by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2021

Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg was the wife of King Gustavus II Adolphus the Great of Sweden. Born on November 11, 1599, in Königsberg, Duchy of Prussia, now Kaliningrad, Russia, she was the third of the eight children and the second of the four daughters of Johann Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg and Anna of Prussia. Maria Eleonora’s paternal grandparents were Joachim III Friedrich, Elector of Brandenburg and Katarina of Brandenburg-Küstrin. Her maternal grandparents were Albrecht Friedrich, Duke of Prussia, and Marie Eleonore of Cleves, who was a niece of Anne of Cleves, the fourth wife of King Henry VIII of England.

Maria Eleonora had seven siblings but three died in infancy:

• Georg Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg (1595 – 1640), married Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, had three children
• Anna Sophia of Brandenburg (1598 – 1659), married Friedrich Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, no children
• Katarina of Brandenburg (1602 – 1644), married (1) Gabriel Bethlen, Prince of Transylvania, no children (2) Franz Karl of Saxe-Lauenburg, no children
• Joachim Sigismund of Brandenburg (1603 – 1625), unmarried
• Agnes of Brandenburg (1606 – 1607), died in infancy
• Johann Friedrichof Brandenburg (1607 – 1608), died in infancy
• Albrecht Christian of Brandenburg (born and died 1609), died in infancy

The childhood of Maria Eleonora and her siblings was dominated by their temperamental and strong-willed mother Anna of Prussia. Anna was intellectually superior to her husband and reportedly threw plates and glasses at him during arguments. Anna, a fervent Lutheran, strongly disapproved of her husband’s conversion to Calvinism and made it clear that she did not oppose public protests against it. After her husband’s death, Anna continued to play an important role during the reign of her son. Against the will of her son Georg Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg, Anna arranged the marriage Maria Eleonora’s marriage to King Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden.

On October 7, 1620, Maria Eleonora left Brandenburg for Sweden with her mother Anna and her sister Katarina. Gustavus Adolphus and Maria Eleonora were married in Stockholm on November 25, 1620. Three days later, Maria Eleonora was crowned Queen of Sweden at the Storkykan (Great Church) in Stockholm, Sweden. During the first years of the marriage, Maria Eleonora’s mother Anna and sister Katarina remained in Sweden. They did not return to Brandenburg until August 1624.

Gustavus Adolphus is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history and made Sweden a great power, one of Europe’s largest and leading nations during the early modern period. For much of their marriage, Maria Eleonora and her husband lived apart because Gustavus Adolphus was often away at war.

Gustavus Adolphus’ only surviving brother Karl Philip had accompanied him on a military campaign and died from dysentery (also called the bloody flux), the scourge of armies for centuries. The House of Vasa found itself without a male heir and therefore, in danger. This situation created hopes for Gustavus Adolphus’ first cousin Sigismund III Vasa who was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1587 until his death in 1632 and King of Sweden and Grand Duke of Finland from his father’s death in 1592 until he was deposed by his uncle, Gustavus Adolphus’ father Karl IX, King of Sweden in 1599.

Although Maria Eleonora’s husband Gustavus Adolphus was successful in many endeavors, he was not successful in providing a male heir:

• Stillborn daughter, born July 24, 1621
• Christina (1623 – 1624), died in infancy
• Stillborn son, born May 1625
• Christina, Queen of Sweden (1626 – 1689), unmarried, succeeded her father, abdicated, subsequently converted to Roman Catholicism, and moved to Rome

When Maria Eleonora gave birth to her fourth child, Gustavus Adolphus had originally been told that the child was a boy. His half-sister Katarina of Sweden, Countess Palatine of Kleeburg informed him that the child was not a boy but a girl, and then carried the baby to him, afraid of his reaction. Gustav Adolphus said, “She’ll be clever, she has made fools of us all!” and decided that she would be called Christina after his mother. However, Maria Eleonora was in no condition to be told the truth about the baby’s gender, and Gustavus Adolphus waited several days before breaking the news to her. Maria Eleonora had a vicious reaction upon hearing the child was a girl and ordered the baby to be taken away from her. Gustavus Adolphus gave orders for the birth to be announced with all the ceremonies usually given to the birth of a male heir. This seemed to indicate that Gustavus Adolphus had little hope of having other children. Maria Eleonora’s state of health seems to be the most likely explanation for this. Gustavus Adolphus recognized Christina’s eligibility as a female heir and she became the undisputed heir presumptive. Maria Eleonora showed little affection for her daughter and was not allowed any influence in Christina’s upbringing. Christina was placed in the care of Gustavus Adolphus’ half-sister Katarina of Sweden, Countess Palatine of Kleeburg and Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna.

In the year after Christina’s birth, Maria Eleonora was described as being in a state of hysteria owing to her husband’s absences. At a later date, Gustavus Adolphus described her as being “a very sick woman”. However, it seems Maria Eleonora had several causes for her mental issues: she had lost three babies, she was an isolated foreigner in a hostile country, her brother joined Sweden’s enemies, and her husband’s life was constantly in danger when he was on military campaign.

Before Gustavus Adolphus left to lead the Swedish army in the Thirty Years’ War (1618 to 1648), he legally secured his daughter Christina’s right to inherit the throne, in case he never returned and gave orders that Christina should receive an education normally given only to boys. At the Battle of Lützen on November 16, 1632, Gustavus Adolphus was killed. The long delay in providing Gustavus Adolphus with a timely burial was due to his wife. Already suffering from mental issues, Maria Eleonora’s grief was quite painful and her mental issues worsened considerably. She ordered her husband’s heart to be brought to her to keep him always near. She also refused to have her husband buried, spending whole days next to the body. Finally, eighteen months after the death of Gustavus Adolphus, the funeral and burial were held on June 22, 1634, at Riddarholmen Church in Stockholm, Sweden.

Maria Eleonora and Gustavus Adolphus’ only surviving child Christina became Queen of Sweden at the age of six. However, Maria Eleonora was not included in the regency government during the minority of Christina because the council of the state did not consider her suitable as regent. In 1636, the regency government feared that Maria Eleonora’s mental instability would adversely influence the young Queen Christina. They decided to separate mother and daughter and Maria Eleonora was sent to Gripsholm Castle.

Maria Eleonora wanted to end her exile at Gripsholm Castle and go to Brandenburg, her birthplace but she was denied permission because her brother Georg Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg was an enemy of Sweden. Instead, Maria Eleonora began secret negotiations with King Chrisitan IV of Denmark, Sweden’s enemy, to allow her to live in Denmark. Maria Eleonora and her lady-in-waiting escaped from Gripsholm Castle on the night of July 22, 1640, by letting themselves down from a window. They were then rowed across a nearby lake where a carriage was waiting for them. The carriage took them to Nyköping, where they boarded a Danish ship and were taken to Denmark.

Sweden and Brandenburg signed a peace treaty in 1641. Among the terms of the treaty was an agreement that Maria Eleonora’s nephew Friedrich Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg would host his aunt in Brandenburg, and Sweden would give her a pension. In 1643, Maria Eleonora left Denmark for Brandenburg where she would live for five years. She was able to return to Sweden in 1648, enabling her to witness Christina’s coronation. Nyköping Castle was granted to her as a residence by order of her daughter.

Christina caused a scandal when she decided not to marry and then when she abdicated her throne in 1654 in favor of her cousin Karl Gustav of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg who reigned as Carl V Gustav, King of Sweden. Maria Eleonora had concerns about Christina’s abdication and how it would affect her financial situation. Christina and her cousin Carl V Gustav visited Maria Eleonora and promised that she would have no financial worries. After her abdication, Christina left Sweden and lived for a year in Brussels, then in the Spanish Netherlands, now in Belgium. She then went to Austria where she converted to Roman Catholicism. Christina spent the rest of her life in Rome where she played a prominent role in the city’s cultural life. She is one of three women to be interred in the crypt at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.

Maria Eleanora survived her husband by twenty-three years, dying at the age of 55, on March 28, 1655, in Stockholm, Sweden, shortly after the abdication of her daughter Queen Christina. Maria Eleanora was interred next to her husband at Riddarholmen Church in Stockholm, Sweden.

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Works Cited

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• Flantzer, Susan. 2021. King Gustavus II Adolphus the Great of Sweden. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-gustavus-ii-adolphus-the-great-of-sweden/> [Accessed 21 August 2021].
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