Elisabeth of Austria (1554-1592) - Find a Grave Memorial

Royalty. Daughter of Emperor Maximilian II and his wife Maria of Spain. She and Charles IX were married by proxy in Speyer, in October 1570. From there she traveled to France where they were married in person in November by the Cardinal de Bourbon. She was crowned in St. Denis in the following March. Charles was in love with her in the beginning, but he soon returned to his mistress Marie Touchet. She was described as modest, kind, religious (Catholic) and intelligent. She shared her love for literature with her sister in law Margot. She bore her only child Marie-Elizabeth one month after the St. Bartholomew Day's Massacre. After the death of her husband in 1574 she traveled through her dowager territories and visited her daughter in August 1575. A year later she left the country and went to Vienna, where she founded the so-called "Königinnenkloster" (Queens monastery) in 1581. In the following years she rejected several marriage proposals, even one from her former brother-in-law, now King Henri III of France. When she died in Vienna she left her money to the poor of the city and her monastery. She was first buried in the monastery's church but when the church became protestant in 1782, her body was moved to St. Stephen's Cathedral.

Bio by: Lutetia