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235px , Show gate of Wülzburg Castle with the coats of arms of Sophie and her husband
Sophie of Brunswick-Lüneburg (30 October 1563 – 14 January 1639) was a member of the House of Brunswick-Lüneburg and margravine of
On 3 May 1579 she married Margrave George Frederick I of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmach (1539–1603) in
Brandenburg-Ansbach
The Principality or Margraviate of (Brandenburg-)Ansbach (german: Fürstentum Ansbach or ) was a principality in the Holy Roman Empire centered on the Franconian city of Ansbach. The ruling House of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern princes of the land ...
and Brandenburg-Kulmbach
The Principality of Bayreuth (german: Fürstentum Bayreuth) or Margraviate of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (''Markgraftum Brandenburg-Bayreuth'') was an immediate territory of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by a Franconian branch of the Hohenzollern dynas ...
and Duchess of Krnov
Krnov (; german: Jägerndorf, pl, Karniów or ''Krnów'') is a town in Bruntál District in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 23,000 inhabitants.
Administrative parts
The town is made up of town parts of Pod BezruÄ ...
by marriage.
Life
Sophie was the eldest child of DukeWilliam the Younger 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, Henry ...
(1535–1592) from his marriage to Dorothea of Denmark, a daughter of King Christian III of Denmark
Christian III (12 August 1503 – 1 January 1559) reigned as King of Denmark from 1534 and King of Norway from 1537 until his death in 1559. During his reign, Christian formed close ties between the church and the crown. He established ...
.
On 3 May 1579 she married Margrave George Frederick I of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmach (1539–1603) in Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
. George Frederick was the last of the older line of Frankish Hohenzollerns
The House of Hohenzollern (, also , german: Haus Hohenzollern, , ro, Casa de Hohenzollern) is a German royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenbu ...
and was simultaneously Margrave of the Principality of Ansbach
The Principality or Margraviate of (Brandenburg-)Ansbach (german: Fürstentum Ansbach or ) was a principality in the Holy Roman Empire centered on the Franconian city of Ansbach. The ruling Hohenzollern princes of the land were known as margrave ...
and Kulmbach
Kulmbach () is the capital of the district of Kulmbach in Bavaria in Germany. The town is famous for Plassenburg Castle, which houses the largest tin soldier museum in the world, and for its sausages, or ''Bratwürste''.
Geography
Location
Ku ...
, Silesian duke of the Duchy of Krnov
The Duchy of Krnov ( la, Ducatus Carnoviensis, cs, Krnovské knÞectvÃ, pl, KsiÄ™stwo Karniowskie) or Duchy of Jägerndorf (german: Herzogtum Jägerndorf) was one of the Duchies of Silesia, which in 1377 emerged from the Duchy of Troppau (O ...
and guardian administrator of the Duchy of Prussia
The Duchy of Prussia (german: Herzogtum Preußen, pl, Księstwo Pruskie, lt, Prūsijos kunigaikštystė) or Ducal Prussia (german: Herzogliches Preußen, link=no; pl, Prusy Książęce, link=no) was a duchy in the Prussia (region), region of P ...
. As such, he was a powerful figure of his time. His first wife, Elisabeth of Brandenburg-Küstrin
Elizabeth of Brandenburg-Küstrin (29 August 1540 – 8 March 1578), was a princess of Brandenburg-Küstrin and margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Brandenburg-Kulmbach by marriage.
Life
Elizabeth was the elder of two daughters of Margrav ...
, had died in 1578, and like his first, George Frederick's second marriage remained childless, which is why his inheritance needed to be regulated by the House Treaty of Gera
The House Treaty of Gera was a House law of the House of Hohenzollern on the succession in Brandenburg and in the Franconian territories at the end of the sixteenth century binding rules. The Treaty and came about because Elector John George of B ...
. Sophie's childlessness motivated her husband to increased interest in the policy of the wider House of Hohenzollern.
After her husband died in 1604, Sophie returned to her birth family. She survived her husband by 36 years. Sophie often stayed in Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
with her sisters Clara, Countess of Schwarzburg, and Sibylle, Duchess of Brunswick-Dannenberg. She died in Nuremberg in 1639 and was buried in the St. Lorenz Church there.
The Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
portal of Wülzburg Castle shows George Frederick's coat of arms next to Sophie's.Daniel Burger: ''The rural fortresses of the Hohenzollerns in Franconia and Brandenburg in the Age of the Renaissance'', Beck's Publishing House, 2000, p. 132
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Footnotes