Anna of Oldenburg (14 November 150124 September 1575) was a Countess consort of East Frisia as the spouse of Count Enno II of East Frisia. She was the Regent of East Frisia in 1542–1561 as the guardian for her minor sons, Johan II and Edzard II. Her reign lasted until 1561 and was generally supported by the Estates. Early life Anna was born in Oldenburg as the only daughter of Count Johann ΧΙV von Oldenburg-Delmenhorst (1483-1526) and Princess Anna von Anhalt-Zerbst (1460-1531). She had four surviving brothers Johann VI, Georg, Christopher and Anton I. She married count Enno II of East Frisia in 1530. Regency In 1540, Enno II of East Frisia died, and was succeeded by their minor son, Edzard II. Anna was appointed regent of the regency government in 1542. Her chief advisor was her brother, count Christopher of Oldenburg. The main characteristic of her policy towards the Reformation was an effort to balance the various confessions and allow them to coexist. She adhered to the faith herself, but saw that among the East Frisian nobility Lutheranism as Zwinglianism were about equally distributed. It was clear that a selection of one of these as the state religion of East Frisia, would not be enforceable. Catholics and Spiritualists were also allowed to practise their faith in East Frisia. Only under pressure from the emperor, was Baptism forbidden in 1549. The main church administrator at her court until 1550 was Polish reformer Jan Łaski. She founded the police force in East Frisia (1545), reformed the legal system. Next to its administrative tasks, the Chancellery was given judiciary tasks. Councillors and legal scholars were added to the Chancellery to carry out these tasks. The Chancellery was mostly a court of appeals, but would also act a court of first instance in cases involving the nobility. During Anna's rule, the armed conflict with the Harlingerland flared up one more time, when Count John II "the Mad" of Harlingerland seized a strip of land at the Accumer Deep. Anna took her case to the Reichskammergericht and to the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle. The Circle arrested John, who had made many enemies, and he died in captivity in 1562. In 1558, she abolished the law that the first born would succeed as sole ruler of the county; instead, power was to be shared between her three sons, Edzard, Christopher and Johan. This was meant to