A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Amalie, Elizabeth
AMALIE, ELIZABETH,
Landgravine of Hesse-Cassel, was the daughter of count Philip Louis the Second of Hanau Münzenberg, and granddaughter by the mother's side of William the First of Orange and Nassau. She was born in 1602, at her father's castle at Hanau, where she spent the first part of her life, and received an excellent education. She was a woman of great personal beauty and high intellectual attainments, as well as of sound judgment and true piety. All her best and greatest qualities were called into play, when, after her marriage to William the Fifth, landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, which took place in her seventeenth year; and subsequent widowhood, which took place eighteen years after, she was constrained to take the management of the affairs of the principality, until her eldest son, who was then but eight years of age, should be able to assume the reins of government. This was in that sanguinary period of German history, called "the thirty years war," during the latter twelve of which, she had to contend not against public enemies only, but also against relatives, who desired to take advantage of her precarious situation, and who made various attempts to deprive her of her possessions. Her prudent policy and undaunted spirit however completely thwarted all these, and she had the satisfaction of seeing the blessings of peace restored to her country, and of resigning into the hands of her son, who was afterwards surnamed "the just;" the government of her little realm, which she had conducted safely through the sea of political troubles, increased in territorial extent and in moral power, amid surrounding states.
The character of this remarkable woman is thus summed up, in a recent Biographical Dictionary, edited by George Long, Esq., and published under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge:—
"The Landgravine Amalie was thoroughly acquainted with the business of administration, and knew the constitution and the wants of her own dominions, as well as the secret motives which determined the actions of foreign cabinets. She readily comprehended the true state of her political relations, and this penetration was accompanied by decision. She was moderate in her prosperity, and steadfast in misfortune She used to say that calamities are wholesome, to prevent our becoming overbearing in prosperity. She possessed the power of gaining the affections of those around her, and of making herself feared when she thought it necessary. She was affable to all, and generous towards those who had offended her. She was fond of the arts and sciences, and she always distinguished men of talent and learning. She was a rare combination of the manly virtues of a prince, with the mild and humane spirit of a woman."