Barbara of Hesse

Barbara of Hesse
Duchess of Württemberg-Mömpelgard Countess of Waldeck
File:Barbara of Hesse.JPG
Spouse(s)	George I of Württemberg-Mömpelgard Daniel, Count of Waldeck
Issue Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg
Noble family	House of Hesse
Father	Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse
Mother	Christine of Saxony
Born	8 April 1536 Kassel, Hessen, Germany
Died	8 June 1597 Schloss Waldeck

Barbara of Hesse, Duchess of Württemberg-Mömpelgard (8 April 1536 – 8 June 1597) was a German noblewoman, and the wife of Count George I of Württemberg-Mömpelgard. Her second husband was Daniel, Count of Waldeck.

Family

Barbara was born in Kassel, Hessen on 8 April 1536, one of the ten children of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse and his legitimate wife Christine of Saxony. She had four sisters and five brothers including George I, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. Her father was a leading champion of the Protestant Reformation. While married to her mother, he also married bigamously his morganatic wife, Margarethe von der Saale, by whom he had another nine children.

Her paternal grandparents were William II of Hesse and Anna of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and her maternal grandparents were George, Duke of Saxony and Barbara Jagiellon, daughter of King Casimir IV Jagiellon of Poland and Elisabeth of Austria.

File:85Familie Friedrich I.jpg

Barbara's son Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg and his family

Marriages and issue

On 10 September 1555 in Reichenweier, Barbara married her first husband, George I, Count of Württemberg-Mömpelgard, son of Henry, Count of Württemberg and Eva of Salm. She was nineteen years of age and Georg was fifty-seven. They made their residence at the Chateau de Montbeliard in the principality of Mömpelgard, a staunch Lutheran enclave in France.

Together George and Barbara had one son:

• Frederick I, Duke of Württemberg (19 August 1557, Mömpelgard- 29 January 1608, Stuttgart), married Sybilla of Anhalt, by whom he had fifteen children.

Barbara was widowed on 18 July 1558 after less than three years of marriage. She married her second husband Daniel, Count of Waldeck ten years later on 11 November 1568 in Kassel, when she was thirty-two years old.

She died on 8 June 1597 at Waldeck Castle (in German). Among her numerous descendants are the current Spanish and British Royal Families.

Ancestry

Family of Barbara of Hesse

Louis I, Landgrave of Hesse               Louis II, Landgrave of Hesse                       Anna of Saxony               William II of Hesse                             Ludwig I, Count of Wurttemberg-Urach               Mechtild of Württemberg                       Mechtild of the Palatinate               Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse                                   Henry IV, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin               Magnus II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin                       Dorothea of Brandenburg               Anna of Mecklenburg-Schwerin                             Eric II, Duke of Pomerania-Wolgast               Sophie of Pomerania-Stettin                       Sophie of Pomerania-Stolp               Barbara of Hesse                                         Frederick II, Elector of Saxony               Albert, Duke of Saxony                       Margarete of Austria               George, Duke of Saxony                             George of Podebrady, King of Bohemia               Sidonie of Poděbrady                       Kunigunde of Sternberg               Christine of Saxony                                   Wladyslaw II Jagiello               Casimir IV Jagiellon of Poland                       Sophia of Halshany               Barbara Jagiellon                             Albert II of Germany               Elisabeth of Austria                       Elisabeth of Bohemia