As the third born son and with primogeniture in Saxe-Lauenburg Francis II made a military career in imperial services. In 1571 his highly indebted father Francis I resigned in favour of his eldest surviving son Magnus II, who had promised to redeem the pawned ducal demesnes with funds he gained as Swedish military commander and by his marriage to a Swedish princess. However, Magnus did not redeem pawns but further alienated ducal possessions, which ignited a conflict between Magnus and his father and brothers as well as the estates of the duchy, further escalating due to Magnus' violent temperament.
In 1573 Francis deposed Magnus and reascended to the throne. The following year Magnus hired troops in order to take Saxe-Lauenburg with violence. Francis II, an experienced military commander, and Duke Adolphus of Holstein-Gottorp, then Lower SaxonCircle Colonel (Kreisobrist), then helped Francis I to defeat Magnus. In return Saxe-Lauenburg had to cede the bailiwick of Steinhorst to Adolphus' Holstein-Gottorp in 1575. Francis II again helped his father to inhibit Magnus' second military attempt to overthrow his father in 1578.[1] Francis I then made Francis II his vicegerent actually governing the duchy.
In 1581 – shortly before he died and after consultations with his son Prince-Archbishop Henry of Bremen and Emperor Rudolph II, but unconcerted with his other sons Magnus and Maurice – Francis I made his third son Francis II, whom he considered the ablest, his sole successor, violating the rules of primogeniture.[2]
This severed the anyway difficult relations with the estates of the duchy, which fought the ducal practice of growing indebtedness.[2] Francis only officiated as administrator of Saxe-Lauenburg. Magnus appealed at Rudolph II, who in 1585 finally decided in favour of Francis II, as agreed with Francis I in 1581. Francis II, who meanwhile had won his brother Maurice, by sharing the reign with him, lured Magnus into a trap and captured him later in 1585. Francis and Maurice kept their brother imprisoned for the rest of his life, mostly in the castle of Ratzeburg, where he died in 1603.
The violation of the primogeniture, however, gave grounds for the estates to perceive the upcoming duke as illegitimate. This forced Francis II into negotiations, which ended on 16 December 1585 with the constitutional act of the "Eternal Union" (German: Ewige Union) of the representatives of Saxe-Lauenburg's nobility and cities, Lauenburg upon Elbe and Ratzeburg, then altogether constituted as the estates of the duchy, led by the Land Marshall, a hereditary office held by the family von Bülow. Francis II accepted their establishment as a permanent institution with a crucial say in government matters. In return the estates accepted Francis II as legitimate and rendered him homage as duke in 1586.
Francis' coat-of-arms as of 1608 on St. Jacobi Church in Cuxhaven. Abbreviated inscription: V.[on] G.[ottes] G.[naden] F.[ranz] H.[erzog] Z.[u] S.[achsen,] E.[ngern] V.[nd] W.[estfalen] (trl. Of God's Grace Francis Duke of Saxony, Angria and Westphalia)
The relations between estates and duke improved since Francis II redeemed ducal pawns with money he had earned as imperial commander.[3] Already earlier in 1585, after consultations with his brother Prince-Archbishop Henry, Francis II decreed a constitution (Kirchenordnung) for the Lutheran church of Saxe-Lauenburg.[4]
In 1592 Francis II granted his second wife Maria of Brunswick-Lüneburg a manorial estate near Schulendorf.[5] Starting in 1608 Francis extended the existing house to a castle with a large garden, called Franzgarten or Franzhof, in the end the name Franzhagen prevailed.[6] Francis II left workers, employed in castle constructions, short. Till his death he used the castle, which his widow Mary then used until she deceased in 1626.[7]
In 1608 Francis II acquired the minting regal for Saxe-Lauenburg.[1] After Maurice had died in 1612, Francis became the sole ruling duke. In 1616 the ducal residential castle in Lauenburg upon Elbe, started in 1180–1182 by Duke Bernard I, burnt down. Francis then also used another residence in Neuhaus.[8] Francis died in 1619 and was buried in the ducal family crypt in the St. Mary Magdalene Church in Lauenburg upon Elbe, his widow Mary, died in 1626, was buried alongside him.[9]
Marie (18 February 1576 – 13 March 1625, Schwarzenbek)
Augustus (Ratzeburg, 17 February 1577 – 18 January 1656, Lauenburg upon Elbe), Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg between 1619 and 1656
Philip (Ratzeburg, 17 August 1578 – 18 April 1605, Lauenburg upon Elbe)
Catharina Ursula (Ratzeburg, 18 April 1580 – 18 April 1611)
On 10 November 1582 Francis II married in Wolfenbüttel his second wife, Maria of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Schladen, 13 January 1566 – 13 August 1626, Lauenburg upon Elbe), daughter of Duke Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, making her the new consort. Mary and Francis had 14 children, of whom the following 12 reached adulthood:
1 2 Cordula Bornefeld, "Die Herzöge von Sachsen-Lauenburg", in: Die Fürsten des Landes: Herzöge und Grafen von Schleswig, Holstein und Lauenburg [De slevigske hertuger; German], Carsten Porskrog Rasmussen (ed.) on behalf of the Gesellschaft für Schleswig-Holsteinische Geschichte, Neumünster: Wachholtz, 2008, pp. 373–389, here p. 381. ISBN978-3-529-02606-5
1 2 Cordula Bornefeld, "Die Herzöge von Sachsen-Lauenburg", in: Die Fürsten des Landes: Herzöge und Grafen von Schleswig, Holstein und Lauenburg [De slevigske hertuger; German], Carsten Porskrog Rasmussen (ed.) on behalf of the Gesellschaft für Schleswig-Holsteinische Geschichte, Neumünster: Wachholtz, 2008, pp. 373–389, here p. 380. ISBN978-3-529-02606-5
↑ Cordula Bornefeld, "Die Herzöge von Sachsen-Lauenburg", in: Die Fürsten des Landes: Herzöge und Grafen von Schleswig, Holstein und Lauenburg [De slevigske hertuger; German], Carsten Porskrog Rasmussen (ed.) on behalf of the Gesellschaft für Schleswig-Holsteinische Geschichte, Neumünster: Wachholtz, 2008, pp. 373–389, here p. 382. ISBN978-3-529-02606-5
↑ Cordula Bornefeld, "Die Herzöge von Sachsen-Lauenburg", in: Die Fürsten des Landes: Herzöge und Grafen von Schleswig, Holstein und Lauenburg [De slevigske hertuger; German], Carsten Porskrog Rasmussen (ed.) on behalf of the Gesellschaft für Schleswig-Holsteinische Geschichte, Neumünster: Wachholtz, 2008, pp. 373–389, here p. 379. ISBN978-3-529-02606-5
↑ Cordula Bornefeld, "Die Herzöge von Sachsen-Lauenburg", in: Die Fürsten des Landes: Herzöge und Grafen von Schleswig, Holstein und Lauenburg [De slevigske hertuger; German], Carsten Porskrog Rasmussen (ed.) on behalf of the Gesellschaft für Schleswig-Holsteinische Geschichte, Neumünster: Wachholtz, 2008, pp. 373–389, here p. 384. ISBN978-3-529-02606-5
↑ Carl Heinrich Seebach, 800 Jahre Burgen, Schlösser und Herrenhäuser in Schleswig-Holstein (11988), 2nd impr. ed., Neumünster: Wachholtz, 21988, p. 16. ISBN3-529-02675-1
↑ She legated the castle to her son Francis Henry, who in 1658 bequeathed it to his daughters Erdmuthe Sophia and Eleanor Charlotte. After the former's death in 1689 the latter owned Franzhagen alone. After her husband Duke Christian Adolphus of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg went bankrupt with his possessions in 1677, they lived in Franzhagen founding the short-lived dynastic line of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Franzhagen. Cf. Cordula Bornefeld, "Die Herzöge von Sachsen-Lauenburg", in: Die Fürsten des Landes: Herzöge und Grafen von Schleswig, Holstein und Lauenburg [De slevigske hertuger; German], Carsten Porskrog Rasmussen (ed.) on behalf of the Gesellschaft für Schleswig-Holsteinische Geschichte, Neumünster: Wachholtz, 2008, pp. 373–389, here p. 384. ISBN978-3-529-02606-5
↑ Cordula Bornefeld, "Die Herzöge von Sachsen-Lauenburg", in: Die Fürsten des Landes: Herzöge und Grafen von Schleswig, Holstein und Lauenburg [De slevigske hertuger; German], Carsten Porskrog Rasmussen (ed.) on behalf of the Gesellschaft für Schleswig-Holsteinische Geschichte, Neumünster: Wachholtz, 2008, pp. 373–389, here p. 383. ISBN978-3-529-02606-5
↑ Andrea Baresel-Brand, Grabdenkmäler nordeuropäischer Fürstenhäuser im Zeitalter der Renaissance 1550-1650, Kiel: Ludwig, 2007, (= Bau + Kunst. Schleswig-Holsteinische Schriften zur Kunstgeschichte; vol. 9), p. 241. ISBN978-3-937719-18-4.
Albert I was a Duke of Saxony, Angria, and Westphalia; Lord of Nordalbingia; Count of Anhalt; and Prince-elector and Archmarshal of the Holy Roman Empire. Even though his grandfather Albert the Bear had held the Saxon dukedom between 1138 and 1142, this Albert is counted as the first.
Amt Neuhaus is a municipality in the District of Lüneburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Amt means "municipal office" in German. The original "municipal office of Neuhaus" existed since at least the 17th century until 1885, consecutively as part of Saxe-Lauenburg, Electorate of Hanover (1689-1810), Kingdom of Hanover (1814-1866), and the Prussian Province of Hanover (1866-1885).
The Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg, was a reichsfrei duchy that existed from 1296 to 1803 and again from 1814 to 1876 in the extreme southeast region of what is now Schleswig-Holstein. Its territorial center was in the modern district of Herzogtum Lauenburg and originally its eponymous capital was Lauenburg upon Elbe, though the capital moved to Ratzeburg in 1619.
The (second) Battle of Bornhöved took place on 22 July 1227 near Bornhöved in Holstein. Count Adolf IV of Schauenburg and Holstein — leading an army consisting of troops from the cities of Lübeck and Hamburg, about 1000 Dithmarsians and combined troops of Holstein next to various Northern German nobles — defeated King Valdemar II of Denmark and the Welf Otto the Child.
The following is a list of jarls and dukes, who ruled over Schleswig respectively Southern Jutland (Sønderjylland).
Margaret of Brandenburg-Salzwedel was a German noblewoman member of the House of Ascania and by her two marriages Duchess of Greater Poland, Queen of Poland and Duchess of Saxe-Lauenburg.
Frederick of Saxe-Lauenburg (1554–1586), was a cathedral canon at Strasbourg Minster, chorbishop at Cologne Cathedral and cathedral provost (Dompropst), a function including the presidency of the chapter, at Bremen Cathedral.
John I ruled as duke of Saxony from 1260 until 1282.
Albert II of Saxony was a son of Duke Albert I of Saxony and his third wife Helen of Brunswick and Lunenburg, a daughter of Otto the Child. He supported Rudolph I of Germany at his election as Roman king and became his son-in-law. After the death of their father Albert I in 1260 Albert II jointly ruled the Duchy of Saxony with his elder brother John I, and thereafter with the latter's sons.
Eric I of Saxe-Lauenburg (c.1280–1360) was a member of the House of Ascania who ruled as one of the dukes of Saxony from 1282 until 1338.
John II of Saxe-Lauenburg was the eldest son of John I of Saxony and Ingeborg Birgersdotter of Småland, a daughter or grandchild of Birger jarl. He ruled the Saxony jointly with his uncle Albert II and his brothers Albert III and Eric I, first fostered by Albert II until coming of age. In 1296, John II, his brothers, and their uncle divided Saxony into Saxe-Wittenberg, ruled by Albert II, and Saxe-Lauenburg, jointly ruled by the brothers between 1296 and 1303 and thereafter partitioned among them. John II then ruled the branch duchy of Saxe-Mölln, later extended to become Saxe-Bergedorf-Mölln. In 1314, he officiated as Saxon Prince-elector in an election of a German king.
Albert III (1281–1308) was a member of the House of Ascania who ruled as one of the dukes of Saxony from 1282 until his death.
Eric IV of Saxe-Lauenburg was a son of Eric II, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg and Agnes of Holstein.
Eric V of Saxe-Lauenburg was a member of the House of Ascania; son of Duke Eric IV of Saxe-Lauenburg and Sophia of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Eric V and his brother John IV jointly succeeded their father in 1412 as dukes of Saxe-Lauenburg. After John IV had died in 1414, Eric ruled alone.
Bernard II of Saxe-Lauenburg was a member of the House of Ascania and Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg from 1426 to 1463. His full title was Duke of Saxony, Angria and Westphalia, however only ruling the branch duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg between 1426 and 1463.
John V of Saxe-Lauenburg was the eldest son of Duke Bernard II of Saxe-Lauenburg and Adelheid of Pomerania-Stolp, daughter of Duke Bogislaus VIII of Pomerania-Stolp. He succeeded his father in 1463 as duke of Saxe-Lauenburg.
Francis I of Saxe-Lauenburg was the eldest child and only son of Duke Magnus I of Saxe-Lauenburg and Catherine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, daughter of Duke Henry IV the Elder of Brunswick and Lunenburg (Wolfenbüttel). Francis I succeeded his father in 1543 as duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, but resigned in favour of his major son Magnus II in 1571. Two years later he reascended and was succeeded by Francis II in 1581.
Magnus II of Saxe-Lauenburg was the eldest surviving son of Duke Francis I of Saxe-Lauenburg and Sybille of Saxe-Freiberg, daughter of Duke Henry IV the Pious. In 1571 Magnus II ascended the throne after his father Francis I resigned due to indebtedness. Two years later Francis I, helped by his other son Francis (II), deposed Magnus II and re-ascended. Magnus' violent and judicial attempts to regain the duchy failed. In 1588 he was imprisoned for the remainder of his life.
Augustus of Saxe-Lauenburg was Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg between 1619 and 1656. He was a son of Duke Francis II and his first wife Margaret of Pomerania-Wolgast, daughter of Philip I, Duke of Pomerania-Wolgast. Since Augustus survived all his sons he was succeeded by his half-brother Julius Henry.
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![Francis' coat-of-arms as of 1608 on St. Jacobi Church in Cuxhaven. Abbreviated inscription: V.[on] G.[ottes] G.[naden] F.[ranz] H.[erzog] Z.[u] S.[achsen,] E.[ngern] V.[nd] W.[estfalen] (trl. Of God's Grace Francis Duke of Saxony, Angria and Westphalia) Ludingworth, Bauernwappen 1.JPG](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/L%C3%BCdingworth%2C_Bauernwappen_1.JPG/220px-L%C3%BCdingworth%2C_Bauernwappen_1.JPG)
