Margaret of Brunswick-Lüneburg (6 April 1573 7 August 1643), was a German noblewoman member of the

House of Welf The House of Welf (also Guelf or Guelph) is a European dynasty that has included many German and British monarchs from the 11th to 20th century and Emperor Ivan VI of Russia in the 18th century. The originally Franconia, Franconian family from ...

and by marriage Duchess of Saxe-Coburg. Born in

Celle Celle () is a town and capital of the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the banks of the river Aller, a tributary of the Weser, and has a population of about 71,000. Celle is the southern gateway to the Lü ...

, she was the ninth of fifteen children born from the marriage of

William the Younger, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg William (4 July 1535 – 20 August 1592), called William the Younger (''german: Wilhelm der Jüngere''), was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Prince of Lüneburg from 1559 until his death. Until 1569 he ruled together with his brother, Hen ...

and Dorothea, Princess of Denmark.

Life

In Coburg on 16 September 1599, Margaret married John Casimir, Duke of Saxe-Coburg as his second wife. Most of the wedding guests stayed before and during the marriage festivities at Heldburg Castle. Gilded state coaches, which belonged to the dowry of her mother Dorothea, were used for the occasion; they are one of the oldest still functioning coaches in the world and currently displayed at the Veste Coburg. John Casimir celebrated his marriage with the famous ''Coburg Taler'': on the obverse showed a kissing couple with the inscription WIE KVSSEN SICH DIE ZWEY SO FEIN (''A well kiss between two''), while on the reverse, showed a nun with the inscription: WER KVST MICH - ARMES NVNNELIN (''who kiss you now, poor nun?''). This nun was

Anna of Saxony Anna of Saxony (23 December 1544 – 18 December 1577) was the heiress of Maurice, Elector of Saxony, and Agnes, eldest daughter of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. Maurice's only son, Albert, died in infancy. Anna was the second wife of William th ...

, his first wife, whom he repudiated and imprisoned for adultery. John Casimir and Margaret had a happy marriage, but they had no children. After John Casimir's death in 1633 Saxe-Coburg was inherited by his brother

John Ernest John Ernest (May 6, 1922 – July 21, 1994) was an American-born constructivist abstract artist. He was born in Philadelphia, in 1922. After living and working in Sweden and Paris from 1946 to 1951, he moved to London, England, where he lived and w ...

. Margaret returned to her homeland,

, where she died ten years later, aged 70. She was buried in the ''Stadtkirche'', Celle.

Notes

References

*Thomas Nicklas: ''Das Haus Sachsen-Coburg – Europas späte Dynastie''. ed.

W. Kohlhammer W. Kohlhammer Verlag GmbH, or Kohlhammer Verlag, is a German publishing house headquartered in Stuttgart. History Kohlhammer Verlag was founded in Stuttgart on 30 April 1866 by . Kohlhammer had taken over the businesses of his late father-in-law ...

, Stuttgart 2003. *Carl Kiesewetter: ''Faust in der Geschichte und Tradition'', Georg Olms ed., 1978. *Sigismund Librowicz: ''Der Kuss und das küssen'', LIT ed. Berlin-Hamburg-Münster, 2004. , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Brunswick-Luneburg, Margaret of

Margaret Margaret is a female first name, derived via French () and Latin () from grc, μαργαρίτης () meaning "pearl". The Greek is borrowed from Persian. Margaret has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular througho ...

1573 births 1643 deaths People from Celle

Daughters of monarchs