Frederick III of Brunswick-Callenberg-Lüneburg (1424-1495)
Frederick III Brunsick-Callenberg-Lüneburg 1424-1495
Biography
Frederick III was son of Wilhelm Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Cecilia of Brandenburg and brother with Wilhelm II, he was married two times his first marriage was with Anna of Brunswick widow of Albrecht III and his second marriage on 1483 with Margarete of Rittberg both marriages were childless.In his first decades of his life was involved with many feuds and raids that is how he got the nickname the Restless
The unfairly imprisoned Duke
In 1477 Frederick was sent to another city (Geldern) for administrative matters. However after only two years he had to return to his homeland for reason of 'mental weakness', or mental illness. Afer a short period of time he recovered.
In 1482 his father Wilhelm the Elder died, that meant that he and his borther took over the regency. In the same year a feud broke out between the Bishop of Hildesheim and the City of Hildesheim. The two brothers they were on different sides of this conflict. Wilhelm chose to support the bishop and Frederick the town. As a result, on September 1484, an armed conflict to broke out. Frederick was captured by his brother in December of the same year.
According to Wilhelm the reason for the capture was that he saw his brother having a renewed outbreak of the mental illness. With his brother's capture now Wilhelm had all the land and power for himself. Frederick remained in captivity until the end of his life 5 March of 1495 in Munden. Finally an interesting fact is that a folk song is dedicated to Frederick called Hertzog Friderich which refers to the circumstances of his capture and the injustice that happened to him.
