Albert of Saxe-Wittenberg, Duke of Lüneburg

Who is Albert of Saxe-Wittenberg, Duke of Lüneburg?

Albert of Saxe-Wittenberg was born as the son of Otto, a younger son of the prince-elector Rudolf I of Saxe-Wittenberg, and his wife Elisabeth, daughter of Duke William II of Brunswick-Lüneburg. In 1370 he succeeded his grandfather as the Duke or Prince of Lüneburg.

William II of Brunswick-Lüneburg named his grandson Albert as his heir in Lüneburg because neither he or his brother had male heirs. In fact William II had previously asked Emperor Charles IV for the eventual enfeoffment of the state to his grandson, but backed away again in the years that followed, because he feared the influence of Albert's uncles, Wenceslas I and Rudolf II. A further reason may be found in the terms of the Brunswick-Lüneburg investiture agreement of 1235 as well as the succession treaties agreed by William's father Otto the Strict with Brunswick-Lüneburg's Wolfenbüttel line of the House of Welf, according to which the principality had to be passed to any male heir within the entire Welf house if there were one.

After the death of William II and the succession of the Wolfenbüttel Magnus II, the Lüneburg War of Succession broke out between Saxe-Wittenberg and Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.