Notes |
- BIOGRAPHY
Heinrich was born on 3 May 1470, the son of Magnus II, Herzog von Mecklenburg-Schwerin und Güstrow, and Sophie von Pommern-Wolgast.
On 16 February 1507 Heinrich married Markgräfin Ursula of Brandenburg, daughter of Johann Cicero, Kurfürst von Brandenburg, and Margarethe von Sachsen. They had three children of whom Sophie would have progeny. Ursula died on 18 September 1510 at Güstrow.
Heinrich married on 5 June 1513 Pfalzgräfin Helene bei Rhein, daughter of Philipp 'der Aufrichtige', Kurfürst von der Pfalz, and Margarethe von Bayern. They also had three children of whom two sisters, Margareta and Katarina, would have progeny. Helene died on 16 June 1524 in Schwerin.
On 24 May 1551 in Schwerin Heinrich married Herzogin Ursula von Sachsen-Lauenburg, but this marriage remained childless.
Heinrich was a strong supporter of the Reformation. In the bigger towns of western Pomerania the social tensions brought on by the Reformation grew rapidly in the 16th century. The discontent across the social classes ensured its swift success. In 1540 it swept through the bishopric of Schwerin. Heinrich prescribed a catechism written in _Plattdeutch_, the German of the people, and a reformed form of worship in his lands. At the state Diet in Sternberg in 1549 the Protestant religion was adopted for the entire land of Mecklenburg. The church properties were largely divided between the two dukes of Mecklenburg. This increased the ducal properties substantially, as the ecclesiastical lands had covered about a quarter of the entire state before the Reformation.
Heinrich died on 6 February 1552 in Schwerin. He outlived his first-born child, his daughter Sophie who married Ernst 'the Confessor', duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg in 1528 and had ten children with him, of whom two sons and two daughters would have progeny.
|