Eleanor of Austria – A “good and obedient woman” (Part four)

Read part three here.

Eleanor and Francis had no children together but she became a stepmother to the children from his first marriage to Claude of France. She was particularly close to his eldest son, also named Francis, and was heartbroken when he died in 1536. While she was kept informed of her daughter’s health and education, she was desperate to be reunited with her and made several attempts to do so. She also tried to promote a French match for her as this would bring her closer to her mother. Indeed, she had been betrothed to Dauphin Francis by the Treaty of Madrid. However, Maria had been only nine at the time, and any official wedding was still a long way off. The death of the dauphin in 1536 put a stop to Eleanor’s hopes.

She also received portraits of Maria, and after receiving a new one in 1542, she wrote to Maria, “I rejoiced greatly, my daughter, with your painted portrait, for I cannot see the real one. Please, God, that this will happen one day, with your contentment, which will also be mine.”¹ As Maria reached a marriageable age, Eleanor felt it was her motherly duty to see her daughter settled, and she desperately wrote to her sister Catherine, to talk to her husband, King John, to allow Maria to come to France. She also wrote to Maria asking her not to consent to anything less than being allowed to go to France with a full dowry. Once again, John refused to let Maria go, and he promised to marry her off quickly and as well as possible. Despite everything Eleanor had tried to do, Maria was effectively a stranger to her now. In 1544, Maria was created Duchess of Viseu in her own right, with the appropriate income.²

At the end of 1546, it appeared that the health of King Francis was in decline. Shortly before his death, he told his son, making “very long and affectionate remarks in favour of the Queen, so that he must have received her well, knowing that he had treated her too badly and without what she would have deserved, for having always been a good and very obedient woman to him.”³ Eleanor was not present when he died as she had not been aware of the seriousness of his illness. He died on 31 March 1547 and Eleanor learned of his death on 2 April. Once again, Eleanor was a dowager Queen, and this time, she had no blood connection to the family. The matter of her dowry was settled relatively quickly, and Eleanor stayed away from the subsequent coronation of the new King. In 1548, she chose to return to her birthplace – Brussels – where she was welcomed warmly by her sister, Mary. She never returned to France.

She again tried to be reunited with Maria, but as a dowager Queen, she had less influence than before. In 1552, she wrote to King John and implored God not to let her leave this life without seeing Maria again.⁴ Eleanor returned to Castile, but even there, Maria was not allowed to join her. She would be allowed to come to Portugal, but it would be inappropriate for Maria to travel to Castile.

However, Maria now also wished to see her mother despite her brother’s attempt to persuade her. She had renounced all possibilities of a marriage, forcing her brother to make another decision. She “decided to remain single and in the kingdom, in the midst of her friends, her books and the poor, devoting herself from now on to the sciences and arts, to charitable works and religious care.”⁵

At last, in April 1557,  he decided to let Maria join her mother in Castile. Eleanor’s brother, Charles V, wrote letters of thanks to King John and Queen Catherine and shared the good news with Eleanor. Her departure was announced for 15 June, but then King John died suddenly. Maria changed her mind and refused to leave Portugal. The new King was Maria’s great-nephew, King Sebastian I, who was just three years old.

Eleanor was hurt and confused by Maria’s change of heart, but Maria wrote back that she feared that King John’s death would mean that she would not be allowed to return to Portugal and that she might face financial difficulties in Castile. However, she offered to spend several days with her mother on a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Guadalupe. It seemed like any permanent move was entirely off the table. Time passed as Maria refused to travel in the winter, and Eleanor offered to travel to Badajoz, which was not far from the border. Finally, at the end of 1557, Eleanor set off towards Badajoz with her sister Mary.

Eleanor and Mary arrived first, on 23 December 1557, and she waited anxiously for Maria to arrive. She finally arrived on 18 January 1558. One chronicler wrote, “It is not easy to describe the tears of joy that were shed on both sides: the Queen of France (Eleanor) admiring her daughter, and the Queen of Hungary (Mary) admiring her niece, who by her presence and appearance was dignified, serious in her words and modest with the natural grace and pleasantness of her person; the Queen of Hungary was spellbound, even though she lacked the bond of blood.”⁶

The festivities of the reunion lasted for 20 days while Eleanor tried to convince her daughter to come live in Castile with her. It was written that “she wanted nothing more in this life than to be comforted by her company.”⁶ Nevertheless, Maria remained steadfast in her determination to return to Portugal. On 7 February 1558, Maria left Badajoz and returned to Portugal.

Deeply upset at being separated from her daughter again, Eleanor set off to Guadalajara a few days later with Mary. Just a little while later, she was forced to stop at Talaveruela after a severe asthma attack. She became ill with a high fever and violent cough. She died on 18 February as her brother Charles arrived just in time to say goodbye. She had remained lucid until the end and asked to be buried in a modest ceremony. Her body now rests in the El Escorial.

1. Éléonore d’Autriche by Michel Combet p.202
2. Royal and Elite Households in Medieval and Early Modern Europe edited by Theresa Earenfight p.391
3. Éléonore d’Autriche: seconde épouse de François Ier by Michel Combet p.224
4. Éléonore d’Autriche by Michel Combet p.237
5. A infanta dona Maria ea corte portugueza by Olga Moraes Sarmento da Silveira p.31
6. Éléonore d’Autriche by Michel Combet p.251