
Anne of Bohemia and Hungary

Anna of Bohemia and Hungary (23 July 1503 – 27 January 1547), sometimes known as Anna Jagellonica, was Queen of Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary and Archduchess of Austria as the wife of King Ferdinand I (later Holy Roman Emperor).
Family.
She was the elder child and only daughter of King Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary (1456–1516) and his third wife Anne of Foix-Candale. King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia was her younger brother. Her paternal grandparents were King Casimir IV of Poland (of the Jagiellon dynasty) and Elisabeth of Austria, one of the heiresses of the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Duchy of Luxembourg and the Duchy of Kujavia. Her maternal grandparents were Gaston de Foix, Count of Candale, and Catherine de Foix, an Infanta of the Kingdom of Navarre.
Life.
Anne was born in Buda (now Budapest). The death of Vladislaus II on 13 March 1516 left both siblings in the care of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilan I. It was arranged that Anna marry his grandson, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, second son of Queen Regnant Joanna of Castile and her late husband and co-ruler, Philip I of Castile. Anna married Ferdinand on 26 May 1521 in Linz, Austria. At the time, Ferdinand was governing the Habsburg hereditary lands on behalf of his older brother Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. It was stipulated that Ferdinand should succeed Anne's brother Louis in case he died without legitimate male heirs.
Louis did indeed die without legitimate male heirs after he was thrown from his horse at the conclusion of the Battle of Mohács against Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire on 29 August 1526. This left the thrones of both Bohemia and Hungary vacant. Ferdinand claimed both kingdoms and was elected King of Bohemia on 24 October of the same year with Anne as his Queen.
Hungary was a more difficult case. Suleiman had annexed much of its lands. Ferdinand was proclaimed King of Hungary by a group of nobles, but another faction of Hungarian nobles refused to allow a foreign ruler to hold that title and elected John Zápolya as an alternative king. The resulting conflict between the two rivals and their successors lasted until 1570, when John's son John Sigismund gave up the title King of Hungary in favor of Ferdinand's son Maximilian as part of the terms of the Treaty of Speyer. In 1531, Ferdinand's older brother Charles V recognised Ferdinand as his successor as Holy Roman Emperor, and Ferdinand was elevated to the title King of the Romans.
Anna and Ferdinand had fifteen children, all of whom were born in Bohemia or Hungary. Both of these kingdoms had suffered for centuries from premature deaths among heirs and a shortage of succession prospects, a predicament resolved by Anne's impressive fertility. Meanwhile, Anna served as Queen Consort of Bohemia and as one of three living Queens of Hungary until her death. She died in Prague, days after giving birth to her last daughter Joanna. In 1556, Charles V abdicated and Ferdinand succeeded as emperor, nine years after Anna's death.
The Belvedere ("Queen Anne's Summer Palace"), one of the most beautiful buildings in Prague, was built for her by her husband Ferdinand on the grounds of Prague Castle starting in 1538. It was not completed in its present form until 1565, long after her death.