Elisabeth of Anhalt-Zerbst


Elisabeth of Anhalt-Zerbst was a princess of Anhalt by birth and Electress of Brandenburg by marriage.

Life

Elizabeth was a daughter of Joachim Ernest, Prince of Anhalt, from his first marriage to Agnes of Barby, daughter of Count Wolfgang I of Barby.
On 6 October 1577 married John George, in Jagdschloss Letzlingen. Her husband was almost 40 years older than she was. Elisabeth was his third wife, and was 16 years younger than her stepson Joachim Frederick. The marriage was celebrated without many festivities, and Elizabeth was promised 400 guilders annually as her dower. Elizabeth brought as a dowry into the marriage 15 000 thalers and received as jointure, besides a considerable pension, the city of Crossen, including Crossen Palace, plus the district and city of Züllichau and the lordship of Bobrowice.
Elisabeth was a patron of the scholar Leonhard Thurneysser. After her husband's death, weakened by child-bearing, she retired with her younger children to her widow seat of Crossen Palace. She is buried in the crypt of the Hohenzollerns in the Berliner Dom.

Descendants

Her marriage to John George of Brandenburg produced the following children:
  1. Christian
  2. Magdalena, married in 1598 to Landgrave Louis V of Hesse-Darmstadt
  3. Joachim Ernest
  4. Agnes, married:
  5. # in 1604 Duke Philipp Julius of Pomerania;
  6. # in 1628 Duke Francis Charles of Saxe-Lauenburg
  7. Frederick
  8. Elisabeth Sophia, married:
  9. # in 1613 to Reichsfürst Janusz Radziwiłł;
  10. # on 27 February 1628 to Duke Julius Henry of Saxe-Lauenburg
  11. Dorothea Sibylle, married in 1610 to Duke John Christian of Brieg
  12. George Albert
  13. Sigismund
  14. John, Bishop of Havelberg
  15. John George