Kuka naimisissa Catherine of Austria, Queen of Poland?

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 and Lithuanian Grand Duke 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.

Francesco III. Gonzaga (* 10. März 1533 in Mantua; † 21. Februar 1550 ebenda) war von 1540 bis 1550 nominell Herzog von Mantua und Markgraf von Montferrat, gelangte jedoch nie zur selbständigen Regierung, da er bereits kurz vor seinem 17. Geburtstag starb.

Sigismund II Augustus (Polish: Zygmunt II August, Lithuanian: Žygimantas Augustas; 1 August 1520 – 7 July 1572) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548. He was the first ruler of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the last male monarch from the Jagiellonian dynasty.

Sigismund was elder of two sons of Italian-born Bona Sforza and Sigismund the Old, and the only one to survive infancy. From the beginning he was groomed and extensively educated as a successor. In 1529 he was chosen as king in vivente rege election while his father was still alive. Sigismund Augustus continued a tolerance policy towards minorities and maintained peaceful relations with neighbouring countries, with the exception of the Northern Seven Years' War which aimed to secure Baltic trade. Under his patronage, culture flourished in Poland; he was a collector of tapestries from the Low Countries and collected military memorabilia as well as swords, armours and jewellery. Sigismund Augustus' rule is widely considered as the apex of the Polish Golden Age; he established the first regular Polish navy and the first regular postal service in Poland, known today as Poczta Polska. In 1569, he oversaw the signing of the Union of Lublin between Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and introduced an elective monarchy.

Sigismund Augustus married three times; his first wife, Elizabeth of Austria, died in 1545 at just eighteen. He was then involved in several relationships with mistresses, the most famous being Barbara Radziwiłł, who became Sigismund's second wife and Queen of Poland in spite of his mother's disapproval. The marriage was deemed scandalous and was fiercely opposed by the royal court and the nobility. Barbara died five months after her coronation, due to heavy illness. Sigismund finally wedded Catherine of Austria. Neither marriage resulted in living children.

Sigismund Augustus was the last male member of the Jagiellonian dynasty. Following the death of his sister Anna in 1596 the Jagiellonian dynasty came to an end.