Isabella of Austria

Infobox Danish Royalty|majesty|consort
name =Isabella of Austria
title =Queen consort of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway


caption =
reign =1515 -1523
1520 - 1521
reign-type =Consort in Denmark
Consort in Sweden
spouse =Christian II
issue =Christina, Duchess of Milan
royal house =House of Oldenburg
House of Habsburg
titles =Queen Elisabeth
The Queen of Denmark and Norway
The Queen of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden
The Queen of Denmark and Norway
Archduchess Isabella of Austria
father =Philip I of Castile
mother =Joanna of Castile
date of birth =18 July 1501
place of birth = Brussels
date of death =death date and age|1526|1|29|1501|7|18|mf=y
place of death = Gent|

Isabella of Austria (also known as Isabella or Elisabeth of Burgundy, of Habsburg, or of Castile) (18 July 1501–19 January 1526), Archduchess of Austria, Infanta of Castile and Princess of Burgundy by birth and Queen of Denmark, Sweden and Norway by her marriage to King Christian II, was the daughter of Philip I and Joanna of Castile and the sister of Emperor Charles V. She was born at Brussels.

Biography

On 11 July 1514 Isabella was married by proxy to King Christian II of Denmark with Emperor Maximilian, her grandfather, standing in for the king. A year later, the Archbishop of Norway was sent to escort her to Copenhagen. The marriage was ratified on 12 August 1515.

Isabella was crowned Queen of Denmark and given the name Elisabeth, but the relationship between her family and king Christian was quite cool during the first year of the marriage. The King's Dutch mistress, Dyveke Sigbritsdatter, had been with him since 1507, and he was not about to give her up for a teenaged girl.

This angered the Emperor, and caused some diplomatic strife between him and King Christian, but the matter was resolved when Dyveke died in 1517, and Isabella's relationship with her husband improved vastly over the next few years.

She bore him three children, Hans, Christina and Dorothea, and when king Christian was deposed in 1523 by disloyal noblemen supporting his aging uncle duke Frederick, the new king wanted to be on good terms with her family. He wrote her a personal letter in her native German, offering her a dowager queen's pension and permitting her to stay in Denmark under his protection while king Christian fled to the Netherlands.

But Isabella wrote back to duke Frederick in Latin, stating that "ubi rex meus, ibi regna mea", that is "where my king is, there is my kingdom". She then left Denmark with her husband and their children. The young queen died at Ghent at just twenty-four years of age.

Note: Isabella's first daughter was the Christina, Duchess of Milan made famous in Holbein's portrait, painted when Henry VIII of England was looking for his fourth wife. Her younger daughter, Dorothea, married Frederick II, Elector Palatine.

It is said that the daughter of Denmark's Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary, Princess Isabella, was named after her.

Ancestry

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1= 1. Isabella of Austria
2= 2. Philip I of Castile
3= 3. Joanna I of Castile
4= 4. Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
5= 5. Mary, Duchess of Burgundy
6= 6. Ferdinand II of Aragon
7= 7. Isabella I of Castile
8= 8. Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor
9= 9. Eleanor of Portugal
10= 10. Charles, Duke of Burgundy
11= 11. Isabella of Bourbon
12= 12. John II of Aragon
13= 13. Juana Enriquez
14= 14. John II of Castile
15= 15. Isabella of Portugal
16= 16. Ernest, Duke of Austria
17= 17. Cymburgis of Masovia
18= 18. Edward of Portugal
19= 19. Leonor of Aragon
20= 20. Philip, Duke of Burgundy
21= 15. Isabella of Portugal
22= 22. Charles I, Duke of Bourbon
23= 23. Agnes of Burgundy
24= 24. Ferdinand I of Aragon
25= 25. Eleanor of Alburquerque
26= 26. Frederick Enríquez, Count of Melgar
27= 27. Merina de Cordova
28= 28. Henry III of Castile
29= 29. Katherine of Lancaster
30= 30. Infante João, Lord of Reguengos
31= 31. Isabella of Braganza