Barbara Blomberg (
1527 -
18 December 1597) was the mother of Don
John of Austria.
Blomberg was born in
Regensburg,
Germany, the eldest daughter of Wolfgang Plumberger, a
burgher, and of his wife Sibilla. In 1546 she was for a short time the mistress of the Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V, who was in Regensburg for the meeting of the
Reichstag. On
24 February 1547 Blomberg gave birth to John of Austria who was almost immediately taken from her and sent to be raised in
Spain.
Shortly afterwards Blomberg married Hieronymus Kegel, an imperial official. In 1551 she moved to
Brussels with her husband where Kegel was responsible for the equipment of the imperial mercenary army. They had three children.
When Kegel died in 1569, Blomberg and her children were in reduced financial circumstances. At the request of the governor of the Netherlands, the
Duke of Alba, she was granted a pension by King
Philip II of Spain (her son's half-brother).
In November 1576 Blomberg met her son Juan of Austria for the first and only time since his birth. Subsequently she went into a Dominican convent in
Castile, 70 km south of
Valladolid. After Juan of Austria died in 1578, Philip II allowed her to choose her own residence. She established herself first in the village of Colindres. In 1584 she purchased an estate in the village of Ambrosero in
Cantabria.
Blomberg died at the age of seventy at her estate in Ambrosero. She is buried in the Church of San Sebastian at the monastery of Montehano, near
Santoña.
In literature
Blomberg has been the subject of a number of novels and plays:
In 1897 Georg Ebers wrote the German-language novel Barbara Blomberg: ein historischer Roman.
In 1934 Alice Goldberger Liebling wrote the English-language play An Emperor's Great Love (Barbara Blomberg).
In 1949 Carl Zuckmayer wrote the German-language play Barbara Blomberg: ein Stück in drei Akten.
In 1953 Heinz Schauwecker wrote the German-language novella Die Sternenstunde der Barbara Blomberg: Novelle um die Geburt des Don Juan d'Austria.
In 1999 Teresa Alvarez wrote the Spanish-language novel La pasión última de Carlos V.
Bibliography
Panzer, Marita A. Barbara Blomberg, 1527-1597: Bürgerstochter und Kaisergeliebte. Regensburg: F. Pustet, 1995. ISBN 3791714775.
Böckl, Manfred. Die Geliebte des Kaisers: Kaiser Karl V. und Barbara Blomberg. Augsburg: Weltbild, 2004.
Herre, Paul. Barbara Blomberg, die Geliebte Kaiser Karls V. und Mutter Don Juans de Austria: ein Kurtbild des 16. Jahrhunderts. Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer, 1909.
External results
Click here for more details on Barbara Blomberg
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://barbara_blomberg.totallyexplained.com">Barbara Blomberg Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
We see you're using Internet Explorer. Try Firefox, we think you'll like it better.
· Firefox blocks pop-up windows.
· It stops viruses and spyware.
· It keeps Microsoft from controlling the future of the internet.
Click the button on the right to download Firefox. It's free.