Johanna of Austria

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Johanna of Austria (January 24, 1547 – April 10, 1578) was the youngest daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary.

[edit] Biography

She was born in Prague.

Her marriage to Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, took place on 18 December 1565 in Florence. Johanna, as pale, thin and charmless as Francesco, was miserably homesick. Ill and unhappy, ignored by her husband, and condemned by the Florentines for her Austrian hauteur, she never felt at home in Florence.

In his way her father-in-law, Cosimo I de' Medici, was kind to her. He had the courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio specially decorated for her; the lunettes were painted with murals of Austrian towns by pupils of Vasari, and Verrocchio's Putto with Dolphin fountain was brought down from the Careggi villa where it had been set up in the garden by Lorenzo de' Medici.

In twelve years of marriage, she gave birth to eight children, amongst whom was Marie de' Medici, future Queen of France, and mother of Louis XIII.

Then, on 10 April 1578 aged only thirty-one, she died in Florence. Francesco then married his mistress, Bianca Cappello.