Born in
Graz, her godparents were
Pope Gregory XIII and her maternal aunt,
Maximiliana Maria of Bavaria.[1] Named after both, Gregoria Maximiliana was described as extremely pious and had the closest relationship to her mother among her siblings.
In addition to the
Habsburg inferior lip,[2] Gregoria Maximiliana suffered from a deformed shoulder and a scarred face.[3]
In 1596, the Admiral of Aragon
Francisco de Mendoza visited Graz and delivered to the Spanish court portraits of Gregoria Maximiliana and her two younger sisters in marriageable age,
Eleanor and
Margaret. Shortly after, Gregoria Maximiliana was betrothed to the
Prince of Asturias, the future King
Philip III of Spain.[4] Although the Prince, after seeing the portraits preferred Margaret, his father King
Philip II chose Gregoria Maximiliana as his bride, mainly because she was the older sister.[5]
On 17 September 1597, the Prince of Asturias made a visit to the archducal court in Graz. At this time, Gregoria Maximiliana was seriously ill and she compared her suffering to the prisoners of the Turkish sultan.[6] Three days later, she died aged sixteen, and was in buried in
Seckau Abbey.[7] Gregoria Maximiliana's fiancé married her sister Margaret in 1599.
Ancestors
Ancestors of Archduchess Gregoria Maximiliana of Austria
^Georg Haubenreich, Genealogia, 1598, p. 80.
On-line
^German Society for Racial Hygiene, Archiv für Rassen- und Gesellschafts-Biologie, einschliesslich Rassen- und Gesellschafts-Hygiene, vol. VIII, p. 779.
On-line
^Brigitte Hamann, Die Habsburger: ein biographisches Lexikon, Piper, 1988, p. 278.
^Societatea Academică Română, Acta historica, vol. III, Societatea Academică Română, 1959, p. 162.
^Karl Acham, Kunst und Geisteswissenschaften aus Graz, vol. II, Böhlau Verlag Wien, 2009, p. 88.
^Alexander Randa, Pro Republica Christiana, vol. III, Rumänische Akademische Gesellschaft, 1964, p. 166.
^Quirin Ritter von Leitner, Die Schatzkammer des Allerhöchsten kaiserhauses, presentation by A. Holzhausen, 1882, p. 145.
Generations are numbered by male-line descent from
Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor. Later generations are included although Austrian titles of nobility were abolished and outlawed in 1919.