In exchange for being freed from the obligation to marry Princess Sophia of the Palatinate, George William ceded his claim on inheriting Lüneburg to his youngest brother Ernest Augustus, settling for the smaller duchy of Celle and promising to remain unmarried so that he would produce no legitimate heir who might pose a challenge to his brother's claim to Luneburg.

After reaching this agreement, George William's youngest brother, Ernest Augustus, married Sophia and became the Duke of Hanover.

This renunciation left George William free to marry whoever he wished, and indulge his desires to travel and socialize, without being encumbered by considerations of state.

No son however was born, and in 1682, George Louis' parents finally agreed to the proposed marriage as a way of avoiding uncertainty and dispute.

In 1689, Julius Francis, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, died leaving no son and no accepted heir male, but only two daughters, Anna Maria and Sibylle.

The other claimants included the five Ascanian-ruled Principalities of Anhalt, Saxony, Saxe-Wittenberg, Sweden and Brandenburg, and also the neighbouring Mecklenburg-Schwerin and the Danish duchy of Holstein, whose ruler was the King of Denmark.

Meanwhile, the Emperor Leopold I, who had no direct claim on the duchy, occupied the Land of Hadeln, a Saxe-Lauenburgian exclave, and held it in imperial custody.