Countess Palatine Francisca Christina of Sulzbach

Countess Palatine Francisca Christina of Sulzbach
Countess Palatine Francisca Christina of Sulzbach
Noble family	House of Wittelsbach
Father	Theodore Eustace, Count Palatine of Sulzbach
Mother	Landgravine Maria Eleonore of Hesse-Rotenburg
Born	(1696-05-16)16 May 1696 Sulzbach
Died	16 July 1776(1776-07-16) (aged 80) Essen
Buried	Steele (now part of Essen)

Countess Palatine Francisca Christina of Sulzbach (born 16 May 1696 in Sulzbach; died: 16 July 1776 in Essen) was the Princess-abbess of Essen Abbey and Thorn Abbey. She reigned Essen Abbey from 1726 to 1776, the longest of any Essen abbess Her reign was marked by disputes between the Abbey and the City, which were caused by her counselors.

She founded the Princess Francisca Christina Foundation, which still maintains the orphanage she founded in Essen-Steele. Her father was Theodore Eustace, Count Palatine of Sulzbach and her mother was Landgravine Maria Eleonore of Hesse-Rotenburg.

Francisca Christina was born on 16 May 1696 as the daughter of Duke Theodore Eustace of Palatinate-Sulzbach and his wife Landgravine Maria Eleonore of Hesse-Rotenburg. She was the third child and second daughter. The Dukes Palatine of Sulzbach were a collateral branch of the Palatinate line of the House of Wittelsbach.

At the age of five, she got a prebendary in the Thorn Abbey, a secular abbey for high-born ladies, west of the Meuse river, at Roermond. Her aunt Eleonore of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort was abbess of Thorn and made Francisca Christina, her "much-loved cousin", her sole heir in 1706. In 1712, she presented her Aufschwörung (proof of her noble descent) to Essen Abbey. She received a prebendary there as well, subject to the condition that she was not allowed to vote on decisions of the Chapter as long as two of her sisters were also entitled to vote. The reason for this restriction was that only ten ladies were entitled to vote in the Chapter in Essen, and it was felt that giving the Palatinate-Sulzbach family three votes would give them too much influence. Nevertheless, Francisca Christina accepted her prebendary in Essen on 10 November 1712 and immediately took up residency in Essen, which was a condition for later being entitled to vote in the Chapter. She was released from the residency requirement in September 1713 and received the vote two years later, when her sister left Essen Abbey and joined a religious monastery. (Essen was a secular abbey; this meant that the collegiate ladies kept their own possessions and could leave whenever they wanted, for example, if they decided to marry).