Duchess Anna of Prussia
Anna of Prussia ( born July 3, 1576 Königsberg; † August 30, 1625 in Berlin) was a Princess of Prussia and by marriage Electress of Brandenburg.
Life
Anna was the eldest child of the Duke Albrecht Friedrich of Prussia (1553-1618) from his marriage to Marie Eleonore (1550-1608), daughter of Duke William the Rich of Jülich- Cleves -Berg.
They married on October 30, 1594 in Königsberg Margrave John Sigismund, later Elector of Brandenburg. The mother of John Sigismund had this warning before, Anna was not a beauty. The marriage was a marriage of convenience to hedge the Brandenburg claims to the Duchy of Prussia. The marriage produced eight children were born, three of whom died early.
From territorial political importance the connection was so far as Anna as a niece of the last Duke of Jülich -Cleves -Berg, Johann Wilhelm, by the Prussian Hohenzollern heir to the duchies of Cleves, Jülich and Berg, who was regarded counties Mark and Ravens mountain and the rule of Ravenstein.
Anna was superior to her husband politically and intellectually. They also had an iron will and was extremely spirited. The drunkenness bouts of Elector they gave him occasional plates and glasses to his head. It built up its own diplomatic network up and took their claim to the heritage of the West itself derived from her plans for dividing the disputed territory, and they negotiated themselves with the competitors from the Palatinate. During the Jüterboger meeting of 1611, she received an opinion of the councils. In 1612 she sent to safeguard their interests its own envoy to Emperor Matthias.
At the end of Jülich- Kleve Succession dispute the Hohenzollern had to divide the overall heritage Jülich- Kleve - Berg only Pfalz- Neuburg. The Duchy of Cleves and the counties of Mark and Ravensburg mountain fell to the Electorate of Brandenburg under the Treaty of Xanten in 1614. First came Brandenburg- Prussia thus into the possession of territories in the Rhineland and Westphalia. A Prussian interests to connect these areas through further westward expansion, was founded and realized in the 19th century.
After her husband had converted to Calvinism, Anna became the advocate of the Lutheran population. Protests and petitions were mostly directed at her. Through their adherence to the visit of the Lutheran church service they contributed to the affirmation of the Lutheran denomination. It maintained close relations with Saxony, the center of Lutheran orthodoxy.
Even after the passage of the electoral dignity to their son Georg Wilhelm still played an influential role Anna. She was an opponent of the Habsburgs and married her daughter Maria Eleonore without previously informing her son Gustav Adolf of Sweden. Thus it undermined from the outset the authority and international reputation of the elector. The aim was again to strengthen the claims of Brandenburg to Prussia. This was quite a bold move, Sweden introduced but just war with Poland, the Prussian lehnsrechtlich still stood.
Anna was buried in Königsberg Cathedral.
Progeny
From their marriage, Anna had the following children:
- Georg Wilhelm (1595-1640), Elector and Margrave of Brandenburg
- Anna Sophia (1598-1659)
- Marie Eleonore (1599-1655)
- Catherine (1602-1644)
- Joachim Sigismund (1603-1625)
- Agnes (1606-1607)
- Johann Friedrich (1607-1608)
- Christian Albrecht (* / † 1609)