Mary Magdalene of Limburg-Stirum

Countess Mary Magdalene of Limburg-Stirum (1632 – 27 December 1707), , official titles: gravin van Limburg en Bronkhorst, vrouwe van Stirum, Wisch en Borculo, erfbaandervrouw van het hertogdom Gelre en het graafschap Zutphen), was a countess from the House of Limburg-Stirum. In 1661 she succeeded her father as countess of Bronkhorst, lady of , , and , and hereditary lady banneret of the Duchy of Guelders and the County of Zutphen. Through her marriage to a count of Nassau-Siegen these possessions came into the possession of this cadet branch of the Ottonian Line of the House of Nassau. Biography Mary Magdalene was born in 1632 as the daughter and only child of Count George Ernest of Limburg-Stirum and his first wife Countess Magdalene of Bentheim-Tecklenburg. The exact date and place of birth of Mary Magdalene are unknown. As the only child of her father, Mary Magdalene was heiress to the County of Bronkhorst and the heerlijkheden of , , and . Mary Magdalene married at in Terborg on 19/29 April 1646 to Count Henry of Nassau-Siegen (, 9 August 1611 – Hulst, 27 October/7 November 1652), the fourth son of Count John VII 'the Middle' of Nassau-Siegen and his second wife, Duchess Margaret of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg. Mary Magdalene's great-great-grandmother Countess Mary of Nassau-Siegen was a younger sister of Henry's great-grandfather Count William I 'the Rich' of Nassau-Siegen. The will and testament of Count John VII 'the Middle' of 1621 bequeathed John Maurice and his younger brothers from their father's second marriage the district of Freudenberg, some villages in the Haingericht and a third part of the administration of the city of Siegen. After his older half-brother John 'the Younger' had accepted the homage of the city of Siegen for the entire county of Nassau-Siegen on 12 January 1624 and had voluntarily ceded the sovereignty over the Hilchenbach district with and some villages belonging to the and Netphen districts to his younger brother William on 13/23 January 1624, Henry and his brothers, with the exception of the oldest two brothers John Maurice and George Frederick, accepted only modest appanages.