Anne of Bohemia, Duchess of Austria

Anne of Bohemia (1323 – 3 September 1338), also known as Anna of Luxembourg, was a daughter of John of Bohemia and his first wife, Elizabeth of Bohemia. Anne was a member of the House of Luxemburg.^[1]

Early Life and Family

Anne and her twin sister Elisabeth were born in 1323 in the small Bavarian border town of Cham, where their mother, Elisabeth of Bohemia, was living in exile. John financially supported his wife and daughters during their exile. Her mother returned to Bohemia in 1325 with Anne (the younger Elizabeth having died in 1324), but never regained her health after the return, dying from tuberculosis in 1330.

Anne was a younger sister of:

• Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
• Bonne of Bohemia, first wife of John II of France
• Margaret of Bohemia, wife of Henry XIV, Duke of Bavaria
• John Henry, Margrave of Moravia

After his wife's death John married Beatrice of Bourbon. They had two children, Wenceslaus I, Duke of Luxembourg, and Bonne, who died young.

Marriage

Anne suffered two failed betrothals before her marriage. The first was to Ladislaus of Hungary, son of Charles I of Hungary and Elisabeth of Poland, but Ladislaus died in 1329. If Ladislaus had survived and the pair had married, Anne could have become Queen of Hungary.

She was then betrothed to Louis VI the Roman. This betrothal ended because Louis's father, Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor, could have been excommunicated by the Pope.

Anne was eventually married on 25 March 1330 to Otto, Duke of Austria. This was a second marriage for Otto; his first wife, Elizabeth of Bavaria, had died after bearing him two sons. Anne was seven years old at the time. The marriage lasted for eight years and resulted in a closer alliance between Anne's father and the Holy Roman Emperor, but Anne died at the age of fifteen in 1338, long before she and Otto could have children. Otto followed her in death shortly thereafter and was succeeded by his sons from his first marriage to Elisabeth of Bavaria.^[2]

Ancestry

Ancestors of Anne of Bohemia, Duchess of Austria

16. Henry V, Count of Luxembourg               8. Henry VI, Count of Luxembourg                       17. Margaret of Bar               4. Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor                             18. Baudoin d'Avesnes               9. Beatrice d'Avesnes                       19. Felicite de Coucy               2. John I of Bohemia                                   20. Henry III, Duke of Brabant               10. John I, Duke of Brabant                       21. Adelaide of Burgundy               5. Margaret of Brabant                             22. Guy of Dampierre               11. Margaret of Flanders                       23. Matilda de Bethune               1. Anne of Bohemia                                         24. Wenceslaus I of Bohemia               12. Ottokar II of Bohemia                       25. Kunigunde of Hohenstaufen               6. Wenceslaus II of Bohemia                             26. Rostislav Mikhailovich               13. Kunigunda of Slavonia                       27. Anna of Hungary               3. Elisabeth of Bohemia                                   28. Albert IV, Count of Habsburg               14. Rudolph I of Germany                       29. Heilwig of Kiburg               7. Judith of Habsburg                             30. Burchard III of Hohenberg               15. Gertrude of Hohenburg                       31. Mechtild of Tübingen

References

1. Anne de Luxembourg
2. Cawley, Charles, Charles Cawley, Medieval Lands, BOHEMIA, Foundation for Medieval Genealogy, retrieved August 2012,