Elisabeth Ursula of Braunschweig-Lüneburg

Elisabeth Ursula von Braunschweig-Lüneburg, epitaph statue in the St. Martini Church in Stadthagen next to her husband Otto IV and his first wife Marie; above her the coat of arms of her ancestors

Elisabeth Ursula von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (* 1539 ; † September 3, 1586 in Detmold ) was a daughter of Duke Ernst I of Braunschweig-Lüneburg and his wife Sophie von Mecklenburg-Schwerin . As the wife of Otto IV , she was Countess von Schaumburg .

Life

Elisabeth Ursula, whose father Ernst the Confessor had carried out the Reformation in his duchy , was brought up in the Lutheran faith. On June 5, 1558, she married Otto IV von Schaumburg in Celle , whose first wife Maria von Pomerania-Stettin had died in 1554. She gave birth to three children: Maria (1559–1616, married to Jobst von Limburg-Styrum ), Elisabeth (1566–1638, married to Simon zur Lippe ) and Ernst (1569–1622, ruling Count of Schaumburg from 1601).

Before the wedding, Otto had to sign a contract to employ a Lutheran court preacher . He had already taken on this obligation when he was married for the first time, but out of family considerations - his brothers Adolf and Anton were Prince Archbishops of Cologne - not yet honored. With the death of Anthony, on June 18, 1558 accounted for this obstacle, and with the appointment of Jakob Dammann as Superintendent of Stadthagen and the introduction of the Mecklenburg church order the regulated institution began a Lutheran state church . Elisabeth Ursula supported this process with personal commitment.

Otto IV died in 1576 and left the county heavily in debt. Together with the estates and supported by her brother Wilhelm von Braunschweig-Lüneburg , Elisabeth ensured that Otto's sons from his first marriage, especially the eldest, Hermann , Bishop of Minden , were kept out of the government until Ernst was of legal age. It was decided that the estates would rule until 1586, during which time they would reduce the debt. But already in 1581, after his marriage to Elisabeth von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel , Elisabeth's stepson Adolf took over the government of the county.

During the years of her widowhood, Elisabeth Ursula devoted herself to the planning of the large grave monument for her husband, for his first wife Maria and for herself in the St. Martini Church in Stadthagen . She commissioned the Flemish sculptor Arend Robin , who also worked at Stadthagen Palace, to make the piece . Maria is shown as a young countess, herself in widow costume with a hood . The monument was completed in 1581.

Elisabeth Ursula died in Detmold in 1586, ten years after her husband, where she wanted to support her daughter during her first delivery . Like him, she was buried in the crypt under the choir of the Martinikirche. In 1601 her son Ernst succeeded his half-brother Adolf. He had a magnificent new mausoleum built to the east of the Martinikirche and his parents Otto and Elisabeth Ursula - but not Maria - reburied in the new crypt below. In the mausoleum he had large tablets with inscriptions in classical Latin put up , praising the virtues and merits of his parents.

literature

• Klaus Pönnighaus, Udo Jobst: St. Martini Church / Mausoleum Stadthagen , Publishing House Monumente & Menschen, Berlin 2011
• Jacob Dammann: Funeral sermon to Elisabeth Ursula Countess von Schaumburg, née Duchess of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Lemgo 1586 ( digitized version )

Web links

Commons : Elisabeth Ursula von Braunschweig-Lüneburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Life data (worldhistory.de)