Marie Eleonore of Brandenburg, Countess Palatine of Simmern


Marie Eleonore von Brandenburg was a princess of Brandenburg, Countess Palatine and from 1655 to 1658, regent of Simmern.

Biography

Marie Eleonore was the only child of Elector Joachim Frederick of Brandenburg from his second marriage to Eleanor of Prussia, daughter of Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia. Orphaned as an infant, she grew up with her uncle Christian, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth.
On 4 December 1631 she married Count Palatine Ludwig Philipp von Simmern, a brother of the Bohemian Winter King Frederick V of the Palatinate, in Cölln.
In the spring of 1632, after the liberation by the Swedes, the couple was able to move to the Palatinate. Ludwig Philipp acted as the administrator of the Electoral Palatinate, but was expelled again in 1635 by imperial troops. Marie Eleonore and her husband lived in exile in Metz and Sedan for a few years.
After Ludwig Philipp's death in 1655, his nephew Karl Ludwig claimed guardianship of Palatinate-Simmern-Kaiserslautern. However, Marie Eleonore, described as energetic, resisted these efforts with the support of her grandnephew, Elector Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg, and asserted her regency.
Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III confirmed her on 6 July 1655 as regent of the principality, pending the adulthood of her son. Marie Eleonore resided in Kaiserslautern.
In 1658, her child, Ludwig Heinrich, turned 18 and her regency ended. Ludwig Heinrich was the count till 1674.

Issue

Louis Philip and Marie Eleonore had seven children, only two of whom survived to adulthood.
She survived all of her children, and her son, Louis Henry, had no children of his own. This ended the Palatinate-Simmern line.