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 ...

, or of Hanover, by her marriage to Duke John Frederick. She was the third and youngest daughter of Prince Palatine Edward and the political hostess Anna Gonzaga.

Life

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 ...

and Elizabeth Stuart, the ''Winter Queen''. Her maternal grandparents were Charles I, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat and his French wife

Catherine de Mayenne Catherine de Mayenne (1585 – 8 March 1618), or Catherine de Mayenne-Lorraine-Guise, was a French aristocrat who became Duchess of Mantua by marriage. Early life Catherine de Mayenne was born in 1585, as the daughter of Charles, Duke of Mayenne ...

, daughter of Charles de Lorraine-Guise, Duke of Mayenne. She was the youngest of three daughters. Bénédicte was reared by

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 by the French diplomatist Gourville, produced four daughters, only two of whom lived to mature adulthood. John Frederick died in 1679 without a male heir, and the duchy of Brunswick was inherited by his Protestant younger brother, 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 firs ...

. 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 mat ...

.''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 and had issue; *Henriette Maria of Brunswick-Lüneburg (9 March 1672 – 4 September 1687), died unmarried; * Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg (21 April 1673 – 10 April 1742), married

Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I (Joseph Jacob Ignaz Johann Anton Eustachius; 26 July 1678 – 17 April 1711) was Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy from 1705 until his death in 1711. He was the eldest son of Emperor Leopold I from his third ...

and had issue.

Ancestry

References

Sources

*Bougaud, Emile. ''St. Chantal and the Foundation of the Visitation''. Vol. 2. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1895. ''Google Books''. Web. {{DEFAULTSORT:Benedicta Henrietta Of Palatinate-Simmern 1652 births 1730 deaths Nobility from Paris 17th-century French women 18th-century French women 17th-century German women House of Hanover House of Palatinate-Simmern Duchesses of Brunswick-Lüneburg