Elisabeth of Hesse (1502–1557)

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Elisabeth of Saxony ("Duchess of Rochlitz"), painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Ä. , 1534

Elisabeth von Hessen (born March 4, 1502 in Marburg , † December 6, 1557 in Schmalkalden ) was a Hessian princess and hereditary princess of Saxony by marriage . After the death of her husband, Hereditary Prince Johann von Sachsen , she administered her Wittum , the Saxon offices of Rochlitz and Kriebstein and other possessions independently, which earned her the nickname "Elisabeth von Rochlitz ".

Childhood and youth

Her childhood was marked by the arguments between her mother Anna von Mecklenburg and the Hessian estates , which after the death of their father Wilhelm II in 1509, in disregard of his testamentary instructions, formed a five-member council chaired by the Landhofmeister Ludwig von Boyneburg zu Lengsfeld . This council took over the government for the underage landgrave , Elisabeth's brother Philip I , and took Anna and her children under guardianship .

From that time on Elisabeth lived with her mother, who was referred to her Wittum in Gießen , while her brother stayed in Kassel under the supervision of Ludwig von Boyneburg.

Elisabeth and her mother were financially dependent on the council and were not given generous consideration. This becomes clear, among other things, from an incident in 1512. In that year Anna's sister Katharina married Duke Heinrich of Saxony . On this occasion Anna probably wanted to introduce her daughter Elisabeth to the Saxon court, as she had been promised to the eldest son of George the Bearded , Hereditary Prince Johann , very early on . The damask requested from the council did not come. Elisabeth's mother therefore did not take her daughter to Dresden because of her “poor clothes” . Elisabeth therefore grew up very down-to-earth and in contact with ordinary middle-class people .

It was not until 1514 that her mother succeeded in releasing the council guardianship over herself and her children. Elisabeth, her brother and her mother lived together again in Kassel. Anna was restored to guardianship for her children, but remained dependent on an advisory board for the government of the country.

At the court in Dresden

Johann and Elisabeth
in the Saxon family register from 1546

On March 8, 1515, the engagement between Elisabeth and Johann took place after the Pope granted his dispensation (both were related in the fourth degree) . Elisabeth continued to live with her mother in Kassel. The marriage was concluded in Marburg on August 27, 1515 - a church act, which was followed by an exchange of documents, the "freuntlich eynug". The supplement, the consummation of the marriage, took place on May 20, 1516 in Marburg. It was not until January 1519 that Elisabeth stayed permanently at the court in Dresden.

In Dresden, like her mother, she constantly had to fight for her independence against Duke George the Bearded and the court officials. Even Johann, who was always sickly, was unable to assert himself with his overpowering father. The couple remained childless, and the pressures at court led to chronic insomnia in Elisabeth . But she already proved her balancing nature and diplomatic skill at this time. So she ensured the family peace between her brother and her mother when her mother wanted to marry for the second time (Philip I was against). Elisabeth also mediated between the two when tensions arose over the Reformation in Hesse (her mother held fast to the Catholic faith). Childless Elisabeth surrounded Duke Georg's nephew, Moritz von Sachsen, with great care .

Rochlitz and Schmalkalden

Rochlitz Castle, the center of
life of Elisabeth of Hesse from 1537–1547

After Johann died on January 11, 1537, Elisabeth moved to Rochlitz as a 35-year-old widow , which she had been awarded as Wittum when she married. The Saxon court did not want to leave her own household, which would have put her in the same situation as her mother in Gießen . But she was able to prevent this with the help of her brother. She received the office of Rochlitz (with the town and castle Rochlitz , Mittweida and Geithain ) and the office of Kriebstein (with Waldheim and Hartha ). Therefore it is often mentioned in the literature with the nickname "von Rochlitz".

Elisabeth allowed Lutheran teaching in her area from 1537, when her father-in-law still adhered strictly to Catholicism in the rest of Saxony . In the same year her brother sent her the evangelical preacher Johann Schütz. Philip also supported Elisabeth's admission to the Schmalkaldic League , the defense alliance of Protestant princes. As the only woman in this alliance, she counts André Thieme among the “most powerful women of the Reformation age”. In 1537 Anton Musa took over the position of pastor and superintendent in the entire Rochlitz domain. During this time, Elisabeth was also an advisor to Duke Moritz von Sachsen when he succeeded his father. Elisabeth raised her brother's daughter, Barbara , later Duchess of Württemberg-Mömpelgard, in Rochlitz .

In the Schmalkaldic War (1546–1547), Moritz von Sachsen, whom she had looked after as a child, fought on the side of Emperor Charles V against the Schmalkaldic League. From Rochlitz, Elisabeth provided the Schmalkaldic League in particular with information. Due to their excellent information network, these were essential for the course of the war. She wrote some of the letters in a secret script that she had developed herself .

After the defeat of the Schmalkaldic League, Moritz von Sachsen accused her of high treason because of the letters; she had to leave her retirement home in Rochlitz. Her brother assigned her the Hessian part of Schmalkalden as a widow's residence. Here she lived in the Hessischer Hof from 1547 . Her brother was imprisoned by the emperor and his wife, Christine von Sachsen , took steps to get him free. During this time Elisabeth often stayed in Kassel to take care of the upbringing of Philip's children. In 1556 Elisabeth fell seriously ill, whereupon her brother had the first pharmacy in the city set up in Schmalkalden. She died on December 6, 1557 in Schmalkalden and was buried in Marburg's Elisabeth Church. It was one of the last landgraves' burials in the Elisabeth Church.

literature

  • Johanna Elisabeth Wigand: History of the regents of Hessen-Cassel. Cassel 1882, pp. 37-39; Facsimile edition, Historische Edition Dieter Carl, Vellmar 2001, ISBN 3-9807814-0-2 .
  • Elisabeth Werl:  Elisabeth. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 451 ( digitized version ).
  • Elisabeth Werl: Duchess Elisabeth of Saxony (1502–1557) as sister of Landgrave Philip the Elder. Size of Hessen. In: Hessisches Jahrbuch für Landesgeschichte. 7 (1957), ISSN  0073-2001 , pp. 199-229.
  • Pauline Puppel: Elisabeth von Rochlitz. In: Landgrave Philipp the Magnanimous 1504–1567. Hessen at the center of the reform. Accompanying volume for an exhibition in the state of Hesse. Edited by Ursula Braasch-Schwersmann , Hans Schneider and Wilhelm E. Winterhager. Marburg / Neustadt a. d. Aisch 2004, pp. 192-193.
  • Rajah Scheepers: regent by coup? Landgravine Anna of Hesse (1485–1525). Ulrike Helmer, Königstein 2007, ISBN 978-3-89741-227-9 (Zugl .: Marburg, Univ., Diss., 2003).
  • Rajah Scheepers: Two Unknown Engagements by Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous? - Landgravine Anna's marriage policy. In: Journal of the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies . 109 (2004), pp. 13-29 ( vhghessen.de [PDF; 180 kB]).
  • Rajah Scheepers: “Not a woman's work.” - Women, religion and political power. In: Yearbook of the European Society of Women in Theological Research. 12 (2004), ISSN  1783-2454 , pp. 193-206, doi: 10.2143 / ESWTR.12.0.583260 (PDF; 79 kB).
  • André Thieme : Duchess Elisabeth von Rochlitz - a princess life in the age of the Reformation. In: A strong women's story. 500 years of the Reformation. Accompanying volume for the special exhibition May 1–31. October 2014. Edited by Simona Schellenberger, André Thieme and Dirk Welich. Sax, Beucha / Markkleeberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-86729-132-3 , pp. 41-46.
  • Anne-Simone Rous: The secret script of the Duchess Elisabeth von Rochlitz in the Schmalkaldic War 1546/47. In: A strong women's story. 500 years of the Reformation. Accompanying volume for the special exhibition May 1–31. October 2014. Edited by Simona Schellenberger, André Thieme and Dirk Welich. Sax, Beucha / Markkleeberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-86729-132-3 , pp. 47-51.
  • Jens Klingner, Franziska Kuschel: Manorial action at the time of the Reformation - Elisabeth von Rochlitz and Elisabeth von Calenberg-Göttingen. In: A strong women's story. 500 years of the Reformation. Accompanying volume for the special exhibition May 1–31. October 2014. Edited by Simona Schellenberger, André Thieme and Dirk Welich. Sax, Beucha / Markkleeberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-86729-132-3 , pp. 91-97.

Movie

  • Elisabeth von Rochlitz - agent of the Reformation. Film by Gabriele Rose. Germany 2017 (= MDR series History of Central Germany. Summer 2017, episode 4), 44:11 min., Information about Elisabeth and the film as well as the short version ( Memento from August 28, 2017 in the Internet Archive ). In: mdr.de, accessed on August 27, 2017

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ A b André Thieme : Duchess Elisabeth von Rochlitz - a princess life in the age of the Reformation. In: A strong women's story. 500 years of the Reformation. Accompanying volume for the special exhibition May 1–31. October 2014. Edited by Simona Schellenberger, André Thieme and Dirk Welich. Sax, Beucha / Markkleeberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-86729-132-3 , p. 44.
  2. ↑ Christoph Körner: On the history of a parish and the introduction of the Reformation in Mittweida (short version October 25, 2000) ( Memento from August 18, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ). In: htwm.de, accessed on August 27, 2017.
  3. ↑ Jens Klingner, Franziska Kuschel: Manorial action at the time of the Reformation. Elisabeth von Rochlitz and Elisabeth von Calenberg-Göttingen. In: A strong women's story. 500 years of the Reformation. Accompanying volume for the special exhibition May 1–31. October 2014. Edited by Simona Schellenberger, André Thieme and Dirk Welich. Sax, Beucha / Markkleeberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-86729-132-3 , p. 92.
  4. ^ Anne-Simone Rous: The secret writing of Duchess Elisabeth von Rochlitz in the Schmalkaldic War 1546/47. In: A strong women's story. 500 years of the Reformation. Accompanying volume for the special exhibition May 1–31. October 2014. Edited by Simona Schellenberger, André Thieme and Dirk Welich. Sax, Beucha / Markkleeberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-86729-132-3 , pp. 47-51.
personal data
SURNAME Elisabeth of Hesse
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Elisabeth von Rochlitz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Princess of Hesse, Hereditary Princess of Saxony, Mistress in Rochlitz
DATE OF BIRTH March 4, 1502
PLACE OF BIRTH Marburg
DATE OF DEATH December 6, 1557
Place of death Schmalkalden