Marie Louise Gonzaga
Luisa Maria Gonzaga ( born August 18, 1611 Paris, France, † May 10, 1667 in Warsaw, Poland) was a princess of the Italian noble family of Gonzaga. Through her marriage to two Polish kings Władysław IV Vasa, and John II Casimir, she was Queen of Poland, Grand Duchess of Lithuania, as well as Titularkönigin of Sweden. She was the daughter of Duke Charles I. Gonzaga and his wife Catherine de Lorraine - Guise (* 1585, † March 18, 1618 ).
Life
Luisa, who spent her childhood in the mother, should 1627 Gaston, Duke of Orléans married, but the French king was against the marriage and left her only in the castle of Vincennes and later imprisoned in a monastery. The first request to marry the Polish king Władysław IV Vasa, she received in 1634, but Władysław then married the Austrian Archduchess Cecilia Renata von Habsburg.
In 1640, she met for the first time Władysław brother, John II Casimir and founded a literary salon in Paris. After Cecilia Renata died in 1644, she married on November 5, 1645 by Władysław Vasa procurationem, where the groom was represented by his brother Johann. To make the wedding is taking place at all, the bride had her name from Maria Ludovica modify because the name Mary was reserved in Poland at that time the Virgin Mary. The right wedding finally took place in Warsaw on 10 March 1646.
Two years later, on May 20, 1648, Maria Luisa Gonzaga Widow. The brother of the deceased, John II Casimir, was chosen then the next King of Poland and married her on 30 May 1649. On May 10, 1667 Maria Luisa Gonzaga died in Warsaw and was buried in the Wawel Royal Castle in Cracow.
Luisa Maria Gonzaga was an active and energetic woman with ambitious plans in business and politics. The Polish nobles took offense at the fact that they interfered as queen in politics, but it played an important role, for example, while negating the Swedish invasion. In 1652 she founded the first Polish newspaper, Merkuriusz Polski Ordynaryjny.
She invited two Parisian sister north to the establishment of subsidiaries in Poland and founded the Warsaw monasteries of two orders: the Monastery of the Visitation in 1654 and 1652 ( the arrival of the sisters ) or 1659 (reference of the monastery ), the motherhouse of the Sisters of Mercy.