Louis Rudolph (; 22 July 1671 – 1 March 1735), a 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 Franconian family from the Meuse-Mo ...
, was
Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and ruling
Prince of Wolfenbüttel from 1731 until his death. Since 1707, he ruled as an immediate
Prince of Blankenburg.
Louis Rudolph was the maternal grandfather of
Empress Maria Theresa,
Emperor Peter II of Russia and
Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
Life
Louis Rudolph was the youngest son of Duke
Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and his consort
Princess Elisabeth Juliane of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Norburg, daughter of Duke
Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Norburg. He became a
major general in the service of the
Habsburg emperor
Leopold I in 1690 and was promptly captured in the
Battle of Fleurus by the forces of King
Louis XIV of France
LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...
. After being released the same year, his father gave him the Brunswick
County of Blankenburg as a present, with the consent of his eldest son
Augustus William, insofar violating the
primogeniture
Primogeniture () is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn Legitimacy (family law), legitimate child to inheritance, inherit all or most of their parent's estate (law), estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some childre ...
principle laid down by the late Duke
Henry V.
When in 1707 Prince Anthony Ulrich managed to betroth Louis Rudolph's daughter
Elisabeth Christine to the Habsburg archduke
Charles VI, his elder brother Emperor
Joseph I raised the County of Blankenburg to an
immediate principality. Louis Rudolph's status as an
Imperial prince (''Reichsfürst''), however, was limited as his vote in the
Imperial Diet was not hereditary and depending on the Welf
Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg (
Calenberg line).
On the death of brother Augustus William in 1731, Louis Rudolph also inherited Wolfenbüttel, thus ruling both principalities in
personal union
A personal union is a combination of two or more monarchical states that have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws, and interests remain distinct. A real union, by contrast, involves the constituent states being to some extent in ...
. He relocated his residence to
Wolfenbüttel
Wolfenbüttel (; ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District
Wolfenbüttel (; ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel (district), Wolfenbüttel Distri ...
, the capital of the inherited bigger principality. In the few years of his rule, Louis Rudolph managed to restore the finances, after Augustus William had almost ruined the state.
Louis Rudolph died without male issue in 1735. He was succeeded by his first cousin, Duke
Ferdinand Albert II, who had married Louis Rudolph's youngest daughter, Antoinette Amalie.
Family
Louis Rudolph married
Christine Louise, daughter of Albert Ernest I, Prince of
Öttingen-Öttingen, at
Aurich in 1690. They had four daughters, but only three reached adulthood:
*
Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1691–1750), married Archduke
Charles VI of Austria, crowned
Holy Roman Empress in 1711, mother of Empress
Maria Theresa.
* Charlotte Auguste (23 July 1692 – 8 August 1692) died in infancy.
*
Charlotte Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Charlotte Christine Sophie also known as Sophie Charlotte or simply Charlotte (28 August 1694, in Wolfenbüttel – 2 November 1715, in Saint Petersburg), was the wife of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich of Russia. She was the daughter of Louis Rudol ...
(1694–1715), married
Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich of Russia, son and
heir
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...
of
Peter the Great
Peter I (, ;
– ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...
and was the mother of Emperor
Peter II of Russia.
*
Antoinette Amalie of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (14 April 1696 – 6 March 1762), married Duke
Ferdinand Albert II of Brunswick-Lüneburg who succeeded her father in 1735.
Many members of
modern and
contemporary European royalty are descendants of Louis Rudolph. In particular, with the exception of
Albert II, Prince of Monaco, Louis Rudolph is an ancestor of all current sovereigns of
hereditary European monarchies.
Ancestry
References
At the House of Welf site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Louis Rudolf
1671 births
1735 deaths
Princes of Wolfenbüttel
New House of Brunswick
Knights of Malta
Burials at Brunswick Cathedral
17th-century German military personnel
Military personnel from Lower Saxony
Major generals
Dukes of the Holy Roman Empire