Countess Palatine Elisabeth of Simmern-Sponheim

Elisabeth of the Palatinate (; 30 June 1540 in Birkenfeld – 8 February 1594 in Wiener Neustadt) was the second wife of John Frederick II, Duke of Saxony. Life Elisabeth was born in Birkenfeld, the daughter of Frederick III, Elector Palatine, and his wife, Marie of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. Elisabeth was the third child of the couple and the second to reached adulthood. On 12 June 1558 in Weimar, Elisabeth married John Frederick II, Duke of Saxony, eldest son of John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony. He selected Grimmenstein Castle (the predecessor of Friedenstein Castle) in Gotha as their residence. During the Gotha War, Augustus, Elector of Saxony, besieged Gotha and Grimmenstein Castle and conquered them on 13 April 1567. John Frederick was taken prisoner and would spend the rest of his life (29 years) in imperial captivity. He was brought to Dresden and in June 1567 to Wiener Neustadt. Elisabeth and her children fled to Eisenach and then to her sister Dorothea Susanne of Simmern, who was married to her husband's brother, John William, Duke of Saxe-Weimar. At the end of 1568, she moved back to Eisenahch, initially to the Zollhof court, then to the Wartburg and finally into the castle at Eisenberg In the following years, Elisabeth wrote a number of petitions to, among others, Emperor Maximilian II, Empress Maria and Anne, Electress of Saxony, trying to obtain the release of her husband. With the help of her father and brothers, she appeared before the Diet of Speyer (1570). She was allowed to prostrate in front of Emperor Maximilian II at her father's Heidelberg Castle. The Emperor then reinstated her sons as Imperial Princes. Duke John William I acted as their guardian until the Division of Erfurt was made on 6 November 1572. After that Division, their guardians were Elector John George of Brandenburg (succeeded in 1578 by his nephew Margrave George Frederick I of Brandenburg-Ansbach) and Elector Palatine Frederick III and Elector Augustus of Saxony, who provided them with an education under his supervision and in his spirit.