Countess Magdalena of Waldeck

Countess Magdalena of Waldeck (9 September 1558 – August 1599) was a daughter of Philip IV of Waldeck-Wildungen (1493–1574) and his wife, Jutta of Isenburg (d. 1564).

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 (18 November 1576 – 9 August 1612).
2. Juliane of Hanau-Münzenberg (13 October 1577 – 2 December 1577), buried in the choir of the St. Mary's Church in Hanau.
3. William of Hanau-Münzenberg (26 August 1578 – 14 June 1579), also buried in the choir of St. Mary's Church in Hanau.
4. Albert, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg-Schwarzenfels (12 November 1579 – 19 December 1635).

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 (21 October 1582 – 27 September 1617).
2. John VIII, Count of Nassau-Siegen (29 September 1583 – 27 July 1638).
3. Elizabeth of Nassau-Siegen (8 November 1584 – 26 July 1661), married on 26 July 1604 to Count Christian of Waldeck.
4. Adolph of Nassau-Siegen (8 August 1586 – 7 November 1608).
5. Juliane of Nassau-Siegen (3 September 1587 – 15 February 1643) married on 22 May 1603 to Landgrave Maurice of Hesse-Kassel.
6. Anna Maria of Nassau-Siegen (3 March 1589 – 27 February 1620), married on 3 February 1611 to Count John Adolph of Daun-Falkenstein.
7. John Albert of Nassau-Siegen (8 February 1590 – died shortly after).
8. William of Nassau-Siegen-Hilchenbach (13 August 1592 — 18 July 1642).
9. Anna Johanna of Nassau-Siegen ((2 March 1594 – 7 December 1636), married on 14 June 1619 Johann Wolfart von Brederode.
10. Frederick Louis of Nassau-Siegen (2 February 1595 – 22 April 1600).
11. Magdalena of Nassau-Siegen (23 February 1596 – 6 December 1662), 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 (10 February 1597 – died shortly after).

• Compare Menk, p. 154 ff and G. Schmidt, p. 548
• ^ Magdalena zu Waldeck-Wildungen in: Genealogy Database by Herbert Stoyan [retrieved 5 January 2015].
• Varnhagen, vol. 2, p. 71.