Principality of Lüneburg

The Principality of Lüneburg (later also referred to as Celle) was a territorial division of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg within the Holy Roman Empire, immediately subordinate to the emperor.[3] The Principality of Lüneburg was created by the division of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, a state that had been formed in 1235 from the allodial lands of the Welfs in Saxony and given as an imperial fief to Otto the Child, a nephew of Henry the Lion.Otto asserted his rule through the prosecution of numerous feuds against the lesser nobility, which enabled him to achieve consolidate his ducal authority within the state.According to Welf house rules and the desire of William, Duke Magnus II Torquatus of Brunswick would have been the rightful heir.Emperor Charles IV, however, considered it an imperial fiefdom, however, and granted the principality to Albert of Saxe-Wittenberg and his uncle Wenceslas, thus precipitating the Lüneburg War of Succession.[2][5] The town of Lüneburg supported the Wittenbergs and took the opportunity to escape from the immediate influence of the duke, destroying the ducal castle on the Kalkberg on 1 February 1371 and forcing him to relocate his residence to Celle.The younger brother of Frederick and Bernard, Henry the Mild refused, however, to accept the agreement and continued to prosecute the war.To secure the support of towns and the lower nobility, both the Welfs and the Ascanians were forced to give the estates wide privileges, and enfeoff them with numerous rights and castles.[7] The Celle dukes, Bernard and Henry had emerged victorious from the conflict to be sure, but faced huge financial problems as a result.The years that followed were characterised by renewed tensions between the rulers and the landowners and attempts by the dukes to weaken the standing of the Lüneburg Sate.Through the support of the Hanseatic towns of Hamburg and Lübeck, Lüneburg achieved military superiority, so that the Celle dukes sued for peace with their opponents.Their rule was characterized primarily by the financial constraints under which the country continued to suffer in the wake of the Lüneburg War of Succession.In 1446 he was followed by his brother, Frederick the Pious, who abdicated, however, in 1457 in favour of his sons, Bernard and Otto, in order to enter the Franciscan abbey at Celle.After both brothers had died in 1464 and 1471 respectively, Frederick the Pious left the abbey again in order to hold the reins of power for his 3-year old nephew, Henry the Middle, the son of Otto of Lüneburg and Anna of Nassau.[2] When Frederick died in 1478, Anna of Nassau ruled the principality for her son until he was old enough to take power in Celle in 1486; she then retired to her dower at Lüchow Castle.Because of his role in the Hildesheim Diocesan Feud and the associated political opposition to Emperor Charles V, Henry was forced to abdicate in 1520 in favour of his sons Otto and Ernest the Confessor.In 1539, their youngest brother, Francis, who had also shared the reins of power since 1536, also abdicated and was given the Amt of Gifhorn, leaving Ernest the Confessor to rule alone.[12] When Duke Henry went against a gentleman's agreement with his brother William and married Ursula of Saxe-Lauenburg in 1569, he had forsake sharing the government of the principality and was compensated instead with the Amt of Dannenberg and the Klosteramt of Scharnebeck.In 1592, after the death of Duke William, the territory was enlarged with the Ämter of Hitzacker, Lüchow and Warpke, but Henry's demands for a transfer of sovereignty were not met.[12] As well as the ducal counsellors, who at that time were noble (edelfrei) vassals, a number of medieval court offices, who had emerged in the 12th century, can still be found in the 13th.Only with the emergence of Celle as the ducal seat in the middle of the 15th century did it take a clear shape, although individual advisors were members of the duke's inner circle for a long time.These chambers were each responsible only for a specific area: the consistory (Konsistorium) for questions on church matters, the Kriegsrat for military affairs and the Haushaltsrat for financial management.In addition to the exercising juridical authority they were responsible inter alia, for "the muster of tied villeins, the organization of defence and for taking charge of the militia" (Aufgebot der folgepflichtigen Hintersassen, Verteidigungsorganisation bis hin zur Sorge für die Landwehren).[16] Beginning in the 13th century, advocacies (Vogteien) emerged in the Principality of Lüneburg as providers of local administration, sometimes in parallel with the existing magistracies and sometimes based on them.For example, there were so-called "internal, stake, fence, village, road and field courts" (Binnen-, Pfahl-, Zaun-, Dorf-, Straßen- und Feldgerichte.Although the Principality of Lüneburg was not directly involved in these conflicts, the dukes in Celle made their troops available to foreign forces in return for payment for their services.