Eleanor of Portugal (18 September 1434 – 3 September 1467) was
Empress of the Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empress or Empress of the Holy Roman Empire (''Kaiserin des Heiligen Römischen Reiches'') was the wife or widow of the Holy Roman Emperor. The elective dignity of Holy Roman emperor was restricted to males only, but some empress ...
. A
Portuguese ''
infanta
''Infante'' (, ; f. ''infanta''), also anglicised as Infant or translated as Prince, is the title and rank given in the Iberian kingdoms of Spain (including the predecessor kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, Navarre, and León) and Portugal to th ...
'' (princess), daughter of
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...
Edward of Portugal
Edward ( pt, Duarte (; 31 October 1391 – 9 September 1438), also called Edward the King Philosopher (''Duarte o Rei-Filósofo'') or the Eloquent (''o Eloquente''), was the King of Portugal from 1433 until his death. He was born in Viseu, the son ...
and his wife
Eleanor of Aragon, she was the consort of Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick III and the mother of Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian I.
Background
Eleanor was born in
Torres Vedras
Torres Vedras () is a municipality in the Portuguese district of Lisbon, approximately north of the capital Lisbon in the Oeste region, in the Centro of Portugal. The population was 83,075, in an area of .
History
In 1148, Afonso I took ...
on 18 September 1434, one of the nine children of King Edward of Portugal and Eleanor of Aragon. She was the third eldest daughter, but her two older sisters died when they were young, leaving Eleanor as the eldest surviving daughter.
When her father died five days before her fourth birthday, Eleanor's brother
Afonso V
Afonso V () (15 January 1432 – 28 August 1481), known by the sobriquet the African (), was King of Portugal from 1438 until his death in 1481, with a brief interruption in 1477. His sobriquet refers to his military conquests in Northern Afric ...
succeeded him as king with her mother as regent. The following March, her mother gave birth to another daughter,
Joan Joan may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Joan (given name), including a list of women, men and fictional characters
*: Joan of Arc, a French military heroine
*Joan (surname)
Weather events
*Tropical Storm Joan (disambiguation), multip ...
, who would become the notorious wife of
Henry IV of Castile
Henry IV of Castile ( Castilian: ''Enrique IV''; 5 January 1425 – 11 December 1474), King of Castile and León, nicknamed the Impotent, was the last of the weak late-medieval kings of Castile and León. During Henry's reign, the nobles became ...
.
In 1440, Eleanor's mother was forced to go into exile in
Castile after losing litigation against her brother-in-law
Peter, Duke of Coimbra
Infante D. Pedro, Duke of Coimbra KG (; en, Peter), (9 December 1392 – 20 May 1449) was a Portuguese ''infante'' (prince) of the House of Aviz, son of King John I of Portugal and his wife Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gau ...
, for the
regency
A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...
of the young King Afonso. She left Eleanor behind, because she was ill at the time.
Empress
Eleanor's marriage partner was likely suggested by her aunt
Isabella of Portugal, Duchess of Burgundy. Arrangements were made by Eleanor's maternal uncle
Alfonso V, King of Aragon and Naples, who, in 1448, sent artists from his court to paint Eleanor. Eleanor was also suggested as a marriage partner for
Louis, Dauphin of France, the eldest son of King
Charles VII, but she herself preferred to marry Frederick, because a match with him would give her the title of empress instead of queen. The practical negotiations were made in Naples and completed in 1451. During the sea travel, the fleet escorting Eleanor to Italy was tormented by pirates and storms, and there were rumours that she had been lost at sea. Eleanor and Frederick met in Sienna: Frederick was said to have paled when he saw her, partly out of excitement for her beauty, but also out of worry that she would have troubles giving birth because of her slender and frail appearance. The marriage took place in Rome. Upon her coronation, she was also given the name Helena, but she never used this name. The festivities were hosted by her uncle, the king of Naples.
Eleanor and Frederick were dissimilar and never happy. She was an ambitious and willful woman who frequently participated in intrigues, whereas the emperor was a sober and uninspiring man. Her interest in dancing, gambling and hunting was not shared by Frederick, and their relationship was affected by their differences. Frederick sent Eleanor's vast Portuguese entourage home after the wedding because of the cost, and she suffered from homesickness; he also blamed her for causing the death of several of their children by letting them eat Portuguese food, and therefore took over the upbringing of the remaining children entirely for himself. During a period of siege in Vienna, when people were forced to eat rats, cats and dogs, she was known for trying to cheer people up. In historical writings, there is a sense that Eleanor was taken from a splendid, extravagant and luxurious court in Portugal to a cultural wasteland in Vienna because of her spouse's strict economic sense.
Marriage and children
On 16 March 1452 in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, she married the German King
Frederick III, and the two were crowned emperor and empress three days later, on 19 March 1452, by
Pope Nicholas V
Pope Nicholas V ( la, Nicholaus V; it, Niccolò V; 13 November 1397 – 24 March 1455), born Tommaso Parentucelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 March 1447 until his death in March 1455. Pope Eugene made ...
at
St. Peter's Basilica. Her dowry was used by her husband to alleviate his financial problems and cement his power. Frederick III was the last emperor to be crowned in Rome.
With Frederick III she had five children:
* Archduke Christopher (16 November 145521 March 1456)
*
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian I (22 March 1459 – 12 January 1519) was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death. He was never crowned by the pope, as the journey to Rome was blocked by the Venetians. He proclaimed himself E ...
(22 March 145912 January 1519)
* Archduchess Helena (3 November 146028 February 1461)
*
Archduchess Kunigunde (16 March 14656 August 1520), married
Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria
Albert IV (15 December 1447 – 18 March 1508; german: Albrecht) was duke of Bavaria-Munich from 1467, and duke of the reunited Bavaria from 1503.
Biography
Albert was a son of Albert III, Duke of Bavaria and Anna of Brunswick-Grubenhagen ...
* Archduke John (9 August 146610 February 1467)
Eleanor died in
Wiener Neustadt
Wiener Neustadt (; ; Central Bavarian: ''Weana Neistod'') is a city located south of Vienna, in the state of Lower Austria, in northeast Austria. It is a self-governed city and the seat of the district administration of Wiener Neustadt-Land Distr ...
on 3 September 1467 and is buried in the Neukloster, the
Cistercian
The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint B ...
monastery of that same city, where her tombstone may be seen.
References
* Sigrid-Maria Größing, AEIOU - Glück und Unglück im österreichischen Kaiserhaus, Verlag Amalthea,
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, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eleanor Of Portugal
1434 births
1467 deaths
Portuguese infantas
German queens consort
Holy Roman Empresses
Italian queens consort
House of Aviz
15th-century House of Habsburg
People from Wiener Neustadt
Austrian royal consorts
People from Torres Vedras
15th-century Portuguese people
15th-century Portuguese women
Burials in Wiener Neustadt, Austria
15th-century women of the Holy Roman Empire
15th-century German women
Daughters of kings