Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick

Anthony Ulrich (German: Anton Ulrich; 4 October 1633 – 27 March 1714), a member of the

Anthony Ulrich was the second surviving son of the ducal couple; he and his siblings received a comprehensive education at the

He studied at the University of Helmstedt where he obtained a doctorate in theology. On his Grand Tour, he travelled to Italy and the Low Countries, he met with Madeleine de Scudéry and became passionate about theatre. When he married Elisabeth Juliane (1633–1704), daughter of Duke Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sønderburg-Norburg, in 1656, he wrote a stage play on this occasion.

Co-ruler

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 of

After the Ernest Augustus had received the new ninth

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 for Baroque composers such as Johann Rosenmüller, Johann Sigismund Kusser, Reinhard Keiser, Georg Caspar Schürmann, and Johann Adolph Hasse.

He significantly extended the Bibliotheca Augusta, a library founded by his father. He hired the philosopher Leibniz as a librarian, and was a supporter of Anton Wilhelm Amo, the first black Doctor of Philosophy in Europe. The new rotunda of the Bibliotheca Augusta, built according to plans by Hermann 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 French Château de Marly. Here the Prussian crown prince Frederick II married Elisabeth 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 the Herzog 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 by Sigmund von Birken.^[2][1]

Marriage and children

Anthony Ulrich married his cousin

• Augustus Frederick (1657–1676)
• Elizabeth Eleanor Sophie (1658–1729), married John George, Duke of Mecklenburg-Mirow and Bernhard I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen
• Anne Sophie (1659–1742), married Charles Gustav of Baden-Durlach
• Leopold Augustus (1661-1662), died in infancy
• Augustus William
  (1662–1731)
• Augustus Henry (1663-1664), died in infancy
• Augustus Charles (1664-1664), died in infancy
• Augustus Francis (1665-1666), died in infancy
• Augusta Dorothea (1666–1751), married Anton Günther II, Count of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen-Arnstadt
• Amalia Antonia (1668-1668), died in infancy
• Henrietta Christine
  (1669–1753), Abbess of Gandersheim
• Louis Rudolph
  (1671–1735)
• Sibylla Ursula (1672-1673), died in infancy

Ancestry

Novels

• Die Durchlauchtige Syrerin Aramena (Aramena, the noble Syrian lady; 1669–1673)
• Die Römische Octavia (Octavia the Roman; 1677–1707)

References