Sabina, Duchess of Bavaria

Sabina of Palatinate-Simmern (; 1528–1578), also known as Sabina of Bavaria, was the daughter of John II, Count Palatine of Simmern and Beatrix of Baden.

Life Sabina was the eleventh of the twelve children born to her parents. Not much is known about her childhood, but she was most likely given a similar education to other noble children of her rank.

Sabina's father had received a humanist and law-based education, and was in correspondence with many prominent persons and scholars of the day. Highly regarded by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, under whom he held several official positions (such as the emperor's representative at the imperial government in Nuremberg, and later 1536 to 1539 he was president of the Imperial Chamber Court in Speyer). As a ruler, politician and jurist, Johann II was so popular throughout the empire that he was usually simply called "Duke Hans" [German : Herzog Hans].

Sabinas mother was the daughter of Christoph of Baden-Baden and Ottilie of Katzenelnbogen. Through her grandmother Sabina could claim a relationship the Wittelsbach and Habsburg family. The epitaph on her funerary monument describes her as a person who lived an honorable way of life, and gave no room to unseemly manners."

In 1532, Sabina's mother died, in Heidelberg.

Her father remained a widower for 19 years until 1554, when he remarried to Maria Jakoba von Oettingen-Oettingen, just two years younger than Sabina.

Sabina was as a child raised in the Catholic faith of which her father was a staunch supporter and raised his children to be very pious. This coupled with the fact that the small principality of Palatine-Simmern was small and relatively poor, and therefore not able to afford the substantial dowries required to arrange marriages for all their daughters, meant that many of Sabinas older sisters went on to become nuns, apart from Sabina and her older sister Elisabeth, who married George II of Erbach and younger sister Helena who married Philip III of Hanau-Münzenberg. Marriage

Sabina's marriage was arranged to Lamoral d'Egmont in 1543 when she was 16 years old, by Emperor Charles V. and attended by Emperor Charles V and Ferdinand II of Inner Austria, Archduke Maximilian, German electors and other dignitaries. The couple were married by John Weze, Archbishop of Lund.

The couple would go on to have twelve children and seemed to have a good marriage. Diking out new land near the river Oude Maas, d'Egmont named these Beijerlanden after his wife. Sabina and her husband took a trip to Heidelberg in 1560, she had not seen her brother in person since her 1544 marriage. This was nominally a family visit but it also had an official component as Sabina's brother had succeeded Otto Henry as Elector Palatine while Anna as the daughter of an Elector held a rank akin to a princess and was Princess of Orange by her marriage.

As a consequence there were times when both women were jostling to be the first to get through a narrow door-way and thus enter a room first and be considered the highest ranked. Eventually a compromise was reached by both ladies entering arm-in-arm at the same time. Kept under custody with no formal accusations lodged against them, nor any sort of a preliminary investigation, no trace of judicial review had preceded the long imprisonment of two men.

With her husband arrested, Sabina wrote a letter to Philip II, King of Spain, to plead for his release.

Her husband was kept in custody in Ghent awaiting his final fate, but no order for their arrest had been read to them or drawn up, but finally after a period of two months, during which Philip received many inquires from various persons into matters of the men and their fate (many of them spurred on by Sabina herself). She had also utilized her network to write to Queen Elizabeth I of England and, also sent an envoy to France and to Spain to plead for her husband with Philips wife, Elisabeth of Valois, Ruy Gómez de Silva and confessor de la Cueva (Philip refused to receive the envoy) Sabina's brother Frederick III of the Palatinate also lobbied for his release.

In the castle of Ghent, where the Counts of Egmont and Hornes had been transported, they were kept isolated and not even relatives were allowed to visit nor were they even allowed outside. Because her husband was not allowed to leave his room, and that she herself could not see him, she feared that his life was thereby in danger; Sabina then asked for his mercy or at that at least he were to be allowed to get some fresh air in the castle; she also complained about the confiscation of his goods, which was contrary to the laws and justice, before her husband had been condemned; but also added that she placed all her trust in the goodness, compassion, and justice of the king. Finally he wrote a letter to Sabina in which he enclosed a ring given to him by Philip II.

(son of Maarten van Horne)one of the signatories of the Union of Brussels. Francoise (b.1549-d.) Segerse Cornelis (b. 1550- d. 1599) Magdalena (b.1552-d.)also known as Marie -Christine, married firstly to Edouard de Bournonville, after the closure of this convent went to live in the vicinity of Brussels. daughter of Charles de Pierrevive, seigneur de Lesigny and Louise de Clermont. daughter of Gilles, baron d'Aubignies. Had issue.

After her husband's execution Sabina displayed the d'Egmont coat of arms in front of her house, but it was removed on orders of the Duke of Alba. The body of the Count of Egmont, after being placed in the Poor Clares convent in Brussels, following his departure from St. Gudula, was transported to the church of Sotteghem, in Flanders, where he was buried on June 16.

Soon thereafter the d'Egmont Brussels residence and Gaasbeek Castle and all their inventories were put up for auction. From there she wrote letters to Philip II and to the Duke of Alba asking to remain in Philip's good graces and asking for the inheritance she and her children were due as legitimate heirs of the count of Egmont.

Furthermore, apart from this inheritance her husband had substantial estates as the count of Egmont, prince de Gavre and van Steenhuysen, baron de Fiennes, Gaesbeke With the backing of the French king the estates were restored to the family in 1576.

Armentières was one such property which was later returned to Sabina's children. A Te Deum was sung at the church in Armentières to give thanks to God that he had wanted the Countess d'Egmont and her children to be returned to possession of their father's property.

Sabina later lived for a time in Liège, before being offered to live at Waterloo castle by Jan IV de Merode, Lord of Westerloo She also acted as a guardian of her two oldest sons and administedered their lands, she also set about to settling her children; the sons in the military in Antwerp, She was buried next to her husband in Egmont's crypt at the Church of the Assumption of Our Lady in Zottegem.