by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

The Holy Roman Empire was a limited elective monarchy composed of hundreds of kingdoms, principalities, duchies, counties, prince-bishoprics, and Free Imperial Cities in central Europe. The Holy Roman Empire was not really holy since, after Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1530, no emperors were crowned by the pope or a bishop. It was not Roman but rather German because it was mainly in the regions of present-day Germany and Austria. It was an empire in name only – the territories it covered were mostly independent each with its own rulers. The Holy Roman Emperor directly ruled over only his family territories, and could not issue decrees and rule autonomously over the Holy Roman Empire. A Holy Roman Emperor was only as strong as his army and alliances, including marriage alliances, made him, and his power was severely restricted by the many sovereigns of the constituent monarchies of the Holy Roman Empire. From the 13th century, prince-electors, or electors for short, elected the Holy Roman Emperor from among the sovereigns of the constituent states.

Frequently but not always, it was common practice to elect the deceased Holy Roman Emperor’s heir. The Holy Roman Empire was an elective monarchy. No person had a legal right to the succession simply because he was related to the current Holy Roman Emperor. However, the Holy Roman Emperor could and often did, while still alive, have a relative (usually a son) elected to succeed him after his death. This elected heir apparent used the title King of the Romans.

Learn more at Unofficial Royalty: What was the Holy Roman Empire?

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Wilhelmine Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg was the wife of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor who was also Archduke of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, and King of Hungary. Born on April 21, 1673, in Hanover, then in the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, now in the German state of Lower Saxony, Wilhelmine Amalie was the youngest of the four daughters of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Princess Benedicta Henrietta of the Palatinate. Her paternal grandparents were Georg, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Anna Eleonore of Hesse-Darmstadt. Wilhelmine Amalie’s maternal grandparents were Edward, Prince Palatine of the Rhine and Anna Gonzaga, from a noble Italian family. Her maternal grandfather Edward, Prince Palatine of the Rhine was a grandson of King James I of England (also James VI, King of Scots), the son of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Wilhelmine Amalie had three elder sisters but only one survived to adulthood:

• Anna Sophie of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1670 – 1672), died in early childhood
• Charlotte Felizitas of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1671 – 1710), married Rinaldo d’Este III, Duke of Modena, had seven children, died giving birth to her eighth child who also died
• Henriette Maria of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1672 – 1687), died in her teens

Although Wilhelmine Amalie’s maternal grandfather Edward, Prince Palatine of the Rhine was born Protestant, he converted to Roman Catholicism, and so her mother Benedicta Henrietta of the Palatinate was raised Catholic. Wilhelmine Amalie’s father Johann Friedrich, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg converted to Roman Catholicism after a visit to Italy in 1651, where he met Joseph of Cupertino, an Italian Conventual Franciscan friar and mystic who was canonized a saint in 1767.

In 1679, when Wilhelmine Amalie was six-years-old, her father died without a son to succeed him. His Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg was inherited by his Protestant younger brother Ernst August who was married to Sophia of the Palatinate, Wilhelmine Amalie’s great aunt, better known as Sophia of Hanover. Ernst August and Sophia of Hanover were the parents of George I, the first King of Great Britain from the House of Hanover. Sophia of Hanover’s family was the most junior of the Stuart lines but was the most Protestant. In 1701, Parliament passed the Act of Settlement, giving the succession to the British throne to Sophia and her non-Catholic heirs. This act ensured the Protestant succession and bypassed many Catholics who had a better hereditary claim to the throne.

After her husband’s death, Benedicta Henrietta returned to Paris, France, where she had been raised, with her two surviving daughters Charlotte Felizitas and Wilhelmine Amalie, to live near her sister Anne Henriette who had married Henri Jules, Prince of Condé. Benedicta Henrietta entrusted the education of her two daughters to the nuns of the Cistercian Maubuisson Abbey, where Wilhelmine Amalie’s great aunt Louise Hollandine of the Palatinate was the Abbess. Wilhelmine Amalie did not return to her birthplace Hanover until 1693 when she was twenty years old.

Wilhelmine Amalie, who was considered beautiful, serious, and a pious Catholic, caught the eye of Eleonore Magdalena of Neuburg, Holy Roman Empress, the third wife of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I and the mother of Archduke Joseph, the future Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I. Joseph began having affairs at the age of 15 with maids and noble women. It was thought that the pious Wilhelmine Amalie, who was five years older than Joseph, would be a positive influence on Joseph and he would then stop having affairs. A marriage was proposed and accepted.

On January 15, 1699, in the Duchy of Modena, where Wilhelmina Amalie and her mother were staying with her eldest sister Charlotte Felizitas, Duchess of Modena and Reggio, Wilhelmine Amalie and Archduke Joseph of Austria were married by proxy. On February 18, 1699, Wilhelmine Amalie arrived in Tulln an der Donau in the Archduchy of Austria, where she was met by Joseph. The couple were married in person on February 24, 1699, at the Augustinerkirche (Augustinian Church), in Vienna, Austria, adjacent to the Hofburg Palace, the winter palace of the Habsburgs. Wilhelmina Amalie wore a wedding dress encrusted with diamonds and the wedding celebrations continued for eight days.

Joseph and Wilhelmine Amalie had three children but their only son died from hydrocephalus before his first birthday:

• Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria (1699 – 1757), married Augustus III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, had fourteen children
• Archduke Leopold Joseph of Austria (1700 – 1701), died in infancy
• Archduchess Maria Amalie of Austria (1701 – 1756), married Karl VII, Holy Roman Emperor, Prince-Elector of Bavaria, had seven children

Joseph did not stop his affairs, and the affairs combined with the death of his only son took a toll on his marriage. Joseph contracted a venereal disease, probably syphilis, and probably passed the disease to Wilhelmine Amalie. The venereal disease was most likely the reason for the failure of the couple to produce more children.

Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor died, aged sixty-four, on May 5, 1705, and his 27-year-old son Joseph succeeded him in the Habsburg hereditary lands and was elected Holy Roman Emperor. Joseph’s reign lasted just six years. During the smallpox epidemic of 1711, which killed Louis, Le Grand Dauphin of France, the only surviving child and heir of King Louis XIV of France, and three siblings of the future Holy Roman Emperor Franz I, Joseph also became ill with smallpox. He died, aged thirty-two, on April 17, 1711, at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. Joseph had promised his wife that if he survived, he would stop having affairs. Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I was buried in the Imperial Crypt at the Capuchin Church in Vienna. Because Joseph did not have any sons, his brother Karl succeeded him as the ruler of the Habsburg hereditary lands and was elected Holy Roman Emperor Karl VI.

In 1722, after both her daughters had married, Wilhelmine Amalie retired to the convent she had founded in 1717 for the Salesian nuns, the Monastery of the Visitation of Mary (link in German) in Vienna. Living in the convent did not mean that Wilhelmine Amalie gave up her social life. As Dowager Empress she participated in the social life of the imperial family and worked with many charities.

Wilhelmine Amalie survived her husband by thirty-one years, dying on April 10, 1742, eleven days before her sixty-ninth birthday, at the Monastery of the Visitation of Mary in Vienna that she had founded. She was buried in the crypt under the high altar of the monastery’s church where the Salesian nuns are buried. As per her orders, her heart was interred at the foot of her husband’s tomb in the Imperial Crypt at the Capuchin Church in Vienna.

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Works Cited

• Benedicta Henrietta of the Palatinate (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedicta_Henrietta_of_the_Palatinate (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
• Flantzer, Susan. (2023) Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Archduke of Austria, King of Croatia, King of Hungary, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/joseph-i-holy-roman-emperor-king-of-bohemia-archduke-of-austria-king-of-croatia-king-of-hungary/ (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
• Salesianerinnenkirche (Wien) (2022) Wikipedia (German). Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesianerinnenkirche_(Wien) (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
• Wheatcroft, Andrew. (1995) The Habsburgs. London: Viking.
• Wilhelmine-Amélie de Brunswick-Lunebourg (2023) Wikipedia (French). Available at: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelmine-Am%C3%A9lie_de_Brunswick-Lunebourg (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
• Wilhelmine Amalie of Brunswick (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelmine_Amalie_of_Brunswick (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
• Wilhelmine Amalie von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (2022) Wikipedia (German). Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelmine_Amalie_von_Braunschweig-L%C3%BCneburg (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
• Вильгельмина Брауншвейг-Люнебургская (2022) Wikipedia (Russian). Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%B3%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BC%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%91%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%83%D0%BD%D1%88%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%B9%D0%B3-%D0%9B%D1%8E%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B1%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B3%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
• Wilson, Peter H. (2016) Heart of Europe – A History of the Holy Roman Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.