Ghanima Atreides (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
atreideslioness) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2025-03-18 10:01 am
atreideslioness) wrote in fandomhigh2025-03-18 10:01 am
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Mad Kings & Queens: Raving Royals and How To Survive Them [Tuesday, 2nd Period]
"Anna of Saxony," Ghanima said, launching into the lecture the moment everyone was comfortable, "--was the only child and heiress of Maurice, Elector of Saxony, and Agnes, eldest daughter of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. She was the second wife of William the Silent."
"Anna was described as proud, defiant, and stubborn as well as intelligent and passionate. However, she was reputedly physically unattractive and there are reports that she suffered from a physical malady that gave her a limp, but her wealth drew many suitors." She smiled sadly at Trebor, who was dozing on a pillow. "Inheritance makes targets of people, especially the young, and she was considered one of the wealthiest heiresses in Germany at the time."
"Eventually she accepted the suit of William I of Orange, and they were married on August 25, 1561. Her new husband, while thrilled about her dowry, soon discovered that Anna was....temperamental. Her unattractive combination of melancholic, aggressive, and suicidal tendencies, an excessive lack of financial restraint, and propensity towards very public indecency made her a liability of unprecedented scale."
"Anna's childhood had been troubled. By the age of eleven she had lost bother her parents and she grew up a lonely and self-indulged only child cared for by an uncle -- August -- who catered to her every whim because it financially benefited him. She had a long line of mentally unstable relatives, and many of her uncles and cousins were said to have suffered from mental illnesses that ranged from severe depression to complete mental collapse."
"It's unsurprising, then, that Anna's behavior was distinctly unconventional from the early days of her marriage. Pregnancy apparently pushed her over the edge - most like a bout of what's currently known as postpartum depression - and it rendered her vulnerable to increasingly irrepressible emotional episodes. Political pressures and war in the Low Countries took William away from home, leaving Anna alone, and free to indulge her excessive boredom by partying wildly and then wallowing in despair, during which times she refused daylight, food, and visitors for days on end. The death of her first child in its early infancy, and two further pregnancies in rapid succession within the next two years only served to aggravated her psyche. Abandoning all conventions of modesty and motherhood, she overindulged in alcohol, neglected her children, and grew increasingly aggressive and suicidal."
"Events climaxed in 1564, when William decided to remove the children from her care -- for the first time -- for their safety. Anna at once withdrew herself from court and turned a deaf ear to her husband's pleas for frugality and respectability. While he was still off waging war, she began a very public campaign of her own, getting exceedingly inebriated, accusing him of sexual ineptitude, and living a life of outrageous excess. They would fight, get back together, fight, get back together... while it kept them creating children, it was not creating happiness for either of them."
"And she wasn't just indiscreet with her behavior, but the more public the outrage, the better, in Anna's opinion." Ghanima said. "Nevertheless, William continued to write to her, pleading with her to regain some sense of decorum and return home. But his pleas for a more modest lifestyle were in vain. Always in public, Anna mocked his letters and tore them up."
"She took up with her lawyer, Jan Rubens, in 1570 and gave birth to their illegitimate daughter, Christina, on August 22, 1571. It was the final straw. News of this indiscretion reached her husband, who refused to acknowledge Christina as his own, and he declared his marriage to Anna annulled and removed all the other children from Anna's care, leaving behind the infant Christina."
"In September 1572 Anna decided to challenge the Imperial Court's ruling for her financial rights, as William had confiscated some of her property. At this time her Hessian and Saxon relatives had already made plans to turn Beilstein castle into a prison, to hold her captive as an adulteress, and she was sent there in October of 1572 along with Christina. Her behavior became ever more deranged, until the servants were ordered to keep all knives away from her, lest she attack someone. Anna began to suffer from hallucinations and violent outbursts."
"Anna was eventually moved to Dresden and the custody of her uncle August, the man who had raised her, in 1576. It is said her 'madness worsened,' but for perhaps very understandable reasons." Ghanima looked displeased. "August, the one person she had depended on since childhood -- and who had been taking advantage of her money the entire time -- reportedly sealed her up into two rooms. The windows were bricked-in with iron bars, and the door reportedly covered by an iron grill. Anna began to speak deliriously, nonsensical, shaking and foaming at the mouth, and this proved the final breaking point, and Christina was finally removed from her care by August and sent to be raised by Count John of Dillenburg, William the Silent's younger brother, where thankfully she was actually cared-for."
"Anna lived out the rest of her days in Dresden, until her death aged thirty-two in 1577, most likely from neglect and hemorrhaging."
"Anna was described as proud, defiant, and stubborn as well as intelligent and passionate. However, she was reputedly physically unattractive and there are reports that she suffered from a physical malady that gave her a limp, but her wealth drew many suitors." She smiled sadly at Trebor, who was dozing on a pillow. "Inheritance makes targets of people, especially the young, and she was considered one of the wealthiest heiresses in Germany at the time."
"Eventually she accepted the suit of William I of Orange, and they were married on August 25, 1561. Her new husband, while thrilled about her dowry, soon discovered that Anna was....temperamental. Her unattractive combination of melancholic, aggressive, and suicidal tendencies, an excessive lack of financial restraint, and propensity towards very public indecency made her a liability of unprecedented scale."
"Anna's childhood had been troubled. By the age of eleven she had lost bother her parents and she grew up a lonely and self-indulged only child cared for by an uncle -- August -- who catered to her every whim because it financially benefited him. She had a long line of mentally unstable relatives, and many of her uncles and cousins were said to have suffered from mental illnesses that ranged from severe depression to complete mental collapse."
"It's unsurprising, then, that Anna's behavior was distinctly unconventional from the early days of her marriage. Pregnancy apparently pushed her over the edge - most like a bout of what's currently known as postpartum depression - and it rendered her vulnerable to increasingly irrepressible emotional episodes. Political pressures and war in the Low Countries took William away from home, leaving Anna alone, and free to indulge her excessive boredom by partying wildly and then wallowing in despair, during which times she refused daylight, food, and visitors for days on end. The death of her first child in its early infancy, and two further pregnancies in rapid succession within the next two years only served to aggravated her psyche. Abandoning all conventions of modesty and motherhood, she overindulged in alcohol, neglected her children, and grew increasingly aggressive and suicidal."
"Events climaxed in 1564, when William decided to remove the children from her care -- for the first time -- for their safety. Anna at once withdrew herself from court and turned a deaf ear to her husband's pleas for frugality and respectability. While he was still off waging war, she began a very public campaign of her own, getting exceedingly inebriated, accusing him of sexual ineptitude, and living a life of outrageous excess. They would fight, get back together, fight, get back together... while it kept them creating children, it was not creating happiness for either of them."
"And she wasn't just indiscreet with her behavior, but the more public the outrage, the better, in Anna's opinion." Ghanima said. "Nevertheless, William continued to write to her, pleading with her to regain some sense of decorum and return home. But his pleas for a more modest lifestyle were in vain. Always in public, Anna mocked his letters and tore them up."
"She took up with her lawyer, Jan Rubens, in 1570 and gave birth to their illegitimate daughter, Christina, on August 22, 1571. It was the final straw. News of this indiscretion reached her husband, who refused to acknowledge Christina as his own, and he declared his marriage to Anna annulled and removed all the other children from Anna's care, leaving behind the infant Christina."
"In September 1572 Anna decided to challenge the Imperial Court's ruling for her financial rights, as William had confiscated some of her property. At this time her Hessian and Saxon relatives had already made plans to turn Beilstein castle into a prison, to hold her captive as an adulteress, and she was sent there in October of 1572 along with Christina. Her behavior became ever more deranged, until the servants were ordered to keep all knives away from her, lest she attack someone. Anna began to suffer from hallucinations and violent outbursts."
"Anna was eventually moved to Dresden and the custody of her uncle August, the man who had raised her, in 1576. It is said her 'madness worsened,' but for perhaps very understandable reasons." Ghanima looked displeased. "August, the one person she had depended on since childhood -- and who had been taking advantage of her money the entire time -- reportedly sealed her up into two rooms. The windows were bricked-in with iron bars, and the door reportedly covered by an iron grill. Anna began to speak deliriously, nonsensical, shaking and foaming at the mouth, and this proved the final breaking point, and Christina was finally removed from her care by August and sent to be raised by Count John of Dillenburg, William the Silent's younger brother, where thankfully she was actually cared-for."
"Anna lived out the rest of her days in Dresden, until her death aged thirty-two in 1577, most likely from neglect and hemorrhaging."
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