Her older sister Anna was the first wife of King Sigismund III Vasa. After her death Constance and Sigismund were married on December 11, 1605.[3]
Queen
Queen Constance was an ambitious politician. Immediately after the wedding, she made efforts to influence policy. She built a strong faction of followers by arranging marriages between her handmaidens and powerful nobles. She represented the interests of the Habsburg family in Poland, and influenced the appointments of positions in the court, government and church. Her closest confidant was Urszula Meyerin.
Constance was proficient in Spanish, Latin and Italian. She learned Polish after the wedding but rarely used it. She was very religious and went to Mass twice a day. She also was a patron of clerics, painters and architects. She financed the buildings of several palaces for her children, but she was also described as an economic person.
In 1623 Constance bought Żywiec from Mikołaj Komorowski, which was forbidden by law to the members of the royal family and caused misunderstandings with the Parliament.[4] Some time later (in 1626) she made it forbidden for Jews to settle in the city (de non tolerandis Judaeis).[5]
Constance wished to secure the succession of her own son to the throne rather than the son of her sister, but she did not succeed. She died of a stroke in 1631.
Issue
She had seven children:
John Casimir (25 December 1607 – 14 January 1608).
John Casimir (22 March 1609 – 16 December 1672), who reigned during 1648–1668 as John II Casimir.
Generations are numbered by male-line descent from Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor. Later generations are included although Austrian titles of nobility were abolished and outlawed in 1919.
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