Anne Of Austria Had The World’s Worst Husband D
when you think of princesses you typically think of romance riches and fun however an of Austria’s life was no fairy tale many people loved her some hated her and one very important man ignored her in the end an of Austria defied the odds to become one of the most iconic and famous Queens of France during her life her husband King Louis the 13th despised her from the day they married and treated her terribly for decades however he would save his greatest betrayal for his final moments on his deathbed an of Austria the evental queen consor of France wasn’t actually born in Austria she was born in Spain and was a Spanish princess why would a Spanish princess be named after Austria because she belonged to the house of hapsburg the royal Austrian Dynasty she was also an arch Duchess and her royal Heritage gave her both her name and unimaginable wealth as a young girl Anne was known to
be very beautiful blonde hair green eyes and an oval face she was definitely the picture of European Beauty Not only was she beautiful but she was also known to be quite the equestrian because of her beauty in her youth she had an abundance of admirers from birth an of Austria’s family expected her to marry someone of their choosing their choice King Louis the 13th of France was purely a political decision they wanted to ensure a marriage alliance between France and Spain the two major Catholic nations in Europe there was relationship would be a pragmatic one and the marriage was shortly arranged it was hoped that the couple would love each other eventually this was not to be the case an of Austria was incredibly Young when she married King Louis the 13th the pair were only 14 years old at the time and their families wanted to get the political Alliance settled as soon as possible Lou was your typical 14-year-old boy and had no idea how to talk to girls he treated Anne indifferently for their first years
together the fact that Lou had an immense distaste for Spaniards and immediately fired most of Anne’s Spanish servants was not a good start to their relationship an of Austria was a stranger in a foreign land and her husband instantly made her even more isolated as well after the pair consummated their marriage on their wedding night Louie allegedly refused to sleep with Anne for years afterward he eventually caved but only because he was forced to when an and Louie both turned 17 years old the court pressured them to definitively consumate their marriage and produce an air it was obvious to anyone with eyes that they didn’t love each other but that didn’t change the fact that France needed a baby to ensure there was no possibility of anneling the marriage Alliance or not producing an air what made things difficult is the fact that Louis often refused to be around his wife he even went as far as choosing to live separately from an for many years this made it increasingly difficult to conceive an heir to the
throne and carry on his Royal Line it didn’t take long before Lou’s attitude ude and behavior started taking a serious toll on poor Anne of Austria no matter what Anne did she could not seem to remedy the distance between herself and her husband the French always considered her to be the foreign Queen because she surrounded herself only with her Spanish ladies in waiting and never fully learned the French language in an effort to improve the young coup’s relationship the king’s closest friend and adviser the Duke of luin came up with a solution however his solution was rather cruel he sent away all of Ann’s familiar Spanish ladies he then replaced them with French ladies instead and put his own wife in the most influential position an of Austria had been lonely in this new country and this move made her feel even lonelier if that wasn’t enough luin also made Anne style herself in the French manner at this point it seems that the
Duke stripped her of her entire Spanish Heritage he forced her to speak French surrounded her with French ladies and even made her dress French too we can only imagine how hard this must have been for the young Queen but despite its difficulty it may have worked somewhat Lou and Anne appeared to have developed some affection between them when Anne fell ill in the spring of 1620 the king allegedly seemed genuinely worried about her he even grew so distracted that he neglected his duties as king until he knew that Anne had recovered although it seemed like Anne and Louie were finally through their rough patch they weren’t the pressure on an and Louie to conceive a child grew with each passing year but there seemed to be no salvation in sight and kept getting pregnant then miscarrying only doubling the couple’s Misery after 16 years the couple still had no child people started to whisper that a queen who couldn’t produce heirs wasn’t of much use at all in court an opposed the king’s powerful and famous
advisor Cardinal Rashia the pair got into many fights over his policies which frequently put France at odds with the hapsburgs with such a powerful enemy Dark Rumors started swirling around Anne many came to believe that she was secretly betraying the king rumor haded that she was involved with the comp theal a noble whom Risha had accused of treachery and had beheaded Cardinal reela decided that he would spy on an through one of the highest ranking ladies in the Queen’s household he had meline du fari a French courtier and agent become great friends with the queen hoping that she would spill and and secrets his plan completely backfired meline actually came to like the queen and they became friends to get back at the Cardinal and tried to plot with the ruthless Queen Dowager Marie deichi Lou’s mother to have Cardinal richelia deposed as they both hated him very much Unfortunately they failed
miserably and their actions actually made Louie come to rely on richelia even more because of this Anne ended up on her husband’s bad side yet again in retribution Lou reduced an’s court and fired many of her ladies including meline duari despite the fact that duari had arrived as a spy she and Anne became Inseparable when Lou announced he was firing half her Court including duari an was forced to resort to Desperate Measures she ran to Cardinal rashila himself and begged him to convince Louie to let duari stay Cardinal riler obviously didn’t like that his spy had turned into an’s best friend he refused her and duari was forced to leave an told Rashia that she’d never forgive him when France fought Spain in 1635 Anne found herself in a delicate situation she kept up a secret correspondence with both her brother the king of Spain and other French ambassadors before the
conflict this wasn’t exactly a huge deal but now she was technically communicating with the Enemy it was only a matter of time before someone in France Got suspicious of their Spanish Queen in 1637 Cardinal rishia began investigating her Under Suspicion of participating in secret correspondence but apparently years of mistreatment had given her some backbone this time Anne was going to fight back the only way she knew how while Anne’s various helpers quickly admitted that they took part in her secret correspondence an simply lied about it she said she’d never send any letters to Spain and prayed that they’d just take her word for it eventually Anne cracked under the guilt of sending her Secret Letters and admitted that she corresponded with the Spaniards the king had hated Anne before but now her standing fell lower than it ever had after the whole Secret Letters Affair things deteriorated greatly from that point on Louie had every single letter she wrote inspected before it went anywhere on top of monitoring her
letters Louie placed severe restrictions on where Anne could travel Anne had done most of her secret correspondents in coments away from the prying eyes of the Court even worse the staff at those comment had acted as Messengers getting the letters in and out of France this must have been particularly painful for Anne as those convents were one of the only places she felt truly at home in France whenever he thought Anne stepped out of line as he had done many times Lou would fire many of her staff well this time was no different he got rid of anyone he thought might help Anne and commanded the new staff who are loyal to him to never let her be alone from this point on her ladies in Waiting always stay with her no matter what she had no more privacy anymore after many years of trying for an air and sadly not succeeding then entirely ignoring each other for many more years and once again got pregnant according to rumors she had bad weather to thank for the child in
her womb King Louie who almost never stayed with her ended up spending the night with her during a bitter storm the couple did their marital Duty and Anne finally became pregnant she’d been pregnant several times before and none of the children had had lived but this time was different Anne birthed her first son and air to the throne Louis the 14th in 1638 at the chatau to s j on she named him Louie judon or Louie god-given because she saw him as a miracle after struggling to conceive for so many years the nation rejoiced and agreed with the name considering the boy a Divine gift from God Louis the 14’s birth marked a turning point in Anne’s life Anne and her son Louie had an uncommonly affectionate relationship unsurprisingly based on how everyone else in the court treated her and liked to spend almost all her time with young Louie this maternal influence strongly shaped Louis’s interests in food and theater an thought Louie truly was a gift from God so it’s no surprise it
went to his head young Louie firmly believed he possessed absolute and divine power in his monarchical rule something he would put to use as Francis extravagant Sun King even though Anne had finally produced an air for her husband and the French monarchy there was still a high level of distrust between husband and wife no matter what they could not get along even with an immense amount of pressure lifted from their shoulders despite this an and Louie conceived a second baby only 15 months after their first no one expected the sudden burst in virility as Anne was already 38 years old at the time Anne was able to take her children away from the main Palace and move away into the pal Cardinal things were finally starting to look up for anab asria and they were about to get even better Louis the 13th succumbed to tuberculosis in 1643 at just 41 years old though he and Anne had spent more time together in his final years it is doubtful that Anne was very sad about it
considering his Decades of mistreatment the fact that Louie would try to make sure she wouldn’t have any power after he died certainly didn’t help one of Louis the 13th’s final acts was to stick it to his wife in his will he tried his best to make sure she never saw an ounce of power and intend for a cardinal to be Regent of France instead of Anne in reaction she convinced the parliament of Paris to revoke Louis’s will and install her as Regent for her son now King Louis the 14th of France Louis the 13th’s final effort to backstab his wife had failed she was now the most powerful person in France now that her husband was gone and Anne was in charge she could finally return to visiting the convents that she loved so much in 1645 an commissioned a new Val the grass Church on the land of a Benedictine Convent this is where an regularly went to pray and worship as the Regent of France she had it built to show thanks
to the Virgin Mary for her ability to have two children after so many childless years anav ASA may have been Regent of France but she knew she wasn’t the right person to actually run the country she entrusted the French government to Cardinal maer her chief minister and oddly enough a prote of her Arch Nemesis rashila surprisingly they worked well together and he remained loyal to the queen for years perhaps they worked just a little too well together as Citizens believed that an and maer had secretly become lovers the rumors got a whole lot louder during the frond an aristocratic Revolt in France when pamphlets came out accusing them of such the pamphlets even claimed that the pair had married in secret things were becoming rockier for Anne with this new Revol and rumors of an affair but she was not the same pushover that she once was this time she would handle things differently with this new Rebellion against the monarchy an as the Regent
was able to overcome it with maer’s support after many years of acting as the Regent of France an son Louis the 14th officially came of age in 1651 this meant that Anne no longer held official power over the government however Anne and maeran maintained a lot of influence over the new and young king and helped him make many of his political decisions in 1661 Anne lost Cardinal maerin his health had allegedly been in Decline ever since a fire at his beloved gallery of Apollo in the Lou Palace The Blaze destroyed many Priceless works of art and maeran took the loss hard succumbing to an unknown illness not long after in his public will he left all of his money to Louis the 14th he also left Anne a 14 karat diamond called the rose of England if maeran and an really were lovers and married as rumors said this must have been terrible for an maeran had definitely done a lot more
for her than Louis the 13th ever had after this Anne took a step back from things and was able to enjoy corresponding with her family again Anne had made a comeback in the eyes of the French people she had become much more popular and esteemed than when her husband was still the reigning king after putting up with the worst from her husband his cronies and a essentially everyone around her an of Austria got the last laugh she was able to retire to the convent that she loved most the Val the grass in Paris and she lived there up until the very end of her life an who had clearly lived a long and scandalous life is an unconventional queen and a regent of France eventually lost her life to breast cancer after living in the valder grass Convent in Paris for 5 years she was only 65 years old and of Austria’s Legacy as Queen of France was marked by personal struggles and political triumphs her rather unhappy marriage to Louis the 13th was
often strained and riddled with rumors of Scandal which was reflective of the turbulent Court politics of the time despite these challenges and the fact that her late husband tried to betray her she secured a long-lasting influence on the French monarchy particularly through her Regency for her son Louis the 14th who would go on to become one of the greatest kings of France and reign for over 7 decades I hope you enjoyed this video about Anne of Austria and if you did please like And subscribe
