MARRIAGE OF EMPEROR LEOPOLD I AND ELEONORA MAGDALENA OF NEUBURG

Leopold I (Leopold Ignaz Joseph Balthasar Felician) (1640-1705) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Croatia and King of Bohemia. He was the son of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, and Maria Anna of Spain. Leopold became heir apparent in 1654 by the death of his elder brother Ferdinand IV. In 1658 he was elected Holy Roman Emperor and served until his death in 1705. During his reign he had conflicts with several countries, including the Ottoman Empire and France, fighting three wars with France: the Dutch War, the Nine Years' War, and the War of the Spanish Succession.

Greatly influenced by the Jesuits and raised a devoted Catholic, he was a staunch proponent of the Counter-reformation.

Leopold was married three times. In 1666, he married Margarita Teresa of Austria, daughter of King Philip IV of Spain, who was both his niece and his first cousin. (She was the blonde princess depicted in Diego Velázquez' masterpiece Las Meninas). His second wife was Archduchess Claudia Felicitas of Austria, the heiress of Tyrol. His third wife was Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg, a princess of the Palatinate.

Physically, Leopold had typically Habsburg attributes: he was short and thin, and because of the extreme inbreeding among his progenitors, he had the prominent hereditary Habsburg jaw, earning him the nickname "the Hogmouth".

Eleonora Magdalena Teresa di Pfalz-Neuburg (1655-1720) was born a Countess Palatine of Neuburg in Düsseldorf. She was the oldest daughter of Philip William, Elector Palatine, and his wife Elisabeth Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt. She was raised a devoted Catholic and received several proposals for marriage, among whom was James II of England. In 1676, she married Leopold I, his third wife, thereby becoming Holy Roman Empress. Through this marriage, she was also Queen of Bohemia and Hungary, German Queen, and Archduchess of Austria. She served as Interim Regent in 1711. She was the paternal grandmother of Empress Maria Theresa. Among her siblings were Maria Sophia, who married Peter II of Portugal, and Maria Anna, who married Charles II of Spain.