Sophie of Winzenburg


Sophie of Winzenburg was the first Margravine of Brandenburg.

Life

Sophie was a daughter of Count Herman I of Winzenburg and his first wife, who was a Countess of Everstein. She donated an oxgang of farmland near Wellen to the monastery at Leitzkau and later another oxgang near Wolmirsleben. In 1158, she accompanied her husband on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Death

Her sister, Beatrix, was abbess of Quedlinburg Abbey. Sophie and Beatrix both died in 1160. Some sources suggest that Sophie died on 25 March, other name 6 or 7 July. She was buried in the church of the monastery in Ballenstedt.

Criticism

The present state of research is that the identity of her father has not been conclusively proven. She may have belonged to another noble house in which the name Sophie was used.

Image

700 years after her death, a bracteate depicting Sophie and her husband was found in Aschersleben. Her portrait is stylized, as was usual in that period. The fact that Albert depicted his wife beside him on coins, is a sign of his extraordinary love for Sophie.

Marriage and issue

In 1125, she married Albert the Bear. She bore him a dozen children. Of these children, Bernhard lived the longest, viz. until 1212.
  1. Otto I, Margrave of Brandenburg
  2. Count Herman I of Orlamünde
  3. Siegfried, Bishop of Brandenburg from 1173 to 1180, Prince-Archbishop of Bremen, the first ranked prince, from 1180 to 1184
  4. Heinrich, a canon in Magdeburg
  5. Count Adalbert of Ballenstedt
  6. Count Dietrich of Werben
  7. Count Bernhard of Anhalt, Count of Anhalt, and from 1180 also Duke of Saxony as Bernard III
  8. Hedwig, married to Otto II, Margrave of Meissen
  9. Daughter, married to Vladislav of Olomouc, the eldest son of Soběslav I, Duke of Bohemia
  10. Adelheid, a nun in Lamspringe
  11. Gertrude, married in 1155 to Duke Děpold I of Jamnitz
  12. Sybille, Abbess of Quedlinburg
  13. Eilika

    Footnotes