Princely count (feminine: ) is a historical title of the German nobility, usually translated as "count". Considered to be intermediate among noble ranks, the title is often treated as equivalent to the British title of "earl" (whose female version is "coun ...

William III of Henneberg-Schleusingen (12 March 1434 – 25 May 1480 in

Salorno Salorno sulla Strada del Vino (; german: Salurn ) is the southernmost ''comune'' (municipality) in South Tyrol in northern Italy, located about southwest of the city of Bolzano. It is one of only five mainly Italian-speaking municipalities in S ...

) was a member of the

House of Henneberg The House of Henneberg was a medieval German comital family (''Grafen'') which from the 11th century onwards held large territories in the Duchy of Franconia. Their county was raised to a princely county (''Gefürstete Grafschaft'') in 1310. Upo ...

. He was the son of William II of Henneberg and

Catherine of Hanau Catherine of Hanau also known as ''Katharina'' (25 January 1408 – 25 September 1460) was a German regent. She was the regent of the County of Rieneck during the minority of her son from 1431 until 1434. She was the eldest daughter of Reinha ...

. William III inherited the princely county of Henneberg in 1440, when his father died in a hunting accident. In 1469, he married Margaret (1451 – 13 February 1509), the daughter of Duke

Henry the Peaceful Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

of Brunswick-Lüneburg. In 1463 or 1464, the imperial city of

Schweinfurt Schweinfurt ( , ; ) is a city in the district of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the surrounding district (''Landkreis'') of Schweinfurt and a major industrial, cultural and educational hub. The urban agg ...

transferred the office of Imperial bailiff to William and made him patron of the city.Eckart Henning: ''Die gefürstete Grafschaft Henneberg-Schleusingen im Zeitalter der Reformation'', Böhlau, Cologne, 1981, , p. 90 This combination of competencies offered Schweinfurt some degree of protection against the

Bishopric of Würzburg In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

. Apparently out of personal piety, William promoted pilgrimages and founded churches and monasteries. William died in 1480 in

, when he was returning from Rome. His grave stone can be found in the

Assumption of Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by Go ...

Church in

Bolzano Bolzano ( or ; german: Bozen, (formerly ); bar, Bozn; lld, Balsan or ) is the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third la ...

, near the altar. In 1482, his body was transferred to the Henneberg family vault in the church of the monastery at

Kloster Veßra Kloster Veßra is a municipality in the district of Hildburghausen in Thuringia, Germany. Vessra Abbey (now an open-air museum) was founded and supported by the Henneberg family and abandoned after the Reformation. The church was used as a pa ...

.Ulrike Stein: ''Die Darstellung der Grafen Wilhelm II. (1426-1444) und Wilhelm III. (1444-1480) von Henneberg in der hennebergischen und mitteldeutschen Geschichtsschreibung'', in: Ellen Widder (ed.): ''Manipulus Florum. Aus Mittelalter, Landesgeschichte, Literatur und Historiographie. Festschrift für Peter Johanek zum 60. Geburtstag'', Waxmann, Münster, 2000, , p. 31–42, in particular: p. 36 The epitaph in Bolzano was sculpted by Erasmus Forster in Gardolo near

Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin and lmo, Trent; german: Trient ; cim, Tria; , ), also anglicized as Trent, is a city on the Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th centu ...

and installed in the Church in 1495 or 1496. Like his father, he left only underage children, including his heir,

William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded h ...

. His widow, however, succeeded in securing their inheritance.

Footnotes

Counts of Henneberg William 03 1434 births 1480 deaths 15th-century German people 15th-century monarchs in Europe {{Germany-noble-stub