Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Münzenberg (28 January 1602– 18 August 1651) was Landgravine consort and Regent of Hesse-Kassel. She married the future William V, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel in 1619 and became Landgravine upon his ascension to power in 1627. In 1637, military defeats forced her and William V into exile in East Frisia. Later that year, she became regent for their son William VI upon her husband's death. Through skillful diplomacy and military successes in the Thirty Years' War, she advanced the fortunes of Hesse-Kassel and influenced the Peace of Westphalia that brought the conflict to an end. She handed over an enlarged landgraviate to her son when she abdicated upon his majority in 1650. However, her health had deteriorated over the course of the war, and she died soon after her abdication in 1651.
Early life
Amalie Elisabeth was born between 2 and 3 o'clock in the afternoon of 28 January 1602 to Philip Louis II, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg and Countess Catharina Belgica of Nassau. Her mother was a daughter of William the Silent, making Amalie Elisabeth the niece of her contemporary Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. Through her mother's numerous siblings, Amalie Elisabeth was also related to many of the other noble houses of Europe. These included the Reformation-minded Wittelsbachs in Heidelberg, where she lived for a while with her aunt, Countess Louise Juliana of Nassau, and her husband Frederick IV, Elector Palatine. After the early death of her father in 1612, she returned to Hanau. She later stayed with her relatives in the Netherlands.
In 1618, when Amalie Elisabeth was 16, the Defenestration of Prague triggered a revolt in Bohemia, beginning the conflict that would come to be known as the Thirty Years’ War. At the time she was engaged to Albrecht Jan Smiřický von Smiřice, one of the six Bohemian nobles at the Defenestration of Prague who threw the Emperor's representative from a window. However, Albrecht Johann Smiřický died later that year, before the couple could be married. There was a quarrel between Amalie Elisabeth and his heirs over his inheritance, which came to an end when the Habsburgs confiscated it in 1621. Soon after the death of Albrecht Johann Smiřický, Amalie Elisabeth was engaged to William of Hesse-Kassel. This betrothal was part of a larger effort by William’s father Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, to build alliances with other anti-Habsburg states.
Landgravine The 17-year-old Amalie Elisabeth married William of Hesse-Kassel in 1619. They had their first child, Agnes, in 1620 and would go on to have 14 children together in just 17 years, although only four of their children lived to adulthood. During the first years of their marriage, William’s father Landgrave Maurice was facing serious internal and external challenges to his authority. Many of these challenges would remain unresolved until Amalie Elisabeth became regent.
In 1604, the ruling family of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Marburg had died out, and the will of its last Landgrave stipulated that its territory should be divided between Landgrave Maurice of Hesse-Kassel and Louis V, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, provided they both agreed to preserve the Lutheran faith. However, in 1603 Maurice had converted to Calvinism and he later attempted to convert his half of the Marburg inheritance to his new faith. Louis V, a devout Lutheran, thus challenged Maurice’s right to the inheritance, taking the case to the Aulic Council. Maurice had little reason to think the court would find in his favor, as Calvinism was not one of the legally recognized religions of the Empire. He began forming alliances with anti-Habsburg states, joining the Protestant Union in 1609. In 1623, the Aulic Council ruled in favor of Louis V and awarded Hesse-Darmstadt the entire inheritance and further financial reparations. In 1624 Louis V, who had established connections with the Catholic League, moved to enforce his claim, with Imperial General Tilly occupying Marburg and southern Hesse-Kassel. Landgrave Maurice tried desperately to raise a force to expel Tilly and prevent the annexation, but he was opposed from within Hesse-Kassel by the Landgraviate’s estates, composed of representatives from the local towns and nobility. No new taxes could be levied without the approval of the estates, and because they opposed Maurice’s foreign policy goals they prevented him from raising an army. After years of fruitless struggle, in 1627 the estates forced Maurice to abdicate to his son William. William now became Landgrave William V, with Amalie Elisabeth as his Landgravine.
From the beginning of his reign, William V desired to reverse the humiliating settlement forced on Hesse-Kassel by the Emperor and the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. His anti-Imperial sentiments were further enflamed by the issuing of the Edict of Restitution in 1629, which strengthened Imperial authority and directly threatened his religion. In 1630, when Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden invaded to oppose the Emperor, William V became the first German prince to officially ally with Sweden. Initially, the war went well for the allies, with William V and the Swedes achieving many victories. As the war continued William V began to receive subsidies from France. The allies also eventually occupied several territories in Westphalia, which Gustavus Adolphus granted to William V in lieu of subsidies. These subsidies and territories gave William V an independent source of revenue, preventing the Hessian estates from obstructing his war effort as they had his father’s. When William V was away on military campaigns, Amalie Elisabeth ran affairs in Hesse-Kassel on his behalf.
The Imperial and Spanish troops' victory against Sweden in the 1634 Battle of Nördlingen led many German princes to desert Sweden and sign the Peace of Prague with the Emperor. However, because he was excluded from the general amnesty and because the Peace of Prague did not protect the rights of Calvinists, William V was one of the few princes who refused to make peace. Instead, he signed an alliance with the French, who now officially joined the war on the side of the Swedes. On the 13th of June 1636 William V liberated the city of Hanau, Amalie Elisabeth’s birthplace, from a siege by Imperial troops. Despite this success the Peace of Prague had decisively shifted the balance of the war in the Emperor’s favor, and military defeats soon left Hesse-Kassel itself under attack by Imperial armies. These defeats forced William V, Amalie Elisabeth, and their 8 year-old son and heir William to withdraw to the territory of East Frisia, which had been recently occupied by William V’s forces. During this flight, William V and Amalie Elisabeth had to leave their young daughters Amelia, Charlotte, Elisabeth and Louise behind in Kassel. William V soon fell ill, and on October 1, 1637, he died in Leer, East Frisia, at age 36. His will named Amalie Elisabeth as regent for their still underage son, now William VI. The most important instrument of power he left his wife was his army, which had been able to flee to Frisia.
Regency
Consolidation of Power William V's will stipulated that Amalie Elisabeth should rule at the head of a regency council composed of the former members of his royal council. However, the Landgravine quickly enforced her own authority and diminished the influence of the other regency council members. She accomplished this by frequently flattering the councilors and shaming them when they did not eagerly obey her. She also physically separated them by sending them on frequent diplomatic missions across Europe. Another tactic she used to great effect was delaying decisions when the councilors pushed her to do things she did not wish to do. She even delayed the official establishment of the regency government, thus leaving the councilors’ authority in question.
Amalie Elisabeth also moved quickly to secure control over her late husband’s army. In 17th century Europe, it was considered highly unusual for a female ruler to hold authority over military matters. As a result, after her ascension both Charles Louis, Prince Palatine, and William V’s half-brother Landgrave Frederick of Hesse-Eschwege asked to be given command of Hesse-Kassel’s armies. Amalie Elisabeth rebuffed both advances, telling the Prince Palatine that he should not approach her while he had no lands, funds, or allies, and forcing Landgrave Frederick to accept her authority. Although she was determined to retain control over the army, she did allow its command to remain in the hands of her late husband’s top general, Peter Melander, Count of Holzappel. Retaining Melander was not without risk, as he was notoriously greedy and self-interested, so his defection was always a possibility. Amalie Elisabeth managed to retain Melander’s loyalty with the help of the French Court, which, fearing Melander’s defection to the Imperialists, offered him generous amounts of money and new titles. One of the Landgravine’s first actions as regent was to order the army and the inhabitants of the territories still under her control to swear an oath of loyalty to her young son William VI, further solidifying her power.
Amalie Elisabeth faced unique threats to her legitimacy because she was a woman. Many in 17th century Europe considered government by women to be unjustifiable under any circumstances, but there were some exceptions. For example, in 1559 John Calvin wrote that “there were occasionally women so endowed, that the singular good qualities which shown forth in them, made it evident that they were raised up by divine authority." Throughout her reign, Amalie Elisabeth asserted that she was one such woman, repeatedly claiming that God had placed her in this position and it was her responsibility to carry out his will. She also stressed her role as a widow and mother to reinforce her legitimacy, refusing any course of action which would violate her late husband’s intent or compromise her son’s inheritance.
Amalie Elisabeth also continued her husband’s efforts to limit the power of the Hessian estates. Because she retained the territories occupied by her husband and eventually renegotiated subsidies from the French, she maintained sources of revenue independent of the estates. As a result, she was able to overlook the estates’ hostility towards her government and rebuff their repeated calls for peace. She was also able to dismiss the grievances of the estates when they were presented to her upon her return to Hesse-Kassel.
Diplomacy Amalie Elisabeth inherited a desperate situation from her husband. Although she held East Frisia and other territories in Westphalia, the countryside of Hesse-Kassel was under Imperial occupation and its fortresses were under siege. The situation deteriorated further in late October 1637, when Landgrave George II of Hesse-Darmstadt, son of Landgrave Louis V, announced that the Emperor had declared the late William V an enemy of the Empire, annulled his will, and appointed George II as imperial administrator of Hesse-Kassel. The situation within Hesse-Kassel was so desperate that Amalie Elisabeth’s councilors and the Hessian estates opened negotiations with George II at Marburg and urged the Landgravine to accept whatever terms were necessary to achieve peace. However, George II refused to offer any concessions and demanded Hesse-Kassel’s unconditional submission to the Emperor. He also demanded very harsh terms for his own benefit, such as further territorial concessions to Hesse-Darmstadt, control over her regency government, and that the Hesse-Darmstadt line supplant Hesse-Kassel’s as the senior Hessian house. Amalie Elisabeth concluded that the terms were intolerable and unjust and repeatedly refused to ratify the agreement, against the advice of her councilors.