Agnes Hedwig of Anhalt

Who is Agnes Hedwig of Anhalt?

Agnes Hedwig of Anhalt was a Princess of Anhalt by birth, an Abbess of Gernrode, and by marriage Electress of Saxony and later Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön.

She was the daughter of Prince Joachim Ernest of Anhalt and his second wife Eleonore of Württemberg. From 1581 to 1586 she was abbess of the Imperial Abbey of St. Cyriac in Gernrode.

On 3 January 1586, at the age of 13, she married Elector Augustus of Saxony, becoming his second wife. On their wedding night, she is said to have asked for the release of Caspar Peucer. Elector Augustus died a few weeks later, on 11 February 1586. She received Lichtenburg Castle as her wittum, but never lived there.

Two years later, on 14 February 1588, she married Duke John II of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg; she was his second wife, too. She died in 1616, six years before her husband.