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Anna van Egmont

1533–1558

Born
1533, Grave
Country of birth
Habsburg Netherlands, today Netherlands
Died
24 Mar 1558, Breda
facts
8
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Grave

    Birth, Grave

  2. Died · Breda

    Death, Breda

What was it like?

The world around Grave, 1533: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

During the first half of the 16th century, men's fashion evolved to a square silhouette with broad shoulders, while women's clothing featured a wide, conical shape with emphasis on the hips.

Fashion

Changing silhouettes of the era

During the first half of the 16th century, men's fashion evolved to a square silhouette with broad shoulders, while women's clothing featured a wide, conical shape with emphasis on the hips.

Men's tight-fitting mantle clothing

Ordinary men in Holland wore a tight-fitting, sleeveless mantle called a heycke, fastened at the throat with a hook or button, which displayed the shape of the body.

Music

Luxury manuscripts for choral singing

The Mechelen Choir Book, produced around 1515, is a beautifully decorated music manuscript containing seven multi-part Latin masses. Singers performed this polyphonic music together by reading from a single large book placed on a lectern.

Popular peasant dances and instruments

Peasant dances like the ronde and branle were traditionally performed at feasts using loud instruments such as bagpipes and fiddles. These dances later became popular in bourgeois urban circles, where they were adapted for ensembles of recorders or viols.

Getting around

How people traveled between towns

Ordinary people typically traveled between towns on foot, while the wealthy used horses or carts. Roads were often unpaved, muddy, and difficult to navigate, making travel slow and physically demanding.

The slow pace of mule transport

Traveling by pack mule was significantly slower than walking due to terrain difficulties and the need to pay tolls. A journey that took a walker three days could take nine days if carrying goods with a pack mule.

Daily life
Around 1540–1540

Water scarcity in Amsterdam, 1540

In the exceptionally hot summer of 1540, Amsterdam suffered from a severe water shortage as canals filled with animal waste dried up, making clean drinking water almost impossible to find. Emperor Charles V cut his visit short after only one day due to the unbearable stench and lack of potable water.

Food

Breakfast consisted of beer and bread

Ordinary people and the elite typically started their day with a meal of bread and beer because water was often unsafe to drink.

Cooking with pork fat instead of butter

People used animal fat, such as pork fat, for frying and cooking rather than butter.

Prices and wages

Everyday prices for food and shoes

Ordinary daily food prices included 1 to 2 stuivers for a kilogram of rye bread, 1 stuiver for a liter of beer, and 4 to 10 stuivers for a pound of pork. Simple leather shoes cost between 3 and 8 guilders.

Around 1525–1525

Daily wages in 1525

A skilled worker earned 6 stuivers per day in 1525, which was sufficient to purchase basic food items like bread, beer, or vegetables.

Work

Ban on rural industry

In 1531, major cities successfully petitioned for a prohibition against brewing, weaving, leather-working, and masonry outside of walled towns to suppress rural competition.

Widespread rural wage labor

In the mid-sixteenth century, wage labor was highly prevalent in the countryside of Holland, accounting for between one-quarter and nearly 60 percent of rural labor input.

News and letters

Flexible city messenger networks

Local city messengers often remained preferred over the imperial post because they were more flexible, traveled daily, and could perform additional tasks like carrying money or escorting prisoners.

Guaranteed delivery times for letters

A letter from Brussels to Paris was required to be delivered within 36 hours in summer and 40 hours in winter under the Thurn und Taxis contracts.

During their lifetime

  1. 1549

    Pragmatic Sanction unified provinces in 1549

    The Pragmatic Sanction of 1549 established the Seventeen Provinces as a single, unified Habsburg territory to prevent fragmentation among future heirs.

  2. 1550

    The Blood Placard law was established

    Charles V issued the Blood Placard, a law requiring the death penalty for heretics and those aiding them, regardless of local customs.

  3. 1557

    Food price crisis in 1557

    In 1557, government officials created artificial food shortages by seizing Baltic rye for military garrisons, causing the price in Antwerp to double between April and June.

Family

Parents

Spouses

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.