Duchess Hedwig of Württemberg (15 January 1547,

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

– 4 March 1590,

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approxima ...

) was a princess of

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Württ ...

by birth, and by marriage Landgravine of

Hesse-Marburg The Landgraviate of Hesse-Marburg (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Marburg) was a German landgraviate, and independent principality, within the Holy Roman Empire, that existed between 1458 and 1500, and between 1567 and 1604/1650. It consisted ...

Life

Hedwig was the eldest daughter of the Duke Christopher of Württemberg (1515–1568) from his marriage to Anna Maria (1526–1589), daughter of the Margrave George of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach. She married on 10 May 1563 in Stuttgart Landgrave

Louis IV of Hesse-Marburg Landgrave Louis IV of Hesse-Marburg (27 May 1537 – 9 October 1604) was the son of Landgrave Philip I of Hesse and his wife Christine of Saxony. After the death of his father in 1567, Hesse was divided among his sons and Louis received Hesse-Mar ...

(1537–1604). As a strict

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

, she was a major influence on her husband. As a result, he remained with the Duke of Württemberg in close religious association, but he also came into confrontation with his brother

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

, who wanted to unite all Protestant forces in Germany. Hedwig died in 1590 and was buried next to her husband under in a

tomb A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immureme ...

, with her statue in the St. Mary's Church in Marburg.

References and sources

* Wilhelm Münscher
''Versuch einer Geschichte der hessischen reformirten Kirche'' p. 34
Hedwig 1547 births 1590 deaths 16th-century German people Daughters of monarchs {{Germany-duchess-stub