Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg
| Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Queen consort of Sweden | |
| Tenure | 25 November 1620 – 6 November 1632 |
| Born | 11 November 1599 |
| Died | 28 March 1655 (aged 55) |
| Burial | Riddarholmen Church |
| Spouse | Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden |
| Issue | Christina of Sweden |
| House | Hohenzollern |
| Father | John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg |
| Mother | Duchess Anna of Prussia |
Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg (11 November 1599 – 28 March 1655) was a German princess and queen consort of Sweden.
She was the daughter of John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, and Anna, Duchess of Prussia, daughter of Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia.
In the year 1620, Maria Eleonora married the Swedish king 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. She bore her husband a daughter, Christina, in 1626.
She was described as the most beautiful queen in Europe, and, as her daughter later said, had "all the virtues and vices" associated with her gender.
In 1616, the 22-year-old Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden started looking around for a Protestant bride. He had since 1613 tried to get his mother's permission to marry the noblewoman Ebba Brahe, but this was not allowed, and he had to give up his wishes to marry her, though he continued to be in love with her. He received reports with the most flattering descriptions of the physical and mental qualities of the beautiful 17-year-old princess Maria Eleonora. Elector John Sigismund was favorably inclined towards the Swedish king, but he had become very infirm after an apoplexic stroke in the autumn of 1617. His determined Prussian wife showed a strong dislike for this Swedish suitor, because Prussia was a Polish fief and the Polish King Sigismund III Vasa still resented his loss of Sweden to Gustavus Adolphus' father Charles IX.
Maria Eleonora had additional suitors in the young William of Orange, Wladislaw Vasa of Poland, Adolph Friedrich of Mecklenburg and even the future Charles I of England. 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. Maria Eleonora, however, seems to have had a preference for Gustavus Adolphus. For him it was a matter of honour to acquire the hand of Maria Eleonora and none other. He had the rooms of his castle in redecorated and started making preparations to leave for Berlin to press his suit in person, when a letter arrived from Maria Eleonora's mother to his mother. 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". Her husband, she wrote, was "so enfeebled in will by illness that he could be persuaded to agree to anything, even if it tended to the destruction of the country". It was a rebuff that verged on an insult.
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