Sibylla of Anhalt

Sibylla of Anhalt (b. Bernburg, 28 September 1564 - d. Leonberg, 26 October 1614), was by birth member of the House of Ascania and Princess of Anhalt and after her marriage Duchess of Württemberg.

She was the fourth but third surviving daughter of Joachim Ernest, Prince of Anhalt by his first wife Agnes, daughter of Wolfgang I, Count of Barby-Mühlingen.

Life

Under the pressure of her father Sibylla, still underage was elected Abbess of Gernrode and Frose in 1577 from the Chapter as the successor of her elder sister Anna Maria. She was confirmed in the office by the Emperor Rudolf II. During her reign as an abbess she appears only in a document of the abbey in which she invests the widow of Stefan Molitor -who had been the first Evangelic Superintendent of the abbey- with a piece of land.

In 1581 Sybilla was relevated of her post as Abbess in order to marry with Frederick, Count of Mömpelgard and heir apparent of the Duchy of Württemberg. The wedding took place in Stuttgart on 22 May of that year. Her successor as Abbess was her younger half-sister Agnes Hedwig.

The marriage was arranged by her stepmother, Eleonore of Württemberg. With only sixteen-years-old at that time, Sybilla bore her husband fifteen children during the first fifteen years of their marriage. However, she didn't played a big role in the court life and had any influence over her husband. The conjugal faithful was also not compatible with his view of an absolutistic monarch. After the birth of their last child, they virtually lived apart. On his big travelling to France, Italy and England Frederick didn't take her with him.

In 1593 Count Frederick of Mömpelgard succeeded his father's cousin, Duke Louis in Württemberg.

Sibylla strengthened on it her employment of Botany and Chemistry. To veil her interest in the notorious Alchemie, she explained her activity as a herbs collection to the medicine production for poor people. As an adviser she could put Helena Magenbuch (b. 1523 - d. 1597), a daughter of the professor and personal physician of Martin Luther and Emperor Charles V, Johann Magenbuch (d. 1546) and also the third wife of Andreas Osiander. Helena Magenbuch was awarded with the title of Pharmacist of the Württemberg court. From 1606/07 Maria Andreae took over this post.

After the death of her husband in 1608 Sybilla withdrew in Leonberg and let there by the architect Heinrich Schickhardt develop the Schloss Leonberg and establish there the famous Pomeranzengarten who still today in his renaissance style. Not far from Leonberg Schickhardt built by her orders from 1609 the Seehaus Leonberg, which served as a hunting seat.

References

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