Maria Christina (1574-1621) was born in Graz into the House of Austria. She was the daughter of Archduke Charles II of Austria and Maria Anna of Bavaria, and niece of Emperor Rudolf II. [Contemporary accounts describe her as] blonde, with fine skin, thin lips and graceful hands, and she was regarded as one of the most beautiful women in Alba Iulia.

She became Princess of Transylvania through marriage to Sigismund Báthory (1572-1613). Their wedding, regarded as an extremely important political gain for the Principality, was held on 6 August 1595 after a marriage contract negotiated almost one month and a symbolic ceremony held in Graz.

The groom and bride met each other a couple of days before the marriage. After travelling almost a month and a half, Maria Cristina, accompanied by her mother, Maria Anna of Bavaria, and 6,000 German knights was welcomed by Sigismund near Alba Iulia with retinue of honour, music, and an eight-horse barouche. A great tent was erected to receive the guests. The wedding which followed was an important event with European-wide resonance. The groom and bride were richly dressed. Sigismund wore red garments, while Maria Cristina wore a blue gown and a mantle stitched with pins with precious stones. The matrimonial picture was completed with a solemn guard-of-honour lining the route from the Palace of Princes to the Roman Catholic Cathedral, where the religious service was officiated, and by torches kept alight throughout the night. Wallachian, Moldovan, Ottoman and Tartar envoys, along with those from other great European households, were invited to the wedding banquet. Michael the Brave was invited, but was unable to attend. He sent his boyars, Stroe Buzescu and Radu Calomfirescu, with “expensive wedding gifts”, “a beautiful horse, luxuriously adorned, a sword embellished with precious stone and eight pieces of brocade with golden thread for the bride.”

As wife of the imperial prince, Maria Cristina, received an endowment 60,000 florins, and as pledge for this sum she was given the domain of Făgăraș fortress. The politically motivated union of these dynasties secured Sigismund Báthory’s rule over Transylvania and won him the title of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, but the marriage was apparently not a romantic success.

The relationship was tense and unbalanced from the beginning. On the wedding night, Sigismund avoided conjugal contact and stayed away from his bride. After the celebrations, he sent Maria Christina to Chioar fortress, where she lived for the first three years of their marriage, until 1598. This caused a great deal of controversy, and speculation regarding his intimate life was rife. Chroniclers speculated on the reasons for his rejection of Maria, suggesting psychic affections, impotence, homosexuality or even syphilis. Others contemporary reports asserted that the prince’s sexual dysfunction was the result of evil charms. An old woman Ioana or the mother of Stephen Bocskai, was accused of being a ‘hag’ who had cast spells on the prince because he preferred the German princess to her daughter. The prince tried various remedies to cure his loss of sexual appetite. He tried medicine sent by Maria Cristina’s mother, as well as magic rituals, such as the uttering of spells over wax figurines representing the husband and wife, and even a prescription for the “sexual appetite and vigour of men in the Middle Ages”, to no avail.

Over the years, Sigismund Báthory’s mental decline and increasing weakness of character became more and more visible. In the summer of 1594, he abdicated in favour of his cousin, Andrew Báthory. In March 1598, the inconstant prince gave up the throne of Transylvania for the second, but not last, time in favour of the Habsburgs. Maria Cristina took over the rule of the Principality, on behalf of Emperor Rudolf II, becoming the only woman to use the famous title of Union of the Principalities of Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldova: “Maria Christierna, Dei gratia Transylvaniae, Moldaviae, Valachiae Transalpinae princeps”, a title she took over from her husband, who had used it from 1595. In practice, her position was only a formality; the emperor sent imperial commissars at Alba Iulia to take care of the administration of the Principality.

In August 1598, Sigismund came back to the throne and was proclaimed prince (again) by the Diet of Turda. After less than a year, in March 1599, he abdicated for the third time, in favour of his cousin, Cardinal Andrew Báthory. It seems that the cardinal fell in love with Maria Cristina and asked for her hand in marriage. The princess rejected his proposal.

Enmeshed in an unhappy marriage with a husband who could not be coherent in his political actions, in 1599, Maria Cristina returned to Austria. Pope Clement VIII annulled the marriage in 1607 on the grounds that it was unconsummated. According to the practice of the age, the princess’s virginity had to be proved either through medical examination or by oath from both husband and wife, as well as other people. Maria Cristina opted for the second mode of proof.

From her parents’ home in Graz, Maria Cristina seemingly continued to serve interests of important figures in Alba Iulia. During his exile in Prague, Michael the Brave appeared in an allegorical painting by Frans Francken in 1601. The ruler of Wallachia, in the central position, is a female figure. Most historians assert this was meant to represent Princess Maria Cristina, who came to be close to Michael in the context. The ruler inspired her trust and, seemingly, his charm won her over. After all, her typical German looks did not leave the ruler insensitive. According to historical reports, Maria Cristina became a spy for Michael the Brave. It was speculated – although this supposition was categorically rejected by the Buzești Chronicle – that Michael was the princess’s accomplice in the killing of Andrew Báthory, a man she apparently hated. (Andrew Báthory was beheaded by Szeklers on 3 November 1599 while trying to escape to Moldova, following his defeat at Șelimbăr on 28 October 1599.) An anonymous painting from the school of El Greco, produced at that time, displays Michael the Brave and Maria Cristina as Herod and Herodias receiving the cardinal’s head as a trophy.

In 1608, fed up of troubles, Maria Cristina chose to seek the love of God. Her Jesuit education was decisive. She withdrew to a Jesuit nunnery in Tirol, where she died as abbess in 1621. (C.I.P.)