Editing Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg (section)

==Engagement==
{{More citations needed section|date=May 2023}}
In 1616, the 22-year-old [[Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden]] started looking for a Protestant bride. He had since 1613 tried to get [[Christina of Holstein-Gottorp|his mother]]'s permission to marry the noblewoman [[Ebba Brahe]], but this was not allowed, and he had to give up his wishes to marry her, though he continued to be in love with her. He received reports with the most flattering descriptions of the physical and mental qualities of the beautiful 17-year-old princess Maria Eleonora. Maria Eleonora’s father, the Elector John Sigismund, was favorably inclined towards the Swedish king, but he had become very infirm after an apoplectic stroke in the autumn of 1617. His determined Prussian wife showed a strong dislike for this Swedish suitor, because Prussia was a Polish fief and the Polish King [[Sigismund III Vasa]] still resented his loss of Sweden to Gustavus Adolphus' father [[Charles IX of Sweden|Charles IX]].

Maria Eleonora had additional suitors in the young [[William of Orange (king of England)|William of Orange]] (?), [[Wladislaw IV of Poland|Wladislaw Vasa of Poland]], [[Adolf Frederick I, Duke of Mecklenburg|Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg]] and even the future [[Charles I of England]]. Maria Eleonora's brother [[George William, Elector of Brandenburg|George William]] was flattered by the offer of the British Crown Prince and proposed their younger sister [[Catherine of Brandenburg|Catherine]] (1602–1644) as a more suitable wife for the Swedish king. Maria Eleonora, however, seems to have had a preference for Gustavus Adolphus. For him it was a matter of honour to acquire the hand of Maria Eleonora and none other.

He had the rooms of his castle in [[Stockholm]] redecorated and started making preparations to leave for [[Berlin]] to press his suit in person, when a letter arrived from Maria Eleonora's mother to his mother. The Electress demanded in no uncertain terms that the Queen Dowager should prevent her son's journey, as "being prejudicial to Brandenburg's interests in view of the state of war existing between Sweden and Poland".{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}} Her husband, she wrote, was "so enfeebled in will by illness that he could be persuaded to agree to anything, even if it tended to the destruction of the country".{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}} It was a rebuff that verged on an insult.