Barbara of Hesse

Barbara of Hesse ( born April 8, 1536 Kassel, † June 8, 1597 in Waldeck Castle ) was Princess of Hesse and by marriage successively Countess of Württemberg- Montbéliard and Countess of Waldeck.

Life

Barbara was a daughter of the Landgrave Philipp I of Hesse (1501-1567) from his marriage to Christine (1505-1549), daughter of Duke George of Saxony.

They married on September 10, 1555 in Riquewihr (now Riquewihr ) Count Georg von Württemberg- Montbéliard ( 1498-1558 ). The already 57 -year-old groom had been urged by his nephew Christopher to marriage, to avoid the imminent extinction of the House of Württemberg. Their only surviving son, Frederick Barbara thus secured the survival of the house of Württemberg. After the death of her husband she took care of the education of her son, the guardianship was, however, transfer of not only Duke Christoph of Württemberg and Count Philipp von Hanau, Barbara's father and brother. Barbara and George made ​​Mömpelgard to a Lutheran enclave in France.

On November 11, 1568 she married her second husband in Kassel with Count Daniel of Waldeck ( 1530-1577 ), whom she had probably met at the funeral of her father.

Very often, they wrote to her nephew, the Landgrave Moritz of Hesse, and at the chamberlain; which focused on the request of financial support to transfer of a fief to the treatment of their sisters at court, and to the transfer of the monastery in Marienthal networks. After Daniel's death, Barbara made ​​extensive donations to various churches. She survived her husband by 20 years and was the jointure the half term Waldeck, where she led her own law office in the castle.

Barbara is buried under an epitaph on the side of her second husband in Marienthal monastery.

Progeny

From her first marriage, Barbara had the following children:

• Ulrich (1556-1557)
• Frederick I (1557-1608), Duke of Württemberg; ∞ Princess Sibylla of Anhalt (1564-1614)
• Eva Christina (1558-1575)

Her second marriage was childless.