Isabella of Austria, also known as Elizabeth, was born an Archduchess of Austria and Infanta of Castile from the House of Habsburg, and subsequently became Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, under the Kalmar Union, as the wife of King Christian II. She was the daughter of King Philip I and Queen Joanna of Castile and the sister of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. She ruled Denmark as regent in 1520.
Portrait by Mabuse
Portrait of Isabella, age 2. Isabella is on the right. She is pictured with her brother Charles and her sister Eleanor.
Wedding ring of Isabella; made of gold and adorned with an uncut sapphire. It bears the inscription: "Ave Maria gratia plena", i.e. the beginning of Hail Mary, the traditional Catholic prayer.
Portrait of Isabella around the time of her marriage by the Master of the Legend of the Magdalen, c. 1515.
Christian II was a Scandinavian monarch under the Kalmar Union who reigned as King of Denmark and Norway, from 1513 until 1523, and Sweden from 1520 until 1521. From 1513 to 1523, he was concurrently Duke of Schleswig and Holstein in joint rule with his uncle Frederick.
Portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder, c. 1523
Isabella of Austria, Christian's wife.
Christian and Isabella depicted on an altarpiece in Elsinore.
The Stockholm bloodbath depicted in a 1676 engraving by Dionysius Padtbrugge.
