Anne of Bohemia and Austria (12 April 1432 – 13 November 1462) was a Duchess of Luxembourg in her own right and, as a consort, Landgravine of Thuringia and of

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

Life

Anne was the eldest daughter of Albert of Austria, the future Emperor-Elect and

Elisabeth of Luxembourg, Queen of Bohemia Elizabeth of Luxembourg (; 7 October 1409 – 19 December 1442) was queen consort of Hungary, queen consort of Germany and Bohemia. The only child of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, King of Hungary and Bohemia, Elizabeth was expected to asce ...

, the sole descendant of

Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg (15 February 1368 – 9 December 1437) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1433 until his death in 1437. He was elected King of Germany (King of the Romans) in 1410, and was also King of Bohemia from 1419, as well as prince-elect ...

. Her underage brother Ladislaus, Duke of Austria (1440–57) succeeded, as

king of Bohemia The Duchy of Bohemia was established in 870 and raised to the Kingdom of Bohemia in Golden Bull of Sicily, 1198. Several Bohemian monarchs ruled as non-hereditary kings and first gained the title in 1085. From 1004 to 1806, Bohemia was part of th ...

and later also as

king of Hungary The King of Hungary () was the Monarchy, ruling head of state of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1000 (or 1001) to 1918. The style of title "Apostolic King of Hungary" (''Magyarország apostoli királya'') was endorsed by Pope Clement XIII in 1758 ...

. Anne also had a younger sister, Elisabeth, who later became Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania. On 2 June 1446, at the age of 14, 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 The territory of Luxembourg has been ruled successively by counts, dukes and grand dukes. It was part of the medieval Kingdom of Germany, and later the Holy Roman Empire until it became a sovereign state in 1815. Counts of Luxembourg House of Arde ...

from 1457 when Anne's brother Ladislaus died childless. Though, their rights to the land were disputed by

Philip III, Duke of Burgundy Philip III the Good (; ; 31 July 1396 – 15 June 1467) ruled as Duke of Burgundy from 1419 until his death in 1467. He was a member of a cadet line of the Valois dynasty, to which all 15th-century kings of France belonged. During his reig ...

, and in 1469, 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. Wilhelm rejected Anna after the death of her brother, since she was no longer useful to him in the power struggles. He instead turned to his lover Katharina von Brandenstein. Anna was kept until her death in the castle Eckartsburg. She once tried to go back to her husband, but he is said to have "welcomed" her by throwing a shoe in her face and to have immediately sent her back.Joseph Chmel, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Lanz: ''Monumenta habsburgica: Sammlung von actenstücken und briefen zur ..., Volume 1'', S. 80 Anna died at the age of 30 and was buried in the monastery

Reinhardsbrunn Reinhardsbrunn is a historic complex in Friedrichroda near Gotha, in the German state of Thuringia. From its founding in 1085 to 1525, it was the site of the Benedictine house monastery of the Ludovingian Landgraves of Thuringia. Later used as ...

. Wilhelm married Katharina shortly after.

Marriage and issue

Anna and Wilhelm 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 Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

, then Kings of

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

, and then

German Emperor The German Emperor (, ) was the official title of the head of state and Hereditary monarchy, hereditary ruler of the German Empire. A specifically chosen term, it was introduced with the 1 January 1871 constitution and lasted until the abdicati ...

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

Ancestry

References

Sources

* 1432 births 1462 deaths 15th-century German nobility 15th-century German women Dukes of Luxembourg 15th-century House of Habsburg Pretenders to the Bohemian throne Austria–Luxembourg relations Landgravines of Thuringia Pretenders to the Hungarian throne Daughters of kings 15th-century dukes in Europe Daughters of dukes Duchesses regnant {{Germany-duchess-stub