Mourning Wives: Different Approaches to Mourning for a Succession of Spouses

• In Event: Mourning Women at the Courts of Early Modern Germany

Abstract

August, Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1579–1666) was married three times. His first wife, Clara Maria of Pommern (1574–1623), five years his senior and a widow when he married her, died after a long illness without children. His second wife, Dorothea von Anhalt-Zerbst (1607–34), twenty-eight years his junior, died after giving birth to their seventh child, leaving four young children. His third wife Sophie Elisabeth von Mecklenburg (1613–76), who became the stepmother to his children, survived him. The duke’s participation in the composition of the first two funeral books shows his different relationship to each of the wives. The funeral book of the last wife evinces the heavy hand of her son Ferdinand Albrecht. An exploration of the differences and similarities of these funeral books shows how mourning one’s wife or mother is not only influenced by the characters involved but by courtly circumstances, and the specific make-up of the marriage.

Author

• Cornelia Niekus Moore, University of Hawaii