ANNA D'AUSTRIA. – Daughter of Filippo III, king of Spain, and Margherita d'Austria-Stiria, born on 27 September 1601; on 25 December 1615 she married Luigi XIII, king of France, at a moment when French policy was oriented toward an understanding with Spain and was seeking friendly ties with the Habsburg sovereigns—a policy, however, that was definitively curtailed when Cardinal Richelieu became first minister on 16 April 1624. A. had neither her husband’s love nor his confidence; and in one of the many intrigues at the French court, so frequent there, woven by Maria di Rohan, marquise de Chevreuse, in August 1626, when the king’s probable imminent death was anticipated, her marriage was being arranged with
ANNA D'AUSTRIA - ANNALES DE LA SOCIÉTÉ SCIENTIFIQUE
Gastone, the king’s half-brother destined to succeed him. The conspiracy was foiled by Richelieu, who succeeded in retaining the sovereign’s full favor, and A. remained completely withdrawn; on 5 September 1638 she had her first son, Luigi, and on 21 September 1640 her second son, Filippo, who became the founder of the Orléans branch.
At the time of his death, Richelieu (4 December 1642) designated Cardinal Mazzarino as first minister to Luigi XIII, who hastened to appoint him; when the king himself died (14 May 1643), A. assumed the regency on behalf of her son. But the person who governed until his death (9 March 1661) was Mazzarino, who continued the anti-Spanish policy that had been the guiding principle of Richelieu’s politics. Indeed, the declaration by the very young king that he was assuming the government (7 September 1651) did not interrupt the work of the powerful minister, who succeeded in overcoming the disturbances of the Fronde (1648–52), provoked by the impatience of the turbulent nobility, more concerned with its particular interests than with those of the nation as a whole. A.’s familiarity with Mazzarino, who was less than a year younger than she, gave rise to a host of insinuations and calumnies, and people even went so far as to speak of a secret marriage between them, in which s. Vincenzo de' Paoli was said to have had a hand (Mazzarino never received Holy Orders). The saint firmly denied this rumor (Coste, III, p. 101). He was able to influence A., who had placed great trust in him even before the regency and wanted him to be a member of the Council of Conscience, to which the religious affairs of France were entrusted; but Mazzarino, who was displeased by the saint’s activity, removed him in 1652. A., however, continued to assist him in his charitable works and founded institutes of Missionaries and Daughters of Charity; she opposed the emerging Jansenism (Coste, III, p. 87 ff.), whose rigorous doctrine concerning Communion was repugnant to her; and although her conduct was not always beyond reproach, she gave proof of sincere piety and love for the people. She died of cancer on 20 January 1666, widely mourned, and was buried in the monastery of Val de Grâce, which she herself had founded.