 Duchess Elisabeth and her children fled to Eisenach and then to her sister Dorothea Susanne of Simmern, who was married to her husband's brother, Duke John William of Saxe-Weimar.At the end of 1568, she moved back to Eisenahch, initially to the "Zollhof" court, then to the Wartburg and finally into the castle at Eisenberg

In the following years, Elisabeth wrote a number of petitions to, among others, Emperor Maximilian II, Empress Maria and Electress Anne of Saxony, trying to obtain the release of her husband.With the help of her father and brothers, she appeared before the Diet of Speyer (1570).