Barton W.Browning

HEINRICH JULIUS VON ’S 1590 WELCOMING CELEBRATION FOR PRINCESS ELISABETH OF DENMARK

Summary

In mid-June of 1590 the young duke Heinrich Julius von Braunschweig welcomed his new bride, Princess Elisabeth of Denmark, into his residence city of Wolfenbüttel. He had married Elisabeth shortly before in the Kronburg Palace in Denmark. It was a propitious match that took place in the presence of the Danish court and his new brother-in-law, James VI of Scotland, subsequently James I of England. Heinrich Julius then preceded his bride to Wolfenbüttel and prepared a grand spectacle for her reception that went far beyond anything seen before in the still provincial ducal seat.

It was mid-June of the year 1590 when Princess Elisabeth of Den- mark, daughter of King Friedrich II and sister of the future King ChristianIV, first set eyes onthe small North Germantownof Wolfenbüttel, the residence of her new husband Duke Heinrich Julius von Braunschweig (see illustrations 1 and 2). In honor of her appearance, Heinrich Julius’s subjects outdid themselves as they cheered their ruler’s new bride with an extravagant display of fireworks and music. This enthusiasm was to prove well justified, for Elisabeth’s entrance into Wolfenbüttel marked a major turning point in the social and political history of Braunschweig-Lüneburg. Over the next twenty-three years this union of Braunschweig and Denmark would preside over an artistic and political expansion of the dukedom, the likes of which it had not experienced since the days of Heinrich der Löwe in the High Middle Ages.1

1 There are two extremely useful studies of Heinrich Julius’s life, the early work by Richard Friedenthal: Herzog Heinrich Julius von Braunschweig (1564-1613) als Dramatiker. Sein Leben, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung seines geistigen Werdegangs. Diss. München 1922, and the recent investigations by Hilda Lietzmann: Herzog Heinrich Julius zu Braunschweig und Lüneburg (1564- 1613): Persönlichkeit und Wirken für Kaiser und Reich. Langenhagen 1993.

Daphnis 32 2003 74 Barton W. Browning The formal nuptials that preceded this 1590 welcoming celebra- tion actually constituted a second marriage for Heinrich Julius, who had been wed once before. His first wife, Dorothea of Saxony, died inchildbirth in1587, after onlyoneyear of married life. This loss apparently dealt a serious blow to the twenty-five year old Heinrich Julius; he recovered from his despondency only gradually. None- theless, in the years that lay between his first and second marriages he had come of age in several respects. Most significantly, follow- ing the 1589 death of his father Julius, the still-young Heinrich Julius had ascended the ducal throne and had assumed sole and full responsibility for the dukedom’s affairs. This transition represented more than a mere passing of the generational torch. The old Duke Julius had epitomized the virtues of a mercantilist prince.2 Inlinewith his belief that a state should maximize the retention of its resources, his policies held imports to a minimum while favoring local production. Julius thus prided himself onthe great stores of lead he had amassed from his mines in the mountains, and he even established his own state university in , at least in part to preserve both the finan- cial and the intellectual capital of his realm. As the sovereign of his dukedom Julius was sober, responsible, meticulous and, by compari- son with his son’s wide-ranging interests, thoroughly dull. His son presented a different picture. Heinrich Julius was from childhood on temperamental, expansive, and ever eager for new experiences. His early love of hunting and what proved to be a life- long dexterity with the bottle prompted several fatherly warnings.3 The young heir-apparent nonetheless continued in his extravagant ways. He enlarged his palace in Gröningen into a pleasure dome that later housed one of the largest organs in and, as an item of comparable significance, a wine cask of a size said to rival

2 The best view of Julius is still that of his courtier Franz Algermann: Leben, Wandel und tödtlicher Abgang Weiland des Durchlauchtigen Hochgeborenen Fürsten und Herren, Herrn Julissen, Herzogen zu Braunschweig und Lüne- burg… Anno 1589 und hernacher wieder übersehen ... Anno 1608. In: Feier des Gedächtnisses der vormahligen Hochschule Julia Carolina zu Helmstedt. Ed. F. K. vonStrombeck. Helmstedt 1822. 3 Eduard Bodemann: Herzog Julius von Braunschweig: Kulturbild deutschen Fürstenlebens und deutscher Fürstenerziehung im 16. Jahrhundert. In: Zeit- schrift für deutsche Kulturgeschichte N.F. 4 (1875), pp. 193-239 and 311-348.

Daphnis 32 2003