Background
He was the youngest child of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg (Franz I von Sachsen-Lauenburg) and his wife, Sibylle of Saxony, daughter of the influential Duke Henry IV the Pious of Saxony and his wife, Katharina of Mecklenburg.
He was the youngest child of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg (Franz I von Sachsen-Lauenburg) and his wife, Sibylle of Saxony, daughter of the influential Duke Henry IV the Pious of Saxony and his wife, Katharina of Mecklenburg.
Together with Henry he studied at the University of Cologne under law professor Doctor Conrad Betzdorf, who housed him and his brother and was their mentor.
Frederick was raised Lutheran, but educated Catholic. Henry was Prince-Archbishop of Bremen (as Henry III, 1567–1585), Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück (as Henry II, 1574–1585) and of Paderborn (as Henry IV, 1577–1585). As Prince-Bishop of Paderborn, Henry succeeded Salentin von Isenberg in 1577.
During the Cologne War (1583–1589), he raised an army to fight for the Catholic faction of the cathedral chapter.
He was instrumental in securing the town of Kaiserswerth in 1583 for Ernest of Bavaria, the rivalling elector-archbishop of Cologne. In 1586, during the Campaign in Cologne"s Upper Electorate-Archbishopric at Hülchrath, he was part of the Ferdinand"s force.
In the attack on the castle, the Bavarian force was repulsed, but he himself mortally wounded. He died in Cologne shortly after the battle.