15 November – So many marriages, so little love

Archduchess Eleanor, later Queen of Portugal and France, was born on 15 November 1498. She was the elder sister of Emperor Charles V.

Eleanor belongs to the unfortunate group of Habsburg princesses forbidden to marry their true love. In 1516, the Archduchess met Frederick, one of the sons of the Elector Palatine, at the court in Brussels. They fell in love and corresponded secretly with the discreet assistance of Eleanor’s household staff.

Unfortunately, a message from Frederick declaring his eternal love for Eleanor fell into the hands of her brother Charles. He immediately intervened to end what he regarded as a misalliance and made the lovers publicly vow that they had not contracted a secret marriage. Frederick was forced to leave the court, and Charles personally accompanied Eleanor to Portugal, where she became the third wife of the fifty-year-old King Manuel, the twice brother-in-law of her mother who had — curiously enough — previously been married to two of her aunts. She gave birth to one surviving daughter.

Eleanor’s second planned marriage was formal only and never materialised. Her third marriage, arranged with François I of France, remained childless. François largely ignored his wife and offered her no significant political role.

Widowed again, Eleanor retired to Spain, where she met her daughter from her first marriage after twenty-eight years of separation. She died only weeks later, in early 1558.