Sibylla of Anhalt

Sibylla of Anhalt (28 September 1564 – 26 October 1614) was a German princess from the House of Ascania who became Duchess of Württemberg as the wife of Duke Frederick I. Life Sibylla of Anhalt was born in Bernburgon 28 September 1564, as the fourth child of Joachim Ernest, Prince of Anhalt (1536–1586) and his first wife, Agnes of Barby-Mühlingen (1540–1569), daughter of Wolfgang I, Count of Barby-Mühlingen. She had three older sisters and two younger brothers. Sybilla lost her mother when she was five years old, and her father remarried two years later. By her stepmother, Eleonore of Württemberg (1552–1618), she had ten half-siblings. In 1577, Sybilla's older sister Anna Maria was relieved from her post as Imperial abbess of Gernrode and Frose in order to marry Joachim Frederick of Brieg; under pressure from their father, the chapter elected the 13-year-old Sibylla as her successor. Sibylla was confirmed in her office by the emperor Rudolph II. During her reign as abbess, the only record of her activities comes from an abbey document in which she invested the widow of Stefan Molitor (the first Evangelical superintendent of the abbey) with a piece of land. In 1581, Sibylla was relieved from her post in order to marry Frederick, Count of Mömpelgard and heir apparent of the Duchy of Württemberg. The marriage was arranged by her stepmother, Eleonore of Württemberg, and the wedding took place in Stuttgart on 22 May of that year. Her successor as abbess was her younger half-sister Agnes Hedwig. Sibylla bore her husband 15 children during the first 15 years of their marriage. Frederick succeeded his father's cousin Ludwig as Duke of Württemberg in 1593.