Anna Elisabeth of the Palatinate

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Anna Elisabeth von der Pfalz (* July 23, 1549 in Simmern ; † September 20, 1609 in Lützelstein ) was a Countess Palatinate of Simmern and Princess of the Palatinate, and by marriage successively Landgrave of Hesse-Rheinfels and Countess Palatinate of Veldenz .

Epitaph in the collegiate church of St. Goar

Life

Anna Elisabeth was a daughter of Elector Friedrich III. von der Pfalz (1515–1576) from his marriage to Marie (1519–1567), daughter of Margrave Casimir von Brandenburg-Kulmbach .

Her first marriage was on January 18, 1569 in Heidelberg, Landgrave Philip II of Hesse-Rheinfels (1541–1583). Her dowry was 32,000 guilders. Between 1568 and 1571, Philippsburg Palace was built for Anna Elisabeth as the future widow's residence .

Philippsburg Palace, built for Anna Elisabeth as a widow's residence, is based on a painting from 1607

Anna Elisabeth was considered unpopular in her husband's homeland, who soon became completely dependent on her, because of her love of splendor and Calvinist religion, and was exposed to constant persecution and insults because of the latter. In 1581 she was insulted on the open country road by an assassin, whom the Lutheran Electress Elisabeth of the Palatinate favored, shot in the arm and overrun with a horse. Neither her husband nor Anna Elisabeth's relatives took up this matter, which could only be settled with the intervention of Landgrave Wilhelm von Hessen-Kassel . The art-loving landgravine forced her husband to run an elaborate Renaissance court with music, theater and festivities, which was viewed critically by Philip's brothers.

Anna Elisabeth was indebted to a Frankfurt Jew in 1583. As compensation for the debts, she worked with her brother Johann Kasimir to ensure that Jews were escorted through the Palatinate again. After the death of her husband, she received the offices of Braubach and Rhens as Wittum and the Hessian share of the Boppard wine customs. In Braubach she had the Martinskapelle expanded into her court church.

Anna Elisabeth married again in Braubach at the age of 50 in 1599 with Count Palatine Johann August von Lützelstein (1575–1611). Your Wittum thus fell back in equal parts to the three ruling lines of Hesse.

Anna Elisabeth, whose two marriages had remained childless, was buried at the side of her second husband in the crypt of the Lützelstein church. Her grave monument shows her kneeling with her husband with eight ancestral coats of arms and two inscriptions.

literature

  • Christoph von Rommel: History of Hessen. Volume 5, Krieger, 1835, p. 812 ff.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies: Journal of the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies. Volume 20, 1895, p. 14
  2. ^ Friedrich Rehm: Handbook of the history of both Hesse. Volume 2, Elwert, 1846, p. 66
  3. ^ Eckhart G. Franz: The House of Hesse: a European family. Kohlhammer, 2005, p. 58
  4. ^ Wolfgang Treue: Landgraviate Hessen-Marburg. Part 4, Volume 2, Mohr Siebeck, 2009, p. 96
  5. ^ Konrad Wilhelm Ledderhose: Contributions to the description of the church state of the Hessen-Casselischen Lande. Orphanage Publishing House, 1781, p. 115
  6. ↑ http://www.rhein-lahn-evangelisch.de/dekanate/nassau/braubach.html
personal data
SURNAME Anna Elisabeth of the Palatinate
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Anna Elisabeth of Pfalz-Simmern
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Countess of Hesse-Rheinfels, Countess Palatinate of Lützelstein
DATE OF BIRTH July 23, 1549
PLACE OF BIRTH Simmern / Hunsrück
DATE OF DEATH September 20, 1609
Place of death Lützelstein