Julius Henry (9 April 1586 – 20 November 1665) was duke of Saxe-Lauenburg between 1656 and 1665. Before ascending to the throne he served as Field Marshal in the imperial army.[1]
In 1623 the emperor conveyanced the lordship in Schlackenwerth (today Ostrov), which he had deprived from the Schlick family disgraced after participating in the insurgency defeated at the White Mountain, to Julius Henry. He prompted the construction of the "White Palace" (Weißes Schloss / Bílý zámek) next to the old palace of the Schlicks. Julius Henry made the White Palace his domicile.[2][3]
In 1629 Julius Henry was given supreme command over the imperial troops in Poland and in this function he negotiated a peace with John George I, Elector of Saxony in 1632, after the latter had refused to join a Lutheran wart coalition under Gustavus Adolphus. Julius Henry was considered a confidant and close friend of Albrecht von Wallenstein. Thus Julius Henry was suspected to be involved in Wallenstein's assaults against the emperor. After Ferdinand had successfully instigated Wallenstein's murder the latter's friends were arrested including Julius Henry and incarcerated in Vienna.
Julius Henry successfully denied the competence of the imperial juridical commission which inquired against him, insisting on his status of immediate prince of the empire only to be judged by a college of his like. After the Peace of Prague in 1635 Ferdinand II released Julius Henry from imprisonment. After the accession of Emperor Ferdinand III in 1637 Julius Henry was again envoyed in several diplomatic missions.
Ruling Saxe-Lauenburg
In 1656 Julius Henry succeeded his elder half-brother Augustus as Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg. When ascending he confirmed the existing privileges of the nobility and the estates of the realm. In 1658 he forbade his vassals to pledge or else alienate fiefs, thus fighting the integration of manor estates in Saxe-Lauenburg into the monetary economies of the neighbouring city-states of Hamburg and Lübeck. He entered with both city-states into frontier disputes on manor estates which were in the process of evading Saxe-Lauenburgian overlordship into the competence of the city-states.
In 1659 Duke Julius Henry decreed in his general disposition (guide-lines for his government) "to also esteem the woodlands as heart and dwell [of revenues] of the Monarchy of Lower Saxony."[4] The Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg also used to be called simply Lower Saxony. From 1659 on Julius Henry employed Johannes Kunckel as head of the ducal pharmacy.[5]
In 1663 Julius Henry bought the castle in Hauenstein (Bohemia) from the von Schlick family, making it part of the ducal Schlackenwerth domain.[6] He further acquired the lordship of Ploschkowitz.
Julius Henry died of age in Prague in 1665 and was buried in Schlackenwerth.
Marriages and issue
Julius Henry married three times: He married in Grabow (1) Countess Anna of East Frisia on 7 March 1617. They had no children.
Julius Henry's last wedding took place in Vienna on 18 August 1632 with (3) Anna Magdalena of Lobkowicz (*20 July 1606 – 7 September 1668*), daughter of Baron William the Younger Popel von Lobkowitz (Popel z Lobkowicz). Anna Magdalena was the only wife to officiate as Duchess of Saxe-Lauenburg, after her husband had ascended the throne on 18 January 1656. They had six children, however, only two survived infancy:
Johann Samuel Ersch and Johann Gottfried Gruber, Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste: in alphabetischer Folge von genannten Schriftstellern, vol. 92, Leipzig: J. F. Gleditsch, 1851, pp. 364seqq.
Peter von Kobbe, "Julius Heinrich" in: Geschichte und Landesbeschreibung des Herzogthums Lauenburg: 3 vols., Altona: Johann Friedrich Hammerich, 1836–1837 (reprint in: Hanover-Döhren: von Hirschheydt, 1979–1984), vol. 3, pp. 56–69.
^Carl Eduard Vehse, Geschichte der deutschen Höfe seit der Reformation: 6 dept.s in 48 vols., Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe, 1851–1860, here dept. 2: 'Austria', vol. 10: 'Geschichte des östreichischen Hofs und Adels und der östreichischen Diplomatie', p. 83
^Sommer, Wenzel (1866). Kurze Geschichte der Stadt Schlackenwerth in Verbindung mit dem Piaristen-Collegium (in German). Ostrov. p. 6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^"Historie Ostrova" (in Czech). Ostrov Tourist Portal. 28 October 2018. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
^The addition in edged brackets not in the original. In the German original: "… auch die Höltzung für des Fürstenthumbs Niedersachsen Kern und Brunquell zu achten." Generaldisposition of Julius Francis, 1659.
^Hermann Kopp, Geschichte der Chemie: 4 pts. in 2 vols., reprint, Leipzig: Lorentz, 1931, vol. 1, p. 173.
