During her childhood, she lived with her elder sister Anna and younger brother Matthias in a pavilion in the gardens of the newly built Stallburg, part of the Hofburg Palace complex in Vienna.

[1] In 1562, the Maréchal de Vieilleville, a member of the French delegation sent to Vienna upon seeing the eight-year-old princess, exclaimed: "Your Majesty, this is the Queen of France!".

Although Vieilleville was not entitled to make an offer, Elisabeth's grandfather Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor appeared interested: gifts were exchanged and contacts initiated between the two courts – but no one bothered to teach French to the young princess.

Catherine de' Medici, mother of the Duke of Orléans and the power behind the throne, initially preferred Elisabeth's elder sister Anna; but the latter was already chosen as the new wife of her uncle King Philip II of Spain.

Because of bad weather upon her arrival in France, whereas constant rain had made roads impassable, the decision was taken to have the official wedding celebrated in the small border town of Mézières in Champagne.

Charles realised that the liberal ways of the French Court might shock Elisabeth and, along with his mother, made an effort to shield her from its excesses.

Busbecq, her former tutor who accompanied her to France, was made Lord Chamberlain of her Household, and Madeleine of Savoy was appointed her Première dame d'honneur.

Her one controversial act was to make a point of rejecting the attentions of Protestant courtiers and politicians by refusing the Huguenot leader, Gaspard II de Coligny the permission to kiss her hand when he paid homage to the royal family.

[8] During those days, Elisabeth was given petitions to speak for the innocent, and she managed to assure a promise to spare the lives of the foreign (especially numerous German) Protestants.

By letters patent dated 21 November 1575, Henry III gave her the County of La Marche as her dower;[10] In addition, she received the title of Duchess of Berry and in 1577 she obtained the duchies of Auvergne and Bourbon in exchange.

When a new proposal of marriage was made to her, this time from King Philip II of Spain after the death of his wife Anna in 1580, she again refused; according to Brantôme, she replied to the offer with the famous phrase: "The Queens of France do not remarry" (Les Reines de France ne se remarient point), once said by Blanche of Navarre, widow of King Philip VI.

In France, where Busbecq managed her properties, Elisabeth built a Jesuit college in Bourges, although she never received the monetary revenues from her domains.

Elisabeth henceforth devoted her life to following the example of her convent's holy patron in the exercise of piety, relief of the poor, and health care.

About her death, Brantôme wrote: In the course of the Josephinist reforms, the Queen's monastery was closed in 1782 in order to create the Lutheran City Church.

The Spanish, German, French, Italian, and Latin books from her library, a number of works of the Jesuit preacher Georg Scherer, a book of prophecies of the French astrologer Nostradamus written in 1571, and the tragedy of Antigone of the ancient Greek poet Sophocles were left to her brother, Emperor Rudolf II.