Agnes Hedwig of Anhalt


Agnes Hedwig of Anhalt was a Princess of Anhalt by birth, an Abbess of Gernrode, and by marriage Electress of Saxony and later Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg.
She was the daughter of Prince Joachim Ernest of Anhalt and his second wife Eleonore of Württemberg. From 1581 to 1586 she was abbess of the Imperial Abbey of St. Cyriac in Gernrode.
On 3 January 1586, at the age of 13, she married Elector Augustus of Saxony, becoming his second wife. On their wedding night, she is said to have asked for the release of Caspar Peucer. Elector Augustus died a few weeks later, on 11 February 1586. She received Lichtenburg Castle as her wittum, but never lived there.
Two years later, on 14 February 1588, she married Duke John II of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg; she was his second wife, too. She died in 1616, six years before her husband.

Issue

From her second marriage, Agnes Hedwig had nine children:
  1. Eleonore
  2. Anna Sabine, married on 1 January 1618 to Duke Julius Frederick of Württemberg-Weiltingen
  3. Johann Georg
  4. Duke Joachim Ernst I of Schleswig-Holstein-Sønderborg-Plön
  5. Dorothea Sibylle
  6. Dorothea Marie
  7. Bernhard
  8. Agnes Magdalene
  9. Eleonore Sofie, married on 28 February 1624 to Prince Christian II of Anhalt-Bernburg

    Footnotes