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Joanna of Austria and her short life in Florence
Joanna of Austria was the youngest child of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I and his wife, Anne of Bohemia and Hungary. Her father, Ferdinand, was the second son of Juana of Castile and Philip of Austria, making him the younger brother of the most important monarch of the 1500s: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Before his abdication, Charles split his vast empire in two, giving his only son Philip control of the Spanish holdings of the empire and his brother, Ferdinand, control of Austria. Ferdinand also became Holy Roman Emperor.
Joanna’s mother died two days after her birth but she was raised along with her eleven surviving siblings. Ferdinand was an admirer of the Italian Renaissance that was flourishing in Florence and accepted an offer from Cosimo I de’ Medici to marry his daughter to Cosimo’s heir. The Medici were relatively upstart nobles, merchants who came to power through their vast financial acumen. A match with a Medici was certainly lacking in prestige, compared to marriages with other royal houses.
In 1565, aged eighteen, Joanna was married to Francesco d’Medici. The groom was six years her elder. The Medici ensured that the wedding celebrations extravagant. However, Joanna was ill equipped to make a splash in Florentine society. The Austrian court was rigid and devoted to piety…
