Archduchess Eleanor of Austria (1582–1620)


Eleanor of Austria, was an Austrian princess and a member of the House of Habsburg.
She was the daughter of Archduke Charles II of Austria, the son of Emperor Ferdinand I; and of Maria Anna of Bavaria. Her elder brother Archduke Ferdinand succeeded as Holy Roman Emperor in 1619.

Life

Eleanor was born in Graz. Like all of her siblings, she suffered from the famous Habsburg inferior lip. She was regarded as intelligent but moody, mainly due to her frail health after she suffered from smallpox in her childhood.
Together with her sisters Gregoria Maximiliana and Margaret, Eleanor was a prospective bride for the future King Philip III of Spain. But after the portraits of the three sisters were sent to the Spanish court, Eleanor was not selected. After this, she was involved in marriage projects with several Italian princes, but none of these came to fruition.
Finally, together with her sister Maria Christina, in 1607 Eleanor took the veil in the Haller Convent in Hall in Tirol, where she died aged 37, having been blind for her last years. Eleanor was buried in the Haller Jesuit Church.

Ancestors