General Notes

Anne of Austria (1601-1666), queen of France. She was born in Madrid, the
daughter of Philip III, king of Spain, and Margaret of Austria, both
descendants of the Habsburg family. In 1615 she married Louis XIII of France.
The marriage was unhappy, and from 1620 until the death of Louis in 1643, the
couple lived in virtual separation. The king's chief minister, Cardinal
Richelieu, doubted Anne's loyalty to France because of her Spanish origin. He
accused her of complicity in several treasonable conspiracies against Louis,
but her guilt was never proved. After Louis died, Anne assumed the regency for
her five-year-old son, King Louis XIV, but entrusted the government to the
prime minister, Jules Mazarin. Together, they upheld the authority of the
Crown during the civil wars of the Fronde from 1648 to 1653. In 1661, when
Louis XIV assumed power, Anne retired to a convent. Queen Anne is the central
figure of Alexandre Dumas's Three Musketeers (1844; translated 1846).