Henry V of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (Latin: Henricus; 10 November 1489 – 11 June 1568), called the Younger, (Heinrich der Jüngere), a member of the House of Welf, was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and ruling Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel from 1514 until his death. The last Catholic of the Welf princes, he was known for the large number of wars in which he was involved and for the long-standing affair with his mistress Eva von Trott.
While Henry initially leaned towards Protestantism and supported parts of the Augsburg Confession in 1530, he remained Catholic. He was involved in an ongoing conflict with the Protestant Electorate of Saxony, and strongly protested when the Calenberg branch of Brunswick-Lüneburg switched to Protestantism. In 1541, under a pretext but actually to gain the fertile mines of Rammelsberg, Henry attacked the Protestant Imperial City of Goslar. When in 1542 Elector John Frederick I of Saxony and Landgrave Philip I of Hesse as members of the Protestant Schmalkaldic League came to the help of Goslar, they managed to occupy the complete Principality of Wolfenbüttel. Henry fled to the Duchy of Bavaria.
In 1545, Henry recruited an army with the support of Emperor Charles and managed to take control of parts of Wolfenbüttel. But in October he was captured by Hessian troops and kept prisoner,[1] until the Emperor finally defeated the Schmalkaldic League at the Battle of Mühlberg, freed Henry and reinstated him in 1547. In 1550 the mercenaries of Count Volrad of Mansfeld occupied Wolfenbüttel, and Henry again fled, this time to the Emperor's troops at Metz. But Mansfeld soon left, and Henry returned. In 1553, he allied himself with Elector Maurice of Saxony against Margrave Albert Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, who had attacked Wolfenbüttel. This conflict culminated in the bloody Battle of Sievershausen, in which Maurice as well as Henry's two eldest sons were killed. The battle, however, ended in a victory for Henry.
Henry finally converted to Protestantism under the influence of his only remaining son, Julius, and died in 1568 at Wolfenbüttel.
Family
Tomb of Duke Henry, his consort Sophia, and his sons Charles Victor and Philip, St Mary's Church, Wolfenbüttel
In 1556 Henry secondly married Sophia Jagiellon (died 1575), daughter of King Sigismund I of Poland, in 1556. The second marriage remained childless.
Henry's affair with his mistress Eva von Trott (1506–1567), a lady-in-waiting to his consort Maria of Württemberg, produced ten children [1522-1558]. When rumours about his amour spread, he pretended she had died and arranged for a feigned funeral at Gandersheim Abbey, while she hid in Liebenburg Castle. Eva and the duke continued to meet even after Maria's death. She likewise had to flee from the Brunswick lands during the Schmalkaldic War in 1543, but returned and retired to Hildesheim. The ducal affair inspired Martin Luther to write his libel Wider Hans Worst in 1541.