Catherine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was a member of the house of Welf and a Princess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and by marriage Duchess of Saxe-Lauenburg.
Background
Catherine was a daughter of the Duke Henry IV of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1463–1514) from his marriage to Catherine of Pomerania (1465–1526), daughter of the Duke Erich II of Pomerania. Her father summoned the Parliament in 1509 to collect a lady tax, because he found himself unable to pay the dowry alone.
Career
Only after long negotiations, did the Parliament grant three rounds of real estate tax, to generate for money for a dowry and jewels for the princess. Catherine was a strict Catholic with close ties to her relative in Brunswick kin. Francis I (1510–1581), Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg
married in 1540 Sibylle of Saxony (1515–1592)
Dorothea (1511–1571)
married in 1525 King Christian III of Denmark and Norway (1503–1559)
Catherine (1513–1535)
married in 1531 King Gustav I Vasa of Sweden (1496–1560)
Clara (1518–1576)
married in 1547 Duke Francis of Braunschweig-Gifhorn (1508–1549)
Sophie of Saxe-Lauenburg (1521–1571)
married in 1537 Anthony I, Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst (1505–1573)
Ursula of Saxe-Lauenburg (1523–1577)
married in 1551 Duke Heinrich V of Mecklenburg (1479–1552)
The current reigning monarchs Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, King Harald V of Norway, Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, King Albert II of Belgium and Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg are all her direct-line descendants.
