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Isabella of Austria
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Spouse Edmund Tudor, Duke of York

m. August 1515

Issue
Joan of York, Countess of Northumberland

Margaret of York, Countess of Oxford

House House of Hapsburg (by birth)

House of Tudor (by marriage)

Father Philip I of Castile
Mother Joanna of Castile
Born 18 July 1501
Brussels
Died 30 December 1523 (aged 22)
York Palace
Burial Westminster Abbey, Henry VII's Chapel
Religion Roman Catholic, Lutheran sympathies


Isabella of Austria (18 July 1501 - 30 December 1523) was an Archduchess of Austria and Infanta of Castile and Aragon as the daughter of Joanna and Philip I of Castile.

Life as the Duchess of York[]

Isabella of Austria arrived in England in 1515 to marry Edmund, Duke of York. Her aunt, Catherine of Aragon, had insisted on the match over Claude of France. However, the two women did not get along well. Isabella was convinced that she would be queen after Catherine and that her offspring would surpass the queen's. This idea was reinforced when Catherine gave birth to her daughter Mary and Isabella gave birth to a son, Charles. Her brother-in-law, Henry betrothed Charles to Mary in 1518. Sadly, Charles died in 1519, leaving Isabella with only one surviving child, Joan of York. Later that year, she gave birth to another son, Henry, and he was betrothed to the three year old Princess Mary. Isabella still believed it was her destiny to become Queen of England and give birth to a male heir as it was now apparent that her aunt would have no more children. She gave birth to her final child, Margaret of York in 1522. Henry of York died during that year and Isabella was determined to give birth to another child. However, in early 1523 Isabella fell ill with an unknown disease. She was dead by the end of the year and buried in Westminster Abbey. Her husband became very protective of his daughters by her and refused to allow his brother to use them for foreign alliances. Two years after her death, Edmund married Anne Boleyn, who gave birth to two surviving sons, who eventually succeeded Henry VIII's younger daughter, Anne I. Her younger daughter Margaret began to show signs of mental stability after the birth of her third child, possibly inherited from Isabella's mother Joanna of Castile.

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