Éléonore Desmier d'Olbreuse

Éléonore Desmier d'Olbreuse (3,

By that time, it had become quite clear that among the four brothers (George William and three others), only the youngest, Ernest Augustus, had produced any heirs male, and that the entire duchy of Lüneburg was likely to be united under Ernest Augustus's eldest son George Louis. George William therefore wanted George Louis to marry his daughter Sophia Dorothea, whose marriage prospects were otherwise not bright, given the circumstances of her birth. To George William's annoyance, George Louis and his parents refused the proposal on the grounds of precisely the birth status of the intended bride.

After the rejection of his daughter, George William decided to improve definitively the status of Éléonore and Sophia Dorothea: by contract signed on 22 August 1675 and in open violation of his previous promise, George William declared that his marriage to Éléonore was not morganatic but valid to both church and state, with a second wedding ceremony being held at Celle on 2 April 1676. George William's younger brother Ernst August and specially his wife Sophia of the Palatinate demonstratively stayed away from this second wedding.^[10] Twenty-two days later, on 24 April, the second marriage was made public and Éléonore officially addressed as Duchess of Brunswick and their daughter declared legitimate.^[10]

This development greatly alarmed his relatives, as it threatened to hinder the contemplated union of the Lüneburg territories. Indeed, if George William had had a son, a serious succession crisis could have arisen. No son however was born, as Éléonore’s next two pregnancies, in 1671 and August 1676, produced only short-lived daughters. Once it became clear that George William wouldn't have male heirs, his brothers relented: by family agreement signed on 13 July 1680, Éléonore was finally recognized by her husband's family as Duchess of Brunswick and, most importantly, Sophia Dorothea was declared Princess of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle with all appertaining rights of birth. Also, George Louis' parents finally agreed to the proposed marriage with Sophia Dorothea as a way of avoiding uncertainty and inheritance disputes. The wedding took place on 21 November 1682 but since the beginning the union was a complete failure: the feelings of hatred and contempt that Sophia of the Palatinate had over her daughter-in-law were soon shared by her son George Louis, who was oddly formal to his wife. Sophia Dorothea was frequently scolded for her lack of etiquette, and the two had loud and bitter arguments. Nevertheless, they managed to have two children in quick succession: George Augustus (born 30 October 1683 and future King George II of Great Britain) and Sophia Dorothea (born 16 March 1687 and by marriage Queen consort in Prussia and Electress consort of Brandenburg).

Éléonore still experienced first-hand the catastrophic course of her daughter's marriage. When Sophia Dorothea began a relationship with Count

When George William was on his deathbed in 1705, he wanted to see his daughter one last time to reconcile with her, but his

Éléonore died on 5 February 1722, nearly blind, in Celle Castle, Celle. She mentioned 342 persons in her will. She was buried in the Fürstengruft at the Stadtkirche St. Marien (town church of St. Mary) in Celle.^[12]

Ancestry

References

Bibliography

• Andreas Flick: „Der Celler Hof ist ganz verfranzt“. Hugenotten und französische Katholiken am Hof und beim Militär Herzog Georg Wilhelms von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (in German). In: Hugenotten. 72nd year, N° 3, 2008,
  ISSN 0340-3718, S. 87–120 (PDF
  ; 2,2 MB).
• Horric de Beaucaire, Charles Prosper Maurice (1884). Une mésalliance dans la maison de Brunswick (1665-1725) : Éléonore Desmier d'Olbreuze, duchesse de Zell (in French). Paris: Libr. H. Oudin : Libr. Fischbacher (Société Anonyme).
  OCLC 1125380017
  .
• Elisabeth E. Kwan und Anna E. Röhrig: Frauen vom Hof der Welfen. (in German) MatrixMedia, Göttingen 2006, pp. 53–63 and 115–126,
  ISBN 3-932313-17-8
• OCLC 845117877.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
  )
• Luise Marelle: Eleonore d’Olbreuse, Herzogin von Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Celle. Die Großmutter Europas (in German). Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 1936.
• Pierre-Henri Mitard: Éléonore Desmier d’Olbreuse. ‘La Grand’Mère de l’Europe‘ (1639–1722) In: Bulletin de la Société Historique et Scientifique des Deux-Sèvres. Deuxième série (in French). vol. 23, N° 1. Niort, 1990, pp. 35–38.
  ISSN 0751-5294
• Neigebaur, Johann Ferdinand (1859). Eleonore d'Olbreuse, die Stammmutter der Königshäuser von England, Hannover und Preußen (in German). Universitätsbibliothek Braunschweig.
  doi:10.24355/dbbs.084-201002081353-0
  .
• Dorothea Nolde: Eléonore Desmier d’Olbreuse (1639–1722) am Celler Hof als diplomatische, religiöse und kulturelle Mittlerin (in German). In: Dorothea Nolde, Claudia Opitz (ed.): Grenzüberschreitende Familienbeziehungen. Akteure und Medien des Kulturtransfers in der frühen Neuzeit. 1st edition, Böhlau, Köln [u. a.] 2008,
  ISBN 978-3-412-20100-5, pp. 107–120 (excerpt
  )
• Michael Sikora: Dynastie und Eigensinn. Herzog Georg Wilhelm von Celle, Eleonore d’Olbreuse und die Spielregeln des Fürstenstandes. In: Heiko Laß (ed.): Hof und Medien im Spannungsfeld von dynastischer Tradition und politischer Innovation zwischen 1648 und 1714 (= Rudolstädter Forschungen zur Residenzkultur, vol. 4).
  ISBN 978-3-422-06862-9
• du Vinage, Renate (2010). Ein vortreffliches Frauenzimmer das Schicksal von Eleonore Desmier d'Olbreuse (1639 - 1722), der letzten Herzogin von Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Celle (in German). Berlin.
  OCLC 64650329.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
  )

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