Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg

Eleonore was born in Düsseldorf, Holy Roman Empire, on the night of 6 January 1655. She was the oldest of 17 children born from Philip William, Count Palatine of Neuburg and Duke of Jülich-Berg and his second wife, Landgravine Elisabeth Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt. On her father's side her grandparents were Wolfgang Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuburg and his first wife, Magdalene of Bavaria. On her mother's side, her grandparents were George II, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and Sophia Eleonore of Saxony. Immediately after birth, she was baptized Eleonore Magdalene Therese by the abbot of Altenburg Abbey. To celebrate her birth, the court chaplain and poet Jesuit Jakob Balde composed a Latin poem in hexameters called the "Song of Eleonore's Nativity" (), which he partially translated into German in subsequent poems dedicated to her. He subsequently became her spiritual mentor until his death. In August, her parents moved with her from Düsseldorf to Neuburg. On 11 September 1661 at the Neuburg Hofkirche, she was anointed by Marquard II Schenk von Castell, Prince-bishop of Eichstätt. Eleonore was raised in a pious environment and received an excellent education. She was well versed in finances, literature, theology, and became fluent in Latin, German, French and Italian. She was fond of the arts and hunting, though her true passion was reading and translating religious texts to German. Since September 1672, she lived at Schloss Benrath, where she began her training in etiquette under the guidance of a maid of honour. From her early childhood, Eleonore displayed a pious nature and a fervent adherence to Catholicism. At the age of four years old, she saw a very explicit Crucifixion scene and burst into tears in sympathy with Jesus. Since then, she participated in religious activities and visited the poor, weak, needy and sick every day. These events influenced her depression which soon turned into self-destructive behaviour. She was drawn to the penitential side of Catholicism: as an example, she used bracelets with small spikes on the inside to torment the flesh. When court protocol demanded her to visit the opera, she reportedly took a prayer book with her to distract her from the play. However, Eleonore's beliefs had a positive side too. Among the poor, she asked them to treat her as a commoner rather than a person of noble birth, because she believed that all people were equally precious to God. ==Engagements==

On 2 February 1669, Eleonore entered the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Sorrows at the Cross. The special protection she provided to the Discalced Carmelites monasteries in Düsseldorf and Neuburg reflected her wish to be a Carmelite nun, but her parents refused to give their consent. Five royals asked for her hand and all were refused by Eleonore. One of her rejected suitors was the widower James, Duke of York, the future King of England and Scotland, who proposed in 1671. Thanks to the intense diplomatic efforts of Eleonore's father, he gained to his side , Papal nuncio in Vienna, and King Charles II of Spain. The opponents of the Count Palatine of Neuburg in the Imperial court spread rumours that she suffered from poor health and was physically unattractive. However, these rumours didn't stop the emperor, who needed an heir and knew about her family's reputed fertility. In addition, the Count Palatine showed Leopold I a portrait of his daughter, made especially for this purpose. The marriage negotiations began in April 1676. To this end, an emissary send by the Count Palatine arrived to Vienna managed to win the support of Empress Dowager Eleonora Gonzaga, Leopold I's beloved stepmother, and a number of notable courtiers, including Chancellor Johann Paul Freiherr von Hocher. In August 1676, the emperor's personal physician arrived in Neuburg and examined Eleonore. Back in Vienna the following month, he gave the official conclusion that she was healthy, but the death of Anna de' Medici, mother of his late second wife, forced the emperor to suspend the negotiations. Leopold I took the final decision about the marriage only in the second half of October. For Eleonore, the news that she would become the new empress didn't make her happy as she had still wished to become a nun; but in the end, she had no choice but to accept the will of her parents. On 25 November 1676, the official betrothal took place. The bride, age 21, and groom, age 36, were second cousins (being both great-grandchildren of William V, Duke of Bavaria), and thus a papal dispensation was granted by Pope Innocent XI to allow the marriage. Eleonore's dowry was fixed at 100,000 florins. The first meeting between Leopold I and Eleonore took place two days before the wedding, but the two made a favourable impression on each other. ==Holy Roman Empress and German Queen==

The wedding took place in Passau on 14 December 1676. Although it was somewhat private as foreign ambassadors weren't invited, the ceremony was elaborate and celebrations lasted several days. As a wedding gift from the groom, the bride received the famous Wittelsbach Diamond. On 7 January 1677, the Imperial couple arrived in Vienna. In total, she gave birth to ten children, of whom six survived to adulthood: She accompanied her husband on his travels (for example, at the Diet of Augsburg in 1689) and supervised the education of her children personally. As empress, Eleonore took control over the economy of the imperial court and managed to reduce its expenses through more effective organization. She had always paid great attention to matters of charity, but her patronage towards people in need still had some boundaries. The imperial revenue became vast enough to not only order the building of hospitals, orphanages, and Carmelite convents in Graz and Vienna, but support numerous brotherhoods, churches and monasteries. She arranged the marriages of both her sons, but deeply disliked the private life of her oldest son Joseph, scolding him for his infidelities and placing his procurers in prison. Court of the Empress Empress Eleonore was seen to be performing her duties well according to the strict Spanish court ceremony used in Vienna. Her court was affected by her strong religious views: strict, simple and convent-like. It was strictly adhered to all religious festivals and prescriptions and many courtiers said it was "an atmosphere reminiscent of an eternal mourning period", which was somewhat ridiculed as being exaggerated. Eleonore actively participated in shooting matches and hunting parties as well as the religious duties associated with the pietas austriaca. From 1688, she devoted much time to the Marian cult, in which she was introduced by Abraham á Sancta Clara and to which she introduced her two daughters-in-law. She was an active member of the Gesellenschaft det Sklavinnen oder Leibeign Mariens, a lay order devoted to Virgin Mary, which prescribed daily religious observance and religious charity. In 1688, she received the Sternkreuzorden. During a joint pilgrimage, the imperial couple paid a visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Altötting. Another miraculous image of the Virgin Mary from Pötsch (), known as the "Weeping Madonna", was delivered by them and placed in St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna. On 9 May 1684, the empress received the Golden Rose from Pope Innocent XI. ==Empress Mother==

Reign of Joseph I Emperor Leopold I died in 1705 and was succeeded by her eldest son, Joseph I. After her husband's death, Eleonore was known for dressing in mourning for the remainder of her life. During the reign of Joseph I, she endeavoured to keep her political influence in defiance of her daughter-in-law, Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg, with whom she had a difficult relationship. One of the few things the two women agreed was their great disapproval of Joseph's official mistress, Marianne Pálffy, but both were powerless to stop it. After arranging her son Charles's marriage, Eleonore supervised the Catholic education of his convert bride, Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, by taking her on a pilgrimage to Mariazell in 1706 prior to the marriage in 1707. Regency In 1711, Emperor Joseph I died, and was succeeded as ruler of the Habsburg monarchy by his younger brother Charles, at that point absent in Spain. Eleonore was invested as Interim Regent of the Habsburg lands by the privy conference while Charles traveled from Barcelona to Vienna. As such, she was supported by her daughters. Despite his mother's political capacity, Charles had no confidence in her rule because of her emotional instability and ordered his confidant chancellor Count John Wenceslau Wratislaw von Mitrowitz to report to him about her rule, which placed him in conflict with Eleonore. The only known hostile acts the Empress Regent made were the confiscation of the gifts Joseph I had given to Marianne Pálffy, the order towards her late son's mistress to marry if she didn't wish to be expelled from court for good, and firing Feldmarschall Johann Graf Pálffy von Erdöd, brother of the former mistress, who was at that point negotiating the peace with Hungary after the Rákóczi Rebellion. His colleagues, however, persuaded Eleonore to restore him in his posts. She congratulated the successful diplomat Alexander Károlyi by appointing him as general. There was a fear among the ministers that she would use her position to defend the rights of her brother, the Elector Palatine, to the Upper Palatinate in a time when the interests of Austria would be better benefited by sacrificing his lands to Bavaria, which claimed it. This secret pact was only known to Leopold I, his sons and Count Johann Friedrich von Seilern und Aspang. Neither Eleonore or her daughters-in-law knew for certain that the document existed, but they had heard of it, but both were very active in establishing the truth and pressuring Charles to establish a public succession order, which would be necessary for court protocol. In 1712, Wilhelmine Amalia managed to persuade Count Seilern to give her the document, which she sent to the head of her family George Louis, Elector, who sent Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, to help her to negotiate with Charles VI her daughters' rights. When Charles VI presented the original version of the Pactum Mutuae Successionis on 21 April 1713, Wilhelmine Amalia had triumphed in making him recognize the secret succession order of 1703. It was at a dinner with Eleonore, in the presence of the numerous archduchesses, that Seilern informed them of this. However, the success of Wilhelmine Amalia was short-lived: only a few days before, on 19 April, Charles VI already announced his wish to amend the Pact in order to give his own future daughters precedence over his nieces in a secret session of the council. In 1719, Charles VI was diplomatically forced to arrest his maternal aunt and first cousin, Hedwig Elisabeth, Princess Sobieski and Maria Clementina Sobieska, to stop the marriage between the latter and the Jacobite pretender James Francis Edward Stuart in Rome. However, the Empress Mother managed to delay the transmission of the warrant for quite some time during their travel through Austrian lands before her relatives were placed under arrest in Innsbrück. Eleonore continued to use her connections to prevent Charles from marrying Maria Clementina to someone else, such as the Duke of Modena, and eventually assisted in her niece's escape from Austria to Italy. ==Last years==

, Vienna During her last years, Eleonore lived as a nun. In her will, she instructed to her servants, who had witnessed her ascetic life, never to tell anyone about this. On 1 January 1720, in preparation for the sacrament of confession, the Empress Mother suffered a stroke, which led her being paralyzed on the right side of her body. She received the Anointing of the Sick and gave her maternal blessings to her children and grandchildren, who reunited at her deathbed. During her final days, Eleonore was constantly nursed by her two daughters-in-law Wilhelmine Amalia (with whom she now had a close relationship) and Elisabeth Christine. Eleonore Magdalene died on 19 January 1720, at the age of 65. Four months later, on 24 May, she was buried at the Imperial Crypt in Vienna. In her memory, a temporary wooden church was built at the imperial court, named the "sorrow castle" (). According to her last will, her remains were placed in an ordinary wooden coffin, which was placed at the foot of Leopold I's tomb. Her heart was put in an urn and placed in the Herzgruft at the Augustinian Church. In the year of her death, were published six epitaphs, among them poet Johann Christian Günther (who described her as a paragon of virtue and faith). The current lead Baroque coffin which contains Eleonore's remains was a work of Balthasar Ferdinand Moll and was made in August 1755 following the orders of her granddaughter, Empress Maria Theresa, because the old wooden coffin had considerably deteriorated. ==References==