Anne-Amélie Élisabeth de Schönborn

## Comtesse de Limbourg-Stirum

Anne-Amélie Élisabeth de Schönborn, by Adrien van der Werff, c. 1706

Anne-Charlotte Marie de Schönborn (1671-1746) †

Jean-Philippe François de Schönborn (1673-1724) †

Frédéric-Charles de Schönborn (1674-1746) †

Damien-Hugo Philippe de Schönborn (1676-1743) †

Rudolphe-François Erwin de Schönborn

Anselm François de Schönborn (1681-1726) †

François-Georges de Schönborn

Marc-Guillaume de Schönborn

Anne-Marie Philippine de Schönborn (1685-1721) †

Marie-Éléonore de Schönborn

Catherine-Éisabeth de Schönborn

**Anne-Amélie Élisabeth de Schönborn (7th April, 1686 - 26th April, 1757)** was a Rhenish noblewoman and the Comtesse-Consort de Limbourg-Stirum as the wife of Otto Ernest Léopold de Limbourg-Stirum.

### **Early Life**

Before her marriage, Anne had a very happy childhood, however she lost most of her siblings, which gave her the idea of writing poems in tribute of them. She had a very rigorous education, but her tutors always praised her due to her talents on with the musical instruments, poetry, singing, and weaving. While not being trained to become a good wife, Anne developed very eccentric interests, she enjoyed reading books about other cultures of the world, mostly Chinese and Japanese, that would later inspire her to collect Oriental artifacts and learn their local languages and culture.

### **Adolescence**

At her adolescence, Anne would debut at the marriage market, at start she was one of the most desired debutantes, but it took some time for her to marry since she had an odd strategy of avoiding her suitors to make them more tempted to have her, that plan worked for some suitors but made others have a strange perspective of her. She would then meet the Comte of Limbourg-Stirum, they developed a strong friendship, later he would ask Anne in marriage which she would accept.

### **Reign as Countess and Tenure**

As a countess, Anne would support the arts and music, and do various patronages. She would later join the Royal Court and become a Lady-In-Waiting of the queen, she would also gain admiration of the king, mostly because she would gift the king with a Chinese porcelain vase on an audience in 1747, that would later become part of the king collection, however he would remain neutral since he disliked her husband due to his behavior in court. Anne as the Countess of Limbourg was known by the court for her eccentric personality and her positivity, some courtiers questioned her behavior while some would admire her.

Her marriage was very stable, she respected her husband and always gave him support when he needed, her children would say that their parents were more like close friends than a romantic couple, however she would be very upset with her husband since he acted with incompetence in court, that would be one of the only disagreements of the couple. Anne would deeply mourn her husband death, and would always place flowers on his grave on his death anniversary.

### **Later Life and Death**

Anne would spent her last days taking care of her family and mourning her husband death, she would die during her sleep on the château de Limbourg, Anne died of natural causes, and her family would mourn her death for 3 weeks.