Infanta Antonia Joana of Astério

## Antonia Joana

**Infanta Antonia of Astério** (Antonia Joana Isabel; 16 January 1279 - 9 April 1340), was an Asterian infanta by birth and **Queen of Escoffier** by marriage as the wife of Edgar III. The seventh child and fourth daughter of her father and only child of her mother, she grew up in the Castelo dos Gansos alongside her siblings.

> The youngest of all, the only surviving daughter of her father, Antonia was pampered by the king and queen and would not know what a “no” meant until her marriage.
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## Biography

**Princess Antonia Joana Isabel** was born on 16 January 1279 at Castelo dos Gansos, the daughter of Henrique I, King of Astério, and his second wife Princess Astrid of Bradsen. Her mother struggled a lot with conceiving and her birth brought a lot of happiness in the castle after the loss of the Crown Princess’s stillborn. As the daughter of a ruling king, she was styled “Her Royal Highness The Infanta Antonia of Astério”, she was also fourth in line to her father’s title, although she would never be truly considered considering she was a woman. To her family she was known simply as “Nana”.

She was baptized on 28 May 1238, her godparents were Duke Piero of Armatti (her paternal uncle), Carlo II, Duke of Luigia (her maternal grandfather), Duchess Adriana of Luigia (her maternal aunt) and Lucrezia, Queen of Escoffier (her maternal aunt).

Her education was filled with books and lessons of etiquette, although she was her father’s favorite he forbade her to play with her brothers if it involved swords and fights as he was scared she would get hurt, and for that she begged her parents for a little sister. By the age of eleven she was already fluent in Italian, Latin and French, and around 1250 her father’s council wished to betrothed Anna to someone important, but the Duchess of Armatti begged her husband to allow her to have her daughter for more time by her side, in exchange she promised she would talk to both her siblings with sons around her age and find a great match.

Four years later the topic rose again in the council, and this time the Duchess of Armatti could not stop her husband to find a man to her eldest daughter. Two options were put in the table, Duke Carlo of Luigia, the heir to his father and first cousin to Anna, and. Edgar, Crown Prince of Bloua and another first cousin of Anna. Carlo was the first one to refuse the engagement, his father had already plans to marry him to a daughter of the Grand Duke of Beier, a richer noble from the Kingdom of Saxenburg, and when Edgar went to visit the court at the beginning of the year 1255 he fell in love with the fourteen year old Duchess Gianna, younger sister of Anna. Although the second daughter, Duke Carlo could not lose such an opportunity and betrothed Gianna to Edgar the moment he asked for permission, enraging Anna. The two sisters were inseparable before the engagement, but after that they drew apart.

The wedding of Gianna and Edgar happened in April 1256, Anna attended the ceremony, but left shortly after, about four months later the Duke of Armatti was deciding at either marry his daughter to a lower noble or sent her to a convent, Anna was smart and very pretty, but her dowry was very small compared to other noble and royal woman because of the bad government Anna’s grandfather had for years, and barely any noblemen wished to take her to wife.

In September of the same year a miracle happened, the King of Astério decided to visit the court of Armatti and stayed there for seven weeks, during those weeks the twenty-five year old developed a relationship with the eighteen year old, most of the court thought it was only a friendship and Anna’s own father didn’t put many thought on that, but when two weeks later after Henrique left and Anna confided to her mother that she was carrying a child Carlo went mad. Within three weeks the Duke and the King exchanged letters and in the first month on 1257 Anna was already in Astério ready to marry Henrique. During this period Carlo thought he would have to send his daughter to a convent to hide the pregnancy while Anna always said that Henrique would marry her the moment he knew about the baby, the Duchess didn’t believe her daughter, but she was correct, indeed the moment Carlo warned about the child Henrique asked to marry Anna and already started to prepare the wedding.

## Marriage and issue

In 25. January 1257, when she was eighteen, Anna married Henrique, who was twenty six. Augusta and Johannn Leopold had six children, but only three would live to adulthood:

* Henrique II, King of Astério (14 August 1257 - 25 May 1303), who wed X, daughter of Y, and had issue.
* Infante Carlos (9 May 1259 - 9 August 1264), who died in childhood of a fever.
* Infanta Helena (7 August 1260 - 8 August 1260), who was born prematurely of seven months and extremely sick, and died within twelve hours of birth.
* Infanta Maria Ana (12 June 1262 - 27 April 1263), who died after drowning while in bath after her wet nurse left to see her brother, Carlos, and, after coming back, it was too late.
* Infante João (7 October 1264 - 15 September 1321), who wed X, daughter of Y, and had issue.
* Infanta Vitória (22 November 1265 - 21 May 1280), who was born extremely sick and died after a convulsion weeks prior to her wedding to X.

Their marriage was a happy one, Henrique insisted in sleeping at the same bed as his wife, even during her confinement when pregnant, after her death he swore to never love any other woman, yet it seems hard to think he did not break his own vow as his second wife was treated so well she was allowed more than Anna could ever dream.

## Life as a Queen

Anna doted herself on raising her surviving children and women affairs during her tenure as queen, she never asked state affairs to her husband and, when he tried to comment something about it she was known for saying: “I shall not listen, my king. Women were not made for such knowledge, our brains cannot comprehend.” and would leave the room without looking back.

Because of her pregnancy out of wedlock many of the Asterian people did not like her at the beginning, but as time passed and they realized she was more of a wife than a queen, and that personality seemed to catch the peoples eyes. She never appeared in public unless extremely necessary, she visited the church thrice a week, her vests were always very modest, she never caused trouble, she would run away from any gossip and did not enjoy banquets, and because of all that it was easy for the court to like her.

Anna’s mother tried many times for her to change tactics, to ensure her power over her husband, “He loves you, if you ask for the kingdom to be renamed after you he would do it, use it in your favor!” she once said in a letter, in response she showed it during one of her husband’s council meetings and stopped talking to her for months. At some point everyone that once believed she would be useful for something left her, leaving the queen with a very small court to herself which she called “my own kingdom”. The last letter her mother would sent her warned her about her way of living, and finished with “One day you will die because of it, you are useless for them.”. Eleven months later Anna died in childbed, doing what she believed to be “the only work a highborn women was worth of doing.”.

## Death

The last pregnancy of Anna was extremely harsh on her body, at eight months she suffered a severe injure after falling the stairs and hurting her stomach. She gave birth to her last baby that same night, a girl, and passed away only a couple minutes after delivering. She died in 22 November 1265, at 27, in Castelo dos Gansos, the castle of the royal family, and was buried in the Royal Cript.

Her husband, the king, mourned her deeply, but he remarried four years later.

## Titles and Styles

* 10 February 1238 - 25 January 1258: *Her Serene Highness* The Duchess Anna of Armatti
* 25 January 1258 - 22 November 1265: *Her Majesty* The Queen of Armatti