Catherine of Austria, Queen of Poland

Catherine of Austria
Portrait by Lucas Cranach the Younger
Queen consort of Poland Grand Duchess consort of Lithuania
Tenure	1553–1572
Coronation	30 July 1553 in Wawel Cathedral
Duchess consort of Mantua and Montferrat
Tenure	22 October 1549 – 22 February 1550
Born	(1533-09-15)15 September 1533 Innsbruck or Vienna, Holy Roman Empire
Died	28 February 1572(1572-02-28) (aged 38) Linz, Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire
Burial	St. Florian Monastery
Spouse	Francesco III Gonzaga ​ ​ (m. 1549; died 1550)​ Sigismund II Augustus ​ ​ (m. 1553)​
House	House of Habsburg
Father	Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother	Anna of Bohemia and Hungary

Catherine of Austria (Polish: Katarzyna Habsburżanka; Lithuanian: Kotryna Habsburgaitė; 15 September 1533 – 28 February 1572) was one of the fifteen children of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. In 1553, she married Polish King Sigismund II Augustus and became Queen consort of Poland and Grand Duchess consort of Lithuania. Their marriage was not happy and they had no children together. After a likely miscarriage in 1554 and a bout of illness in 1558, Sigismund became increasingly distant. He tried but failed to obtain a divorce from the pope. In 1565, Catherine returned to Austria and lived in Linz until her death. Sigismund died just a few months after her, bringing the male line of the Jagiellon dynasty to its end. The dynasty would continue, strictly speaking, for one more reign—that of Sigismund Augustus’ sister, Anna Jagiellon, who was crowned with the male title of Rex Poloniae.