Life
She was the firstborn child of Christian Ernst, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, and his second wife, Sophie Louise, daughter of Eberhard III, Duke of Württemberg. She was named for her father, Christian, and her mother's father, Eberhard. As the daughter of the Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, she was margravine by birth. She had five younger siblings, only two of whom survived infancy. She remained close to her relatives in Bayreuth and continued to visit them after her marriage.
She married Frederick Augustus, Duke of Saxony, the younger brother of the elector, John George IV, on 20 January 1693 at age 21. The marriage was purely political and highly unhappy. Three years later, on 17 October 1696, their son Frederick Augustus was born in Dresden. He was brought up by his paternal grandmother, Anna Sophie of Denmark. Because Christiane Eberhardine and her mother-in-law got on well, she visited her son frequently.
Christiane Eberhardine's husband converted to Catholicism to become king of Poland, but she remained faithful to her Protestant beliefs and was not present at her husband's coronation, and was never crowned queen of Poland . Her Protestant countrymen named her "The Pillar of Saxony."
Christiane Eberhardine lived in retirement in her castle at Pretzsch an der Elbe or at Hartenfels Castle in Torgau, and was only seen occasionally at festivities in Dresden. In her voluntary exile she concentrated on cultural activities and took interest in the faith of orphaned children. She was also active in the field of economics; in 1697 she took over operation of the glass factory in Pretzsch, founded by Constantin Fremel.
A lonely woman, Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth died at the age of 55 and was buried on 6 September in the parish church of Pretzsch. Neither her husband nor her son were present at the funeral.
In commemoration of her death, Johann Sebastian Bach composed the cantata Laß, Fürstin, laß noch einen Strahl, BWV 198, to a text of Johann Christoph Gottsched, first performed on 15 October 1727 in the Paulinerkirche, the church of the University of Leipzig.
She was great-grandmother to Louis XVI of France, Louis XVIII of France, Charles X of France and Charles IV of Spain.
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