[1] He was the youngest child of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg (Franz I. von Sachsen-Lauenburg) and his wife, Sibylle of Saxony, daughter of the influential Duke Henry IV the Pious of Saxony and his wife, Katharina of Mecklenburg.
Together with Henry he studied at the University of Cologne under law professor Dr. Conrad Betzdorf, who housed him and his brother and was their mentor.
In 1575, he married Anna von Broich in Hagen im Bremischen, the daughter of a city councillor of Cologne, and died in 1585 in an equestrian accident in Vörde.
[4] During the Cologne War (1583–1589), he raised an army to fight for the Catholic faction of the cathedral chapter.
He was instrumental in securing the town of Kaiserswerth in 1583 for Ernest of Bavaria, the rivalling elector-archbishop of Cologne.