Anna of Denmark (1532–1585)

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Anna of Denmark (1532–1585)

Princess of Denmark and electress of Saxony. Born on November 22, 1532; died on October 1, 1585; daughter of Christian III, king of Denmark and Norway (r. 1535–1559), and Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg (1511–1571); married Augustus (1526–1586), elector of Saxony on October 7, 1584; children: Christian I (b. 1560), elector of Saxony; Dorothea of Saxony (1563–1587).

Anna of Denmark was the daughter of Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg and Christian III, king of Denmark, who consolidated the gains of the Lutheran Reformation in Denmark by imprisoning all Catholic bishops until they agreed to cease their resistance. Through her influence, her husband Augustus turned to Lutheranism in 1574. As elector of Saxony from 1553–86, Augustus then helped secure the adoption of Formula Concordiae, a Lutheran creed of orthodoxy, in 1580.

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Anna of Denmark (1532–1585)

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