[1] Before her marriage and during her widowhood, she led an ascetic and monastic life, translating the Bible from Latin to German and defended the Order of the Discalced Carmelites.

Reputed to be one of the most educated and virtuous women of her time, Eleonore took part in the political affairs during the reign of her husband and sons, especially regarding court revenue and foreign relationships.

[2] 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.

[4][5] In April 1676, Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor lost his second wife and almost immediately began to search for a new one, urged by the need of a male heir.

This time, Eleonore was chosen over Duchess Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria (later Dauphine of France), Princess Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark (later Queen consort of Sweden), and many other potential candidates.

[6] Thanks to the intense diplomatic efforts of Eleonore's father, he gained to his side Francesco Bonvisi [Wikidata], 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.

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.

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.

[4][7][8] In total, she gave birth to ten children, of whom six survived to adulthood:[4][2][9] However, Eleonore had to face great challenges in the first years as Empress.

During 1679, an outbreak of plague forced the Imperial family to leave Vienna, firstly to Mariazell and then in Prague, but the disease eventually reached those places.

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 established extensive connections through her patronage and granting of favours: she protected the career of chancellor Theodor von Strattman and recommended Jesuits Bauer and Vitus Georg Tönnemann as advisers to the emperor.

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.

Another miraculous image of the Virgin Mary from Pötsch (Hungarian: Máriapócs), known as the "Weeping Madonna", was delivered by them and placed in St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna.

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.

[10] 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.

[10] 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.

[13] 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.

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.

In her memory, a temporary wooden church was built at the imperial court, named the "sorrow castle" (Latin: Castrum dolorum).