Background
Emilie Juliane was a daughter of Count Albert Frederick I of Barby-Mühlingen and his wife Sophia Ursula of Oldenburg-Delmenhorst. During the Thirty Years" War her father and his family were compelled to seek refuge in the castle of Heidecksburg in Rudolstadt, which belonged to his uncle, Count Louis Günther I of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, and Emilie was born there.