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Jakobea of Baden | |
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 Jakobea of Baden, posthumous engraving,c. 1600 | |
| Born | 16 January 1558 |
| Died | 3 September 1597(1597-09-03) (aged 39) Düsseldorf |
| Buried | Kreuzherren Church in Düsseldorf |
| Noble family | Zähringen |
| Spouse | John William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg |
| Father | Philibert, Margrave of Baden-Baden |
| Mother | Mechthild of Bavaria |
PrincessJakobea of Baden (16 January 1558 – 3 September 1597 inDüsseldorf, buried in the St. Lambert Church inDüsseldorf) was daughter of the MargravePhilibert of Baden-Baden andMechthild of Bavaria.
Jakobea of Baden-Baden became an orphan at an early age and was raised at the court of her maternal uncle DukeAlbert V of Bavaria, where she had several suitors. At the insistence of her cousinErnest of Bavaria, who wasArchbishop of Cologne, EmperorRudolph II, KingPhilip II of Spain and PopeGregory XIII, she married, on 16 June 1585, to DukeJohn William of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, who was considered physically unattractive and mentally unstable and was the son and heir apparent ofWilliam "the Rich" of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, in an attempt to keep the confessionally wavering duke William in the Catholic camp. The marriage was celebrated lavishly in Düsseldorf, which at the time was ravaged by theCologne War, and was documented by Dietrich Graminäus in his volumeBeschreibung derer Fürstlicher Güligscher ec. Hochzeit.
William the Rich could never overcome the early death of his eldest sonCharles Frederick. He despised his second son and successor, John William, and gave him little chance to learn to govern and thus contributed to the disaster that befell his duchies.[citation needed]
When William died in 1592, John William inherited the duchies and Jakobea tried to rule on behalf of her husband, who had been locked up because of his temper tantrums. She had been born aProtestant, but was raised as aRoman Catholic and did not choose for either side. She never became pregnant, possibly because her husband wasimpotent. She had a relationship with the much younger Dietrich von Hall zu Ophoven,[1] who wasAmtmann atMonheim am Rhein and was eventually arrested and locked up in the tower ofDüsseldorf Castle.[2] She tried to plead her case in theRoman Rota and at the imperial court inPrague, but the case made little progress. The Catholic side, represented primarily by her sister-in-lawSibylle of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, then took matters into their own hands.[citation needed]
She was found dead in her room on the morning of 3 September 1597, after she had received guests and toasted on her husband's health the night before. Eyewitness accounts suggest that she was strangled or suffocated.[3] The motive for the move appears to have been to make room for a more fertile wife, who could save the endangereddynasty.
She was buried on 10 September 1597 in a closed ceremony in the Kreuzherren Church in Düsseldorf. On 23 March 1820, her body was transferred to the St. Lambert Church in Düsseldorf and solemnly reburied.
The City Museum in Düsseldorf has a lock of her hair.
Comparing Jakobea toMary Stuart is not entirely far-fetched; even so, it may be an exaggeration. Jakobea of Baden was overwhelmed by the confusing conditions at the religiously divided court in Düsseldorf and fled in a love affair for some amusement. When she was held in humiliating captivity and lost all hope of help from her powerful relatives in Baden and Bavaria, she showed her true caliber and attitude. The popular misinformation that Jakobea of Baden was beheaded, would make her more similar to Mary Stuart.[citation needed]
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