Julius of Brunswick-Lüneburg (also known as Julius of Braunschweig; 29 June 1528 – 3 May 1589), a member of the House of Welf, was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and ruling Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel from 1568 until his death. From 1584, he also ruled over the Principality of Calenberg. By embracing the Protestant Reformation, establishing the University of Helmstedt, and introducing a series of administrative reforms, Julius was one of the most important Brunswick dukes in the early modern era.
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Life
Born at the princely court in Wolfenbüttel, Julius was the youngest surviving son of the warlike Duke Henry V of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1489–1568) and his consort Maria (1496–1541), daughter of the Swabian count Henry of Württemberg. His father, a devout Catholic, had significantly enlarged the territories of his Principality of Wolfenbüttel in the Hildesheim Diocesan Feud, but soon after entered a fierce conflict with the Schmalkaldic League which brought him close to the loss of his principality, until the Protestant forces were finally defeated in the 1547 Battle of Mühlberg.
As a younger son, Julius was expected to pursue a clerical career. He studied at the universities of Cologne and Leuven. He set out on a Grand Tour through France in 1550 and began to build up a personal collection of books, the basis of the later Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel. At the instigation of his father, Julius was appointed Prince-Bishop of Minden, by the cathedral chapter on 23 April 1553, succeeding Franz von Waldeck. He never received papal confirmation, however, and resigned after only a year.
In 1552 Julius' father Duke Henry V had joined a princely alliance against the not less warlike Hohenzollern margrave Albert Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. During the Second Margrave War, both sides met in the 1553 Battle of Sievershausen, where both Julius' elder brothers were killed in action. Suddenly, he became heir to the principality – for the distress of his father, who noted his feeble constitution and his sympathies for French culture and the Protestant faith.