Eleanor of Scotland
Eleanor of Scotland (also from Austria ) (* around 1433 in Dunfermline (Scotland ), † November 20, 1480 in Innsbruck ) was the daughter of King James I of Scotland and Joan Beaufort. 1449 she married Sigismund of Tyrol.
Life
Little is known about the youth Eleanor in Scotland, which she spent mostly at Castle Linlithgow. After her father's death ( 1437) her mother was still a marriage and died 1445th those times, Eleanor and her sister Johanna to France and lived at the court of King Charles VII in Tours. There she received three years for a reasonable aristocratic girl teaching and maintenance.
1448 the marriage of Eleanor with Sigmund of Tyrol was decided. In September 1448 the procurators Transportation wedding took place in Belmont at Chinon. Then Eleanor left the high cultural French court and traveled on an arduous route to the substantially more provinziellere Tyrol, whose capital was nevertheless a German cultural center. On February 12, 1449 married in a modest ceremony Sigmund in Merano. From their marriage, which was not exactly happy, no surviving children were born.
When Sigmund three times not stayed in his country 1455-1458, Eleanor acted as a regent in his place. Therefore, they also became involved in the dispute, the Sigmund fought out with the Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa. During her reign in the foreland ( 1467 ), she chose to Thann to the residence. After 1469 it was little more politically active, but practiced mainly charitable care and also took care of ecclesiastical affairs.
Duke Sigmund was very interested in literature, authors promoted and employed temporarily ( about 1460 ) the humanist Laurentius Blumenau and Gregor Heimburg. Even Eleanor heimatlicher Scottish court was influenced very literary and they took part in the cultural movement of her husband. When Henry Steinhowel a translation of Boccaccio's De claris mulieribus verfertigte ( 1473 ), he dedicated it to Eleanor. This also maintained an active correspondence with the countess Matilda of Rottenburg and was probably one of the ladies who were invited in 1467 in Munich with Ulrich Füetrer.
Eleanor died in 1480 in Innsbruck at the birth of their first child, Wolfgang ( * / † November 20, 1480 ), in the postpartum period. Her grave is located in Stams monastery in the Tyrol.
Literary work
Eleonore is traditionally regarded as the translator of the Anglo-Norman verse narrative Horn et Rimenhild ( 1180 ) going back at the end of the 14th century written French adventure novel Ponthus et la belle Sidoyne into German ( Pontus and Sidonia, version A, sometime 1449-1465 written ). Doubt whether it is actually the author of this translation, could not yet be proven. Since the novel is written in language most aptly, but Eleanor the German language less than the French dominated, (now in the National Archives Tyrol kept ) show how written two of her own letters, they could have gotten assistance from a clerk in their drafting. After the death of his wife Sigmund let her work, of which only one manuscript ( Gotha, 1465; authored by Nicolaus Huber) is present, for the first time at Hans Schönsperger in Augsburg in 1483 to print. Even before this first edition there were several mentions of the novel; it can be seen how popular the adventurous material and how common Eleonore book was. The first edition followed in 1485, 1491 and 1498 further prints and it enjoyed in the early modern period ( 16-17. Century) very popular. So there was considerable sales figures, a number of quotes by other authors and also some workings of the story. For the last time Eleanor's work was printed in 1792. Karl Simrock in 1865 brought a new version of the popular book out.
In addition to the translation Eleanor (version A), but there is a further, independent, formed about the same time by an unknown author (version B), which is in five manuscripts, but was never printed. This was in addition to the absence of a noble name in also that this version especially stylistically from Eleanor Pontus and Sidonia is different than it used instead of the simpler and more concise a more artificial language with many rhetorical figures.
Content, Eleonore keeps pretty much to their submission, even if they now and then the plot somewhat shortened. The protagonist is coming from Galicia king's son Pontus, who takes refuge in Brittany before the heathen out of his kingdom. There he begins love for the king's daughter Sidonia. This is followed by clashes with a rival who also wrestles for the favor Sidonia and Pontus slandered her. He must first draw for a year into the distance, where he defeated many heroic knight is again falsely accused after his return and now keeps away seven years from the farm. In time he gets back to his lover that he can save from being forced to marry his rival. Instead, the marriage between Pontus and Sidonia now takes place and the hero can drive the heathen from his father's kingdom and his opponent off entirely. On this happy end, the whole story of the novel is directed. The hero is portrayed as flawless ideal of man, namely as extremely brave, beautiful, christian, etc., while his enemies ( the Gentiles and his rival ) are characterized as vicious and irreligious. The author wants his readers namely provide a model and an instruction for a virtuous and pious life available through the immaculate behavior of the protagonist. The central motif of the thus designed novel is therefore an idealistic chivalry shown and not just looks very realistic. In contrast, it goes to the earlier written works of Elisabeth of Nassau -Saarbrücken to rough and they give a more realistic impression.