The Life of Elisabeth of Austria, Queen Consort of France
As daughter of Emperor Maximilian II and Maria of Spain, she was a born royal. As wife of Charles IX of France, her life was steeped with tragedy and turmoil.
As perhaps the most attractive member of the Habsburg dynasties of Spain and Austria that ever lived, Elisabeth of Austria was born in 1554, the second daughter to Maria and Maximilian, the Imperial couple of the Holy Roman Empire. In true fashion of the Habsburg family tree looking more like an imperial wreath, Elisabeth’s parents were first cousins. Her mother was the daughter of Emperor Charles V, and her father Maximilian II the son of that Emperor’s brother Emperor Ferdinand I.
Yet Elisabeth, as well as her elder sister Anna, looked rather more like pretty women with the faintest resemblance to the characteristic Habsburg traits of a strong jaw and enlarged lips — particularly the bottom lip. This is most likely due to the fact that both princesses took after their father, who in turn took after his own mother, Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. This grandmother Anna wasn’t a member of the Habsburg dynasty, and therefore she injected some much-needed ‘clean blood’ into the family line.
