Eleonore von Österreich

Eleonora Maria Josefa of Austria was born on 31 May 1653 in Regensburg as the daughter of Emperor Ferdinand III and Eleonora Magdalena of Mantua. Her father died in 1657, when she was only four years old, and Eleonora’s brother succeeded him. Little is known about her childhood. She nevertheless received an advanced education and spoke French and Italian. She later learned Polish, but preferred to use Latin. When the unmarried Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki was elected king of Poland in 1669, negotiations immediately began for his marriage to a member of the House of Habsburg. A Polish delegation led by Vice-Chancellor Andrzej Olszowski therefore travelled to Vienna. Eleonora and Michał married on 27 February 1670 at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa. The marriage produced no surviving children: in November 1670, Eleonora gave birth to a stillborn son, and in 1671 she suffered a miscarriage. Opponents of the king spread a rumor that Michał had forced her to pretend to be pregnant; whether this was true is not known. Eleonora was regarded as a model of a loyal, devoted, and supportive wife. The experienced lady-in-waiting Klara Izabella Pacowa became her confidante and helped her learn the duties of a queen. Eleonora accompanied her husband on official journeys throughout Poland and won widespread admiration there. Even his political opponents described her as beautiful and virtuous. Her family expected her to act as a Habsburg representative of influence in Poland. Eleonora, however, stayed out of politics and refused to be drawn into court intrigues. When the pro-French and anti-Habsburg faction, led by Primate Mikołaj Prażmowski and Hetman Jan Sobieski, tried to persuade her to separate from her husband, she remained publicly loyal to him. In 1672, the conflict between the king and the opposition intensified to the point that civil war threatened. Both sides refused to compromise in the Sejm. Eleonora tried to reconcile Michał with Jan Sobieski. In February 1672, the Sejm asked her to mediate between the parties. Together with the apostolic nuncio Franciszek Buonvisi, the Bishop of Kraków Andrzej Trzebicki, and other political representatives, she accepted the task. After lengthy discussions, the most important round of which took place on 2 March 1673, an agreement was reached: the dissatisfied parties recognized Michał’s election and received an amnesty in return. The danger of civil war was thereby averted, and Eleonora was credited with a substantial share of the success. Michał died during a military campaign on 10 November 1673, leaving Eleonora a widow. The House of Habsburg then proposed that she marry Karl V, the exiled Duke of Lorraine. With Habsburg support, he was to stand as a candidate in the Polish royal election and benefit from Eleonora’s popularity. Instead, Jan Sobieski won the election in 1674. Eleonora initially remained in Poland and lived at her dower residence in Thorn. In spring 1675, she returned to Vienna. Eleonora fell in love with Karl V. Their marriage was delayed, however, because Lorraine was occupied by France and Karl was therefore considered an unsuitable match in terms of status. To reduce the difference in rank, he was appointed governor of Tyrol. On 4 February 1678, Eleonora and Karl married in Wiener Neustadt. The wedding provoked speculation in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, where people feared a conspiracy against the reigning King Jan III Sobieski. Eleonora continued to maintain close contact with Polish representatives, including Dymitr Wiśniowiecki and the Voivode of Kalisz, Jan Opaliński. The suspected coup plan was never carried out; at the same time, Sobieski was drawing closer to the House of Habsburg. Because Lorraine remained occupied by France, the couple settled in Innsbruck. Their marriage was considered happy, and Eleonora and Karl had six children. After Karl’s death in 1690, Eleonora formally assumed the regency for their eldest son, who was only eleven years old. In practice, Lorraine remained under French occupation. As nominal regent, she persistently worked for the restoration of the duchy. After the death of Jan III Sobieski in 1696, Eleonora put forward her now seventeen-year-old son, Leopold Józef, as a candidate for the Polish throne. She tried to win support for him by writing to Polish dignitaries, including Michał Radziejowski. Leopold nevertheless lost the election. Eleonora ultimately achieved her most important political goal during the negotiations for the Peace of Rijswijk, which made the restoration of Lorraine possible. She died shortly afterward in 1697; the surviving account gives both Innsbruck and Vienna as her place of death, as well as different dates in November and December.