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Johanna, archduchess of Austria
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Johanna of Austria (January 24, 1547 – April 10, 1578) was the youngest daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary.
Biography
She was born in Prague 1547, she was the youngest of 15 children. Johanna never knew her mother and eldest sister, her mother Anna died 2 days after Johanna's birth and her sister who was Elisabeth of Austria died in 1545, two years before Johanna was born. She is a descendant of Isabella I of Castile and Mary of Burgundy Her marriage to Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, took place on 18 December 1565 in Florence. Johanna, as pale, thin and charmless as Francesco, was miserably homesick. Ill and unhappy, ignored by her husband, and condemned by the Florentines for her Austrian hauteur, she never felt at home in Florence.
In his way her father-in-law, Cosimo I de' Medici, was kind to her. He had the courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio specially decorated for her; the lunettes were painted with murals of Austrian towns by pupils of Vasari, and Verrocchio's Putto with Dolphin fountain was brought down from the Careggi villa where it had been set up in the garden by Lorenzo de' Medici.
Then, on 10 April 1578 aged only thirty-one, she died in Florence. Francesco then married his mistress, Bianca Cappello. Johanna never really lived a happy life, she suffered with the death of so many family members and how horrible her husband was to her, her father-in-law Cosimo was probably one of the only people who was ever kind to Johanna.
Francesco never really mourned Johanna's death, because it is believed that Francesco and Bianca poisoned Johanna so that they could be married.
Ancestors
Children
Francesco and Johanna had seven children:
- Romola (November 20, 1568 – December 2, 1568)
- Anna (December 31, 1569 – February 19, 1584)
- Isabella (September 30, 1571 – August 8, 1572)
- Lucrezia (November 7, 1572 – August 14, 1574)
- Marie (1573 – 1642), who became Queen of France by her marriage to Henri IV in 1600.
- Filippo (May 20, 1577 – March 29, 1582)
Out of all seven children only two daughter, Eleonora and Marie lived to adulthood, the rest of the children died young. One of the worst deaths of the children was of Anna the second eldest daughter who passed away when she was fourteen years old.
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