Archduchess Eleanor of Austria (1582–1620)

Eleanor of Austria (25 September 1582 – 28 January 1620), was an Austrian princess and a member of the House of Habsburg.

Portrait of Archduchess Eleanor, by Frans Pourbus the younger, ca. 1603

She was the daughter of Archduke Charles II of Austria, the son of Emperor Ferdinand I; and of Maria Anna of Bavaria. Her elder brother Archduke Ferdinand succeeded as Holy Roman Emperor in 1619.

Life

Eleanor was born in Graz. Like all of her siblings, she suffered from the famous Habsburg inferior lip.[1] She was regarded as intelligent but moody, mainly due to her frail health after she suffered from smallpox in her childhood.

Together with her sisters Gregoria Maximiliana and Margaret, Eleanor was a prospective bride for the future King Philip III of Spain. But after the portraits of the three sisters were sent to the Spanish court, Eleanor was not selected.[2] After this, she was involved in marriage projects with several Italian princes, but none of these came to fruition.

Finally, together with her sister Maria Christina (who returned to Austria after her disastrous marriage), in 1607 Eleanor took the veil in the Haller Convent (Haller Damenstift) in Hall in Tirol,[3] where she died aged 37, having been blind for her last years. Eleanor was buried in the Haller Jesuit Church (Haller Jesuitenkirche).

Ancestors

References
  1. German Society for Racial Hygiene, Archiv für Rassen- und Gesellschafts-Biologie, einschliesslich Rassen- und Gesellschafts-Hygiene, vol. VIII, p. 779. On-line
  2. Karl Acham, Kunst und Geisteswissenschaften aus Graz, vol. II, Böhlau Verlag Wien, 2009, p. 88.
  3. Jahrbuch fur Europaische Geschichte 2007, vol. VIII, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2007, p. 35. On-line
  4. Philip I, King of Castile at the Encyclopædia Britannica
  5. Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor at the Encyclopædia Britannica
  6. Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor at the Encyclopædia Britannica
  7. Wurzbach, Constantin, von, ed. (1860). "Habsburg, Karl II. von Steiermark" . Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich [Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire] (in German). 6. p. 352 – via Wikisource.
  8. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Joanna" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  9. Casimir IV, King of Poland at the Encyclopædia Britannica
  10. Obermayer-Marnach, Eva (1953), "Anna Jagjello", Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB) (in German), 1, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, p. 299; (full text online)
  11. Revue de l'Agenais (in French). 4. Société des sciences, lettres et arts d'Agen. 1877. p. 497.
  12. Riezler, Sigmund Ritter von (1897), "Wilhelm IV.", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB) (in German), 42, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 705–717
  13. Goetz, Walter (1953), "Albrecht V.", Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB) (in German), 1, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 158–160; (full text online)
  14. Wurzbach, Constantin, von, ed. (1861). "Habsburg, Maria von Bayern" . Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich [Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire] (in German). 7. p. 20 – via Wikisource.
  15. Brüning, Rainer (2001), "Philipp I.", Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB) (in German), 20, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, p. 372; (full text online)
  16. Wurzbach, Constantin, von, ed. (1860). "Habsburg, Anna von Oesterreich (1528–1587)" . Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich [Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire] (in German). 6. p. 151 – via Wikisource.
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