Magnus II (Braunschweig-Lüneburg)

Depiction of Magnus II in the series “Braunschweigischer Fürstensaal” by the historian Ludwig Ferdinand Spehr from 1840

Magnus II. Torquatus , Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (* 1324 - † July 25, 1373 near Leveste ) from the Guelph dynasty was Prince of Lüneburg and Prince of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel from 1369 until his death in 1373 .

Life

Magnus was the eldest son of Magnus I and his wife Sophie von Brandenburg. He initially worked as an administrator in Sangerhausen , then from 1368 as a bailiff. In 1369, after the death of his father, he inherited the Principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel . A few months later, the father of his sister-in-law Mechtild von Braunschweig-Lüneburg († before May 16, 1410) died, Prince Wilhelm II of Lüneburg . Magnus had been designated by him as heir and would also have been entitled to inheritance in accordance with the Guelph house laws since his father Magnus I had been a second cousin of the deceased. However, Emperor Charles IV considered the imperial fiefdom to have reverted to the Empire and enfeoffed the Ascanian dukes Albrecht von Sachsen-Wittenberg and his uncle Wenzel with the principality, which triggered the War of the Lüneburg Succession . The next few years were marked by military conflicts with the Wittenbergers. After Lüneburg took the side of the Wittenberg dukes due to repeated demands for money from Magnus, Magnus tried to take Lüneburg, but this failed. Magnus died in 1373 of fatal injuries sustained in a duel with his brother-in-law, Count Otto I von Schaumburg , at the Battle of Leveste am Deister .

monument

Magnus monument near Leveste

In 1864 King George V of Hanover had a memorial erected on the road from Leveste to Gehrden to commemorate Duke Magnus Torquatus, who died there in 1373. It bears the inscription:

Duke Magnus Torqatus
fell here in battle with
Otto Graf von Schaumburg
on XXV Julius MCCCLXXIII.
King George V
had this monument
erected MDCCCLXIV

Originally a cross stone was placed at the place of death . This formerly rectangular parallelepiped with an artlessly carved cross serves as a central part of the monument, which was built in neo-Gothic style according to plans by the Oberland master builder Christian Adolf Vogell .

progeny

From his marriage to Katharina von Anhalt-Bernburg, Magnus II had eleven children:

• Elisabeth ∞ Duke Gerhard VI. of Schleswig-Holstein († 1404)
• Friedrich (1357–1400) ∞ Anna of Saxony († 1426)
• Bernhard († 1434) ∞ Margaret of Saxony (before 1370-1418)
• Henry the Mild († 1416)
• Agnes I († 1410) ∞ Duke Albrecht I of Braunschweig-Grubenhagen (1339–1383)
• Helene ∞ Count Erich I von Hoya
• Elisabeth († 1420) ∞ Count Moritz IV. Of Oldenburg (1380–1420)
• Agnes II. (Before 1356 – before 1434) ∞ Duke Albrecht III. of Mecklenburg , from 1363 King of Sweden
• Sophie (1358–1416) ∞ Duke Erich IV of Saxony-Lauenburg (1354–1411)
• Mechthild (1370– ??) ∞ Count Otto III. by Hoya († 1428)
• Otto II (around 1364–1406)

literature

• Ludwig Ferdinand Spehr : Magnus II. In: "Braunschweigischer Fürstensaal", 1840, Braunschweig, p. 201
• Christa Geckler: The Celle dukes - life and work 1371–1705 . Georg Ströher, Celle 1986, ISBN 3-921744-05-8
• Bernd-Ulrich Hergemöller:  Magnus II. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-428-00196-6 , p. 662 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Paul Zimmermann :  Magnus II. In: General German Biography (ADB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1884, pp. 64-66.
• Peter Steckhan: Magnus II. Torquatus . In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Dieter Lent et al. (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon: 8th to 18th century . Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2006, p. 473f.
• Ernst Andreas Friedrich : The Magnus Monument near Leveste , pp. 105-106, in: If stones could talk , Volume II, Landbuch-Verlag, Hannover 1992, ISBN 3-7842-0479-1 .

Web links

Commons : Magnus II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1324–1373)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Description of Duke Magnus Torquatus in Cellesche Zeitung from June 14, 2013

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Levester Chronicle of the Magnus Monument ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ The Magnus Monument
3. ↑ Wilh. H. Mitthoff : Leveste . In: Art monuments and antiquities in Hanover . First volume: Fürstenthum Calenberg . Helwing'sche Hofbuchhandlung, Hanover 1871, p.  120-121 ( online ).
4. ↑ Leveste . In: Carl Wolff (ed.): The art monuments of the province of Hanover . Issue 1: Districts of Hanover and Linden . Self-published by the provincial administration, Theodor Schulzes Buchhandlung, Hanover 1899, p.  102 ( online ).

predecessor	Office	successor
Wilhelm II.	Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Prince of Lüneburg 1369–1373	Albrecht von Sachsen-Wittenberg and Wenzel von Sachsen-Wittenberg
Magnus I.	Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Prince of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel 1369–1373	Friedrich