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- In 1404, Elisabeth was widowed while her son, the successor of her spouse, was still a minor. She thereby became regent. She was forced to the political act of handing the guardian regency over the County of Holstein to her former brother-in-law, Bishop Henry of Osnabrück, and the guardian regency of the Duchy of Sønderjylland, as well as the custody of her son, Duke Henry, to Queen Margaret I of Denmark and King Erik: her son Duke Henry was taken to Denmark, and her daughter Ingeborg was by Queen Margaret sent to Vadstena Abbey in Sweden. In the following years, Queen Margaret acquired large parts of Sønderjylland as security (Tønder fief, Frisland, episcopal manors in Svabsted and Stubbe), by purchase (Trøjborg, Skinkelborg, Grødersby); King Erik took over Haderslev fief as security from the fiefholder Helene Ahlefeldt, and Flensborg by the queen.
When Gottorp was about to be taken over by the Danish crown, however, Elisabeth called her son Henry back from Denmark (1408) and had a declaration of hostility sent to King Erik 14 June 1410. This led to a number of feuds, instability and the pawning of several fiefs. Her own dower lands Als, Ærø and Sundeved was taken by King Erik. Several foreign princes, among them her brother Duke Henry the Mild of Brunswick and Lunenburg (Wolfenbüttel), tried to intervene and mediate but without lasting peace. In 1415, her son Henry was declared of legal majority, the reign of Elisabeth ended and she is no longer mentioned much in the documents. In 1417, she was present in Rendsborg at the side of her son when King Erik took Slesvig and when Henry was forced to seek help from Hamburg. In 1423, her sons formed a complaint that their mother had been assaulted by the royal soldiers despite the promise that she was to be left out of the conflict: her carriage had been attacked and her male staff had been mugged and captured. This is the last time she is mentioned.
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