Magdalena von Österreich

## Reine Douairière de Bourgogne

Madeleine d'Autriche, Reine de Bourgogne, 1563

Catherine Grégorie, Infante de Bourgogne

Philippe Martin, Infant de Bourgogne

Anna, Duchess of Bavaria

Ferdinand II, Archduke of Further Austria

Maria, Duchess of Jülich-Cleves-Berg

Katharina, Queen of Poland †

Eleonore, Duchess of Mantua

Margarethe, Canoness of Ladies Convent Hall †

Barbara, Duchess of Ferrara and Modena

Karl II, Archduke of Inner Austria

Helena, Canoness of Ladies Convent Hall †

Johanna, Grand Duchess of Tuscany

**Magdalena von Österreich** (French: Madeleine d'Autriche; Dutch: Magdalena van Oostenrijk; born 14th August 1532) is an Archduchess of Austria by birth, and through her marriage to Ferdinand d'Autriche, King of Burgundy, was Queen of Burgundy until his death in 1569. She served as regent to her son, Charles II, from 1569 to 1571.

Influenced by her strict religious upbringing under the Jesuits, Magdalena was a woman renowned for her piety and beauty amongst Christian Europe, she pursued policies of strict repression of the Dutch Calvinists under the advice of the Grand Chancellor of Burgundy, the Cardinal de Granvelle. She was regarded as a woman equal to her contemporaries such as Catherine de' Medicis and Maria of Austria Holy Roman Empress.

## Biography

### Early Life

Her mother Anne of Bohemia and Hungary would enter labour on the 14th of August, 1532 in Innsbruck, Tyrol. Her birth was a grand success. She was the sixth child born to the union of Ferdinand and Anne, despite having five more siblings behind her, she was adored by her parents who maintained an amicable relationship. She’d develop a strong relationship with all her siblings and maintain correspondence with them throughout her marriage abroad.

#### Education

She would join her sisters in a strict and religious education by Jesuit priests and nuns. Additionally, she was educated by famed humanists Kaspar Ursinus Velius and Georg Tannstetter, amongst other tutors who educated her in various languages, law, theology dance, and womanly hobbies. Her tutors would describe her as extremely intelligent and pious, for a girl of her age.

#### Adolescence

As negotiations for her marriage began, the Archduchess protested and expressed her wish to take to a life of charity and celibacy. Despite her protesting, her father arranged her betrothal to her first cousin Ferdinand, Infante of Spain.

### Marriage

On her 20th birthday, the Archduchess was sent abroad to the Castilian capital of Valladolid, where she and her husband would be wed.

#### Issue

In 1557 she would give birth to her eldest daughter Marie Madeleine d'Autriche, styled as the Infante de Bourgogne upon her birth. She and her husband were met with disappointment at the birth of a female, however, she would show a particular involvement with everything that her eldest daughter did. Every movement she made, every servant within her household, what she ate, who saw her. The Queen of Burgundy would develop an obsession with having control of every aspect of her daughter's life to form the perfect Princess.

However, attention was later averted in 1569 upon the birth of her second child, a son, named Charles Jacques d'Autriche. From the day he was born, she demanded to watch his every move from his feeding, changing, and sleeping. Her obsession only grew when she requested both her children were placed in adjacent apartments to hers to allow for closer observation. In 1560 and 1563 two more children would join their siblings under the watchful maternal regime of Magdalena.

### Ascension as Queen of Burgundy

In 1556 upon the abdication of Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Ferdinand of Austria and Infante of Spain would inherit Burgundy and the Low lands establishing the Kingdom of Burgundy. She and her husband would be present at Coudenberg when Charles V abdicated in favour of his sons. Ferdinand received Burgundy and the Low lands. The couple were welcomed by the nobility in Brussels as their new king and Queen. The pair would be coronated in the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula. She and her husband would establish residence within the Palace of Coudenberg, where great Dutch and Flemish artists would reside under commission by the court.

#### Court of Ferdinand

The Court of the new King and Queen was regarded as the center of the arts in Europe. The Queen and King welcomed many artisans into their court. She and her husband desired to continue the legacy left by past Governors of the Burgundian-Netherlands, to create their fiefdoms as a place of the arts. She would travel around the Low lands with her children. However in 1566, she was forced to move to the Palais des Ducs de Bourgogne due to revolts within the Low Lands.