Margaretha von Waldeck (1533 – 15 March 1554) was the daughter of Philip IV, Count of Waldeck-Wildungen (1493–1574) and his first wife, Margaret

Cirksena The House of Cirksena () was the name of the ruling family of East Frisia, Ostfriesland. They descended from a line of East Frisian chieftains from Greetsiel. East Frisia In 1439, in the wake of clashes between different lines of chieftains, t ...

(1500–1537), daughter of

Edzard I, Count of East Frisia Edzard I, also Edzard the Great (15 January 1462 in Greetsiel – 14 February 1528 in Emden) was count of East Frisia from 1491 until his death in 1528. Edzard succeeded his brother Enno in 1492. He fought with George, Duke of Saxony over ...

. One author theorized in the 1990s that her life influenced the fairy tale of

Snow White "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection '' Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...

Life

According to

Bad Wildungen Bad Wildungen is a state-run spa and a small town in Waldeck-Frankenberg district in Hesse, Germany. It is located on the German Timber-Frame Road. Geography Location Bad Wildungen lies in the eastern foothills of the Kellerwald range in the s ...

city documents she was famous for her beauty.Dekker, p. 33 Since 1539 she had a very strict stepmother, Katharina von Hatzfeldt (1510–1546) and perhaps soon after Margaretha was raised at

Weilburg Weilburg is, with just under 13,000 inhabitants, the third biggest town in Limburg-Weilburg district in Hesse, Germany, after Limburg an der Lahn and Bad Camberg. Geography Location The community lies in the Lahn valley between the Wester ...

at the court of

Philip III, Count of Nassau-Weilburg Philip III, Count of Nassau-Weilburg (20 September 1504 at Neuweilnau Castle in Weilrod – 4 October 1559 in Weilburg) was a Count of the Nassau-Weilburg. Among his major achievements were the introduction of the Reformation, the foundation ...

. In 1545 she traveled through the

Siebengebirge The (), occasionally Sieben Mountains or Seven Mountains, are a hill range of the German Central Uplands on the east bank of the Middle Rhine, southeast of Bonn. Description The area, located in the municipalities of Bad Honnef and König ...

("seven hills") to live with her mother's brother Johann

(1506-1572) at Valkenburg Castle, in present-day

Limburg, Netherlands Limburg (, ) is the southernmost of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. It is bordered by Gelderland to the north and by North Brabant to its west. Its long eastern boundary forms the international border with the state of North Rhine-Westph ...

. In 1549, her father sent her on to the

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

court of

Mary of Hungary Mary, also known as Maria of Anjou (, , ; 137117 May 1395), reigned as Queen of Hungary and Croatia (officially 'king') between 1382 and 1385, and from 1386 until her death. She was the daughter of Louis the Great, King of Hungary and Poland ...

, governor of the

Habsburg Netherlands Habsburg Netherlands was the Renaissance period fiefs in the Low Countries held by the Holy Roman Empire's House of Habsburg. The rule began in 1482, when the last Valois-Burgundy ruler of the Netherlands, Mary, wife of Maximilian I of Austr ...

and sister of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Margaretha's presence at the court was partially meant to improve the relationship of her father with the emperor and help the release of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, who had been imprisoned in Brussels for his role in the

Schmalkaldic War The Schmalkaldic War (german: link=no, Schmalkaldischer Krieg) was the short period of violence from 1546 until 1547 between the forces of Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire (simultaneously King Charles I of Spain), commanded by the Duk ...

. The situation at the court was complicated as several high ranking personalities were striving for Margaretha, including Lamoral, Count of Egmont. Charles V's son, Crown Prince Philip, arrived at his aunt's court in 1549. Tradition has it that he pursued Margaretha during the few months he was there, though there never could be any official relationship, as she was

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

. Three surviving letters from Margaretha to her father show that her health declined steadily over the next few years and she died at the age of 21 in March 1554. In Waldeck chronicles it was suggested that she had been poisoned.

Snow White inspiration

Eckhard Sander, in his book ''Schneewittchen: Märchen oder Wahrheit?'' (''Snow White: Is It a Fairy Tale?''), alleged that Margaretha's life was inspiration for the tale of Snow White. Since, however, her father's second wife died in 1546 and he only remarried again in October 1554, her stepmother was not a suspect in the alleged poisoning case. Margaretha's father owned several copper mines; a majority of workers were children. According to Sander, the seven dwarfs were inspired by child labor in the copper mining village Bergfreiheit, now a district of

that calls itself ''Schneewittchendorf'' (Snow White village). Like the fairy tale's dwarfs, the child laborers there used to live in groups of about 20 in a single room house. Sander's theory also worked in the history of Margarethe's brother's children, as well as folktales from the surrounding area - he suggested that the wicked mother figure was taken from the life of Margarethe's niece, and the magnificent wedding from the life of her nephew. Professional folklorists and scholars generally view Sander's theory as unlikely and unconvincing.

References

*Grudrun Anne Dekker
Schneewittchen: blonde Tochter einer Adligen aus Ostfriesland: Eine historische Spurensuche
BoD 2013. {{DEFAULTSORT:Magdalena of Waldeck 1533 births 1554 deaths House of Waldeck Snow White People of the Habsburg Netherlands 16th-century German people Daughters of monarchs