though as governor she was required to enforce her brother’s Catholic policies. In her view, the state Inquisition and the persecution of religious dissenters also harmed trade. She therefore repeatedly advocated greater moderation, including toward Jewish merchants and people sympathetic to the Reformation. She sought to preserve Habsburg authority without provoking further revolts or driving merchants away through excessive harshness. Alongside her political duties, Maria devoted considerable attention to the education of her nieces and nephews and helped arrange their dynastic marriages. She was a close confidante of Charles V, who regarded her as a reliable representative and a central support of his rule. She was also an important patron of the Renaissance. She commissioned the construction or refurbishment of palaces, castles, and fortifications in the style of the period, including her residence at Binche and the hunting estate of Mariemont. She commissioned paintings, portraits, sculptures, tapestries, and buildings, and often supervised the work personally. Her artists included Titian, as well as Leone and Pompeo Leoni. Her library contained more than 400 works on history, theology, philosophy, military affairs, architecture, and poetry. One of her greatest passions was hunting. She rode astride rather than sidesaddle, hunted deer and wild boar, used falcons, and took part in the preparation of the animals she had killed. Her riding skill and determined character earned her the nickname “the male huntress.” Music also remained an important part of her life; she maintained her own court chapel and played several instruments. When Charles V abdicated in 1555, Maria announced that she would resign her office and follow her brother to Spain together with their sister Eleanor. She was in poor health and wished to devote herself more fully to religious life. She had also fallen out with Charles’s successor, Philip II. In 1556, she traveled to Spain and initially lived at the court in Valladolid, later withdrawing to a residence near Simancas. After Eleanor’s and Charles’s deaths in 1558, Maria’s health deteriorated further. She suffered several heart attacks and died on October 18, 1558, at Cigales in Castile. She was first buried in Valladolid; later, Philip II had her reinterred alongside Charles V at the Escorial.