On one such occasion, I mentioned
how much I appreciated the interpretation of Anne of Austria, who is neither femme
fatale, nor complete doormat. This got us discussing the life and exploits of
the real Anne of Austria, at which
point, my husband suggested that I write a blog post about her.
Anne of Austria, as far as I can
tell, never spent any time in Austria. She grew up in Spain, and then after
marrying Louis XIII of France at the age of 14 (don’t worry, he was also 14),
spent all of her adult life living in France. She is known misleadingly as Anne
of Austria because she was a member of the Hapsburg family that at the time
ruled both Austria and Spain. In order to ensure a continued alliance among the
Catholic Powers of Europe, the Spanish Hapsburgs continuously married the
Austrian Hapsburgs and they both occasionally married French royalty, just to
mix things up. (Aren’t you glad we abandoned this style of diplomacy?) Anne’s
mother was Austrian and her father was King Phillip III of Spain – so, Anne was
officially the Archduchess of Austria.
The France Anne first arrived in
was certainly a power player on the European stage, but it was in an unstable
condition. The Bourbon Dynasty was only a generation old (technically, not even
a dynasty yet) having come to power when Louis XIII’s father Henry IV came out
victorious in France’s civil/religious war: The War of the Three Henrys. (Say
what you will about Europe, but they had a knack for naming wars.) Le bon roi
Henri was assassinated in 1610, leaving Louis XIII to become king at the tender
age of 9, with his mother Marie de’Medici (who warrants a blog post of her own)
as his regent.
When Anne first arrived at the
French court, Louis had little interest in her, romantically or otherwise, and
Marie de’Medici was too interested in ruling to spare much thought for her
teenage daughter-in-law, and so Anne maintained her Spanish customs – a no-no
for foreign queens who almost always fare better when they adopt the culture
and customs of their husband’s kingdom.
Two years after their marriage,
Louis, with a little help from his friends, overthrew and banished his mother,
deciding at 16 that his mom was ruining his lif-fuh and that he was ready to
rule France on his own – or at least, he was ready to have someone else
whispering in his ear. The engineer of the coup was the Duke of Luynes who
tried to bring Louis and Anne closer together by replacing Anne’s Spanish
ladies-in-waiting with French ones, and getting her to dress in French styles.
When none of this had the desired effect, Luynes suggested to the king that maybe he ought to have sex with his wife
and get about that all important kingly business of producing an heir. Now age
18, Louis was moderately more
interested in sex.
Sources suggest that Anne and Louis
never had a warm relationship. Any warmth that did exist between them in their
late teens and early twenties quickly evaporated when Anne failed to produce an
heir. (You had one job, Anne!) She
suffered a series of stillbirths that Louis (like other kings) blamed on her.
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| One of the great Peter Paul Rubens' portraits of Anne. She was known for her beautiful hands. |
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| Another portrait of Anne by Rubens |
In 1635, Spain and France went to
war – for reasons – and because of
Anne’s correspondence with her brother, she was suspected of treason and
espionage, which was fair, since she was probably giving her brother military
secrets. She was not executed, but was interrogated and virtually kept under
house arrest within the palace, and seldom saw the king.
Despite the rare opportunities for
conjugal visitations, at the age of 37, Anne finally gave birth to her first
living child: a son, the eventually Louis XIV of France. And although the
dauphin thrived and she gave birth to another son when she was almost 40, she
and her husband were never close again.
I cannot, of course, speak for Anne’s
happiness, but things seem to have improved for her after Louis XIII’s death in
1643. King Louis XIV was 5 years old.
Like many royal women of history,
Anne far outlived her husband, and her only avenue to real power was through
acting as regent over her young son. Traditionally in France, if the king was a
minor, his mother would act as sole regent – as had been the case when Louis
XIII’s mother had been his regent. Louis had not wanted Anne to be Louis XIV’s
regent and instead in his will he appointed a council to be his son’s regent –
making Anne the head of the council as a sort of consolation prize.
Anne tidily had that annulled after
Louis’ death.
Unlike his father, Louis XIV had
quite a close and loving relationship with his mother, sharing many passions
and hobbies. Louis XIV – the Sun King – is famous in history for the creation
of a powerful absolute monarchy in France – but he probably couldn’t have done
it without his Mummy Dearest.
Anne’s main advisor during this
period was Cardinal Mazarin, who, with Anne’s blessing, chose to continue
Richelieu’s anti-Hapsburg policy, seeing this as the most beneficial course of
action for the young Sun King. She also showed a willingness to bury the
hatchet, keeping on ministers who had persecuted her during the war with Spain
in a “we are all French now” kind of gesture.
During Louis’ minority, Anne:
·
Pursued a policy of unity among the Catholic
countries of Europe
·
Helped end the Thirty Years War
·
Continued Richelieu’s policy of taking away the
power of France’s nobility and giving more power to the king
·
Put down a revolt of nobles called The Fronde
·
Arranged a marriage between Louis and his
Spanish cousin Marie Theresa even though he had a major crush on Cardinal
Mazarin’s niece
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| Anne in retirement |
Her regency officially ended in 1651 when Louis “came of age” (I can’t be the only person who thinks that an 18-year-old boy shouldn’t have supreme executive power). However, Anne maintained influence at court for another ten years. From what I can tell, she and Louis XIV did not experience the typical souring of relations that tends to occur between teenage kings and their regent mothers. Anne then retired to a convent and died of breast cancer in 1666.
Sources:
I did not do super sophisticated research this time around.
Writing this blog post helped me get through waiting for election results. I
did the best I could.
Wikipedia:
Louis XIV of France
– notably, there is much more of an explanation of Anne’s role in the regency
on Louis’ page than there is on Anne’s
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