Dorothea of Saxe-Altenburg (26 June 1601 in
Torgau
Torgau () is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen.
Outside Germany, the town is best known as where on 25 April 1945, the United States and Soviet Armies forces first ...
– 10 April 1675 in
Altenburg), was a princess from the
House of Wettin
The House of Wettin () is a dynasty of German kings, prince-electors, dukes, and counts that once ruled territories in the present-day German states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The dynasty is one of the oldest in Europe, and its ori ...
by birth and by marriage Duchess of
Saxe-Eisenach
Saxe-Eisenach (german: Sachsen-Eisenach) was an Ernestine duchy ruled by the Saxon House of Wettin. The state intermittently existed at three different times in the Thuringian region of the Holy Roman Empire. The chief town and capital of all t ...
.
Life
Dorothy was a daughter of the Duke
Frederick William I of Saxe-Weimar (1562-1602) from his second marriage with
Anna Maria (1575-1643), the daughter of Duke
Philip Louis of Neuburg. She was born in Torgau, where her father ruled as regent of the
Electorate of Saxony. She was raised mostly at
Lichtenburg Castle by Electress dowager
Hedwig Hedwig may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Hedwig (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Grzegorz Hedwig (born 1988), Polish slalom canoeist
* Johann Hedwig, (1730–1799), German botanist
* Romanus Adol ...
of Saxony.
[Ute Essegern: ''Fürstinnen am kursächsischen Hof'', Leipziger Universitätsverlag 2007, S. 128] From 1620, she was a member of the
Virtuous Society
Virtue ( la, virtus) is moral excellence. A virtue is a trait or quality that is deemed to be morally good and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. In other words, it is a behavior that shows high moral standards: ...
under the nickname ''die Freudige'' ("the Joyful").
On 11 May 1628, Dorothea was appointed
coadjutor of
Quedlinburg Abbey
Quedlinburg Abbey (german: Stift Quedlinburg or ) was a house of secular canonesses ''(Frauenstift)'' in Quedlinburg in what is now Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It was founded in 936 on the initiative of Saint Mathilda, the widow of the East Frankis ...
by her older sister
Dorothea Sophie, who was
abbess
An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey.
Description
In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Copt ...
of the Abbey, a post their aunt,
Maria
Maria may refer to:
People
* Mary, mother of Jesus
* Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages
Place names Extraterrestrial
* 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877
* Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...
, had held before 1610.
In 1633, Dorothea left the Abbey and on 24 June she married in
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
with Duke
Albert IV of Saxe-Eisenach (1599-1644). She survived her husband by 31 years. The marriage remained childless.
References
* Erika Alma Metzger, Richard E. Schade: ''Sprachgesellschaften, galante Poetinnen'', p. 622
Online
Footnotes
German duchesses
House of Saxe-Altenburg
House of Wettin
1601 births
1675 deaths
17th-century German people
Duchesses of Saxe-Eisenach
Daughters of monarchs
{{Germany-duchess-stub