Eleanor of Scotland

Infobox British Royalty|royalty|consort
name = Eleanor of Scotland
title = Archduchess consort of Austria


reign = 1449 - 1480
spouse = Sigismund, Archduke of Austria
royal house = Stewart
titles =The Archduchess of Austria
Princess Eleanor of Scotland
father = James I of Scotland
mother = Joan Beaufort
date of birth = 1433
place of birth =
date of death =20 November, 1480
place of death =
place of burial= |

Eleanor Stewart, Princess of Scotland (1433 – November 20 1480) was a daughter of James I of Scotland and Joan Beaufort. She married Sigismund (1427–1496), a Habsburg Duke, then Archduke of Further Austria and ruler of Tirol (from 1446 to 1490).

This lady, like her two eldest sisters, inherited their father's love of literature. Her husband not being remarkable for learning, and ignorant of the French language, but fond of romances and works of fiction, the name of the Archduchess is connected with the popular work entitled "The History of the King's Son of Galicia, named Pontus, and the beautifulSydonia; which history by the high-born lady, Lady Heleonora, born Queen from Scotland, Archduchess of Austria, was from the Frenchtongue into Dutch (German) transferred." The French original passed through several editions between (about) 1480 and 1550.' A MS. copy of the German translation, preserved in the library of Gotha, bears the date 1465; but it seems also to have obtained an extensive circulation in a printed form. The earliest edition described by Hain, was printed at Augsburg in 1485, but books of this class are now of the greatest rarity, and even in the Imperial Library at Vienna (that most extensive and precious collectionof books printed during the fifteenth century), where all the editions of such a work might have naturally been expected to be preserved. upon inquiry a few years ago, I could discover only the later editions of 1539 and 1548.

The Archduchess Eleonora having died without issue during her husband's life, he had, in 1480, for his second wife, Katharina, daughter of Albrecht, Duke of Saxony. In Coxe's " History of the House of Austria," he is called the poorest prince of his time, and it is added, that he left only a numerous illegitimate offspring.