Catherine of Pomerania, Countess Palatine of Neumarkt

Catherine of Pomerania - Stolp (* 1384, † March 12, 1426 in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz) was the daughter of the Duke of Pomerania - Stolp Wartislaws VII and the first wife of Count Palatine Johann von Pfalz - Neumarkt. Together with her husband she founded the Birgittenkloster Gnadenberg; her son Christopher was later King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Life

Catherine was born in 1384. Her parents were Wartislaw VII, who belonged to the Pomeranian dynasty of the gripping and since 1377 part of the Duchy of Pomerania - Stolp reigned, and Mary of Mecklenburg, a niece Margarethe I., the regent of Denmark and Norway. Catherine was the second child of her parents, she had a about two years older brother named Bogislaw.

As Margaret's only son Olav died in 1387, was Margaret Queen of Denmark, Norway, and after they had prevailed against Albrecht of Mecklenburg, also from Sweden. Margaret now built their next surviving male relatives Bogislaw under the name Erik 's successor and took his sister Catherine under her wing. In 1394 she tried, apparently unsuccessfully, to reach Catherine's inclusion in the monastery of Vadstena, which had just been canonized founded Birgitta of Sweden.

Margarethe's project of a Nordic- British double wedding could be realized only in part: Although married Erik 1406 Philippa, a daughter of the English King Henry IV, the negotiations for a marriage between Catherine and Philippa's brother, the future King Henry V, but failed 1402. During her brother's wedding festivities a spouse for Catherine finally been found: the same age as John, a younger son of the Roman-German king Ruprecht of the Palatinate line of the Wittelsbach family. Catherine and John were married on September 15, 1407 in the Danish Ribe.

The couple first lived in Amberg, because Johann managed from there the Upper Palatinate territories of his father Rupert. Preserved account books from this period can be seen that Katharina make several modifications to their residence, to create a garden with vines, brandy and burn ointment could be prepared. She was regularly around the move and attended, among others, Neumarkt, Nine castle, Burglengenfeld and the imperial city of Nuremberg.

After the death of King Rupert in the spring of 1410 John and his three surviving brothers divided their late father's dominions between them. John received the County Palatine of Pfalz- Neumarkt, which comprised the bulk of the already governed by him as governor of his father Oberpfalz. Since Amberg to his older brother Ludwig III. had fallen, Johann and Katharina resided henceforth in Neumarkt in the West and Nine castle in the east of the new county palatine.

Like her great-aunt Margaret, her brother Erik and her sister Philippa also promoted the Catherine founded by Bridget of Sweden Order of the Redeemer. In the summer of 1420 Pope Martin V allowed the Count Palatine couple to found a monastery of this order. As a location for the new monastery of the acorn mountain between Neumarkt and Nuremberg was chosen, which now received the name Gnadenberg. Since 1422 the establishment of new double monasteries had been prohibited papal, initially only a male monastery was built; a convent followed a few years after Catherine's death. At the request of Catherine out, Pope Martin V to the Birgittenkloster Paradiso in Florence to send some monks of the new monastery.

Just over a month after the finish of the foundation charter of the monastery Gnadenberg Catherine died on March 12, 1426 in Neumarkt. She was initially buried in the local court church and how their deceased children transferred to the monastery church of Gnadenberg as soon as it allowed the construction progress. John survived his first wife of 17 years, and even entered into a second marriage with Beatrice of Bavaria from the Munich line of the Wittelsbach.

From the marriage between Catherine and Count Palatine Johann seven children were born, of which, however, the oldest of six, the daughter of Margaret and the sons Adolf, Otto, Johann ( II ), Friedrich and Johann (III ), shortly after the birth died. Only the youngest son, born in 1416 Christopher, survived his parents. Christoph took over in 1439 from his uncle Erik rule over Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Like his parents, he donated a Birgittenkloster, the Nådendal was called and is located in present-day Finland near Turku.

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