Countess Magdalena of Waldeck


Countess Magdalena of Waldeck was a daughter of Philip IV of Waldeck-Wildungen and his wife, Jutta of Isenburg.

Marriages and issue

First marriage

On 2 or 6 February 1576, she married Count Philip Louis I of Hanau-Münzenberg. This marriage has some interesting features for its time. First, it seems to have been a love match. In the medieval view of nobility, Magdalene was ranked lower than Philip. Politically, the marriage could also represent a conscious withdrawal on her groom's part from the politically dominant influence of his guardian, Count John VI of Nassau-Dillenburg, who would have preferred that Philip Louis marry a member of the Nassau family. Her own family was more oriented toward the Landgraviate of Hesse and the Archbishopric of Cologne.
Magdalena and Philip Louis had four children:
  1. Philip Louis II, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg.
  2. Juliane of Hanau-Münzenberg, buried in the choir of the St. Mary's Church in Hanau.
  3. William of Hanau-Münzenberg, also buried in the choir of St. Mary's Church in Hanau.
  4. Albert, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg-Schwarzenfels.

    Second marriage

On 24 November 1581, she married Count John VII of Nassau-Siegen. Magdalena took up the Calvinist confession of her second husband. She moved with him to Dillenburg, where they took in the two surviving children from her first marriage. This led to Philip Louis II being raised as a Calvinist. When Philip Louis II became Count of the Hanau-Münzenberg in 1595, he made Calvinism the established faith there, the so-called "second Reformation" of the county.
Magdalena and John had twelve children:
  1. John Ernest of Nassau-Siegen.
  2. John VIII, Count of Nassau-Siegen.
  3. Elizabeth of Nassau-Siegen, married on 26 July 1604 to Count Christian of Waldeck.
  4. Adolph of Nassau-Siegen.
  5. Juliane of Nassau-Siegen married on 22 May 1603 to Landgrave Maurice of Hesse-Kassel.
  6. Anna Maria of Nassau-Siegen, married on 3 February 1611 to Count John Adolph of Daun-Falkenstein.
  7. John Albert of Nassau-Siegen.
  8. William of Nassau-Siegen-Hilchenbach.
  9. Anna Johanna of Nassau-Siegen, married on 14 June 1619 Johann Wolfart von Brederode.
  10. Frederick Louis of Nassau-Siegen.
  11. Magdalena of Nassau-Siegen, married firstly in August 1631 to Bernhard Moritz von Oeynhausen and secondly on 25 August 1642 to Philipp Wilhelm zu Inn und Knyphausen.
  12. John Frederick of Nassau-Siegen.

    Footnotes