Bénédicte was reared by Louise de La Fayette, a courtier-turned-nun known as Sister Louise-Angélique.

The union, which had been arranged by the French diplomatist Gourville,[2] produced four daughters, only two of whom lived to mature adulthood.

John Frederick died in 1679 without a male heir, and the duchy of Brunswick was inherited by his Protestant younger brother, Ernest Augustus, the husband of Benedicta Henrietta's paternal aunt, Sophia of Hanover, and father of George I of Great Britain.

After her husband's death, Benedicta returned to her native France and resided there with her sister, the princess of Condé.

[3] Benedicta died the age of 78, at Asnieres, her late sister's residence near Paris, on 12 August 1730.