Sunday, April 30, 2006

Anna II of Limborg

1520-65 Princess-Abbess Anna II von Limburg of Herford and Gerresheim (Germany)
She had been Koadjutorin 1515-20, and was the first to be appointed Princess of the Empire of the territory in 1523 and 7 years later she introduced the reformation in her principality, whereafter Herford became a secular protestant Stift. She was daughter of Count Adolf von Limburg and Elisabeth von Reichenstein Her sister Agnes was Abbess of Freckenhorst and Metelen, (d.1570) and Katharina was Abbess of Borghorst (d.1572). Anna resigned and lived another 20 years before her death in 1585.
Abbesses were also rulers in Ecclesiastical lands and thus titled "Princess" when so.

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