Anna of Oldenburg

Anna of Oldenburg
Anna of Oldenburg
Born	(1501-11-14)14 November 1501 Oldenburg
Died	24 September 1575(1575-09-24) (aged 73) Emden
Noble family	House of Oldenburg
Spouse(s)	Enno II of East Frisia
Father	John V, Count of Oldenburg
Mother	Anna of Anhalt-Zerbst

Anna of Oldenburg (14 November 1501 in Oldenburg – 24 September 1575 in Emden) was a Countess consort of East Frisia as the spouse of Count Enno II of East Frisia. She was the Regent of East Frisia in 1540/42–1561 as the guardian for her minor sons. Her reign lasted until 1561 and was generally supported by the Estates. Her chief advisor was her brother, count Christopher of Oldenburg. When she died in 1575, it was exactly 35 years after her own husband's death.

The main characteristic of her policy towards the Reformation was an effort to balance the various confessions and allow them to coexist. She adhered to the faith herself, but saw that among the East Frisian nobility Lutheranism as Zwinglianism were about equally distributed. It was cleat that a selection of one of these as the state religion of East Frisia, would not be enforceable. Catholics and Spiritualists were also allowed to practise their faith in East Frisia. Only under pressure from the emperor, was Baptism forbidden in 1549.

She founded the police force in East Frisia (1545), reformed the legal system. Next to its administrative tasks, the Chancellery was given judiciary tasks. Councillors and legal scholars were added to the Chancellery to carry out these tasks. The Chancellery was mostly a court of appeals, but would also act a court of first instance in cases involving the nobility.

During Anna's rule, the armed conflict with the Harlingerland flared up one more time, when Count John II "the Mad" of Harlingerland seized a strip of land at the Accumer Deep. Anna took her case to the Reichskammergericht and to the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle. The Circle arrested John, who had made many enemies, and he died in captivity in 1562.