Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg

Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg (11 November 1599 – 28 March 1655) was Queen of Sweden from 1620 to 1632 as the wife of King Gustav II Adolph (Gustavus Adolphus).

[2] In 1620, Maria Eleonora married Gustavus Adolphus with her mother's consent, but against the will of her brother George William, Elector of Brandenburg, who had just succeeded her father.

[citation needed] The relationship between Marie Eleonores parents was said to be occasionally volatile; her father was prone to drunken rages and her mother reportedly threw plates and glasses at her spouse during arguments.

Maria Eleonora’s father, the Elector John Sigismund, was favorably inclined towards the Swedish king, but he had become very infirm after an apoplectic stroke in the autumn of 1617.

Maria Eleonora's brother George William was flattered by the offer of the British Crown Prince and proposed their younger sister Catherine (1602–1644) as a more suitable wife for the Swedish king.

The Electress demanded in no uncertain terms that the Queen Dowager should prevent her son's journey, as "being prejudicial to Brandenburg's interests in view of the state of war existing between Sweden and Poland".

The Elector John Sigismund, Maria Eleonora's father, died on 23 December 1619, and the prospect of a Swedish marriage seemed gone with him.

The Electress Dowager Anna maintained an attitude of reserve and even refused to grant the Swedish king a personal meeting with Maria Eleonora.

Afterwards, Gustavus Adolphus made a round of other Protestant German courts with the professed intention of inspecting a few matrimonial alternatives.

After plighting his troth to Maria Eleonora, Gustavus Adolphus hurried back to Sweden to make arrangements for the reception of his bride.

[citation needed] Anna of Prussia provided herself with a selection of objects of value from the exchequer before she joined Maria Eleonora in Brunswick.

[6][page needed] Gustavus Adolphus shared Maria Eleonora's interest in architecture and her love of music, while she was sentimentally devoted to her husband.

Maria Eleonora had a definite liking for entertainment and sweetmeats, and she soon succumbed to the current fashionable craze for buffoons and dwarfs.

[citation needed] Within six months of their marriage, Gustavus Adolphus left to command the siege of Riga, leaving Maria Eleonora in the early stages of her first pregnancy.

It is likely that she gave way to depression and grief, as we know she did in 1627, and it is probably for this reason that the king let his queen join him in Livonia after the Poles had been defeated in January 1626.

[citation needed] During a lull in the warfare, Gustavus Adolphus hurried back to Stockholm to await the arrival of the baby.

On 7 December, a baby was born with a fleece (lanugo), which enveloped it from its head to its knees, leaving only its face, arms and lower part of its legs free.

Shortly after the birth, Maria Eleonora was in no condition to be told the truth about the baby's sex, and the king and court waited several days before breaking the news to her.

There was some excuse for her; she had lost three babies and still felt herself an isolated foreigner in a hostile land, even more so after 1627 when her brother joined Sweden's enemies.

At the age of two, she clapped her hands and laughed with joy when the great cannons of Kalmar Castle boomed out the royal salute.

In 1630 Gustavus Adolphus concluded that Habsburg designs for Baltic supremacy threatened Sweden's very existence and also its religious freedom.

Before he left to join the Thirty Years' War, he discussed a possible regency with members of the government and admitted to them that his wife was "a miserable woman".

By nightfall both armies were exhausted, but Bernard of Saxe-Weimar and the Swedes had captured all the Imperial artillery and were in possession of the key position.

Maria Eleonora was not included in the regency government during the minority of her daughter, as the council of the state did not consider her suitable as regent.

[9][page needed] Maria Eleonora, however, accepted the response, and declared that she would satisfied to entrust politics to others and to be in control of the custody of her daughter.

For more than a year Maria Eleonora condemned Christina to a mourning seclusion in rooms draped with black and lit by candles day and night, from which every ray of light was excluded.

[citation needed] In 1636 Maria Eleonora was taken to Gripsholm castle and officially lost her parental rights to her daughter, because at times she was completely out of her mind.

To undertake one of her periodic fasts, she retired to the seclusion of her own apartment, accompanied by only one of her ladies-in-waiting, Anna Sofia von Bülow.

King Christian IV had intended the ship to take her home to Brandenburg, but she convinced the captain to bring her to Denmark instead.

The electoral prince there demanded financial compensation from Sweden, where on the contrary the Council expected to withdraw her appanage as well as her properties.

Maria Eleonora as a child by Daniel Rose (1605)
Queen Maria Eleonora on a gold portrait medal c. 1620
A contemporary portrait of Maria Eleonora, showing the resemblance to her daughter Christina, c. 1630 (by an unknown artist)
Portrait of Queen Maria Eleonora by unknown artist, early 17th century
Gustavus Adolphus and Maria Eleonora
Engraving of Maria Eleonora
Queen Maria Eleonora approx 1650
Maria Eleanor's coffin at Riddarholm Church