The initiator of this project was Matthias' consultant Melchior Khlesl, who wanted the Bavarian in the strife between the Archduke and his brother Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor.

Although Magdalene's father was inclined to accept this union, her brother Maximilian I refused her hand because he didn't want to be involved into the Austrian dynastic disputes.

In May 1609 Leopold V visited Munich and agreed to renounce his ecclesiastical positions in order to marry Magdalene.

Shortly after, both Jesuits were sent to the Netherlands by Magdalene's father-in-law Philipp Ludwig, Count Palatine of Neuburg.

[citation needed] On 15 May 1614, a few months before his father's death, Wolfgang Wilhelm (under the influence of his wife), in the Düsseldorf Church of St. Lambertus officially took the Catholic faith.