Born: 22 September 1601, Spain
Died: 20 January 1666
Country most active: Spain
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women, written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company.
Queen of France, daughter of Philip III, King of Spain. She was married in 1615 to Louis XIII, and in 1638, twenty-three years after her marriage, became the mother of Louis XIV. At the death ot Louis XIII, in 1643, the parliament appointed her regent during the minority of Louis XIV, but she permitted Cardinal Mazarin, who is supposed to have been secretly married to her, to rule in her name. When Louis XIV became king in 1661 she continued to exercise a powerful influence at his court until her death, five years later.
The following is excerpted from Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.
Anne of Austria, Queen Mother of Louis XIV of France, 1602 – 1666
Anne of Austria, queen of France, daughter of Phillip III king of Spain was born in 1602, and died January 20, 1666. She was married December 25, 1615, to Louis XIII and was the mother of Louis XIV. Hardly any queen of France was so much calumniated, or so undeservedly unhappy.
Cardinal Richelieu, the all-powerful minister of the weak Louis XIII, dreading the influence of the wife, or, as others pretend, having been refused by her as a lover, succeeded in prejudicing the mind of the king until he allowed Anne to be continually persecuted, exiled, and, at times, left to suffer the greatest penury. Richelieu associated her of conspiracy with the Dukes of Lorraine, with England, with her own brother, the king of Spain, with all the enemies of France, and with the conspirators at the court, against his own supremacy.
When Richelieu represented her as wishing to get rid of Louis to marry Gaston, and Anne was compelled to appear before the king’s counsel to answer this grave charge, her dignity here came to her aid and she scorned to make a direct reply. She merely observed, contemptuously, that too little was to be gained by the change, to render such a design on her part probable.
At the death of Louis XIII, the parliament in 1643 appointed her regent during the minority of Louis XIV. The Cardinal Mazarin, who, likewise, was said to have been her lover, ruled in her name, and this occasioned the revolt of some of the princes of the blood and other French grandees – a rising known in French history under the name of the Fronde.
She possessed a peculiar and extremely delicate sense of feeling over the whole body; scarcely any linen or cambric was fine enough for her use. It was another peculiarity of hers, that, though she loved flowers passionately, she could not bear the view of natural or even painted roses.
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
No reader of Dumas’s Three Musketeers fails to fall in love with that admirable daughter of Spain, who married Louis XIII, King of France. She was so admired by the Duke of Buckingham, that he did not hesitate to create discords between England and France that he might return to Paris as Ambassador. While Queen-regent of the kingdom during the minority of Louis XIV she entrusted his education to the prime minister, Mazarin. She was always willing to sanction all good things, once convinced that they were right. Anne d’Austriche prepared the way for the reign of the great King Louis XIV by her intelligence, and was, to a large extent, responsible for the glory of her son, who, undoubtedly, became the most powerful and the most famous King of France. She was buried at St. Denis and this epigraph preserves the memory of this exceptional woman: “Sister, Wife, Mother, Daughter of Kings.”
The following is excerpted from A Cyclopædia of Female Biography, published 1857 by Groomsbridge and Sons and edited by Henry Gardiner Adams.
ANNE OF AUSTRIA, Queen of Louis the Thirteenth of France, and regent during the minority of Louis the Fourteenth, was daughter of Philip the Second of Spain. She was born September 22nd., 1601, and was married to Louis the Thirteenth, in 1615. Anne found a powerful enemy in cardinal Richelieu, who had great influence over the king, and she was compelled to yield, as long as he lived, to the great minister.
Had Anne possessed greater talents, or been more agreeable, the case might have been different; but her coldness and gravity of demeanor, which only covered frivolity, alienated Louis the Thirteenth. Her attachment to her native country was also represented as a crime by the cardinal, and his whispers as to her betraying intelligence, brought upon Anne the ignominy of having her person searched, and her papers seized.
When it was known that the queen was in disgrace, the malcontent nobles, with Gaston, the king’s brother, at their head, rallied around her, and she was implicated in a conspiracy against Louis the Thirteenth. Richelieu took advantage of this, to represent her as wishing to get rid of Louis to marry Gaston; and Anne was compelled to appear before the king’s counsel to answer this grave chaise. Her dignity here came to her aid, and, scorning to make a direct reply, she merely observed, contemptuously, “That too little was to be gained by the change, to render such a design on her part probable.” The duke of Buckingham’s open court to the neglected queen, also gave rise to malicious reports.
On the death of Louis the Thirteenth, Anne, as mother of the infant king, held the undisputed reins; and she gave one great proof of wisdom in her choice of cardinal Mazarin as a minister. However, some oppressive acts of Mazarin gave birth to a popular insurrection, which terminated in a civil war, called the war of the Fronde, in which Anne, her minister, and their adherents, were opposed to the nobility, the citizens, and the people of Paris. But Anne and Mazarin came off triumphant. The result of this rebellion, and of Anne of Austria’s administration, was, that the nobles and middle classes, vanquished in the field, were never afterwards able to resist the royal power, up to the great revolution. Anne’s influence over the court of France continued a long time; her Spanish haughtiness, her love of ceremonial, and of power, were impressed on the mind of her son, Louis the Fourteenth. Some modern French writers have pretended to find reasons for believing this proud queen was secretly married to cardinal Mazarin, her favourite adviser and friend. But no sufficient testimony, to establish the fact of such a strange union,has been adduced. The queen died in 1666, aged sixty-five. She was a very handsome woman, and celebrated for the beauty of her hands and arms.
Anne of Austria appears to have been estimable for the goodness and kindness of her heart, rather than for extraordinary capacity; for the attractions of the woman rather than the virtues of the queen; a propensity to personal attachments, and an amiable and forgiving temper, were her distinguishing characteristics.
Her life had been marked with vicissitude, and clouded by disquiet. At one period, subjected by an imperious minister, whose yoke she had not the resolution to throw off, she became an object of compassion even to those who caballed and revolted against her; yet her affections were never alienated from France, in favour of which she interested herself, with spirit and zeal, in the war against her native country. The French, at length, relinquished their prejudices, and did her justice. The latter years of her lift were passed in tranquillity, in retirement, and in the exercise of benevolence.
Anne of Austria was interred at St Denis; her heart was carried to Le Vol de Grace, of which she had been the foundress; and the following epitaph was made on her:—
“Sister, wife, mother, daughter of kings! Never was any more worthy of these illustrious titles.”