Eleanor of Austria – “Wise, joyful, honest and kind in all things” (Part one)

Eleanor of Austria was born on 15 November 1498 in Brussels as the eldest child of the future Joanna, Queen of Castile and Philip I, King of Castile.

Joanna had been visited by her parents’ ambassador in August 1498, and he wrote to Queen Isabella,  “She is so gentle and so beautiful and fat and so pregnant that the sight of her would console Your Highness.”¹

Her father was clearly disappointed that his first child was a girl, and he told Joanna that she was to pay for the nursemaids and attendants herself. He said, “The Archduchess may provide for the places in the household of this child because it is a daughter. When God grants us a son, I shall provide for his household.”² Three months later, Joanna’s accounts were “hoping from day-to-day that monseigneur the archduke would pay this expense, as he has still not done.”³

Philip’s father had been headed to Brussels to attend the baptism, but he left the Low Countries after learning that the child was a girl. Meanwhile, Joanna rested in a luxurious chamber of honour and received visitors from beneath a canopy of green damask. She held up a pretence of marital bliss, but things clearly were not right in the marriage. During this time, Joanna was second in the line of succession. Her brother John, his unborn child and her sister Isabella had died in quick succession, leaving only Isabella’s young son Miguel between her and her parents’s crown.

Despite their marital issues, Joanna and Philip had no problem producing more children. On 24 February 1500, Joanna gave birth to a son named Charles in Ghent, the future Holy Roman Emperor. Just five months later, young Miguel died, leaving Joanna as the future Queen. She was due to be sworn in as Princess of Asturias, but a third pregnancy postponed the journey. On 18 July 1501, Joanna gave birth to a second daughter named Isabella. Following Isabella’s birth, Joanna began to prepare for her journey to Castile to be sworn in as its heiress.

Joanna and Philip left Flanders in November 1501, leaving their three young children in the care of their paternal step-grandmother, Margaret of York. The children’s aya or governess was Anne of Burgundy, an illegitimate daughter of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. Margaret took the children to Mechelen. Joanna fell pregnant again while in Castile, and so she remained behind after being sworn in as Princess of Asturias while Philip returned home to Flanders. He arrived in Flanders in November 1503. Joanna gave birth to Ferdinand on 10 March 1503 at Alcalá de Henares. In 1504, Joanna finally received permission to leave Castile to rejoin her husband and children. She left Ferdinand in the care of her parents. At this time, Joanna was reportedly already showing signs of mental illness, although the extent of this has been under debate. Nevertheless, she gave birth to a daughter named Mary in Brussels in 1505.

By then, her mother had died, and Joanna became the Queen regnant of Castile in 1504. In January 1506, Joanna and Philip again left for Castile, and a storm forced them to the English coast, which allowed Joanna to meet up with her sister Catherine, who had been married to Arthur, Prince of Wales, and widowed just months later. She would marry King Henry VIII in 1509. Once again, the children were left behind in Flanders, now in the care of Margaret of Austria, Philip’s sister, as Margaret of York had died in November 1503. Eleanor would never see her father again as Philip died suddenly in September 1506. Four months after Philip’s death, Joanna gave birth to her final child – a daughter named Catherine. Catherine and Ferdinand would grow up in Castile, while the other siblings grew up in the Low Countries. Citing her mental health, Joanna’s father had her confined in Tordesillas, where she would spend the rest of her life as a Queen in name only.

Under the care of her aunt Margaret, Isabella, Charles, and Eleanor received the best possible education one could imagine. Margaret of Austria also became Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1507. Besides an education, Margaret instilled a love of music in the siblings, and they learned to play a number of instruments, such as the flute. Their religious education was entrusted to Pierre Dalma and Jean de Lampier. From 1509, they were also tutored by Adrian of Utrecht, the future Pope Adrian VI. Eleanor learned to speak and write French, which would be her mother tongue. She was raised to play a public role. Laurent Vital, secretary of the Burgundian state, wrote, “This beautiful young Princess, with her good grace, was so pleasant that everything suited her well, everything she did, and is a pleasure to see and hear, playing several instruments, like the lute, the manicordion, singing its part with others, dancing, chatting and talk, then one, then the other. In truth, it is a masterpiece as she is wise, joyful, honest and kind in all things.”⁴

During her early years, Eleanor had already been considered for several marriages. Suitors included the future Francis I of France, the future King John III of Portugal and the Duke of Lorraine. However, Eleanor remained on the bench for some while the marriages of her younger sisters were settled. Isabella married King Christian II of Denmark in 1514, while Mary married the future King Louis II of Hungary in 1515. There was a reason for this, and her grandfather, Maximilian, wrote to Margaret, “Dearest and most beloved daughter, I believe you still have in fresh memory that I once told you that our daughter, Lady Leonora, was kept from being married until one of the three Queens, namely those of France, England or Poland, will go from life to death. Now the Queen of Poland (Barbara Zápolya) has passed away and we are convinced that the King is of the opinion to ask both of us about the said Lady Leonora in marriage. On which we ask you to give us your opinion immediately, so that we can respond better to this, because I will be the first to be asked.”⁵

Part two coming soon.

1. Juana the Mad by Bethany Aram p.51
2. Sister Queens: The Noble, Tragic Lives of Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castile by Julia Fox p.77
3. Juana the Mad by Bethany Aram p.52
4. Éléonore d’Autriche: seconde épouse de François Ier by Michel Combet p.46-47
5. Éléonore d’Autriche: seconde épouse de François Ier by Michel Combet p.51-52