William the Younger, Duke of Brunswick
Duke of Brunswick (1535-1592)
William (4 July 1535 – 20 August 1592), called William the Younger (German: Wilhelm der Jüngere), was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Prince of Lüneburg from 1559 until his death. Until 1569, he ruled together with his brother, Henry of Dannenberg.
Biography
Born into the House of Welf, ruling family of the Principality of Brunswick-Lüneburg, William was the third son of Ernest I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and his wife, Duchess Sophia of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
In 1582, William began suffering from fits of insanity. These fits caused his wife Dorothea to flee him in 1584 for her own safety.
Marriage and issue
On 12 October 1561 he married Princess Dorothea of Denmark, the youngest daughter of Christian III of Denmark and his wife, Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg.
William and Dorothea had:
Sophie of Brunswick-Lüneburg (30 October 1563 – 1639); married George Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach.
Ernest II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (31 December 1564 – 2 March 1611) Prince of Lüneburg from 1592 to 1611.
Elisabeth of Brunswick-Lüneburg (19 October 1565 – 17 July 1621); married Frederick, Count of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.
Christian, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (19 November 1566 – 8 November 1633) Prince of Lüneburg from 1611 to 1633.
The public source identifies “William the Younger, Duke of Brunswick” as duke of Brunswick (1535-1592). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around William, Younger and Duke.
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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 Jun 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q62481. VIAF identifies the subject as 52898846. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1535, 1592, 1559 and 1569.
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This entry incorporates text from “William the Younger, Duke of Brunswick” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.