Julius Francis, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg

Julius Francis (Prague, *16 September 1641 – 30 September 1689*, Reichstadt) was duke of Saxe-Lauenburg between 1666 and 1689. He was a son of Duke Julius Henry and his third wife Anna Magdalena of Lobkowicz (*20 July 1606 – 7 September 1668*), daughter of Baron William the Younger Popel von Lobkowitz (Popel z Lobkowicz). He was officially known as Julius Franz von Sachsen, Engern und Westfalen.

Life

His father Julius Henry had acquired sprawling estates around and a castle in Ploschkowitz (Ploskovice) and Schlackenwerth (Ostrov), Kingdom of Bohemia. Julius Francis had inherited more estates from his Bohemian mother, which is why the dukes of Saxe-Lauenburg had been adopted into the Bohemian nobility, however, not as imperially immediate aristocrats, as in their homeland.

Having no sons Julius Francis provided for the legal grounds of female succession in Saxe-Lauenburg. With his death the Lauenburg line of the House of Ascania was extinct in the male line. So Julius Francis' two daughters Anna Mary Francisca and Mary Francisca Sibylla Augusta fought for the succession of the former, the elder sister. Also Julius Francis' cousin, Eleonore Charlotte of Saxe-Lauenburg-Franzhagen, claimed the succession.

Their weakness was abused by Duke George William of the neighbouring Brunswick-Lunenburgian Principality of Lunenburg-Celle, who invaded Saxe-Lauenburg with his troops, thus inhibiting the ascension of the legal heiress.

Also other monarchies claimed the succession, resulting into a conflict involving further the neighbouring duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and of Danish Holstein, as well as the five Ascanian-ruled Principalities of Anhalt, the Electorate of Saxony, which had succeeded the Saxe-Wittenbergian Ascanians in 1422, Sweden and Brandenburg.

Militarily engaged were Celle and Danish Holstein, which agreed on 9 October 1693 (Hamburger Vergleich), that Celle - anyway de facto holding most of Saxe-Lauenburg - would retain the duchy in personal union. In 1728 Charles VI finally legitimised the de facto takeover. Anna Mary Francisca and Sibylla Augusta, never waiving their claim, were dispossessed in Saxe-Lauenburg and the former exiled in Ploschkowitz.

Marriage and issue

On 9 April 1668 Julius Francis married in Sulzbach Hedwig of the Palatinate (Sulzbach, *15 April 1650 – 23 November 1681*, Hamburg), daughter of Christian Augustus, Count Palatine of Sulzbach, making her the Saxon consort. They had three daughters:

• Maria Anna Theresia of Saxony, Angria and Westphalia (*1670 – 1671*)

• Anna Maria Franziska of Saxony, Angria and Westphalia (Neuhaus upon Elbe, *13 June 1672 – 15 October 1741*, Reichstadt);

∞ (1) on 29 October 1690 in Raudnitz upon Elbe (1) Philip William Augustus, Count Palatine of Neuburg (Neuburg upon Danube, *18 November 1668 - 10 April 1693*, Reichstadt), son of Philip William, Elector Palatine;

∞ (2) on 2 July 1697 in Düsseldorf Grand Duke Gian Gastone de' Medici of Tuscany (Florence, *24 May 1671 – 9 July 1737*, ibidem)

• Franziska Sibylle Augusta of Saxony, Angria and Westphalia (Ratzeburg, *21 January 1675 – 10 July 1733*, Ettlingen)

∞ on 27 March 1690 in Raudnitz Margrave Louis William of Baden-Baden.

External links

• Otto von Heinemann (1881) (in German). "Julius Franz, H. v. Sachsen-Lauenburg". In Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). 14. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 670.