Princess Palatine Benedicta Henrietta (Benedicta Henrietta Philippina; 14 March 1652 – 12 August 1730) was
Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...
Born in Paris to the landless Prince Palatine Edward, ''Bénédicte Henriettes paternal grandparents were
Frederick V, Elector Palatine
Frederick V (german: link=no, Friedrich; 26 August 1596 – 29 November 1632) was the Elector Palatine of the Rhine in the Holy Roman Empire from 1610 to 1623, and reigned as King of Bohemia from 1619 to 1620. He was forced to abdicate both r ...
Catherine de Mayenne
Catherine de Mayenne (1585 – 8 March 1618), or Catherine de Mayenne-Lorraine-Guise, was a French aristocrat who became List of Mantuan consorts, Duchess of Mantua by marriage.
Early life
Catherine de Mayenne was born in 1585, as the daughter o ...
Louise de La Fayette
Louise Angélique Motier de la Fayette (8 November 1618 – 11 January 1665) was a French courtier and close friend and confidante of King Louis XIII. She later left the court and entered a convent. She was known for her influence upon the mo ...
, a courtier-turned-nun known as Sister Louise-Angélique.
Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg
She was married at the age of sixteen to a distant cousin,
John Frederick, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
John Frederick (german: Johann Friedrich; 25 April 1625 in Herzberg am Harz – 18 December 1679 in Augsburg) was duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. He ruled over the Principality of Calenberg, a subdivision of the duchy, from 1665 until his death.
T ...
, who was the same age as her father, and childless. They were married on 30 November 1668. The union, which had been
arranged
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchest ...
by the French diplomatist
Gourville
Gourville () is a former commune in the Charente department in southwestern France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the commune Rouillac.Ernest Augustus, the husband of Benedicta Henrietta's paternal aunt,
Sophia of Hanover
Sophia of Hanover (born Princess Sophia of the Palatinate; 14 October 1630 – 8 June 1714) was the Electress of Hanover by marriage to Elector Ernest Augustus and later the heiress presumptive to the thrones of England and Scotland (later Grea ...
, and father of
George I of Great Britain
George I (George Louis; ; 28 May 1660 – 11 June 1727) was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 and ruler of the Electorate of Hanover within the Holy Roman Empire from 23 January 1698 until his death in 1727. He was the first ...
. After her husband's death, Benedicta returned to her native France and resided there with her sister, the princess of Condé.
She corresponded with
Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathem ...
.''State papers and correspondence: illustrative of the social and political...'' By John Mitchell Kemble, p. 224
Benedicta died the age of 78, at Asnieres, her late sister's residence near Paris, on 12 August 1730.
Issue
*Anna Sophie of Brunswick-Lüneburg (10 February 1670 – 24 March 1672), died in childhood;
* Charlotte Felizitas of Brunswick-Lüneburg (8 March 1671 – 29 September 1710), married
Rinaldo d'Este, Duke of Modena
Rinaldo may refer to:
*Renaud de Montauban
Renaud de Montauban (; also spelled ''Renaut'', ''Renault'', Italian: ''Rinaldo di Montalbano'', Dutch: ''Reinout van Montalba(e)n'') was a legendary hero and knight which appeared in a 12th-century O ...
and had issue;
*Henriette Maria of Brunswick-Lüneburg (9 March 1672 – 4 September 1687), died unmarried;
*
Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Wilhelmine Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg (21 April 1673 – 10 April 1742) was Holy Roman Empress, Queen of the Germans, Queen of Hungary, Queen of Bohemia, Archduchess consort of Austria etc. as the spouse of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor.
...
(21 April 1673 – 10 April 1742), married
Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor
, father = Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor
, mother = Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Vienna, Austria
, death_date =
, death_place = Vienna, Austria
, burial_place = Imperial Crypt, Vienna
, ...