Margareta of Brandenburg

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Margareta von Brandenburg (* around 1511; † after November 3, 1577 ) was a princess of Brandenburg and by marriage successively Duchess of Pomerania and Princess of Anhalt .

Lucas Cranach the Elder J .: The Baptism of Christ (detail), 1556. The two people in front are supposed to represent Margrave Johann von Küstrin and his sister Margareta, in the background the Dessau Palace. The scene alludes to Margarete's second marriage in Dessau in 1534.

Life

Margareta was the youngest daughter of Elector Joachim I of Brandenburg (1484–1535) from his marriage to Elisabeth (1485–1555), daughter of King John of Denmark .

Duchess of Pomerania

Her first marriage was on January 23, 1530 in Berlin, with Duke Georg I of Pomerania (1493–1531). She brought 20,000 guilders dowry into the marriage, for which Georg gave the so-called counterpart of 20,000 guilders as well as the offices of Barth , Damgarten , Tribsees , Grimmen and Klempenow as personal items. The marriage had apparently been agreed during the negotiations in Grimnitz , which regulated the legal relationship between Brandenburg and Pomerania. Georg died just a year after the marriage and Margareta only enjoyed the income from her Wittum for a short time . When Prince Johann IV von Anhalt courted the widow, who was very unpopular in Pomerania, her stepson Philipp had to waive a tax to replace her dowry and redeem her personal property. Their only, posthumously born child with Georg, a daughter, went to Anhalt with their mother, but was to return to Pomerania when they reached the age of 8. In tough negotiations with her stepson, Duke Philip I of Pomerania, the mother managed to delay her return trip until May 1543.

Princess of Anhalt

Her second husband became Prince Johann IV of Anhalt (1504–1551) in Dessau on February 15, 1534 . The marriage with Johann soon turned out to be unhappy. Margareta fled from her husband to the widow's residence, Burg Roßlau, which she had been promised . Martin Luther , who tried to mediate the princely couple's marriage affair, also went to the princess there to reprimand her for leaving her husband " cheeky ". This must have led to a violent battle of words , of which Luther reports: I told her in enough German until I incited her to anger against me.

Margarete was finally accused of marital infidelity by her husband and imprisoned in 1550. Johann's personal doctor was tortured in order to admit a relationship with the princess, which he did not do. She escaped from custody and under adventurous circumstances, half naked and robbed, got to her cousin, the Danish King Christian III, in 1551 . , to Copenhagen. At times she lived with her sister Elisabeth , who recommended that she marry a third time in order to be covered. Elisabeth thought her sister was unreliable and unsteady and warned her son-in-law Albrecht to take her into her home. He still housed her and after his death the Prussian administrator Georg Friedrich took care of the helpless after her children had refused to support her. In the last years of her life she led an unsteady existence in the Pomeranian-Polish border area and is said to have married a simple farmer in her third marriage. She is also said to have contacted her daughter Georgia again during her pregnancy in 1566 and even to have been with her in Schlochau under a false identity .

progeny

From her first marriage to Georg she had a daughter:

  • Georgia (1531-1573)
⚭ 1563 Count Stanislaus Latalski of Labischin († 1598)

From her second marriage to Johann she had the following children:

  • Karl (1534–1561), Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
⚭ 1557 Princess Anna of Pomerania (1531–1592)
⚭ 1. 1560 Countess Agnes von Barby (1540–1569)
⚭ 2. 1571 Princess Eleonore of Württemberg (1552–1618)
  • Marie (1538–1563)
⚭ 1559 Count Albrecht X. von Barby and Mühlingen (1534–1586)
⚭ 1565 Princess Klara of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1550–1598)
  • Margaret (1541–1547)
  • Elisabeth (1545–1574)
⚭ 1570 Count Wolfgang II of Barby (1531–1615)

literature

  • Johannes Voigt: The Princess Margarethe von Anhalt, born Margravine of Brandenburg. From archival sources. In: Schmidt's journal for historical science. Volume IV. 1845, pp. 327-359.
  • Dirk Schleinert : The 2nd wedding of Duke George I of Pomerania with Margaret of Brandenburg in January 1530 in Berlin. Annotated edition of a contemporary description. In: Baltic Studies . NF 94, 2008, pp. 55-70.
  • Dirk Schleinert: Georgia of Pomerania (1531–1573). Studies on the Life of a Princess in the 16th Century. In: Yearbook for the history of Central and Eastern Germany. Vol. 55, 2009, pp. 71-120.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Dirk Schleinert: The 2nd wedding of Duke Georg I of Pomerania with Margaret of Brandenburg in January 1530 in Berlin. Annotated edition of a contemporary description. In: Baltic Studies. NF 94, 2008, pp. 55-70.
  2. ↑ Dirk Schleinert: Georgia of Pomerania (1531-1573). Studies on the Life of a Princess in the 16th Century. In: Yearbook for the history of Central and Eastern Germany. Vol. 55, 2009, pp. 71-120.
  3. ↑ Martina Schattkowsky: Widowhood in the early modern period. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2003, p. 101.
  4. ^ Johannes Voigt: The Princess Margarethe von Anhalt, born Margravine of Brandenburg. From archival sources. In: Schmidt's journal for historical science. Volume IV. 1845, pp. 357f.
personal data
SURNAME Margareta of Brandenburg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Duchess of Pomerania; Princess of Anhalt
DATE OF BIRTH around 1511
DATE OF DEATH after November 3, 1577