Anthony Ulrich
Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Portrait byChristoph Bernhard Francke
Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Reign	18 April 1685 – 27 March 1714
Predecessor	Rudolph Augustus
Successor	Augustus William
Born	(1633-10-04)4 October 1633 Hitzacker,Brunswick-Lüneburg,Holy Roman Empire
Died	27 March 1714(1714-03-27) (aged 80) Salzdahlum,Brunswick-Lüneburg,Holy Roman Empire
Burial	Marienkirche, Wolfenbüttel
Spouse	Elisabeth Juliane of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Norburg
Issue	Augustus Frederick Elizabeth Eleanore Sophie Anne Sophie Augustus William Augusta Dorothea Henrietta Christine, Abbess of Gandersheim Louis Rudolph
House	House of Welf
Father	Augustus the Younger, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Mother	Dorothea of Anhalt-Zerbst

Anthony Ulrich (German:Anton Ulrich; 4 October 1633 – 27 March 1714), a member of theHouse of Welf, wasDuke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and rulingPrince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel from 1685 until 1702 jointly with his elder brotherRudolph Augustus, and solely from 1704 until his death. He was one of the main proponents ofenlightened absolutism among the Brunswick dukes.

He was born inHitzacker, then the residence of his father DukeAugustus the Younger of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1579–1666) and his second wife PrincessDorothea of Anhalt-Zerbst (1607–1634). The next year his father, at the age of 55, assumed the rule in thePrincipality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel after his Welf cousin DukeFrederick Ulrich had died childless.

Anthony Ulrich was the second surviving son of the ducal couple; he and his siblings received a comprehensive education at theWolfenbüttel court by scholars likeJustus Georg Schottel andSigmund von Birken, as well as by his art-minded stepmotherElisabeth Sophie of Mecklenburg (1613–1676). Anthony Ulrich's sister wasSibylle Ursula von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1629–1671),^[1] who stood out as a writer and translator.

He studied at theUniversity of Helmstedt where he obtained a doctorate intheology. On hisGrand Tour, he travelled toItaly and theLow Countries, he met withMadeleine de Scudéry and became passionate about theatre. When he married Elisabeth Juliane (1633–1704), daughter of DukeFrederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sønderburg-Norburg, in 1656, he wrote a stage play on this occasion.

Already his father consulted him in politics and the government business. After Augustus the Younger's death in 1666, Rudolph Augustus, Anthony Ulrich's elder brother, became reigning duke and made Anthony Ulrich his proxy. Rudolph Augustus had more interest in hunting and his library than in government affairs and left most decisions to his brother; in 1685, he officially made Anthony Ulrich a coregent with equal rights. The young prince united the forces of the Welf principalities to combat the rebellious City ofBrunswick, whose citizens finally had to accept the ducal overlordship in 1671. In the following year, however, his main concern was the rivalry with his cousin DukeErnest Augustus, who from 1679 ruled over the BrunswickPrincipality of Calenberg.

After the Ernest Augustus had received the new ninthprince-electorship from EmperorLeopold I in 1692 and went on to rule asElector of Hanover, tensions between the two states rose, as both Anthony Ulrich and Rudolph Augustus were dismayed that they had not received the electorship according to the right ofprimogeniture. While both Hanover under Ernest Augustus' son ElectorGeorge Louis and the WelfPrincipality of Lüneburg sided with theHabsburg emperor in theWar of the Spanish Succession, Anthony Ulrich decided to enter into an agreement with KingLouis XIV of France. This led to Hanover and Lüneburg forces invading the Principality of Wolfenbüttel in March 1702; Anthony Ulrich was almost captured while travelling from his Wolfenbüttel residence to Brunswick. By order of the emperor, Anthony Ulrich was deposed as duke against his brother's protestations, and Rudolph Augustus remained as the only Wolfenbüttel ruler, while Anthony Ulrich fled toSaxe-Gotha. In April 1702, Rudolph Augustus signed a treaty with Hanover and Lüneburg that Anthony Ulrich later agreed to.

After Rudolph Augustus' death in 1704, Anthony Ulrich took over government again. He continued to settle various disputes with his Hanover cousin George Louis, who in 1705 also inherited Lüneburg, until a final agreement between the two sister principalities was reached in 1706. Wolfenbüttel also renounced all claims to the formerAscanianduchy of Saxe-Lauenburg and received several smaller estates in compensation.

It was now Anthony Ulrich's turn to approach the Imperial Habsburg dynasty. In 1704, he had concluded an agreement with his cousinWilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg, wife of the future EmperorJoseph I, to marry his granddaughterElisabeth Christine off to Joseph's brother ArchdukeCharles of Austria. The young woman was reluctant to convert to theCatholic faith, which she finally did in a solemn ceremony atBamberg Cathedral on 1 May 1707. The marriage took place the next year inVienna.

In 1709, Anthony Ulrich himself converted to the Catholic Church. He guaranteed to his subjects that this would not influence his government, although he allowed the consecration of the first Catholic church in Brunswick. He lived to see the election of Archduke Charles as Emperor Charles VI in 1711 and also the marriage of his granddaughterCharlotte Christine withAlexei Petrovich Romanov, son of TsarPeter I, in the same year.

He died at the age of 80 at hisSchloss Salzdahlum residence, which he had built, and was buried in the crypt of the WolfenbüttelMarienkirche. He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,Augustus William.

As an admirer of King Louis XIV of France, Anthony Ulrich is known as a supporter of scholarship and the arts. He introduced the French language at the Wolfenbüttel court and often spent enormous sums on cultural events and amusements. From 1689 to 1690, he had a public opera house erected in Brunswick,Staatstheater Braunschweig, which soon became a venue forBaroque composers such asJohann Rosenmüller,Johann Sigismund Kusser,Reinhard Keiser,Georg Caspar Schürmann, andJohann Adolph Hasse.

He significantly extended theBibliotheca Augusta, a library founded by his father. He hired the philosopherLeibniz as a librarian, and was a supporter ofAnton Wilhelm Amo, the first blackDoctor of Philosophy in Europe. The new rotunda of the Bibliotheca Augusta, built according to plans byHermann Korb and completed in 1712, was the first genuine library building in Germany. Hermann Korb also designed the plans for Schloss Salzdahlum which was erected between 1694 and 1695, modelled on the FrenchChâteau de Marly. Here the Prussian crown princeFrederick II marriedElisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern in 1733.

Anthony Ulrich also was a writer and had a large art collection, which later became the foundation of theHerzog Anton Ulrich Museum (Duke Anthony Ulrich Museum). His sister Sibylle Ursula wrote part of a novel,Die Durchlauchtige Syrerin Aramena (Aramena, the noble Syrian lady), which when complete would be the most famous courtly novel in German Baroque literature; it was finished by Anthony Ulrich and edited bySigmund von Birken.^[2][1]

Anthony Ulrich married his cousinElizabeth Juliana, daughter ofFrederick, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sønderburg-Nordborg, in 1656. They had 13 children, seven of whom reached adulthood:^[3]

• Augustus Frederick (24 August 1657 – 22 August 1676), died aged 18, no issue.
• Elizabeth Eleanor Sophie (1658–1729), marriedJohn George, Duke of Mecklenburg-Mirow andBernhard I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen
• Anne Sophie (29 October 1659 – 28 June 1742), marriedCharles Gustav of Baden-Durlach
• Leopold Augustus (27 February 1661 – 5 March 1662), died in infancy
• Augustus William (1662–1731)
• Augustus Henry (14 August 1663 – 24 February 1664), died in infancy
• Augustus Charles (4 August 1664 – 20 December 1664), died in infancy
• Augustus Francis (6 October 1665 – 4 December 1666), died in infancy
• Augusta Dorothea (1666–1751), marriedAnton Günther II, Count of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen-Arnstadt
• Amalia Antonia (7 June 1668 – 1 November 1668), died in infancy
• Henrietta Christine (1669–1753), Abbess of Gandersheim
• Louis Rudolph (1671–1735)
• Sibylla Ursula (3 September 1672 – 1 April 1673), died in infancy

• Die Durchlauchtige Syrerin Aramena (Aramena, the noble Syrian lady; 1669–1673) - withSibylle Ursula von Braunschweig-Lüneburg (5 parts/volumes).
• Die Römische Octavia (Octavia the Roman; 1677–1713, 1762) - unfinished mega novel in 7 complete volumes with an unfinished 8th volume).
• The Duke of Brunswick's Fifty Reasons, for Prefering the Roman Catholic Religion to All the Sects, Manchester: R. & W. Dean and Co., 1802.

• Anthony Ulrich at the House of Welf site (in German)
• Anthony Ulrich at Pierre Marteau's Publishing House, including entry from Zedler'sUniversal-Lexicon, 1732 (in German)

• 1633 births
• 1714 deaths
• People from Hitzacker
• Princes of Wolfenbüttel
• German art collectors
• 18th-century art collectors
• 18th-century German philanthropists
• 17th-century German novelists
• 18th-century German novelists
• University of Helmstedt alumni
• Converts to Roman Catholicism from Lutheranism
• German male novelists
• New House of Brunswick
• 17th-century German writers
• 17th-century German male writers
• Baroque writers
• Art collectors from the Holy Roman Empire

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from February 2021