Archduchess Barbara of Austria

Barbara of Austria ( born April 30, 1539 Innsbruck, † September 19, 1572 in Ferrara ) was an Archduchess of Austria and by marriage Duchess of Ferrara.

Biography

Barbara was the eleventh of fifteen children of the future Emperor Ferdinand I (1503-1564) from his marriage to Anna Jagiello (1503-1547), daughter of King Vladislav II of Bohemia and Hungary. Barbara was a strict Catholic upbringing in relatively simple conditions.

On 5 December 1565, the already 25 -year-old Barbara married in Ferrara as his second wife of Alfonso II d' Este, Duke of Ferrara ( 1533-1597 ). The Habsburgs pursued by the marriage project is to prevent the further rapprochement of the house d' Este to France, which had been deepened by the marriage of Alfonso's parents. The marriage had more years of negotiations preceded, as Alfonso originally tried to Barbara's eight years younger and more attractive sister Johanna. The marriage remained childless. Torquato Tasso, who was summoned to the court of Ferrara, while Barbara's wedding festivities, which were celebrated with great pomp, arrived at the court, her devoted several sonnets.

In Ferrara, Barbara donated after an earthquake in 1570, named after her orphanage Santa Barbara, for which she also an oratorio einrichtete 1572, which later became the Church of Santa Barbara emerged. At the age of 33 years, she died of tuberculosis, where she had been ill in 1566.