Maria Eleonora of Oettingen-Spielberg

Maria Eleonore of Liechtenstein (née Princess Eleonore of Oettingen-Oettingen and Oettingen-Spielberg (Oettingen, 7 July 1745 – Vienna, 26 November 1812) was a princess of Liechtenstein by marriage to Prince Karl Borromäus of Liechtenstein, and a politically influential Austrian salonist. Between 1768 and 1790, she acted as the political adviser of Emperor Joseph II through her salon or discussion circle. Life She was born as a Princess of Oettingen-Oettingen and Oettingen-Spielberg, daughter of Johann Aloys I, 2nd Prince of Oettingen-Spielberg, and Princess Therese of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Wiesenburg. She was raised and educated in a French convent in Strasbourg. When she was fifteen, she inherited vast estates from her aunt in Bohemia, and she and her sister Maria Leopoldine (1741–1795) were introduced at the imperial court in Vienna and appointed maid of honour to the empress Maria Theresa of Austria, during which service they became acquainted with the imperial family. On 30 March 1761, in Vienna, she married Prince Karl Borromäus of Liechtenstein. She and her spouse were the ancestors of a line of the Princely Family of Liechtenstein. Eleonore spent her summers in her estates in Moravia and her winters in Vienna. She had a love affair with the Irish general Karl O'Donnell, Count of Tyrconnel, which attracted attention, but he died in 1771.