
Eleonora Gonzaga the Younger – The influential widow
With the death of his second wife, Maria Leopoldine, in 1649, Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, needed to find a third wife. The name of his future third wife would have sounded familiar to him, as she was the namesake of his stepmother, Eleonora Gonzaga (known as the Elder). In fact, the two Eleonoras were [read more]