Philippine Welser

Philippine Welser (152724 April 1580) was the morganatic wife of Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria. She was granted the titles Baroness of Zinnenburg, Margravine of Burgau, Landgravine of Mellenburg and Countess of Oberhohenberg and Niederhohenberg. Biography Philippine Welser's father was Franz (Friedrich) Welser (born 2 November 1497 in Augsburg; died 29 October 1572 in Ravensburg), an Augsburg merchant and patrician. Her mother was Anna, Freiin von Zinnenburg (née Adler) ( born 1507; died 5 January 1572 in Weiherburg / Innsbruck). She was the niece of the world merchant and banker Bartholomäus V. Welser, although their relationship to one another remains open because of the inadequate sources. The overall incomplete information about her biography (especially her youth) led to the development of many myths soon after her death, the oldest and still most persistent myth being that of her oversized beauty. The emperor's son Archduke Ferdinand II of Habsburg, Prince of Tyrol, secretly married the bourgeois Philippine - many royal houses used marriages to merge alliances, and this was also planned for Ferdinand II, a not inconsiderable process. According to a documented assurance from Ferdinand from 1576, the marriage took place in January 1557. Their period of acquaintance is uncertain. The romantic historiography of the 19th century assumed that their first encounter was in connection with the Augsburg Diet of 1548. Since Ferdinand did not witness a single act there and he is not mentioned in other records made by people present, it is unlikely that Ferdinand was there at all. The first time you can definitely prove a contact between Philippine and Ferdinand is at a carnival amusement in Pilsen. There you can find them together at a masked ball (including a spectacular "water ballet") in February 1555. A year later, on 12 May 1556, Ferdinand can be documented for the first time at Březnice Castle in Bohemia, when Catharina von Loxan (Lokšany), an aunt of Philippine, received a passport letter for a drive of cattle. She became a confidante of Ferdinand, who was governor in Bohemia at the time, and was possibly involved in the meeting of the two. The very first (but then earlier) meeting between Philippine and Ferdinand could also have taken place here on Bresnitz. Bresnitz initially became the residence for Philippine, the scene of the secret wedding and the birth of her first child, which Ferdinand gave her.