Hedwig was a daughter of Landgrave
William IV of Hesse-Kassel (1532–1592) from his marriage to
Sabine (1549–1581), a daughter of Duke
Christopher of Württemberg. She married on 11 September 1597 at
Wilhelmsburg Castle in
Schmalkalden with Count
Ernst of Schaumburg (1569–1622). When Hedwig was engaged in 1593, Hedwig's brother
Maurice had made it a condition that Ernst would share the government of Schaumburg with his half-brother
Adolph. In 1559, Schaumburg was divided by the Treaty of Minden, and Ernst received Lower Schaumburg, consisting of the
districts Sachsenhagen,
Hagenburg and
Bokeloh. Hedwig and Ernst initially lived at the available castle in Sachsenhagen, and extended it to a palace; Ernst later moved his seat of government to
Bückeburg. Ernst died in 1627. Hedwig constructed a
Princely Mausoleum in the St.-Martini Church in
Stadthagen. Their marriage remained childless. Hedwig received the city and district of Stadthagen as her
wittum. She possessed a Hessian bond of without interest. She gave her nephew
William V an annual pension and later bequeathed her bond and all her dower rights to the county of Schaumburg to his widow, Landgravine
Amalie Elisabeth, whom she also appointed executrix of her last will and testament. Hedwig died in 1644 and was buried in the Princely Mausoleum in the St.-Martini Church in
Stadthagen, next to her husband. An
epitaph above her grave reads:
There is no other, holier decision of widowhood, than to pass down to the living that which was entrusted by the last will and to guard it, when it is realized. == References ==