Margaretha von Waldeck
German countess (1533-1554)
Margaretha von Waldeck (1533 – 15 March 1554) was a German noblewoman. She was the daughter of Philip IV, Count of Waldeck-Wildungen (1493–1574) and his first wife, Margaret of East Frisia of the House of Cirksena (1500–1537), daughter of Edzard I, Count of East Frisia. One author theorized in the 1990s that her life influenced the fairy tale of Snow White. It is said she is buried in Brussels where the Place de la Bourse/Beursplein is now located.
Life
According to Bad Wildungen city documents she was famous for her beauty. Since 1539 she had a very strict stepmother, Katharina von Hatzfeldt (1487–1546) and perhaps soon after Margaretha was raised at Weilburg at the court of Philip III, Count of Nassau-Weilburg.
In 1545 she traveled through the Siebengebirge ("seven hills") to live with her mother's brother Johann Cirksena (1506–1572) at Valkenburg Castle, in present-day Limburg, Netherlands. In 1549, her father sent her on to the Brussels court of Mary of Hungary, governor of the Habsburg Netherlands and sister of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Margaretha's presence at the court was partially meant to improve the relationship of her father with the emperor and help the release of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, who had been imprisoned in Brussels for his role in the Schmalkaldic War.
The situation at the court was complicated as several high ranking personalities were striving for Margaretha, including Lamoral, Count of Egmont.
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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 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q121941. VIAF identifies the subject as 310508442. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1533, 1554, 1493 and 1574.
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This entry incorporates text from “Margaretha von 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.