William III, Princely count of Henneberg-Schleusingen

Princely count William III of Henneberg-Schleusingen (12 March 1434 – 25 May 1480 in Salorno) was a member of the House of Henneberg. He was the son of William II of Henneberg and Catherine of Hanau. William III inherited the princely county of Henneberg in 1440, when his father died in a hunting accident. In 1469, he married Margaret (1451 – 13 February 1509), the daughter of Duke Henry the Peaceful of Brunswick-Lüneburg.[1]

William III, Princely count of Henneberg-Schleusingen
Wilhelm III's Tombstone, Gothic Cathedral in Bolzano
Born12 March 1434
Died25 May 1480(1480-05-25) (aged 46)
Salorno
BuriedAssumption of Mary Church in Bolzano
Noble familyHouse of Henneberg
FatherWilliam II, Princely count of Henneberg-Schleusingen
MotherCatherine of Hanau

In 1463 or 1464, the imperial city of Schweinfurt transferred the office of Imperial bailiff to William and made him patron of the city.[2] This combination of competencies offered Schweinfurt some degree of protection against the Bishopric of Würzburg.[3] Apparently out of personal piety, William promoted pilgrimages and founded churches and monasteries.[4]

William died in 1480 in Salorno, when he was returning from Rome. His grave stone can be found in the Assumption of Mary Church in Bolzano, near the altar. In 1482, his body was transferred to the Henneberg family vault in the church of the monastery at Kloster Veßra.[5] The epitaph in Bolzano was sculpted by Erasmus Forster in Gardolo near Trento and installed in the Church in 1495 or 1496. Like his father, he left only underage children, including his heir, William IV. His widow, however, succeeded in securing their inheritance.[2]

Footnotes
  1. Franziskus Lubecus and Reinhard Vogelsang (eds.): Göttinger Annalen. Von den Anfängen bis zum Jahr 1588 = Quellen zur Geschichte der Stadt Göttingen, vol. 1, Wallstein Verlag, 1994, ISBN 3-89244-088-3, p. 224
  2. Eckart Henning: Die gefürstete Grafschaft Henneberg-Schleusingen im Zeitalter der Reformation, Böhlau, Cologne, 1981, ISBN 3-412-04480-6, p. 90
  3. Max Spindler, Andreas Kraus: Geschichte Frankens bis zum Ausgang des 18. Jahrhunderts = Handbuch der bayerischen Geschichte, vol. 3: Franken, Schwaben, Oberpfalz bis zum Ausgang des 18. Jahrhunderts, Beck, Munich, 1997, ISBN 3-406-39451-5, p. 686
  4. Johannes Mötsch: Die Wallfahrt St. Wolfgang in Hermannsfeld, in: Enno Bünz, Stefan Tebruck and Helmut G. Walther (eds.): Religiöse Bewegungen im Mittelalter. Festschrift für Matthias Werner zum 65. Geburtstag, Böhlau, Cologne and Vienna, 2007, ISBN 3-412-20060-3, p. 673–700, in particular: p. 676
  5. Ulrike Stein: Die Darstellung der Grafen Wilhelm II. (1426-1444) und Wilhelm III. (1444-1480) von Henneberg in der hennebergischen und mitteldeutschen Geschichtsschreibung, in: Ellen Widder (ed.): Manipulus Florum. Aus Mittelalter, Landesgeschichte, Literatur und Historiographie. Festschrift für Peter Johanek zum 60. Geburtstag, Waxmann, Münster, 2000, ISBN 3-89325-743-8, p. 31–42, in particular: p. 36
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