A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Anne of Austria
ANNE OF AUSTRIA,
Queen of Louis the Thirteenth of France, and regent during the minority of Louis the Fourteenth, was daughter of Philip the Second of Spain. She was born September 22nd., 1601, and was married to Louis the Thirteenth, in 1615. Anne found a powerful enemy in cardinal Richelieu, who had great influence over the king, and she was compelled to yield, as long as he lived, to the great minister.
Had Anne possessed greater talents, or been more agreeable, the case might have been different; but her coldness and gravity of demeanor, which only covered frivolity, alienated Louis the Thirteenth. Her attachment to her native country was also represented as a crime by the cardinal, and his whispers as to her betraying intelligence, brought upon Anne the ignominy of having her person searched, and her papers seized.
When it was known that the queen was in disgrace, the malcontent nobles, with Gaston, the king's brother, at their head, rallied around her, and she was implicated in a conspiracy against Louis the Thirteenth. Richelieu took advantage of this, to represent her as wishing to get rid of Louis to marry Gaston; and Anne was compelled to appear before the king's counsel to answer this grave chaise. Her dignity here came to her aid, and, scorning to make a direct reply, she merely observed, contemptuously, "That too little was to be gained by the change, to render such a design on her part probable." The duke of Buckingham's open court to the neglected queen, also gave rise to malicious reports.
On the death of Louis the Thirteenth, Anne, as mother of the infant king, held the undisputed reins; and she gave one great proof of wisdom in her choice of cardinal Mazarin as a minister. However, some oppressive acts of Mazarin gave birth to a popular insurrection, which terminated in a civil war, called the war of the Fronde, in which Anne, her minister, and their adherents, were opposed to the nobility, the citizens, and the people of Paris. But Anne and Mazarin came off triumphant. The result of this rebellion, and of Anne of Austria's administration, was, that the nobles and middle classes, vanquished in the field, were never afterwards able to resist the royal power, up to the great revolution. Anne's influence over the court of France continued a long time; her Spanish haughtiness, her love of ceremonial, and of power, were impressed on the mind of her son, Louis the Fourteenth. Some modern French writers have pretended to find reasons for believing this proud queen was secretly married to cardinal Mazarin, her favourite adviser and friend. But no sufficient testimony, to establish the fact of such a strange union,has been adduced. The queen died in 1666, aged sixty-five. She was a very handsome woman, and celebrated for the beauty of her hands and arms.
Anne of Austria appears to have been estimable for the goodness and kindness of her heart, rather than for extraordinary capacity; for the attractions of the woman rather than the virtues of the queen; a propensity to personal attachments, and an amiable and forgiving temper, were her distinguishing characteristics.
Her life had been marked with vicissitude, and clouded by disquiet. At one period, subjected by an imperious minister, whose yoke she had not the resolution to throw off, she became an object of compassion even to those who caballed and revolted against her; yet her affections were never alienated from France, in favour of which she interested herself, with spirit and zeal, in the war against her native country. The French, at length, relinquished their prejudices, and did her justice. The latter years of her lift were passed in tranquillity, in retirement, and in the exercise of benevolence.
Anne of Austria was interred at St Denis; her heart was carried to Le Vol de Grace, of which she had been the foundress; and the following epitaph was made on her:—
"Sister, wife, mother, daughter of kings! Never was any more worthy of these illustrious titles."