Anne, Duchess of Luxembourg

Anne of Bohemia and Austria (1432 – 1462) was a Duchess of Luxembourg in her own right, and as consort, Landgravine of Thuringia and of Saxony.

She was born into the House of Habsburg, being the eldest daughter of Albert of Austria, the future Emperor-Elect.

She also was a close descendant of the newly extinct House of Luxembourg, her mother being the last Luxembourg heiress, Elisabeth, queen of Bohemia, the sole daughter of Emperor Sigismund.

Her posthumous brother Ladislaus, Duke of Austria (1440-57) succeeded, very underage, as king of Bohemia and later also as king of Hungary. Anne also had a younger sister, Elisabeth, who was to become later a queen of Poland and grand duchess of Lithuania.

On June 2 1446 the young Anne was married to William "the Brave" of Saxony (1425-82), Landgrave of Thuringia, a younger son of Frederick I "the Warlike" of Saxony. In right of Anne, William became Duke of Luxembourg from 1457 when Anne¨s brother Ladislas died childless, up to 1469, though being all the time in dispute with Philip III, Duke of Burgundy, an usurper, over that possession. William concluded that the possession's keeping was untenable against Burgundian attacks, and retreated to his Thuringian lands - that however took place when Anne was already dead.

They had two surviving daughters:

* Margaret of Thuringia (1449 - 13 July 1501), who married John II, Elector of Brandenburg, and whose direct main heirs have been Electors of Brandenburg, then Kings of Prussia, and then German Emperors.

* Katharina of Thuringia (1453 – 10 July 1534), who married Duke Henry II of Münsterberg and who has surviving descendants, mainly among Bohemian high nobility.

Genetics

Anne's mother Elisabeth of Luxembourg is a direct matrilineal ancestor of Nicholas II of Russia. Provided the genealogy is correct, this implies that all her matrilineal relatives are members of mitochondrial haplogroup Haplogroup T.