| Hedwig | |
|---|---|
 Tombstone of Princess-Abbess Hedwig | |
| Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg | |
| Reign | 1458–1511 |
| Predecessor | Anna I |
| Successor | Magdalene |
| Born | 31 October 1445 Meissen |
| Died | 13 June 1511 (aged 65) Quedlinburg |
| House | House of Wettin |
| Father | Frederick II, Elector of Saxony |
| Mother | Margaret of Austria-Styria |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Hedwig of Saxony (31 October 1445 – 13 June 1511) was Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg from 1458 until her death.
Born in Meissen, Hedwig was the youngest daughter of Frederick II, Elector of Saxony, and Margaret of Austria. In 1458, the chapter of the Quedlinburg Abbey elected the 12-year-old Hedwig as successor to Princess-Abbess Anna I, who had died aged 42. Pope Calixtus III confirmed the election but decreed that the Princess-Abbess should reign under the guardianship of her father and canonesses of Quedlinburg until the age of 20. In 1465, she was invested with regalia by her maternal uncle, Emperor Frederick III, and started governing the abbey-principality on her own.
Meissen is a town of approximately 30,000 about 25 km (16 mi) northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrechtsburg castle, the Gothic Meissen Cathedral and the Meissen Frauenkirche. The Große Kreisstadt is the capital of the Meissen district.
Frederick II, The Gentle was Elector of Saxony (1428–1464) and was Landgrave of Thuringia (1440–1445).
Margaret of Austria, a member of the House of Habsburg, was Electress of Saxony from 1431 until 1464 by her marriage with the Wettin elector Frederick II. She was a sister of Emperor Frederick III.
In 1460, the Princess-Abbess faced a rebellion when the city of Quedlinburg joined the Hanseatic League, attempting to gain independence from her and become a free imperial city. Gebhard von Hoym, Bishop of Halberstadt, aided the rebellion. The Bishop invaded the abbey-principality and tried to evict Hedwig. As a princess-abbess, Hedwig was subject only to the Pope and the Emperor; she forced the Bishop to renounce his claim with the help of her brothers, Elector Ernest and Duke Albert III of Saxony. Thus, for the next two centuries, the abbey-principality remained under the protection of the electors of Saxony, who would influence the election of its new rulers and often come into conflicts with them. Upon subduing the rebels, Hedwig forced the town to leave the Hanseatic League and decided to strengthen her authority within the town.
The Hanseatic League was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Northwestern and Central Europe. Growing from a few North German towns in the late 1100s, the league came to dominate Baltic maritime trade for three centuries along the coasts of Northern Europe. Hansa territories stretched from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland during the Late Middle Ages, and diminished slowly after 1450.
In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities, briefly worded free imperial city, was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that had a certain amount of autonomy and was represented in the Imperial Diet. An imperial city held the status of Imperial immediacy, and as such, was subordinate only to the Holy Roman Emperor, as opposed to a territorial city or town which was subordinate to a territorial prince – be it an ecclesiastical lord or a secular prince.
Ernest was Elector of Saxony from 1464 to 1486.
Her uncle, Emperor Frederick III, admitted her to the Order of the Vase and Stole. She died in Quedlinburg and was succeeded by Magdalene of Anhalt.
Hedwig | ||
| Preceded by Anna I | Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg 1458–1511 | Succeeded by Magdalena |
| Roman Catholic abbesses (966–1540) |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Lutheran abbesses (1540–1803) | ||
Quedlinburg is a town situated just north of the Harz mountains, in the district of Harz in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In 1994, the castle, church and old town were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Albert III was Elector of Brandenburg from 1471 until his death, the third from the House of Hohenzollern. A member of the Order of the Swan, he received the cognomen Achilles because of his knightly qualities and virtues. He also ruled in the Franconian principalities of Ansbach from 1440 and Kulmbach from 1464.
Gandersheim Abbey is a former house of secular canonesses (Frauenstift) in the present town of Bad Gandersheim in Lower Saxony, Germany. It was founded in 852 by Duke Liudolf of Saxony, progenitor of the Liudolfing or Ottonian dynasty, whose rich endowments ensured its stability and prosperity.
Lutgard of Salzwedel or Liutgard/Luitgard of Stade, was a Danish Queen consort, spouse of King Eric III of Denmark.
Countess Elisabeth of Regenstein-Blankenburg was Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg. As such, she is numbered Elisabeth II.
Adelaide I, a member of the royal Ottonian dynasty was the second Princess-abbess of Quedlinburg from 999, and Abbess of Gernrode from 1014, and Abbess of Gandersheim from 1039 until her death, as well as a highly influential kingmaker of medieval Germany.
Countess Palatine Anna Sophia of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld reigned as Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg and, as such, she is referred to as Anna Sophia I.
Princess Dorothea of Saxony reigned as Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg from 1610 until her death.
Duchess Maria of Saxe-Weimar was Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg from 1601 until her death.
Anna III, also known as Anna of Stolberg was Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg from 1584 until her death.
Duchess Anna Dorothea of Saxe-Weimar reigned as Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg from 1684 until her death.
Duchess Marie Elisabeth of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp was Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg from 1718 until her death.
