Henry, Duke of Brunswick-Dannenberg
Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Prince of Lüneburg
Henry III (1533 – 19 January 1598), a member of the House of Welf, was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and ruling Prince of Lüneburg from 1559 until 1569, jointly with his brother William the Younger. From 1569, he ruled over the Lordship of Dannenberg until his death.
Henry was the second surviving son of Duke Ernest I of Brunswick-Lüneburg and assumed the rule in the Principality of Lüneburg upon the early death of his elder brother Francis Otto in 1559. He and his younger brother William fell out with each other in 1569, when Henry married the Ascanian princess Ursula of Saxe-Lauenburg (1545–1620), daughter of Duke Francis I, and demanded the partition of the Lüneburg lands.
He eventually waived his claims to the Lüneburg principality and received Dannenberg as a paréage as well as an annual payment in compensation. He also ensured that his descendants were entitled to inherit the Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel estates upon the extinction of the line; therefore, his youngest son Augustus could assume the rule in Wolfenbüttel in 1635.
Henry died in Dannenberg.
Marriage and children who reached adulthood
In 1569 Henry married Ursula of Saxe-Lauenburg (*1545 – 22 October 1620*, Schernebeck), daughter of Francis I of Saxe-Lauenburg. They had the following children:
Julius Ernest (1571–1636)
Francis (1572–1601) Provost of Strasbourg
Anne Sophie (1573–1574)
Heinrich (1574–1575)
Sybil Elizabeth (1576–1630), married Anthony II, Count of Delmenhorst
Sidonia (1577–1645)
Augustus (1579–1666)
His agnatic progeny went extinct in 1884.
References
Sources
Ward, A.W.; Prothero, G.W.; Leathes, Stanley, eds.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Henry, Duke of Brunswick-Dannenberg” as duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Prince of Lüneburg. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Prince of Lüneburg. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q65819. VIAF identifies the subject as 77525480. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1533, 1598, 1559 and 1569.
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