War of the Lüneburg Succession

According to the inheritance rules of the House of Welf to which William belonged, the Duke of Brunswick, Magnus II Torquatus, was entitled to succeed.

However, Charles IV ruled that this Imperial Fief should be returned to the Empire and enfeoffed Albert of Saxe-Wittenberg and his uncle, Wenceslas with the Principality, thereby triggering the war.

The town of Lüneburg supported the Wittenbergs, taking the opportunity to escape from the immediate lordship of the Duke, and destroyed the ducal castle on the Kalkberg on 1 February 1371.

An attempt on 21 October 1371, Saint Ursula's day, to defeat Lüneburg militarily and reinstate the old ducal rights failed.

During the military conflict in the years that followed, neither the Brunswicks nor the Wittenbergs were able to assert their claims, and it was only through the Peace of Hanover in 1373 that the war came to an end, at least for the time being.

After the Battle of Winsen in 1388, when Wenceslas lost his life, possibly a result of poisoning, rule over the Principality was assumed by the House of Welf, in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty of Hanover, dating from 1374.

The official appointment of William to the dukedom in 1235, in which the cognatic succession had been assured, led to further negotiations between the Duke and the Emperor, but these did not reach a conclusion.

[2] When William died in 1369, Magnus was on the Danish side in the war against the Hanseatic seaside towns of Rostock, Lübeck, Wismar and Stralsund.

Magnus extorted high payments of money from Lüneburg, forced the town to renounce its privileges, and began to strengthen his occupation of the castle on the Kalkberg and its fortifications.

In the battle, a total of 54 ducal fighters and 27 members of the town were killed, including several mayors and master salters, had fallen.

After his death, a treaty - the Reconciliation of Hanover - was agreed between Wenceslas and his nephew Albert, on the one hand, and the widow of Magnus II and her sons on the other.

According to the treaty, the estates of the Principality were to pay homage both to the Welfs and to the Ascanians, and the two noble houses would govern the state alternately.

But his younger brother Henry did not agree with this ruling, and after vain attempts to reach an agreement, the fight flared up again in the spring of 1388.

[7][8][9] The Welfs had secured the Principality of Lüneburg for their house, but had been plunged heavily into debt and had pawned most of their ducal estates and castles.

As a result of the slighting of the castle on the Kalkberg and the granting of extensive privileges, Lüneburg secured its independence from the Duke, and in the following centuries almost attained Imperial immediacy.