Rudolf II enjoyed all the privileges that came with being an emperor, but none of his sons could inherit the position because they were all bastards.
She was most likely born in Prague in 1612 daughter of Emperor Rudolf II of Austria and his mistress Catherine Strada. Some historians, based on diplomatic correspondence, suspect that he was born a day before the death of his father, that is, on January 19, and whose custody was immediately taken away from his mother.
When he died without legal heirs, the position of emperor passed from Rudolph to his brother. Matias and it was this new monarch who with his wife Anna of Tyrol he raised the girl in Vienna. This couple had no children and it seems that they wanted to make Ana Dorotea a real princess, unfortunately the plans went wrong again. When the girl was only six years old, her uncles died, leaving her helpless once again.
The new emperor, Ferdinand II, sent little Ana Dorotea to the Augustinian Monastery of Porta Coeliwhere he remained until he was 10 years old.
Vienna in the 16th century.
At that moment the question arose what to do with that girl: the most sympathetic version says that the purpose was to protect her from the Thirty Years' War, which was already in transit, others felt that shipping outside Austria would eliminate the costs and concerns. This was recognized by Empress Leonor Gonzaga when she said in correspondence with Margaret of Austria: “Here natural or illegitimate children are not much appreciated.”
Margaret of Austriaalso known as Sister Margarita de la Cruz, was a religious sister of Rodolfo II, and lived at the time in Madrid, specifically in the Monastery of the Descalzas Reales.
Sister Margarita de la Cruz was the daughter of emperors, sister of emperors, aunt of kings and the great protector of our contemporary protagonist.
This was the ideal place to send little Ana Dorotea, she would live with her aunt and they had even reserved her the cell where his grandmother lived, Empress Maria (Rudolph's mother). With this end in mind, and as the documents of the time say, the girl was to live “without seeking solace anywhere but in religion, maintaining virtue, piety and innocence.”
He has prepared himself for this a secret journey, the girl was dressed like a Spanish lady and as the Franciscan Francisco Díaz tells us, “unknown and accompanied by few servants, although enough for her gift and service; but he always concealed the demonstrations that might make his greatness known. With this hypocrisy he left Vienna, passed through Germany and through Italy until he reached Genoa, where he embarked, and sailed along the coast of Italy, France, and the Gulf, until he saw Spain with good fortune.
However, a attack by a Turkish team ruined the trip. What to do next was a decision that only the captain of the galley could make. According to Juan de Palma, a religious contemporary of Ana Dorotea, the captain decided as follows: 'And as a man of the sea, and more military than political When he saw that “That girl would be spoiled by the barbarians, he decided to throw her into the sea to throw, because he found it less troublesome that that angel ended up on the waves than to reserve her for such an undignified event.”
Fortunately there was no need to throw it into the sea, for a storm drove off the Turkish squadron and finally wrecked Ana Dorotea's galley, when all seemed lost. Catalan fishermen They came to help.
Sister Ana Dorotea played by Rubens.
Finally arrived in Madrid with all the pomp typical of her rank, entertained by nobles and even by King Felipe IV. The rest of his life was spent in the monastery, operating in the shadows to pull secret government strings. After his death, prodigies were reported, leaving the door open for beatification and although they are more poetic than credible episodes, we end with one of them:
“Father Marcelo de Aponte (…) said that he had seen in spirit the Most Holy Mary, who under her glorious mantle protected many people of all states and kindreds, and among them he saw a girl whom he did not know at that time. Later this religious came to Spain and this court, and visited the female soror Ana Dorotea. He learned that she was the same who had manifested herself to him, protected by the mantle of the Most Holy Mary.