Cymburgis Masovia, 16th Great Grandmother

March 24, 2014 — 5 Comments

Cymburgis Masovia

My 16th great grandmother was Polish, and was the mother of  a Holy Roman Emperor.  My ancestor, her daughter, Katharina, was Archduchess of Austria:

Cymburgis Masovia (1391 – 1429)
is my 16th great grandmother
Katharina Archduchess Austria Von Habsburg (1420 – 1493)
daughter of Cymburgis Masovia
Christof I VanBaden (1453 – 1527)
son of Katharina Archduchess Austria Von Habsburg
Beatrix Zahringen (1492 – 1535)
daughter of Christof I VanBaden
Sabine Grafin VonSimmern (1528 – 1578)
daughter of Beatrix Zahringen
Marie L Egmond (1564 – 1584)
daughter of Sabine Grafin VonSimmern
Richard Sears (1590 – 1676)
son of Marie L Egmond
Silas Sears (1638 – 1697)
son of Richard Sears
Silas Sears (1661 – 1732)
son of Silas Sears
Sarah Sears (1697 – 1785)
daughter of Silas Sears
Sarah Hamblin (1721 – 1814)
daughter of Sarah Sears
Mercy Hazen (1747 – 1819)
daughter of Sarah Hamblin
Martha Mead (1784 – 1860)
daughter of Mercy Hazen
Abner Morse (1808 – 1838)
son of Martha Mead
Daniel Rowland Morse (1838 – 1910)
son of Abner Morse
Jason A Morse (1862 – 1932)
son of Daniel Rowland Morse
Ernest Abner Morse (1890 – 1965)
son of Jason A Morse
Richard Arden Morse (1920 – 2004)
son of Ernest Abner Morse
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Richard Arden Morse

Cymburgis Masovia

She was born in Warsaw and died in Lower Austria at an Abbey.  It is said she contributed the protruding lower lip of the Habsburgs.

Cymburgis (also Cimburgis, Zimburgis or Cimburga) of Masovia (Polish: Cymbarka mazowiecka) (1394 or 1397 – September 28, 1429) in January 1412 became the second wife of the Habsburg Duke Ernest the Iron of Austria (since 1414 Archduke) and thus a Duchess/Archduchess of the Inner Austrian line in Styria, Carinthia and Carniola.

Cimburgis was born at Warsaw in the Duchy of Masovia to Duke Siemovit IV of the Masovian Piast dynasty and his wife Alexandra of Lithuania, daughter of Grand Duke Algirdas, a scion of the Gediminid dynasty, and sister of Władysław II Jagiełło, King of Poland.

Though his elder brother William’s engagement with the Polish princess Jadwiga had mortifyingly failed, Ernest after the death of his first wife Margaret of Pomerania proceeded to Kraków to court Cymburgis. Though not approved by the Habsburg family, the marriage turned out to be a happy one. As the mother of the later Emperor Frederick III, Cymburgis, after Gertrude of Hohenburg, became the second female ancestor of all later Habsburgs, as only his branch of the family survived in the male line. Although controversial, it has been claimed (since at least by Robert Burton in 1621) that she brought the distinctive protruding lower lip (progenism) into the family, a particular physical characteristic of most members of the family for many generations until the 18th century.[2] It can even be recognized in some of her distant descendants today (though not as markedly). Cymburgis’ statue in the Innsbruck Hofkirche church however does not show this feature.

Tradition has it that she was also known for her exceptional strength, which, for example, she showed by driving nails into the wall with her bare hands and cracking nuts between her fingers. Strength also distinguished one of her descendants, Augustus II the Strong, who allegedly broke a horseshoe bare fisted. Cymburgis outlived her husband and died at Türnitz in present-day Lower Austria. She is buried at Lilienfeld Abbey.

Descendants
5 children died at young age
Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor (1415–1493)
Margaret, wife of Frederick II, Elector of Saxony
Albert VI, Archduke of Austria (1418–1463)
Catherine (1420–1493), wife of Charles I, Margrave of Baden-Baden

Cymburgis Masovia