A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Welser, Philippina
WELSER, PHILIPPINA,
Daughter of Francis, and niece of Bartholomew Welser, the opulent privy-councillor of Charles the Fifth of Germany, was a beautiful and accomplished woman. Ferdinand, son of the Archduke (afterwards Emperor) Ferdinand, and nephew of Charles the Fifth, fell violently in love with her, in 1547, at Augsburg. She refused all his offers, except on condition of marriage, and the ceremony was performed privately, in 1550. When the archduke heard of it, he was very much incensed, and for eight years he refused to see his son. Philippina died in 1580, at Innspruck. Her husband had a medal struck in her honour, with the inscription Divæ Philippinæ. She had two sons, who both died without children.