Anne of Austria was queen consort of Poland and Sweden by marriage to King Sigismund III Vasa.
Background
Anne was a daughter of Charles II of Austria and Maria Anna of Bavaria. Her paternal grandparents were Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anne of Bohemia (1503–1547), daughter of King Ladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary and his wife Anne of Foix-Candale.
Career
Anne became the first wife of Sigismund of Poland on 31 May 1592. This marriage was opposed by many nobles (szlachta) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, who were opposed to the alliance with the Austrian Habsburgs that Sigismund pursued. When Sigismund sent a diplomatic mission, led by Cardinal Radziwill, to Prague for his bride, the anti-Habsburg party with chancellor January Zamoyski guarded the borders to prevent the Archduchess from entering the country.
Anne evaded the guards, arrived in Krakow and was crowned in May 1592 by Primas Karnkowski as the Queen of Poland.
(Later during her lifetime the capital of the Commonwealth was moved from Krakow to Warsaw)
In 1594, she followed her spouse to Sweden, where she was crowned as the Queen of Sweden in Uppsala the 19 February. During her stay in Sweden, she became involved in a conflict with Dowager Queen Gunilla Bielke, partially for religious reasons.
She accused Gunilla for having stolen valuables from the Royal Palace. She did not speak Swedish, and she regarded the Swedish people as heretics and rebels and only showed herself in public when she was forced to
Anne and Sigismund fell in love and Anne gained the friendship and respect of many of her former enemies with her politeness and culture.
Issue
They had five children, but only Władysław lived to become an adult:
Anna Maria (23 May 1593 – 9 February 1600)
Catherine (19 April 1594 – 16 May 1594)
Władysław (9 June 1595 – 20 May 1648), (reigned 1632-1648 as Władysław IV of Poland)
Catherine (27 September 1596 – 2 June 1597)
Christopher (10 February 1598 – 10 February 1598).
Personality
She was regarded as quite polite but distant and depressive during her stay.