Elisabeth of Brandenburg, Duchess of Brunswick-Calenberg-Göttingen | |
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Elisabeth, woodcut around 1542
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Spouse(s) |
Eric I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg Poppo XII of Henneberg |
Noble family | House of Hohenzollern |
Father | Joachim I, Elector of Brandenburg |
Mother | Elisabeth of Denmark |
Born |
probably Cölln |
24 August 1510
Died | 25 May 1558 Ilmenau |
(aged 47)
Buried | St. John's Church in Schleusingen |
Elisabeth of Brandenburg (24 August 1510 – 25 May 1558) was a princess of the House of Hohenzollern and a Margravine of Brandenburg by birth and by marriage Duchess of Brunswick-Göttingen-Calenberg and later and was Countess Consort of Henneberg. She is considered a "reformation Princess", who, together with the Hessian reformer Anton Corvinus, helped the Reformation prevail in today's South Lower Saxony.
Elisabeth was born, probably in Cölln, the third child and second daughter of the Elector Joachim I of Brandenburg and his wife Elisabeth, daughter of King John I of Denmark. She was educated in a strictly religious and humanist fashion.
At the age of not quite 15, she married on 7 July 1525 in Stettin with the forty years old widower Duke Eric I "the Elder" of Brunswick-Göttingen-Calenberg.
She first came into contact with the Reformation in 1527 at her parental court in Brandenburg when her mother celebrated communion under both kinds and thus openly accepted the teachings of Martin Luther, Her father reacted violently, fearing her mother would convert to "Protestantism", and removed the reformers from Wittenberg, who tried to intervene on behalf of the Electress, from his court. This event may well have impressed the seventeen-year-old princess deeply, and reinforced her sympathy for the new faith.