Empress / Queen Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg (21 April1673 – 10 April 1742) was Holy Roman Empress, Queen of the Germans, Queen ofHungary, Queen of Bohemia, Archduchess consort of Austria etc. As the spouseof Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor. Wilhelmine Amalia was the youngest daughter of JohnFrederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and Benedicta Henrietta of the Palatinate. Her two surviving sisters were Charlotte Felicitas, who married theDuke of Modena, and Henriette Marie, who never married. Wilhelmina was given a Catholic education by her great-aunt Louise Holladine at the convent of Maubuisson, and did not return to Hanover until she was 20 years old, in 1693. Early on, the Holy Roman Empress Eleonor Magdaleneof the Palatinate-Neuburg decided that Wilhelmina Amalia would be herdaughter-in-law. Prince Salm was instrumental in speaking for her candidacy. The adviser of Eleonor, Marco d’Aviano, had convinced her that WilhelmineAmalia, being pious and older than Joseph, could act as a tempering influenceand discontinue his sex life outside of marriage, and to Leopold, he claimedthat he had a vision that the pair would be happy. She was subjected to medicalexamination to establish if she was fertile, and though she was senior toJoseph, which was initially to her disadvantage, it was decided that her mentalmaturity would benefit fertilization. As a result, on 24 February 1699, she marriedEleonor’s son, Archduke Joseph, the heir of Emperor Leopold I. Upon Joseph’s election as Emperor in 1705, she became Empress of theHoly Roman Empire. Wilhelmine Amalia was described as beautiful butalso as religious and serious. Her relationship with her husband was initiallydescribed as happy, but it soon deteriorated. Joseph had a long line ofmistresses, both servants and nobles, such as Dorothea Daun. His huntingcompanion count Johann Philip von Lamberg provided him with lovers, and heeventually had a long term relationship with Marianne Pálffy, who became hisofficial mistress. This was a scandal, as official mistresses had not been acustom at the Austrian court, and both Wilhelmine Amalia and the popeprotested. Her mother-in-law supported her, scolding Joseph and placed hisprocurers in prison, but after he became emperor, nothing could be done. He hadseveral illegitimate children, but no surviving male heir with his spouse. In1704, Joseph contracted a venereal disease, reportedly from the daughter of agardener, and passed the disease to his wife. Because of the prudishness ofthe Austrian court, she initially did not know what had happened to her andblamed herself for the infection. [4] It has been suggested that this conditionwas the reason for the failure of the Empress to produce more children afterthe birth of her second daughter. Without male heirs, a crisis developed inregards to the imperial succession. As empress, Wilhelmine Amalia as well as her successorwere described as accomplished in music, discretion, modesty and diligence, andwas regarded to fulfill her representational role as empress well both withinthe Spanish court protocol of hunting and balls and amateur theater as well asthe religious devotion days of pietas austriaca. Joseph did not allow her anypolitical influence what so ever and kept her outside of state affairs as hedid his mother and mistress Marianne Pàlffy, but she was described asintelligent and self-sufficient and she established political connections amongthe ministers, especially her relative Prince Salm, whom she generallysupported even when he promoted the interests of the Holy German Empire againstAustria. She is described as an active participator in dynastic intrigue, and assisted in the marriage between her cousin and brother-in-law. She worked closely with the Hanoverian envoyto benefit interests of her family the Guelphs. In 1711, Wilhelmine Amalia was widowed, and hermother-in-law became the interim regent until her brother-in-law, the ArchdukeCharles, could return from Spain where he was the Austrian nominee for theSpanish throne during the War of the Spanish Succession. At the death of herspouse, the stress caused the venereal disease of Wilhelmine Amalia to returnin full force after several years remission. His inability to produce male heirs irkedCharles VI and eventually led to the promulgation of the Pragmatic Sanction of1713, a document which abolished male-only succession and declared his landsindivisible. The new Emperor favoured his own daughters over those of Joseph Iand Wilhelmine Amalia, in the succession, ignoring a decree he had signedduring the reign of his father, Leopold I. She as well as her mother-in-law wasactive in fighting for their daughter’s right to the throne. By the secretpactum mutuae successionis of 1703, Leopold had made an agreement with his sonsthat the daughters of Joseph would be first in the line of succession, followedby those of Charles and Leopold, and though none of the empresses knew of theexistence of the document, there had been talk of it, and Joseph had hintedabout it to Wilhelmine Amalia. Baron Seilern apparently showed WilhelmineAmalia the document before it was presented to the head of her family, theelector of Hanover. In 1712, the elector sent the famous Gottfried Leibniz toher to assist her in defending her daughters rights against Charles, and on 21April 1713, Charles VI presented the Pragmatic Sanction in which he adjustedhimself to the memorandum of Wilhelmine Amalia from the document of pactummutuae successionis, after which she celebrated with a dinner for the empressesand archduchesses at the table of empress dowager Eleanore, where she wascongratulated on her success and answered that she hoped the emperor would havea son. In 1715, however, her supporter Seilern died, and in 1717, Charles VIchanged the terms of the Pragmatic Sanction to favor his daughters over hers. She did not approve, but did not openly protest. In 1722, after her daughters were married, Wilhelmine Amalia retired a convent that she had founded earlier in 1717, theSalesianerinnenkloster auf dem Rennwege in Vienna. The convent did not mean aretreat from social life, as she was in fact very active as a dowager, regularly leaving the convent for family visits as well as representationalvisits. It was as an Empress dowager that she had her greatest impact upon culturallife in Vienna. Her medical prescriptions in her care for the sick wasrecommended, and she founded a boarding school as well as one of Vienna’s firstorphanages for girls. She admired Francois de Sales and Jeanne FrancoiseFremont de Chantal, and helped promote her canonization. She was also a patronof the Catholic reformer Lodovico Antonio Muratori. Wilhelmine Amalia got along very well with hermother-in-law Eleonore and her sister-in-law Elisabeth Christine as well aswith the archduchesses, and the three empresses were described as supportivetoward each other: Wilhelmine Amalia nursed Elisabeth Christine when she hadsmallpox, and Elisabeth Christine nursed Eleanor during her last illness. In 1740, Charles VI died. During the War of theAustrian Succession, Wilhelmine Amalia initially supported her son-in-law, Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria, in his pursuit of the imperial crown, butsoon retired again to private life. In June 1741, empress Maria Theresa visitedher and asked her to act as a mediator between herself and her son-in-law theBavarian elector, but she refused. Wilhelmine Amalia outlived her spouse by more than30 years, dying on 10 April 1742. She is buried in the Salesian convent inVienna. Her heart is buried in the Imperial Crypt. This item is in the category “Collectibles\Historical Memorabilia\Royalty Collectibles”. The seller is “galleryoff5th” and is located in this country: US. This item can be shipped worldwide.
- Modification Description: Hand-signed
- Signed: Yes
- Modified Item: Yes
- Vintage: Yes
- Royal: Hungarian Royalty
- To Commemorate: Appointment
- Type: Royal Document
- Royalty: Austria & Hungary
- Year: 1733
- Theme: Royalty
- Country: Hungary
- Features: Antique, Illustrated, Official Release
- Country/Region of Manufacture: Hungary
