Henry the Middle, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg

Henry the Mean, Duke of Brunswick- Lüneburg ( * 1468, † February 19, 1532 in Vienna Hausen ), was from 1486 to 1520 Prince of Lüneburg.

Life

Henry of Brunswick -Lüneburg was born in 1468 as son of Otto the Victorious and Anna of Nassau. 1486 he took over the government of his mother, who had the Pious in possession of the regency after the death of his grandfather Frederick. His government was particularly influenced by the involvement in the Hildesheim pin feud, in which Henry stood on the side of the Hildesheim Bishop and in opposition to the Hildesheimer nobility and their allied Brunswick Guelph. Although Heinrich succeeded in 1519 in the Battle of Soltau military to achieve victory, but through the intervention of the newly elected Emperor Charles V, the -won on the battlefield victory turned into a defeat. Henry had stood at the election of the king on the side of the French Kronprätenden and thus earned the enmity of Charles V.

So when the Braunschweiger phoned after the defeat at the Battle of Soltau Charles V. to help, imposed this 1521, the imperial ban against him. Henry, however, had handed over the threat in mind, in 1520 the government of his two eldest sons and traveled to France to the court of the French king into exile. It was not until 1527 during the time of the Reformation in Lüneburg country he returned and the government tried to take over again with the help of the Reformation opponents. After this failed at the diet to Scharnebeck, he went back to France and did not return until after the abolition of the imperial ban back in 1530 and spent his last years lived only in Lüneburg, which had instructed his son Ernst as a residence, then in Winsen Luhe and Vienna Hausen, where he "in seclusion " lived and died in 1532 on a hunt.

Immediately after the death of his wife Margaret of Saxony on 7 December 1528, he went to Lüneburg a second, unebenbürtige marriage with the beautiful Anna von Campe, who had already been his mistress since 1520, and which had previously borne him two sons. " Henry's moral life has not been without reproach, is yet given us as the basis of his trip to France, his love for the beautiful Anna von Campe The intensified the contrast between the Father and the chaste and austere son, who entirely on side of his deeply offended mother. presented, "writes Karl Benrath 1887.

Henry was buried in Vienna Hausen monastery, even if not directly in the enclosure area, but in the monastery church. Around 1579 a grave stone of Henry was the Middle customized with a height of 2.05 m and a width of 1.24 m.

Progeny

Heinrich married on February 27, 1487 in Celle Margaret ( 1469-1528 ), daughter of the Elector Ernst of Saxony, with whom he had the following children:

• Anna (1492 -? )
• Elisabeth (1494-1572)

• Otto I (1495-1549), Duke of Brunswick- Harburg

• Ernst I (1497-1546), Duke of Brunswick- Lüneburg

• Apollonia (1499-1571), nun
• Anna (1502-1568)

• Franz (1508-1549), Duke of Brunswick- Gifhorn

From his second marriage to Anna von Campe he had two sons:

• Franz Heinrich, died young in France
• Henry, died young in captivity in Celle