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.
