Augustus William of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

Augustus William
Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Contemporary portrait by Christoph Bernhard Francke
Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Reign	1714–1731
Spouse(s)	Christine Sophie of Brunswick-Lüneburg Sophie Amalie of Holstein-Gottorp Elisabeth Sophie Marie of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Norburg
Noble family	House of Welf
Father	Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Mother	Elizabeth Juliana of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Nordborg
Born	(1662-03-08)8 March 1662 Wolfenbüttel, Brunswick-Lüneburg
Died	23 March 1731(1731-03-23) (aged 69)

Augustus William (German: August Wilhelm; 8 March 1662 – 23 March 1731), a member of the House of Welf, was Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and ruling Prince of Wolfenbüttel from 1714 until his death.

Augustus William was the third, but eldest surviving son of Duke Anthony Ulrich and his consort Elizabeth Juliane, a daughter of Duke Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sønderburg-Norburg. Unlike his father, the young prince was not interested in politics; he studied at the University of Geneva from 1677 to 1678 and afterwards went on a Grand Tour from Switzerland to France and the Netherlands.

Nevertheless, in 1681 his uncle, the ruling Prince Rudolph Augustus of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, who himself had no male heirs, adopted him as crown prince. The agreement annoyed Augustus William's father and led to a growing estrangement between them. Moreover, his right of succession was constested by Rudolph Augustus' son-in-law Duke John Adolphus of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Plön. The prince temporarily retired to Langeleben in the Elm hill range, where he had a hunting lodge erected, probably according to plans designed by Hermann Korb. Meanwhile he also acted as a Wolfenbüttel envoy to the Brandenburg-Prussian, Swedish, and Danish courts. In 1690 he gave his consent to cede the Brunswick County of Blankenburg to his younger brother Louis Rudolph, thus violating the Welf primogeniture principle.