Claudia de' Medici (4 June 1604 – 25 December 1648) was Regent of the Austrian

County of Tyrol The (Princely) County of Tyrol was an Imperial State, estate of the Holy Roman Empire established about 1140. After 1253, it was ruled by the House of Gorizia and from 1363 by the House of Habsburg. In 1804, the County of Tyrol, unified with th ...

during the minority of her son from 1632 until 1646.

Biography

Early life

Born in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

into the

House of Medici The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo de' Medici, Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first h ...

, Claudia was the youngest daughter of

Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (30 July 1549 – 17 February 1609) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1587 to 1609, having succeeded his older brother Francesco I, who presumably died from malaria. Early life Ferdinando was the ...

and his wife, Christina of Lorraine. She was named after her grandmother Claude of Valois, herself daughter of Catherine de Medici, Queen of France , granddaughter of Claude, Duchess of Brittany, consort to King

Francis I of France Francis I (; ; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once removed and father-in-law Louis&nbs ...

Duchess of Urbino

In 1620, she married Federico Ubaldo della Rovere, the only son of Francesco Maria II della Rovere,

Duke of Urbino The Duchy of Urbino () was an independent duchy in early modern central Italy, corresponding to the northern half of the modern region of Marche. It was directly annexed by the Papal States in 1631. It was bordered by the Adriatic Sea in the ea ...

. Their only child, Vittoria, went on to marry the

Grand Duke of Tuscany Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor Places * Grand, Oklahoma, USA * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand County (disambiguation), se ...

. Federico Ubaldo della Rovere died suddenly on 29 June 1623.

Archduchess of Tyrol

After her husband's premature death, she was married, on 19 April 1626, to Leopold V, Archduke of Austria, and thus became Archduchess consort of Austria.

Regent of Tyrol

On the death of her husband in 1632, she assumed a regency in the name of her son Ferdinand Charles who was the ruler of the Princely County of Tyrol. Claudia, along with five directors, held the post until 1646. She died at

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

in 1648.

Issue

She had one child by Federico Ubaldo della Rovere: # Vittoria della Rovere (1622–1694) married

Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando II de' Medici (14 July 1610 – 23 May 1670) was Grand Duchy of Tuscany, grand duke of Tuscany from 1621 to 1670. He was the eldest son of Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo II de' Medici and Archduchess Maria Mad ...

and had issue, She had five children by Archduke Leopold V of

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

: # Maria Eleonora of Austria (1627–1629) died in infancy. # Ferdinand Charles of Austria (1628–1662) married Anna de' Medici # Isabella Clara of Austria (1629–1685), who married Charles III, Duke of Mantua and had issue. # Sigismund Francis of Austria (1630–1665), Count of Tyrol and Regent of Further Austria, who married Countess Palatine Maria Hedwig Auguste of Sulzbach (1650–1681) and had no issue. # Maria Leopoldine of Austria (1632–1649), who married Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III (1608–1657)

Ancestors

References

Sources

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Medici, Claudia 1604 births 1648 deaths Duchesses of Urbino Austrian consorts Claudia de' Medici Claudia de' Medici Tuscan nobility 17th-century Italian nobility Della Rovere family 17th-century women regents 17th-century regents 17th-century Italian women Tuscan princesses Daughters of dukes Remarried duchesses consort Mothers of Austrian monarchs