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