Magdalene of Waldeck
Countess of Hanau-Münzenberg, later Countess of Nassau-Siegen
Countess Magdalene of Waldeck-Wildungen (1558 – 9 September 1599), German: Magdalena Gräfin zu Waldeck-Wildungen, was a countess from the House of Waldeck and through marriage successively Countess of Hanau-Münzenberg and Countess of Nassau-Siegen.
Biography
Magdalene was born in 1558 as the youngest daughter of Count Philip IV of Waldeck-Wildungen and his third wife Countess Jutta of Isenburg-Grenzau. The exact date and place of Magdalene's birth are unknown.
Magdalene married at Hanau Castle on 5 February 1576 to Count Philip Louis I of Hanau-Münzenberg (21 November 1553 – Hanau, 4 February 1580), the eldest son of Count Philip III of Hanau-Münzenberg and Countess Palatine Helena of Simmern. Philip Louis succeeded his father in 1561 and was first under the regency of his uncle Count John VI the Elder of Nassau-Siegen (Philip III of Hanau-Münzenberg and John VI the Elder of Nassau-Siegen were both sons of Countess Juliane of Stolberg-Wernigerode). Politically, the marriage could represent a conscious withdrawal on her groom's part from the politically dominant influence of his guardian, John VI the Elder of Nassau-Siegen. Philip Louis died "Donnerstag nach Purificationis Mariæ, zwischen 4 und 5 Uhr Nachmittag durch eine Ohnmacht, welche ihre Gnaden ganz unversehentlich über Tisch und dem Spielen ankommen" ("Thursday after Purificationis Mariæ, between 4 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon by a fainting which His Grace completely unexpectedly suffered at the table and at the games").
Magdalena remarried at Dillenburg Castle on 9 December 1581 to Count John VII the Middle of Nassau-Siegen (Siegen Castle, 7 June 1561 – Siegen Castle, 27 September 1623), the second son of Count John VI the Elder of Nassau-Siegen and his first wife Landgravine Elisabeth of Leuchtenberg. Through his marriage to Magdalene, John the Middle strengthened relations within the Wetterauer Grafenverein and thus contributed to the strengthening of the House of Nassau. John the Middle was a cousin of Magdalena's first husband.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q532062. VIAF identifies the subject as 232465863. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1558, 1599, 1576 and 1553.
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This entry incorporates text from “Magdalene of Waldeck” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.