First Congress of Vienna
The double wedding in Vienna, also referred to by historians as the first Congress of Vienna or Vienna princes, was celebrated on July 22, 1515.
House of Habsburg policy
Maximilian had been able to strengthen already in 1496 by a double wedding, the position of the Habsburgs as a European great power. At that time married his son Philip, the Spanish Infanta Joanna of Castile, while his daughter Margaret was married to the Spanish throne Juan. Thus the Habsburgs won the Spanish throne and also the domination of the Spanish colonial territories.
In 1504 he began to bind his eastern neighbors through marriage contracts as such. He acted with the King of Hungary and Bohemia, Vladislav II of a promise of marriage for his newly born daughter, Anna, with one of his grandchildren. When Anna's mother was pregnant again, he arranged the engagement of his granddaughter Maria ( * 1505 ) with the unborn child, in the event that the child would be a boy. Indeed, on July 1, 1506 Mary's future husband Louis Jagiello, later born Ludwig II.
The double wedding in Vienna
In preparation for the wedding celebrations of the Emperor had to borrow from Augsburg Fugger family of a sum of 54,000 guilders, for which he ceded the yield of the Tyrolean copper mines in the next 6 years. On July 17, 1515 three rulers Maximilian, Vladislav and his brother Sigismund attracted to the cheers of the Viennese population in the city. On July 20, the official negotiations for the marriage contracts began. Maximilian was in the embarrassing situation that he could make no firm commitment for one of his two grandsons. Karl was Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII marry Ferdinand was in Spain with his grandfather Ferdinand II of Aragon, who probably had his own marriage plans. So Maximilian declared that he would marry Anna, as representatives of his grandchildren. Should not come about a marriage contract with one of his grandchildren within a year, he would take to wife Anna herself.
The glamorous double wedding was celebrated on July 22, 1515 at Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral. Also present were the ambassadors of all European countries and the high nobility of the Holy Roman Empire. At first, the 56 -year-old emperor had trusted with the 12- year-old Anna: " Although we Nows your Charity given the word that you shall be our wife, yet these things were done in the name of our two grandchildren and absent in the mind to marry your Charity to one of them, we also hereby promise you marry. And because my grandson Carl has but to inherit the kingdoms of Castille and Aragon, his brother Ferdinand, the Kingdom of Naples and expected to explain and so we call Your Lordship herewith a queen, and want to have you crowned to such a one! " Subsequently, Louis and Mary were married. The wedding party lasted until July 29, August 3, sealed the three rulers of an official treaty of friendship.
Anna was within a year the wife of Ferdinand, who won the crown of Hungary and Bohemia after the death of his brother. Thus, the House of Habsburg rose to become one of the leading powers of Europe.