Anna of the Palatinate (Duchy of Berg)

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Anna von der Pfalz, detail from the west window of Altenberg Cathedral.

Anna of the Palatinate , also Anna of Bavaria or Anna von Berg (* 1346 ; † November 30, 1415 in Düsseldorf ) was a Palatinate princess from the Wittelsbach family , by marriage to Duchess von Berg .

Origin and youth

Anna was the eldest daughter of Prince Elector Ruprecht II of the Palatinate (1325–1398) and his wife Beatrix of Sicily-Aragon (1326–1365). The parents lived in Heidelberg, but when her husband was absent, the mother often stayed with the children in the Liebenau monastery in Worms , where her widowed mother-in-law Irmengard von Oettingen lived as a Dominican .

Anna of the Palatinate, kneeling at the feet of St. Elisabet (west window of Altenberg Cathedral).
The central group from the west window of Altenberg Cathedral, Anna of the Palatinate kneeling on the far left
The complete west window of the Altenberg Cathedral

Duchess of Berg

In 1360, Princess Wilhelm II of the Palatinate married Count von Berg , who from 1380 had the title of Duke. The ruling couple had resided in Düsseldorf since 1386, where they had a castle built on the Rhine and both the small parish church of St. Lambertus and the city itself were converted into a residence . At the Düsseldorf court they also promoted the priest Adolf von Essen (1350–1439), who spread the rosary in Germany. He later became the soul guide of Margarethe von Lothringen , also a Wittelsbach princess and niece of Anna von der Pfalz.

Duchess Anna and her husband Wilhelm II von Berg went down in art history as the donors of the mighty west window of Altenberg Cathedral . It is considered the largest Gothic church window north of the Alps. Both are immortalized in the central group of the magnificent window, the Duchess with the Palatinate-Bavarian coat of arms, to the left of the Holy Family.

Anna's brother was the German King Ruprecht , at the same time as Ruprecht III. also Elector Palatinate.

Duchess Anna and Duke Wilhelm II had several children, of whom the daughter Beatrix (1360-1395) married the widowed, 75-year-old Palatine Elector Ruprecht I , her mother Anna's great-uncle. As Electress of the Palatinate, Beatrix was buried next to her husband in a central place in the collegiate church in Neustadt .

The daughter Margareta (1364–1442) married Duke Otto the Quaden of Braunschweig-Göttingen .

Anna's son Ruprecht von Berg (1365-1394) was Prince-Bishop of Paderborn and Passau , a highly educated and energetic shepherd who died of the plague at the age of 29 , although as a priest, but before he could receive episcopal ordination because of his youth.

Another son of the royal couple was Wilhelm von Berg (1382–1428). In the period between 1402 and 1414 he also officiated as Prince-Bishop of Paderborn, where he zealously reformed the diocese together with his spiritual advisor Gobelin Person (1358–1421) in accordance with the Devotio moderna . Wilhelm von Berg did not have any religious orders, eventually resigned from his bishopric and married in 1416 in order to maintain the family line.

Anna von der Pfalz died in 1415 and was buried in the family vault of the collegiate church of St. Lambertus in Düsseldorf, which she and her husband had converted into a new family burial place .

literature

  • Götz J. Pfeiffer: "Painting on the Lower Rhine and in Westphalia around 1400. The master of the Berswordt retable and the change in style over the years", Petersberg, 2009, pp. 26–35.
  • Götz J. Pfeiffer: Giving for fame and soul. The art foundations of the first Bergisch duke couple Wilhelm von Jülich († 1408) and Anna von Bayern († 1415). In: Rheinisch Bergischer Calendar, 78, 2008, pp. 8-19.
  • Götz J. Pfeiffer: Princely gift and design by a panel painter. Wilhelm von Jülich and Anna von Bayern commissioned the master of the Berswordt retable with their foundation for the Altenberger Westfenster. In: Altenberger Blätter. Special issue “The Altenberger Westfenster”, August 2006, pp. 13–74.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ On Adolf von Essen ( Memento from June 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Adolf von Essen and his relationship from the Bergischer Hof in Düsseldorf
  3. ↑ Source on the date of death and the grave
personal data
SURNAME Anna of the Palatinate
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Anna of Bavaria; Anna von Berg; Anna von Wittelsbach
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Palatine princess, by marriage Duchess von Berg
DATE OF BIRTH 1346
DATE OF DEATH November 30, 1415
Place of death Dusseldorf