Francis, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg

His father, Henry the Middle (1468–1532), had planned that Francis would later become the Bishop of Hildesheim, but that proved impossible due to the worsened political situation.

After his father (who had supported a losing French contender for the imperial elections) was exiled to Paris in 1521, his two elder brothers, Otto and Ernest the Confessor, ruled the severely indebted Duchy of Celle.

They arranged for their brother, Francis, who was too young to share power, to have a professional education and, at the age of 16, sent him to the University of Wittenberg.

It was a small, easily managed lordship, in which Duke Francis could indulge his noble image of himself and attended to his princely representational duties unfettered.

His wife, the Duchess Clara, was given Fallersleben Castle as her dowager home where she applied herself wholeheartedly to the common good of the place.

The town of Franzburg in the district of Vorpommern-Rügen was named in honour of him by his son-in-law, Duke Bogislaw XIII of Pomerania.