Nobility, Electress of Saxony and titular Queen of Poland. She was the eldest daughter of Margrave Christian Ernst of Bayreuth and Sophie von Württemberg and married Friedrich August von Sachsen in 1693. She gave birth to their only child, a son, three years later; he was named after the father. Hurt by her husband’s unfaithfulness and by his conversion to Catholicism to become the King of Poland, she left Dresden and lived in the Castles of Pretzsch and Torgau. In her self-imposed exile, she would not see her husband for years at a time. Because of her Protestant beliefs, she was never crowned Queen of Poland. She never even set foot into Poland, not even for her husband’s coronation. The cultural and social life at her courts flourished during her reign, yet she also cared for orphans in the surrounding villages. Neither her husband nor son attended her burial. In commemoration of her death, Johann Sebastian Bach composed the cantata Laß, Fürstin, laß noch einen Strahl, BWV 198, to a text by Johann Christoph Gottsched, first performed October 15th, 1727 in the Paulinerkirche, the church of the University of Leipzig.

Nobility, Electress of Saxony and titular Queen of Poland. She was the eldest daughter of Margrave Christian Ernst of Bayreuth and Sophie von Württemberg and married Friedrich August von Sachsen in 1693. She gave birth to their only child, a son, three years later; he was named after the father. Hurt by her husband’s unfaithfulness and by his conversion to Catholicism to become the King of Poland, she left Dresden and lived in the Castles of Pretzsch and Torgau. In her self-imposed exile, she would not see her husband for years at a time. Because of her Protestant beliefs, she was never crowned Queen of Poland. She never even set foot into Poland, not even for her husband’s coronation. The cultural and social life at her courts flourished during her reign, yet she also cared for orphans in the surrounding villages. Neither her husband nor son attended her burial. In commemoration of her death, Johann Sebastian Bach composed the cantata Laß, Fürstin, laß noch einen Strahl, BWV 198, to a text by Johann Christoph Gottsched, first performed October 15th, 1727 in the Paulinerkirche, the church of the University of Leipzig.

Bio by: Linda Davis