| Benedicta of Hanover | |
|---|---|
| Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg | |
| Spouse | John Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg |
| Issue | |
| Charlotte, Duchess of Modena Wilhelmine Amalia, Holy Roman Empress |
|
| Father | Edward of the Palatinate |
| Mother | Anna Gonzaga |
| Born | 14 March 1652 Paris, France |
| Died | 12 August 1730 (aged 78) Braunschweiger Schloss, Hanover, Germany |
Benedicta Henrietta of the Palatinate (Benedicta Henrietta Philippina; 14 March 1652 – 12 August 1730) was a German princess, the third and youngest daughter of Edward of the Palatinate and his French wife, the political hostess Anna Gonzaga. Benedicta became the Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg, or of Hanover, by her marriage to Duke John Frederick, and was commonly referred to as Benedicta of Hanover. She was an ancestor of Louis XVI of France as well as many of the reigning European monarchs, including Juan Carlos I, Manuel II of Portugal, Umberto II of Italy and Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg.[1]
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Born in Paris to the landless Edward of the Palatinate, Bénédicte Henriette's paternal grandparents were Frederick V, Elector Palatine and Princess Elizabeth of Scotland, the Winter Queen. Her maternal grandparents were Charles I, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat and his French wife Catherine de Guise, daughter of Charles de Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne.
Bénédicte was "reared from her babyhood" by Louise de La Fayette, a courtier-turned-nun known as Sister Louise-Angélique.[2] She was the youngest of three daughters. Her eldest sister, Luise Marie, married Charles Theodore, Prince of Salm and had a son and two daughters. The middle sister, Anne Henriette Julie, married the mad Henri Jules, Prince of Condé, son of le Grand Condé, and remained in France.
Anne Henriette became an ancestor of the famous Philippe Égalité and the present French pretender Henri d'Orléans. Anne Henriette named one of her daughters Louise Bénédicte presumably after both her sisters, which indicates the princesses were close, or at least on friendly terms.
She was married at the age of fourteen to a distant cousin, John Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, who was the same age as her father, and childless. The Hanoverian prince harbored a love for Latin European culture; John Frederick supported the French party in Germany, converted to Roman Catholicism from Lutheranism after traveling to Italy, and built a palace in Herrenhausen inspired by the Palace of Versailles. Thus, while John Frederick's countrymen accused him of being a religious bigot, Louis XIV considered the duke a desirable suitor for Princess Bénédicte, and they were married on 30 November 1668. The union, which had been arranged by "the busy French diplomatist De Gourville"[3] and likely Benedicta's mother, produced four daughters.
John Frederick died in 1679 without a male heir, and the duchy of Brunswick was inherited by his Protestant younger brother, Ernest Augustus, the husband of Sophia of Hanover and father of George I of Great Britain. Incidentally, Benedicta was both the niece and sister-in-law of Sophia, heiress presumptive to the British throne. After her husband's death, Benedicta returned to her native France and resided there with her sister, the princess of Condé.
The Holy Roman Empress Eleonor Magdalene of the Palatinate-Neuburg had decided early on that Benedicta's youngest daughter, Princess Wilhelmina Amalia, would be her daughter-in-law. To prepare her daughter for the prestigious role of Holy Roman Empress, Benedicta sent her to Maubuisson to be educated by her paternal aunt Louise Holladine. The princess received a Catholic education from her great-aunt, the abbess of Maubuisson, and did not return to Hanover until she was 20 years old, in 1693. Benedicta helped arrange Wilhelmina's marriage to the Archduke Joseph, future Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I, in 1699. Through Wilhelmina's eldest daughter, the Archduchess Maria Josepha, Benedicta Henrietta is an ancestor of King Juan Carlos I of Spain and the present royal houses of Parma, Luxembourg and Belgium.
Benedicta's eldest surviving daughter, Charlotte, had married Rinaldo d'Este in Modena on 11 February 1696. Rinaldo wanted to encourage relations between Modena and Hanover. On 29 September 1710, Charlotte died in childbirth, aged 39.
She corresponded with Gottfried Leibniz.[4] Benedicta died the age of 78, at Asnieres, her late sister's residence near Paris, on 12 August 1730.
| German nobility | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sophia Dorothea of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg |
Duchess consort of Brunswick-Lüneburg 1668–1679 Served alongside: Éléonore Desmier d'Olbreuse |
Vacant
Title next held by
Sophia of Hanover |