has been matter for laughter for more than three hundred years.  Had her agonizing prayers for offspring been heard, what a change would have been wrought in human destinies, even had the child lived to be no older than Edward VI.!  The second son of Philip the Fair and Juana was Ferdinand, named from his maternal grandfather, Ferdinand the Catholic, king of Argon.  He was the founder of the German branch of the house of Austria, the younger branch, which has long survived the elder branch, though now it exists only in the female line, and really is the house of Lorraine.  Ferdinand became Ferdinand I., Emperor of Germany, and he did far more than was done by his elder brother to keep up the character of his family for making much through marriage.  In 1522, when but nineteen, he married Anne Yagellon, princess of Hungary and Bohemia,—­a marriage that might not have proved very important, but that death came in and made it so, and also the births that came from it, as will presently appear.  Charles and Ferdinand had four sisters, and they all four made great marriages, three of which were very useful to the Austrian house.  The eldest of these ladies, Eleanora, was married to Emanuel, king of Portugal,—­a man old enough to be her father, with some years to spare,—­being sacrificed to the ambition of her brother Charles, for she was attached to the Count Palatine.  Becoming a widow, she was compelled to give her hand to that popular rascal, Francis I. of France, when her brother wished to strengthen the treaty he made with his “good brother” at Madrid, and which the Frenchman had arranged to disregard even before he signed it.  The second sister, Isabella, married Christian II., king of Denmark, when she was but fourteen, and died at twenty-four.  Mary, the third sister, became the wife of Louis II., king of Hungary and Bohemia, and last of the Yagellons.  The fourth sister, Catherine, married John III., king of Portugal.  It was the marriage of the third sister, Mary, that, in connection with his own marriage, had the greatest effect on the fortunes of her brother Ferdinand, as his wife was the sister of Louis II., Mary’s husband.  Louis was defeated by the Turks at the battle of Mohacz, in 1526, and lost his life while flying from the field.  Ferdinand claimed the crowns of Bohemia and Hungary, as Louis left no children, and he was chosen king in both countries; and though he disowned all other rights to the Bohemian throne than that of the election, it is certain he never would have been elected by either nation had he not married the sister of Louis, and had not Louis married his sister.  All these marriages, and other events that carried the power of the house of Austria to the greatest height, took place only thirty-three years after the death of Frederick III., and some of his contemporaries may have lived to witness them all.