Dorothea of Saxony

Dorothea of Saxony
Coat-of-arms of elector of Saxony.
Born	(1563-10-04)4 October 1563 Dresden
Died	13 February 1587(1587-02-13) (aged 23) Wolfenbüttel
Noble family	House of Wettin
Spouse(s)	Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Issue Dorothea Hedwig of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Father	Augustus, Elector of Saxony
Mother	Anne of Denmark, Electress of Saxony

Dorothea of Saxony (German: Dorothea von Sachsen; 4 October 1563 in Dresden – 13 February 1587 in Wolfenbüttel) was a Saxon princess from the House of Wettin and by marriage Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

Life[]

Dorothea was born 4 October 1563, the daughter of the Elector Augustus of Saxony (1526-1586) and his wife Anna (1532-1585), daughter of King Christian III of Denmark. Of the four 15 children from the marriage of her parents, only four survived their father; Dorothea among them.

On 26 September 1585 in Wolfenbüttel, the twenty-two-year-old Dorothea married the future Duke Henry Julius of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1564-1613), who was one year her junior. At the time, her mother Anna was seriously ill and Dorothea had felt very badly and cried pitifully when she said farewell.^[1]

The marriage would consolidate a Protestant alliance of German princes, led by Count Palatine John Casimir of Simmern, who had married Dorothea's sister Elizabeth in 1570. Unfortunately, the marriage would be short-lived as Dorothea would die in childbirth aged 23 on 13 February 1587.

Henry remarried a few years later on 19 April 1590. By his second wife, Elizabeth of Denmark, Henry had ten more children, one of whom was named Dorothea.

Issue[]

From her marriage to Henry Julius Dorothea had one daughter:

• Dorothea Hedwig (1587–1609)

married in 1605 Rudolf of Anhalt-Zerbst (1576–1621)

Ancestors[]

References and sources[]

• Wilhelm Havemann: Geschichte der Lande Braunschweig und Lüneburg, p. 421
• Günter Meißner: Saur allgemeines Künstlerlexikon, K.G. Saur Verlag, p. 508
• Jörg Jochen Berns: Höfische Festkultur in Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, 1590-1666: Vorträge eines ..:, p. 421
• Karl August Muffat: Die Verhandlungen der protestantischen Fürsten in den Jahren 1590 und 1591 ..., p. 5

Footnotes[]