Julius Francis (16 September 1641 – 30 September 1689) was duke of Saxe-Lauenburg between 1666 and 1689. He was a son of Duke Julius Henry and his third wife Anna Magdalena of Lobkowicz (1606–1668), daughter of Baron William the Younger Popel of Lobkowicz. He was officially known as Julius Franz von Sachsen, Engern und Westfalen.
Life
His father Julius Henry had acquired sprawling estates around and a castle in Ploschkowitz (Ploskovice) and Schlackenwerth (Ostrov), Kingdom of Bohemia. Julius Francis had inherited more estates from his Bohemian mother, which is why the dukes of Saxe-Lauenburg had been adopted into the Bohemian nobility, however, not as imperially immediate aristocrats, as in their homeland.
Having no sons Julius Francis provided for the legal grounds of female succession in Saxe-Lauenburg. With his death, the Lauenburg line of the House of Ascania was extinct in the male line. So Julius Francis' two daughters Anna Maria Franziska and Sibylle fought for the succession of the former, the elder sister. Also, Julius Francis' cousin, Eleonore Charlotte of Saxe-Lauenburg-Franzhagen, claimed the succession.
Their weakness was abused by George William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, who invaded Saxe-Lauenburg with his troops, thus inhibiting the ascension of the legal heiress.
Militarily engaged were Celle[clarification needed] and Danish Holstein, which agreed on 9 October 1693 (Hamburger Vergleich), that Celle - anyway de facto holding most of Saxe-Lauenburg - would retain the duchy in personal union. In 1728 Charles VI finally legitimized the de facto takeover. Anna Maria Franziska and Sibylle, never waiving their claim, were dispossessed in Saxe-Lauenburg and the former exiled in Ploschkowitz.
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