Princess Mauritia Eleonora of Portugal (1609 – 15 June 1674), , was a princess from the House of Aviz. As a close relative of Prince Frederick Henry of Orange, she spent a long time at his court in The Hague. Later in life she married a count from the House of Nassau-Siegen.
Biography
Mauritia Eleonora was the fifth daughter and the ninth of ten children of Prince Manuel of Portugal (1568–1638) and Countess Emilia of Nassau (1569–1629). Where and when Mauritia Eleonora was born is unknown. She was baptised in Delft on 10 May 1609. Out of gratitude for the reconciliation between her mother and her uncle Prince Maurice of Orange, Mauritia Eleonora was named after her uncle. Mauritia Eleonora's father was the son of the Portuguese prior and self-proclaimed Portuguese king António of Portugal, her mother was the youngest daughter of Prince William I 'the Silent' of Orange and Duchess Anna of Saxony.
Mauritia Eleonora first lived with her parents at the Prinsenhof in Delft and then, from 1618 to 1626, at no. 3 Lange Vijverberg in The Hague, opposite the Stadholder's Quarter. After her parents' divorce in 1626 she settled with her mother and sisters in Geneva, where her mother died in 1629. She then returned to the Dutch Republic and took up residence at the court of her uncle Prince Frederick Henry of Orange. There she shared a room with Countess Louise Christine of Solms-Braunfels, the youngest sister of her aunt Amalia of Solms-Braunfels. Louise Christine married in The Hague on 11 February 1638 to , since 1636 the widower of Countess Anne Joanne of Nassau-Siegen.
As Mauritia Eleonora was in daily contact at court with her first cousin Countess Louise Henriette of Nassau, eldest daughter of Prince Frederick Henry, it was important for her second cousin Count William Frederick of Nassau-Diez, stadholder of Friesland, who wanted to marry Louise Henriette, to maintain good contacts with Mauritia Eleonora. She told William Frederick in November 1644 what he already feared, namely that Louise Henriette had a secret correspondence with Henri Charles de la Trémoïlle Prince of Talmont, who also wanted to marry her. William Frederick did not immediately realise Mauritia Eleonora's motives for providing him with information, nor how biased that information was. He was rather charmed by her. Mauritia Eleonora declared that she had a more sincere friendship with no one than with him. William Frederick asked her if she could "wel oover zee soude kunnen gaen", that is, if she would marry him, to which she replied: "jae, dat se mit niemants anders liver soude willen gaen" ("yes, that she would prefer to go with no one else") and said that she had never valued or trusted anyone as much as him, and "daer se soo vrie mit had geweest, en woud liever mit mij dreuch broodt eeten als mit een ander goede daghen hebben" ("since she had been so free with me, and would rather eat dry bread with me than have good days with someone else"). William Frederick assured her that whoever married her would be the happiest man on earth, and that the only thing preventing him from attaining that status was his promise to his mother to marry Louise Henriette or Albertine Agnes of Nassau, Louise Henriette's younger sister. There was talk of Mauritia Eleonora being coupled with another second cousin, Count John Maurice of Nassau-Siegen, but she would have none of it.
In May 1645, the relationship between William Frederick and Mauritia Eleonora had become strained; she had realised that she would not succeed in dissuading him from his intentions. In the same month Louise Henriette had quarreled with Mauritia Eleonora, who had gossiped about her. She had claimed that Louise Henriette looked too much at a certain man. Louise Henriette was alarmed (her parents did not know anything about her romance with the Prince of Talmont) and William Frederick noticed that since that clash, during the meals Louise Henriette only glanced at the place where the men were sitting in a cursory and guilty manner.