Sibylle Christine of Anhalt-Dessau

Sibylle Christine of Anhalt-Dessau (b. Dessau, 11 July 1603 - d. Hanau, 21 February 1686), was by birth member of the House of Ascania and Princess of Anhalt-Dessau. Through her two marriages she was Countess of Hanau-Münzenberg and Hanau-Lichtenberg.

She was the sixth daughter of John George I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau but third-born by his second wife Dorothea, daughter of John Casimir of Simmern.

Life

In Dessau on 26 December 1627 Sybille Christine married with Philipp Maurice, Count of Hanau-Münzenberg. They had five children, 2 sons and 3 daughters; but all of them, except the eldest son and heir, Philipp Louis III, died before their first year of life. [ [http://genealogy.euweb.cz/hanau/hanau2.html#PL2 Complete Genealogy of the House of Hanau] ]

After the death of her husband in 1638, she acted as regent on behalf of his son Philipp Louis III. After the early death of her son in 1641, Sybille Christine moved to the official widow seat of the House of Hanau, the Schloss Steinau in Steinau an der Straße.

Philipp Louis III was succeeded by his uncle John Ernest (cousin of his late father and the last surviving male of the branch of Hanau-Münzenberg); however, he died one year later, in 1642 unmarried and childless. His successor was Frederick Casimir, head of the Lutheran branch of Hanau-Lichtenberg.

The accession of Frederick Casimir took place during the Thirty Years' War who let him in a financially awkward situation. As a Dowager Countess Sibylle Christine could put substantial demands to the county for her dowry. To avoid this and the required financial equipment of a new wife, she and Frederick Casimir were married on 13 May 1647. With his union with the Lutheran Dowager Countess, Frederick Casimir calmed his reformist subjects of Hanau-Münzenberg (by far the predominant majority in the county) who faced the Lutheran new Count suspiciously. However, her marriage remained childless because the years of difference between them: Sybille Christine was 20 years older that Frederick Casimir. Also, the union was characterized by other differences, probably because Frederick Casimir fell back with his constantly high monetary demands also on the property of his wife.

After the death of her second husband in 1685, Sibylle Christine withdrew again on her widow seat, Schloss Steinau. She died there one year later as the last member of the House of Hanau what has difficultly met the member of the Reformed Church majority of the subjects. To her burial on 25 March 1686 in the family vault of the "Marienkirche" in Hanau was performed a sermon. [de]

References