March 26, 1687: Birth of Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, Queen in Prussia and Electress of Brandenburg. Part I.

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Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Elector of Hanover, House of Hanover, House of Hohenzollern, King Frederick I of Prussia, King Frederick William I of Prussia, King George I of Great Britain, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover

Sophia Dorothea of Hanover (March 26, 1687 – June 28, 1757) was Queen in Prussia and Electress of Brandenburg during the reign of her husband, King Friedrich Wilhelm I, from February 25, 1713 to May 31, 1740.

Sophia Dorothea was born on March 26, 1687 in Hanover. She was the only daughter of Georg Ludwig, Elector of Hanover, later King George I of Great Britain, and his wife and cousin, Sophia Dorothea of Celle the only surviving daughter of Georg Wilhelm, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, by his morganatic wife Eléonore Desmier d’Olbreuse (1639–1722), Lady of Harburg, a French Huguenot noblewoman.

Sophia Dorothea of Great Britain was detested by her elder brother, King George II of Great Britain.

After the divorce and imprisonment of her mother, she was raised in Hanover under the supervision of her paternal grandmother, Sophia of Hanover, and was educated by her Huguenot teacher Madame de Sacetot.

Marriage

Sophia Dorothea married her cousin, Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, heir apparent to the Prussian throne, on November 28, 1706. He was born in Berlin to King Friedrich I in Prussia and Princess Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, the only daughter of Elector Ernst August of Hanover and his wife Sophia of the Palatinate. Her eldest brother, Georg Ludwig, succeeded to the British throne in 1714 as King George I.

They had met as children when Friedrich Wilhelm had spent some time in Hanover under the care of their grandmother, Sophia of Hanover, and though Sophia Dorothea disliked him, Friedrich Wilhelm had reportedly felt an attraction to her early on.

When a marriage was to be arranged for Friedrich Wilhelm, he was given three alternatives: Princess Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden, (later Queen of Sweden youngest child of King Carl XI and Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark); Princess Amalia of Nassau-Dietz, (the only daughter of Johan Willem Friso of Nassau-Dietz (after 1702 Prince of Orange) and his wife, Landgravine Marie Louise of Hesse-Cassel); or Sophia Dorothea of Hanover.

The Swedish match was preferred by his father, who wished to form a matrimonial alliance with Sweden, and thus the official Finck was sent to Stockholm under the pretext of an adjustment of the disputes regarding Pomerania, but in reality to observe the princess before issuing formal negotiations.

Friedrich Wilhelm, however, preferred Sophia Dorothea and successfully tasked Finck with making such a deterring report of Ulrika Eleonora to his father that he would encounter less opposition when he informed his father of his choice.

Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, Crown Princess of Prussia

A marriage alliance between Prussia and Hanover was regarded as a noncontroversial choice by both courts and the negotiations were swiftly conducted. In order for Sophia Dorothea to make as good an impression as possible in Berlin, her grandmother, Electress Sophia, commissioned her niece Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess of the Palatinate to procure her trousseau in Paris. Her bridal paraphernalia attracted great attention and was referred to as the greatest of any German Princess yet.

The wedding by proxy took place in Hanover on November 28, 1706, and she arrived in Berlin on November 27 where she was welcomed by her groom and his family outside of the city gates and before making her entrance into the capital. Thereafter followed a second wedding, the stately torch-dance, and six weeks of banquets and balls.

King Friedrich Wilhelm I in Prussia

Crown Princess in Prussia

Sophia Dorothea was described as tall, with a beautiful slender figure, graceful and dignified with big blue eyes. Though not regarded as strictly beautiful, she was seen as quite attractive at the time of her marriage and described as charming in her manners, making a good impression in Berlin. Friedrich Wilhelm often called her “Fiekchen”.

Sophia Dorothea and Friedrich Wilhelm differed from each other in every aspect and the marriage suffered as a result. Sophia Dorothea was interested in art, science, literature and fashion, while Friedrich Wilhelm was described as an unpolished, uneducated and spartan military man with rough manners.

Though he was never unfaithful to her, he was unable to win her affection. One of the most important differences between them was that Sophia Dorothea, unlike her husband, loved entertainment, something he regarded to be frivolous.

Friedrich Wilhelm contemplated divorcing her the same year they married and, judging by her letters, accused her of not wanting to be married to him. According to Morgenstern, “He had none of that astonishing complaisance by which lovers, whether husbands or friends, seek to win the favor of the beloved object.

As far as can be gathered from the words he occasionally let drop, the crossing of his first love might have been the innocent cause of this; and as the object of this passion, by the directions of her mother and grandmother, treated him with harshness, where, then, could he learn to make love?”

Queen Sophia Dorothea in Prussia

The birth of her firstborn son, Friedrich Ludwig, in 1707 was celebrated greatly in Prussia, and Sophia Dorothea successfully asked the king to liberate the imprisoned minister Eberhard von Danckelmann. In 1708, after the death of her firstborn son, the physicians declared that Sophia Dorothea was not likely to conceive again, which prompted the remarriage of her father-in-law.

Her father-in-law, Friedrich I, King in Prussia married Sophia Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin the fourth child of Friedrich, Duke of Mecklenburg-Grabow, and Princess Christine Wilhelmine of Hesse-Homburg. She was an aunt of Grand Duchess Anna Leopoldovna of Russia, who was herself regent and mother of Emperor Ivan VI of Russia.

However, Crown Princess Sophia Dorothea gave birth to several children in the following years, and finally to a son who survived in 1712.

Queen in Prussia

In 1713, her father-in-law King Friedrich I died and was succeeded by her spouse as Friedrich Wilhelm I, making her Queen in Prussia.

At the time of the accession, Prussia was at war with Sweden, and Sophia Dorothea accompanied Friedrich Wilhelm during the campaign of 1715, though she soon returned to Berlin to give birth to her daughter. During the war, the king left directions to his ministers to consult her and take no action without her approval in the case of an emergency.

In 1717, she hosted Emperor Peter I the Great of Russia on his visit to Berlin at her own palace Monbijou, as per the king’s request, which was vandalized as a result. Sophia Dorothea’s first favorite was her maid of honor, von Wagnitz, who was dismissed after an intrigue in which Kreutz and her mother tried to make her the king’s mistress, as well as being a spy of the French ambassador Rothenburg.

Queen Sophia Dorothea was admired for her gracious manners and nicknamed “Olympia” for her regal bearing, but scarred by smallpox and overweight with time, she was not called a beauty. She was known as extremely haughty, proud, and ambitious, but Friedrich Wilhelm greatly disliked her interference in politics, as it was his belief that women should be kept only for breeding, and kept submissive as they would otherwise dominate their husbands.

The king was known for his parsimony and dislike of idleness to such a degree that he would beat people in the street as well as in the palace if he viewed them as lazy. The queen complained about the “horrible avarice” he pressed upon the household and as a result, according to Pollnitz, the queen’s table was often so sparingly supplied that he had often given her money so that she could be able to have an omelette for supper.

Friedrich Wilhelm viewed her interests in theater, dancing, jewelry and music as frivolous and resented any sign of her living a life independently from his authority: he particularly disliked her interest in gambling, and it is reported that she and her partners would have coffee beans ready on the table during gambling, so that if the king appeared, they could pretend to be playing with them rather than money.

She also abhorred his cruelty towards their son and heir Friedrich, the future King Friedrich II the Great of Prussia (with whom she was close), although rather than trying to mend the relationship between father and son she frequently spurred Friedrich on in his defiance.

November 9, 1683: Birth of King George II of Great Britain and Ireland, Elector of Hanover. Part I.

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Act of Settlement of 1701, Act of Union 1707, Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, House of Hanover, Imperial Elector of Hanover, King George I of Great Britain and Ireland, King George II of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen Anne of Great Britain and Ireland

George II (George Augustus; November 9, 1683 – October 25, 1760) was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) and a Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire.

George Augustus was born in the city of Hanover in the Holy Roman Empire, followed by his sister, Sophia Dorothea, three years later. Their parents, George Louis, Hereditary Prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg (later King George I of Great Britain), and Sophia Dorothea of Celle, both committed adultery. In 1694 the marriage was dissolved on the pretext that Sophia had abandoned her husband. She was confined to Ahlden House and denied access to her two children, who probably never saw their mother again.

George Augustus spoke only French, the language of diplomacy and the court, until the age of four, after which he was taught German by one of his tutors, Johann Hilmar Holstein. In addition to French and German, he also learnt English and Italian, and studied genealogy, military history, and battle tactics with particular diligence.

George Augustus as Prince of Wales

George Augustus’s second cousin once removed, Queen Anne, ascended the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1702. She had no surviving children, and by the Act of Settlement 1701, the English Parliament designated Anne’s closest Protestant blood relatives, George’s grandmother Sophia of the Rhine and her descendants, as Anne’s heirs in England and Ireland.

Consequently, after his grandmother and father, George was third in line to succeed Anne in two of her three realms. He was naturalized as an English subject in 1705 by the Sophia Naturalization Act, and in 1706 he was made a Knight of the Garter and created Duke and Marquess of Cambridge, Earl of Milford Haven, Viscount Northallerton, and Baron Tewkesbury in the Peerage of England. England and Scotland united in 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, and jointly accepted the succession as laid down by the English Act of Settlement.

Marriage

Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach by Godfrey Kneller, 1716

George’s father did not want his son to enter into a loveless arranged marriage as he had and wanted him to have the opportunity of meeting his bride before any formal arrangements were made. Negotiations from 1702 for the hand of Princess Hedvig Sophia of Sweden, Dowager Duchess and regent of Holstein-Gottorp, came to nothing. the eldest child of Charles XI of Sweden and Ulrike Eleonore of Denmark. Princess Hedvig Sophia of Sweden,was heir presumptive to the Swedish throne until her death in 1708.

In June 1705, under the false name “Monsieur de Busch”, George visited the Brandenburg-Ansbach court at its summer residence in Triesdorf to investigate incognito a marriage prospect: Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach, the former ward of his aunt Queen Sophia Charlotte of Prussia. She was married to Friedrich I, King in Prussia.

Caroline was born on March 1, 1683 at Ansbach, the daughter of John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, and his second wife, Princess Eleonore Erdmuthe of Saxe-Eisenach. Her father was the ruler of one of the smallest German states; he died of smallpox at the age of 32, when Caroline was three years old.

The Brandenburg-Ansbach family belonged to a branch of the House of Hohenzollern and was the ruler of a small German state, the Principality of Ansbach. Since Caroline was orphaned at a young age she moved to the enlightened court of her guardians, King Friedrich I and Queen Sophia Charlotte in Prussia. At the Prussian court, her previously limited education was widened, and she adopted the liberal outlook possessed by Sophia Charlotte, who became her good friend and whose views influenced Caroline all her life.

The English envoy to Hanover, Edmund Poley, reported that George was so taken by “the good her character that he had of her that he would not think of anybody else”. A marriage contract was concluded by the end of July. On September 2, 1705 Caroline arrived in Hanover for her wedding, which was held the same evening in the chapel at Herrenhausen.

George Augustus his fathe, the new King George I of Great Britain, sailed for England from The Hague on September 16, 1714 and arrived at Greenwich two days later. The following day, they formally entered London in a ceremonial procession. George Augustus given the title of Prince of Wales.

Caroline followed her husband to Britain in October with their daughters, while thier eldest son, Frederick Louis, remained in Hanover to be brought up by private tutors. London was like nothing George Augustus had seen before; it was 50 times larger than Hanover, and the crowd was estimated at up to one and a half million spectators. George Augustus courted popularity with voluble expressions of praise for the English, and claimed that he had no drop of blood that was not English.

In the first years of his father’s reign as king, George Augustus associated with opposition politicians until they rejoined the governing party in 1720.

King George I died on June 22, 1727 during one of his visits to Hanover, and George Augustis succeeded him as King George II of Great Britain and Ireland, Elector of Hanover at the age of 43. The new king decided not to travel to the Holy Roman Empire for his father’s funeral, which far from bringing criticism led to praise from the English who considered it proof of his fondness for England.

George II suppressed his father’s will because it attempted to split the Hanoverian succession between George II’s future grandsons rather than vest all the domains (both British and Hanoverian) in a single person. Both British and Hanoverian ministers considered the will unlawful, as George I did not have the legal power to determine the succession personally. Critics supposed that George II hid the will to avoid paying out his father’s legacies.

George II was crowned at Westminster Abbey on October 22, 1727. George Frideric Handel was commissioned to write four new anthems for the coronation, including Zadok the Priest.

August 13, 1792: The Arrest of King Louis XVI of France and Navarre.

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Brunswick Manifesto, Charles Wilhelm Ferdinand, Citizen Louis Capet, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, French Monarchy, French Revolution, Guillotine, King Louis XVI of France, National Convention

While the revolutionary government frantically raised fresh troops and reorganised its armies, a Prussian-Austrian army under Charles Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick assembled at Coblenz on the Rhine. In July, the invasion began, with Brunswick’s army easily taking the fortresses of Longwy and Verdun.

The duke then issued a proclamation called the Brunswick Manifesto, on July 25, 1792. It was written by Louis XVI’s émigré cousin, Louis-Charles the Prince de Condé, declaring the intent of the Austrians and Prussians to restore the king to his full powers and to treat any person or town who opposed them as rebels to be condemned to death by martial law.

King Louis XVI of France and Navarre

Contrary to its intended purpose of strengthening Louis XVI’s position against the revolutionaries, the Brunswick Manifesto had the opposite effect of greatly undermining his already highly tenuous position. It was taken by many to be the final proof of collusion between the king and foreign powers in a conspiracy against his own country.

The anger of the populace boiled over on August 10, when an armed mob – with the backing of a new municipal government of Paris that came to be known as the Insurrectional Paris Commune – marched upon and invaded the Tuileries Palace. The royal family took shelter with the Legislative Assembly.

Louis XVI was officially arrested on August 13, 1792 and sent to the Temple, an ancient fortress in Paris that was used as a prison. On September 21, the National Assembly declared France to be a Republic, and abolished the monarchy. Louis was stripped of all of his titles and honors, and from this date was known as Citizen Louis Capet.

The Girondins were partial to keeping the deposed king under arrest, both as a hostage and a guarantee for the future. Members of the Commune and the most radical deputies, who would soon form the group known as the Mountain, argued for Louis’s immediate execution.

Louis XVI imprisoned at the Tour du Temple

The legal background of many of the deputies made it difficult for a great number of them to accept an execution without the due process of law, and it was voted that the deposed monarch be tried before the National Convention, the organ that housed the representatives of the sovereign people.

In many ways, the former king’s trial represented the trial of the monarchy by the revolution. It was seen as if with the death of one came the life of the other. The historian Jules Michelet later argued that the death of the former king led to the acceptance of violence as a tool for happiness. He said, “If we accept the proposition that one person can be sacrificed for the happiness of the many, it will soon be demonstrated that two or three or more could also be sacrificed for the happiness of the many. Little by little, we will find reasons for sacrificing the many for the happiness of the many, and we will think it was a bargain.”

Louis was then tried by the National Convention, found guilty of high treason, and executed by guillotine on January 21, 1793, as a desacralized French citizen under the name of Citizen Louis Capet, in reference to Hugh Capet, the founder of the Capetian dynasty – which the revolutionaries interpreted as Louis’ surname. Louis XVI was the only King of France ever to be executed, and his death brought an end to more than a thousand years of continuous French monarchy.

Life of George I, King of Great Britain and Elector of Hanover. Part II.

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Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Elector of Hanover, Ernst August of Hanover, King George I of Great Britain, King William III of England, Queen Anne of Great Britain, Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Celle, Sophia of the Rhine (Electress Sophia)

Part II

Though George has his mistress Sophia-Dorothea had her own romance with the Swedish Count Philip-Christoph von Königsmarck. Threatened with the scandal of an elopement, the Hanoverian court, including George’s brothers and mother, urged the lovers to desist, but to no avail. According to diplomatic sources from Hanover’s enemies, in July 1694 the Swedish count was killed, possibly with George’s connivance, and his body thrown into the river Leine weighted with stones.

George I of Great Britain

The murder was claimed to have been committed by four of Ernst-August’s courtiers, one of whom, Don Nicolò Montalbano, was paid the enormous sum of 150,000 thalers, about one hundred times the annual salary of the highest-paid minister. Later rumours supposed that Königsmarck was hacked to pieces and buried beneath the Hanover palace floorboards. However, sources in Hanover itself, including Sophia, denied any knowledge of Königsmarck’s whereabouts.

George’s marriage to Sophia-Dorothea was dissolved, not on the grounds that either of them had committed adultery, but on the grounds that Sophia-Dorothea had abandoned her husband. With her own father’s agreement, George had Sophia-Dorothea imprisoned in Ahlden House in her native Celle, where she stayed until she died more than thirty years later.

Sophia-Dorothea was denied access to her children and father, forbidden to remarry and only allowed to walk unaccompanied within the mansion courtyard. She was, however, endowed with an income, establishment, and servants, and allowed to ride in a carriage outside her castle under supervision. Melusine von der Schulenburg acted as George’s hostess openly from 1698 until his death, and they had three daughters together, born in 1692, 1693 and 1701.

Sophia-Dorothea of Brunswick-Celle

Elector Ernst-August died on January 23, 1698, leaving all of his territories to George with the exception of the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück, an office he had held since 1661. George thus became Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg as well as Archbannerbearer and a Prince-Elector of Hanover within the Holy Roman Empire. His court in Hanover was graced by many cultural icons such as the mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Leibniz and the composers George Frideric Händel and Agostino Steffani.

Shortly after George’s accession to his paternal duchy, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, son of Queen Anne, who was second-in-line to the English and Scottish thrones, died. By the terms of the English Act of Settlement 1701, George’s mother, Sophia, was designated as the heir to the English throne if the then reigning monarch, William III, and his sister-in-law, Anne, died without surviving issue.

The succession was so designed because Sophia was the closest Protestant relative of the British royal family. Fifty-six Catholics with superior hereditary claims were bypassed. The likelihood of any of them converting to Protestantism for the sake of the succession was remote; some had already refused.

Ernst-August, Elector of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg

In August 1701 George was invested with the Order of the Garter and, within six weeks, the nearest Catholic claimant to the thrones, the former King James II-VII died. William III died the following March and was succeeded by Anne. Sophia became heiress presumptive to the new Queen of England. Sophia was in her seventy-first year, thirty-five years older than Anne, but she was very fit and healthy and invested time and energy in securing the succession either for herself or for her son.

However, it was George who understood the complexities of English politics and constitutional law, which required further acts in 1705 to naturalise Sophia and her heirs as English subjects, and to detail arrangements for the transfer of power through a Regency Council. In the same year, George’s surviving uncle died and he inherited further German dominions: the Principality of Lüneburg-Grubenhagen, centred at Celle.

May 17, 1590: Anne of Denmark is crowned Queen Consort of Scotland.

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Anne of Denmark, Antoine de Bourbon, Catherine de Bourbon, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Frederick II of Denmark, Henry IV of France, James VI of Scotland, king James I-VI of England and Scotland, kings and queens of Scotland, Oslo Norway

Anne of Denmark (December 12, 1574 – March 2, 1619) was Queen consort of Scotland, England, and Ireland by marriage to King James VI-I.

Anne of Denmark

Early life

Anne was born on December 12, 1574 at the castle of Skanderborg on the Jutland Peninsula in the Kingdom of Denmark to King Frederik II of Denmark and Norway (1534-1588) and Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow (1557-1631)was the daughter of Duke Ulrich III of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and Princess Elizabeth of Denmark (a daughter of Frederik I of Denmark and Norway and Sophie of Pomerania). Through her father, a grandson of Elizabeth of Oldenburg, she descended from King Hans of Denmark.

Frederik II, King of Denmark and Norway, Duke of Schleswig.

At Princess Anne’s birth King Frederik II needed of a male heir and had been hoping for a son. Queen Sofie did give birth to a son, Christian IV of Denmark, three years later.

Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow

With her older sister, Elizabeth, Anne was sent to be raised at Güstrow in the Holy Roman Empire by her maternal grandparents, Duke Ulrich III of Mecklenburg-Güstrow (1527-1603) and Duchess Elizabeth of Mecklenburg-Güstrow. Crown Prince Christian was also sent to be brought up at Güstrow but two years later, in 1579, his father the King wrote to his parents-in-law, to request the return of his sons, Christian and Ulrich, (probably, at the urging of the Rigsråd, the Danish Privy Council), and Anne and Elizabeth returned with him.

Elizabeth of Denmark, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg

Anne enjoyed a close, happy family upbringing in Denmark, thanks largely to Queen Sophie, who nursed the children through their illnesses herself. Suitors from all over Europe sought the hands of Anne and Elizabeth in marriage, including King James VI of Scotland, who favoured Denmark as a kingdom reformed in religion and a profitable trading partner.

King James VI in 1586, aged twenty, three years before his marriage to Anne. Falkland Palace, Fife.

James VI’s other serious marriage possibility, though eight years his senior, was Princess Catherine de Bourbon (1559-1604) daughter of Queen Jeanne III d’Albret (1528-1572) and Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, (1518-1562). Princess Catherine de Bourbon was the sister of the Huguenot King Henri III of Navarre (1553-1610), future Henri IV of France. A match between Catherine and James VI was favoured by Elizabeth I of England.

Catherine de Bourbon of Navarre

Scottish ambassadors in Denmark first concentrated their suit on the oldest daughter, Elizabeth (1573-1625), but Frederik II had betrothed her to Heinrich-Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg promising the Scots instead that “for the second [daughter] Anne, if the King did like her, he should have her.”

Betrothal and proxy marriage

The constitutional position of Sophie, Anne’s mother, became difficult after Frederik II’s death in 1588, when she found herself in a power struggle with the Rigsraad for control of her son King Christian IV. As a matchmaker, however, Sophie proved more diligent than Frederik II and, overcoming sticking points on the amount of the dowry and the status of Orkney, she sealed the agreement by July 1589.

Anne herself seems to have been thrilled with the match. On July 28, 1589, the English spy Thomas Fowler reported that Anne was “so far in love with the King’s Majesty as it were death to her to have it broken off and hath made good proof divers ways of her affection which his Majestie is apt enough to requite.” Fowler’s insinuation, that James VI preferred men to women, would have been hidden from the fourteen-year-old Anne, who devotedly embroidered shirts for her fiancé while 300 tailors worked on her wedding dress.

Anne of Denmark

Whatever the truth of the rumours, James VI required a royal match to preserve the Stuart line. “God is my witness”, he explained, “I could have abstained longer than the weal of my country could have permitted, [had not] my long delay bred in the breasts of many a great jealousy of my inability, as if I were a barren stock.” On August 20, 1589, Anne was married by proxy to James at Kronborg Castle, the ceremony ending with James’ representative, George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal, sitting next to Anne on the bridal bed.

Marriage

Anne set sail for Scotland within 10 days, but her fleet under the command of Admiral Peder Munk was beset by a series of misadventures, finally being forced back to the coast of Norway, from where she travelled by land to Oslo for refuge, accompanied by the Earl Marischal and others of the Scottish and Danish embassies.

On September 12, Lord Dingwall had landed at Leith, reporting that “he had come in company with the Queen’s fleet three hundred miles, and was separated from them by a great storm: it was feared that the Queen was in danger upon the seas.” Alarmed, James called for national fasting and public prayers, and kept watch on the Firth of Forth for Anne’s arrival from Seton Palace, the home of his friend Lord Seton.

Informed by Anne’s own letters in October that she had abandoned the crossing for the winter, in what Willson calls “the one romantic episode of his life”, James sailed from Leith with a three-hundred-strong retinue to fetch his wife personally. He arrived in Oslo on November 19 after travelling by land from Flekkefjord via Tønsberg.

Anne of Denmark

Anne and James were formally married at the Old Bishop’s Palace in Oslo on November 23, 1589, “with all the splendour possible at that time and place.” So that both bride and groom could understand, Leith minister David Lindsay conducted the ceremony in French, describing Anne as “a Princess both godly and beautiful … she giveth great contentment to his Majesty.”

A month of celebrations followed; and on December 22, cutting his entourage to 50, James visited his new relations at Kronborg Castle in Elsinore, where the newlyweds were greeted by Queen Sophie, 12 year-old King Christian IV, and Christian’s four regents.

The couple moved on to Copenhagen on March 7, and attended the wedding of Anne’s older sister Elizabeth to Heinrich-Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg April 19, sailing two days later for Scotland in a patched up “Gideon”. They arrived in the Water of Leith on May 17, After a welcoming speech in French by James Elphinstone, Anne stayed in the King’s Wark and James went alone to hear a sermon by Patrick Galloway in the Parish Church. Five days later, Anne made her state entry into Edinburgh in a solid silver coach brought over from Denmark, James riding alongside on horseback.

Anne of Denmark

Anne was crowned on May 17, 1590 in the Abbey Church at Holyrood, the first Protestant coronation in Scotland. During the seven-hour ceremony, her gown was opened by the Countess of Mar for presiding minister Robert Bruce to pour “a bonny quantity of oil” on “parts of her breast and arm”, so anointing her as queen. (Kirk ministers had objected vehemently to this element of the ceremony as a pagan and Jewish ritual, but James insisted that it dated from the Old Testament.)

The king handed the crown to Chancellor Maitland, who placed it on Anne’s head. She then affirmed an oath to defend the true religion and worship of God and to “withstand and despise all papistical superstitions, and whatsoever ceremonies and rites contrary to the word of God”.

Royal Numbering ~ The Kingdom of Hanover.

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Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Elector Ernst-August of Hanover, Elector of Hanover, Georg V of Hanover, George I of Great Britain, Kingdom of Hanover, Royal numbering

From the Emperor’s Desk: After yesterday’s brief history Of the Kingdom of Hanover, I wanted to address how the monarchs of Hanover are numbered. This is an expansion of a portion of a larger article on numbering German monarchs in general I posted back in May of 2012.

Coat of Arms of Prince Ernst-August of Hanover (b.1954)

One of the places where there is a discrepancy in numbering of monarchs is the Electorate and Kingdom of Hanover. Prior to its elevation as a kingdom, Hanover was an Imperial Electorate within the Holy Roman Empire ruled by a cadet line of the House of Guelph that ruled the various Brunswick duchies.

Prince Ernst-August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Prince-Elector of Hanover

In 1692 Emperor Leopold I installed Prince Ernst-August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg as Prince-Elector of Hanover as a reward for his service to the Emperor during the Great Turkish War, also known as the War of the Holy League. In 1698 Elector Ernst-August was succeeded by his eldest son who became Elector Georg-Ludwig of Hanover.

In 1701 The Act of Settlement was passed in the Parliament of England that settle the succession to the English and Irish crowns on Protestants only. The next Protestant in line to the throne after William III and his heir, Anne, was the Electress Sophia of Hanover, a granddaughter of James VI-I of England, Scotland and Ireland and the wife of Elector Ernst-August.

Elector Georg-Ludwig’s mother, the Electress Sophia, died on May 28, 1714 at the age of 83. She had collapsed in the gardens at Herrenhausen after rushing to shelter from a shower of rain. Georg-Ludwig, Elector of Hanover and was now Queen Anne’s heir presumptive.

On August 1, 1714 came the death of Queen Anne of Great Britain, and in accordance with the provisions of the Act of Settelment of 1701 in England and Scotland and by virtue of Article II of the Treaty of Union, which defined the succession to the throne of Great Britain, Elector Georg-Ludwig became King George of Great Britain.

George I, King of Great Britain, Prince-Elector of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg

During his reign King George was not known as King George I. Under the British tradition of numbering their monarchs, a monarch will not get a ordinal number until there is another monarch with the same name. That is why you do not see Queen Victoria being called Queen Victoria I. When and if there is a Queen Victoria II, only then will the first Queen Victoria become known as Queen Victoria I. The same goes with king’s Stephen, John and Queen Anne.

In Hanover and Great Britain the numbering for these King-Electors was the same. In 1727 King-Elector George was succeeded by his son as George II (and George obtained the ordinal “I”) and in 1760 George II’s grandson succeeded him as George III.

In 1806 the Holy Roman Empire came to an end and Hanover became part of the Kingdom of Westphalia, a puppet state founded by Napoleon. After the defeat of Napoleon the Congress of Vienna restored George III to his Hanoverian territories and elevated Hanover to a Kingdom, since the title Imperial Elector was now obsolete given the fact there was no longer a Holy Roman Emperor to elect.

With Hanover now a kingdom, instead of starting a new numbering sequence for the Kings of Hanover, George III still retained his ordinal number in Hanover as well as Great Britain. In 1820 George III was succeeded by his son who became George IV of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Hanover. In 1830 George IV was succeeded by his brother William IV who was known as King Wilhelm of Hanover.

George III, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, King of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg

Since succession to the crown of Hanover was governed by the Salic Law which barred women from inheriting the throne, the personal union between the United Kingdom and Hanover ended in 1837 with the death of William IV. William IV was succeeded in the United by his niece, Victoria, who reigned in Britain until 1901 and gave her name to the entire era.

In Hanover the crown of Hanover went to another brother of William IV, Prince Ernest-Augustus, Duke of Cumberland…..and became King Ernst-August (1837-1851) without an ordinal.

This is where it gets tricky. In my view the new Hanoverian King should have been been called Ernst-August II because the dynasty of Hanover began with Elector Ernst-August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg in 1692. There are two ways to view this situation. Since the first Ernst-August was only an Elector in 1692 and never a King he doesn’t revive an ordinal.

Ernst-August, King of Hanover

His son and successor, King George I, was the first Hanoverian Elector to hold the royal title of King, although he was a King of Great Britain and not a King of Hanover. So it appears that the royal numbering of Hanover follows those with the title of King regardless if the person was not a King of Hanover. Technically George’s I, II and III (until 1814) were Electors of Hanover and not Kings.

Grave of King Georg V of Hanover

That is the inconsistency. It ignores the Elector Ernst-August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. It seems only the name George gets an ordinal number in Hanover. This is exemplified with the accession of Crown Prince Georg of Hanover, son and heir of King Ernst-August, who became King of Hanover as King Georg V (1851-1866). Again, this means the royal numbering of Hanover follows those with the title of King regardless if the person was not a King of Hanover.

It is a minor quibble but an interesting one!

11. Crown of the Kingdom of Hanover.

Tags

Act of Settlement 1701, Crown of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Electorate of Hanover, Ernst August of Hanover, George I of Great Britain, House of Guelph, King George III of the United Kingdom, Kingdom of Hanover, Titles Deprivation Act 1917, United Kingdom of Great Britain, World War I

From the Emperor’s Desk: In researching the background on the Crown of the Kingdom of Hanover for my countdown of my favorite crowns, I came up with…nothing! So instead I’ll give a short synopsis of the Kingdom of Hanover itself.

The Crown of the Kingdom of Hanover.

The Kingdom of Hanover was established in October 1814 by the Congress of Vienna, with the restoration of George III to his Hanoverian territories after the Napoleonic era. It succeeded the former Electorate of Hanover (known formally as the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg), and joined 38 other sovereign states in the German Confederation in June of 1815.

The kingdom was ruled by the House of Hanover, a cadet branch of the House of Guelph (Welf), And held in personal union with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland since 1714. Since its monarch resided in London, a viceroy (usually a younger member of the British Royal Family) handled the administration of the Kingdom of Hanover.

The Crown of the Kingdom of Hanover and Hereditary Prince Ernst-August of Hanover.

History

The territory of Hanover had earlier been a principality within the Holy Roman Empire before being elevated into an Imperial Electorate in 1708, when Hanover was formed by union of the dynastic divisions of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, excepting the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

The founder of the dynasty was Prince Ernst-August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, (November 20, 1629 – January 23, 1698). youngest son of Georg, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Prince of Calenberg, and Anne-Eleonore of Hesse-Darmstadt.

On September 30, 1658, Ernst-August married Sophia of the Palatinate of the Rhine in Heidelberg. She was the daughter of Friedrich V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine and Princess Elizabeth of England, and granddaughter of King James VI-I of England, Scotland and Ireland. Sophia had been betrothed to Ernst-August’s older brother, Georg-Wilhelm who did not want her. When she married Ernst-August instead, releasing Georg-Wilhelm from this obligation, Georg-Wilhelm then ceded to Ernst-August his claim to the Duchy of Lüneburg.

Ernst-August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Elector of Hanover.

As the fourth son, Ernst-August had little chance of succeeding his father as ruler. Therefore, the couple had to live in the Leineschloss at the Hanover court of Ernest-August’s eldest brother Christian-Ludwig.

Christian-Ludwig died childless in 1665, leaving the Duchy of Lüneburg to the second brother, Georg-Wilhelm, who had ceded his right to Ernst-August, who thus succeeded. Georg-Wilhelm kept the district of Celle for himself.

In 1679, Ernst-August inherited the Principality of Calenberg from the third brother Johann-Friedrich. In 1680 the family moved back to Hanover. In 1683, against the protestations of his five younger sons, Ernst-August instituted primogeniture, so that his territory would not be further subdivided after his death, and also as a pre-condition for obtaining the coveted electorship.

Ernst-August participated on the side of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, in the Great Turkish War; also known as the War of the Holy League which was a series of conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League which consisted of the Habsburg Monarchy, Poland-Lithuania, Venice and Russia. In 1692, Ernst-August was appointed Prince-Elector by the Emperor, thus raising the House of Hanover to electoral dignity; however, the electorship did not come into effect until 1708. He was nonetheless recognized as Elector of Hanover, the very first. Ernst-August died in 1698 at Herrenhausen Palace, Hanover. He was succeeded as ruler by his eldest son, Georg-Ludwig.

Georg-Ludwig, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Elector of Hanover,

In 1701 The Act of Settlement was passed in the Parliament of England that settle the succession to the English and Irish crowns on Protestants only. The next Protestant in line to the throne after William III and his heir, Anne, was the Electress Sophia of Hanover, a granddaughter of James VI-I of England, Scotland and Ireland. After her the crowns would descend only to her non-Roman Catholic heirs, bypassing the Catholic descendants of James II-VII of England, Scotland and Ireland.

The Act of Settlement was, in many ways, the major cause of the union of Scotland with England and Wales to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. The Parliament of Scotland was not happy with the Act of Settlement and, in response, passed the Act of Security in 1704, through which Scotland reserved the right to choose its own successor to Queen Anne. Stemming from this, the Parliament of England decided that, to ensure the stability and future prosperity of Great Britain, full union of the two parliaments and nations was essential before Anne’s death.

It used a combination of exclusionary legislation (the Alien Act 1705), politics, and bribery to achieve this within three years under the Act of Union 1707 which united England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain. By virtue of Article II of the Treaty of Union, which defined the succession to the throne of Great Britain, the Act of Settlement became part of Scots Law as well.

Georg-Ludwig’s mother, the Electress Sophia, died on May 28, 1714 at the age of 83. She had collapsed in the gardens at Herrenhausen after rushing to shelter from a shower of rain. Georg-Ludwig, Elector of Hanover and was now Queen Anne’s heir presumptive.

George I, King of Great Britain.

On the death of Queen Anne in August of 1714, Georg-Ludwig ascended the throne of Great Britain as George I, and the Electorate of Hanover was joined in a personal union with Great Britain. In 1803, Hanover was conquered by the French and Prussian armies in the Napoleonic Wars. The Treaties of Tilsit in 1807 joined it to territories from Prussia and created the Kingdom of Westphalia, ruled by Napoleon’s youngest brother Jérôme Bonaparte. French control lasted until October 1813 when the territory was overrun by Russian Cossacks. The Battle of Leipzig shortly thereafter spelled the definitive end of the Napoleonic client states, and the electorate was restored to the House of Hanover.

The terms of the Congress of Vienna in 1814 not only restored Hanover, but elevated it to an independent kingdom with its Prince-Elector, George III of Great Britain, as King of Hanover. The new kingdom was also greatly expanded, becoming the fourth-largest state in the German Confederation (behind Prussia, Austria and Bavaria) and the second-largest in north Germany.

Under George III’s six-year reign, he never visited the Kingdom. Actually, he never left Great Britain at all during his lifetime. Having succumbed to dementia prior to the elevation of Hanover, it is unlikely he ever understood that he had gained an additional kingship nor did he take any role in its governance.

George III, King of the United Kingdom, Elector of Hanover (1760-1813) and 1st King of Hanover (1814-1820)

Functional administration of Hanover was usually handled by a viceroy, which during the later years of George III’s reign and the reigns of kings George IV and William IV from 1816 to 1837, was Adolphus-Frederick, Duke of Cambridge, George III’s youngest surviving son.

King Ernst-August (I) of Hanover

When Queen Victoria succeeded to the British throne in 1837, the 123-year personal union of Great Britain and Hanover ended. Salic law operated in Hanover, excluding accession to the throne by a female while any male of the dynasty survived; thus instead of Victoria, her uncle in the male-line of the House of Hanover, Ernest Augustus, now the eldest surviving son of George III, succeeded to the throne of the new kingdom as King Ernst-August of Hanover (1771-1851) Adolphus-Frederick the younger brother, and long-time Viceroy, returned to Britain as King Ernst-August was the first King of Hanover to actually reside in the kingdom.

King Georg V of Hanover

During the Austro-Prussian War (1866), Hanover attempted to maintain a neutral position, along with some other member states of the German Confederation. Hanover’s vote in favor of the mobilisation of Confederation troops against Prussia on June 14, 1866 prompted Prussia to declare war. The outcome of the war led to the dissolution of Hanover as an independent kingdom and it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia, becoming the Prussian Province of Hanover. Along with the rest of Prussia, it became part of the German Empire in 1871.

After King Georg V of Hanover (1819-1878) fled his country in 1866, he raised forces loyal to him in the Netherlands, called the Guelphic Legion. They were eventually disbanded in 1870. Nevertheless, Georg refused to accept the Prussian takeover of his realm and claimed he was still the legitimate King of Hanover. His only son, Ernst-August, Crown Prince of Hanover (1845-1923), inherited this claim upon George’s death in 1878.

Ernst-August, Crown Prince of Hanover and Duke of Cumberland

Ernst-August, who was also the Duke of Cumberland in the peerage of the United Kingdom, was also first in line to the throne of the Duchy of Brunswick, whose rulers had been a junior branch of the House of Hanover. In 1884, that branch became extinct with the death of Duke Wilhelm of Brunswick, a distant cousin of Ernst-August.

Prince Albert of Prussia, Regent of Brunswick

However, since Ernst-August refused to renounce his claim to the annexed Kingdom of Hanover, the Bundesrat of the German Empire ruled that he would disturb the peace of the empire if he ascended the throne of Brunswick. As a result, Brunswick was ruled by a regency until 1913. The first regent was Prince Albert of Prussia (1837–1906) his wife Princess Marianne of the Netherlands. His father was a brother of King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV of Prussia and of Wilhelm I, King of Prussia and German Emperor. Prince Albert of Prussia was regent of the Duchy of Brunswick from 1885 until his death in 1906.

The regency of Brunswick fell to Duke Johann-Albrecht of Mecklenburg-Schwerin the fifth child of Friedrich-Franz II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1823-1883) and his first wife Princess Augusta Reuss of Köstritz (1822–1862).

Duke Johann-Albrecht of Mecklenburg-Schwerin actually served as the regent of two states of the German Empire. Firstly from 1897 to 1901 he was regent of Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin for his nephew Friedrich-Franz IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and from 1907 to 1913 he was Regent of the Duchy of Brunswick.

Duke Johann-Albrecht of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Regent of Brunswick

When Crown Prince Ernst-August’s son, also named Ernst-Agust-August married the German Emperor Wilhelm II’s daughter, Princess Viktoria-Luise of Prussia in 1913 and swore allegiance to the German Empire, Crown Prince Ernst-August, Duke of Cumberland, then renounced his claim to Brunswick in favor of his son, and the Bundesrat allowed the younger Ernest-August to take possession of Brunswick as it’s new reigning Duke as a kind of dowry compensation for Hanover. This also reconciled the House of Guelph and the House of Hohenzollern after the Prussian annexation of Hanover in 1866. Duke Ernst-August abdicated the Duchy of Brunswick in 1918 at the end of World War I when the German monarchy was abolished.

Duke Ernst-August and Duchess Viktoria-Luise of Brunswick.

Today the claimant to the defunct throne of Hanover is Ernst-August,(V) Prince of Hanover (born February 26, 1954) and is the grandson of Ernest-August, the last reigning Duke of Brunswick and his wife Princess Viktoria-Luise of Prussia.

Prince and Princess Ernst-August Hanover (formerly Princess Caroline Of Monaco).

Ernst-August, is the senior male-line descendant of George III of the United Kingdom, and is head of the House of Hanover. He is also the claimant to the defunct Duchy of Brunswick and the British Peerage of the Dukedom of Cumberland which was lost due to the passing of the Titles Deprivation Act of 1917 which authorised enemies of the United Kingdom during the First World War to be deprived of their British peerages and royal titles. His second marriage was to HSH Princess Caroline of Monaco.

Family of Charles Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Part II.

Tags

Catherine II of Russia, Charles Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Duke of Württemberg, Frederick William of Brunswick, Friedrich I of Württemberg, Friedrich II Eugene, George III of Great Britain, Paul of Russia, Princess Augusta of Great Britain, Princess Marie Elisabeth of Baden

The children of Charles Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Princess Augusta of Great Britain.

Charles Georg August, Hereditary Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (February 8, 1766 – September 20, 1806) the eldest son, was named heir apparent, but suffered from a significant learning disability and was regarded as “well-nigh imbecile,” as well as blind.

Charles Georg August, Hereditary Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

Nevertheless, he was married in 1790 to Louise of Orange-Nassau, daughter of Willem V, Prince of Orange, and Wilhelmina of Prussia. A gentle, good-hearted woman, called Loulou in the family, who remained devoted to him to the end. Louise was reportedly more of a nurse than a spouse to him, who was described as totally dependent of her. In 1791, she commented in a letter in which she expressed no lamentation about the fact that her marriage was childless and rather seemed pleased with it. He died childless at the age of 40 in 1806, two months before his father.

Louise of Orange-Nassau

Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (Augusta Caroline Friederika Luise; December 3, 1764 – September 27, 1788) On October 15, 1780, at the age of 15, Augusta was married in Brunswick to future king Friedrich I of Württemberg the son of Friedrich II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg and mother of the future Wilhelm I of Württemberg.

Friedrich, not assured the throne of because of the possibility of heirs being born ahead of him, determined to make a career abroad. His sister Sophie was married to Tsesarevich Paul, future Emperor of Russia. In 1782, Friedrich accompanied Sophie and her husband to Russia. Pleased with the well-spoken and confident young man, the Empress Catherine II appointed Frederick Governor-General of Eastern Finland, with his seat at Viipuri.

Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

Augusta joined her husband in Vyborg, Russia. The next five years, the couple would become the parents of four children. However, Augusta and Frederick did not have a happy marriage. During a visit to Saint Petersburg in December 1786, Augusta fled to the apartments of Empress Catherine II to ask for protection. She alleged that Friedrich was bisexual, that he had a coterie of young noblemen, and that he was violent towards her. A horrified Catherine gave Augusta asylum in her palace and sent word to Friedrich that it would be best for him to leave Russia, at least for the time being.

Friedrich I, King of Württemberg

Before he left, Friedrich made it known through Sophie to the Empress Catherine II that he regarded his wife to be as of “poor character” as she behaved with too much informality with servant-lads, grooms and aides, and that the “violence” she accused him of was only his insistence that she should behave with adequate reserve towards them, in keeping with what was regarded as suitable for a woman of her high rank.

After Augusta’s father had refused to countenance a divorce, and with Augusta showing clear signs of proving her husband right in the matter of behavior with men of lower rank, Empress Catherine II found it necessary to make arrangements for her removal from the palace. She gave Augusta the use of one of her Imperial estates, in Kullamaa Parish to the south-west of Tallinn, Estonia. Augusta was put in the custody of Wilhelm von Pohlmann (1727 – 1796), a former hunt-master. Augusta quickly began a sexual relationship with her custodian, and soon became pregnant by him.

On September 27, 1788, aged 23, Augusta went into premature labour with a stillborn child, followed by hemorrhaging. Pohlmann refused to send for a doctor or any other medical help, fearful that his illegitimate relationship to her would be exposed. Augusta died of blood loss. She was hurriedly buried in an unmarked grave in the church at Koluvere. Brief letters were then written to the Empress Catherine and to Augusta’s father in Brunswick, blandly announcing her death and giving the cause as the breaking of a blood vessel.

The second son, Georg Wilhelm Christian (1769–1811), suffered from an even more severe learning disability than his elder brother. He was declared incapacitated and was excluded from the succession. He never married.

The couple’s third son was August (1770–1822). He was blind and was also excluded from the succession. He also never married.

The fourth son, Friedrich Wilhelm (October 9, 1771 – June 16, 1815) briefly ruled the state of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel from 1806 to 1807 and again from 1813 to 1815. He was the cousin and brother-in-law (from 8 April 1795) of his friend George IV, Prince Regent of the United Kingdom (from 1811).

Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

He joined the Prussian army in 1789 as a captain and participated in battles against Revolutionary France. In 1805, after his uncle, Friedrich August, Duke of Oels, had died childless, Friedrich Wilhelm inherited the Duchy of Oels, a small mediatized principality in Silesia subordinate to the King of Prussia.

On November 1, 1802, in Karlsruhe, Friedrich Wilhelm married Princess Marie Elisabeth of Baden (1782– 1808), daughter of Charles Ludwig, Hereditary Prince of Baden. The couple had three children. Marie died of puerperal fever four days after giving birth to a stillborn daughter.

Princess Marie Elisabeth of Baden

Friedrich Wilhelm became the reigning Duke of Brunswick upon the death of his father in 1806. After the defeat of Prussia in the Fourth Coalition, his newly inherited Duchy of Brunswick remained under the control of France. However, the duchy was formally incorporated into the short-lived Napoleonic Kingdom of Westphalia in 1807. Friedrich Wilhelm fled to his parents-in-law in Bruchsal in the Grand Duchy of Baden, which had remained a sovereign state after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 by Emperor Franz II, where he lived for the next few years.

Friedrich Wilhelm William returned to Brunswick in December 1813, after Prussia had ended French domination in Brunswick-Lüneburg. When Napoleon returned to the political scene in 1815 during the Hundred Days, Friedrich Wilhelm raised fresh troops. He was killed by a gunshot at the Battle of Quatre Bras on June 16, 1815, the night after he had attended the Duchess of Richmond’s ball in Brussels and left it happy to have a chance to show his fighting ability.

Part III will address the younger daughter Caroline of Brunswick, who was married in 1795 to her first cousin, the future George IV of the United Kingdom, and bore him a daughter, the ill-fated Princess Charlotte of Wales.

Family of Charles Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Part I.

Tags

Augusta of Great Britain, Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Charles William Ferdinand of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Frederick Prince of Wales, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Fredrick Louis, George III of Great Britain, London, Napoleon Bonaparte

Royals are known for living lives of wealth and privilege and that is true. However, that wealth and privilege doesn’t shield one from hardship and tragedy. In this series I will examine the hardships of the family of Charles Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, his wife, Princess Augusta of Great Britain and their children.

Charles Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg

Charles Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (October 9, 1735 – November 10, 1806) was the Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and a military leader. His titles are usually shortened to Duke of Brunswick in English-language sources.

He was the first-born son of Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and his wife Philippine Charlotte of Prussia. His father was the ruling prince (German: Fürst) of the small state of Brunswick-Lüneburg, one of the imperial states of the Holy Roman Empire. Philippine Charlotte was the favourite daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia and sister of Friedrich II of Prussia. As the heir apparent of a sovereign prince, Charles Wilhelm Ferdinand received the title of Hereditary Prince. (Although known by the cumbersome triple name Charles Wilhelm Ferdinand , for the rest of this blog entry I’ll refer to him simply as Charles).

The royal houses of the former Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg had traditionally married within the family, to avoid further division of their family lands under Salic law. By the time, Brunswick-Lüneburg had consolidated back into two states, Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover).

The electorate was ruled by the Hanoverian branch of the family in personal union with the Kingdom of Great Britain. It was therefore arranged for Charles to marry a British-Hanoverian princess: Princess Augusta of Great Britain, daughter of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales and his wife, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, and sister of the reigning King George III. Augusta was given a careful education. She was not described as a beauty, having protuberant eyes, loose mouth and a long face.

On January 16, 1764, Charles married Princess Augusta of Great Britain, eldest sister of King George III. The couple were second cousins to each other, being great-grandchildren of George I of Great Britain, Elector of Hanover. As such, they were not related in a particularly close degree, yet there had been many bonds of marriage between the House of Brunswick-Bevern and the House of Hanover, themselves both branches of the House of Guelph.

Augusta of Great Britain

Augusta never fully adapted to life in Brunswick due to her British patriotism and disregard of all things “east of the Rhine”. This attitude did not change with time, and twenty five years after her marriage, she was described as: “wholly English in her tastes, her principles and her manners, to the point that her almost cynical independence makes, with the etiquette of the German courts, the most singular contrast I know”.

In 1777, Augusta announced to Charles that she would retire from court life and devote herself to the upbringing of her children and religious studies under the Bishop of Fürstenberg. The reason was her disapproval of the relationship between Charles and Louise Hertefeld whom he, in contrast to his previous mistress Maria Antonia Branconi, had installed as his official royal mistress at the Brunswick court.

Augusta of Great Britain

In 1780, Charles succeeded his father as sovereign prince of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, one of the princely states of the Holy Roman Empire. The duke was a cultured and benevolent despot in the model of Friedrich II the Great of Prussia. He was also a recognized master of 18th century warfare, serving as a Field Marshal in the Prussian Army.

In 1806, when Prussia declared war on France, her husband, the Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, 71 at the time, was appointed commander-in-chief of the Prussian army. On October 14, of that year, at the Battle of Jena, Napoleon defeated the Prussian army; and on the same day, at the Battle of Auerstadt, he was struck by a musket ball and lost both of his eyes; his second-in-command Friedrich Wilhelm Carl von Schmettau was also mortally wounded, causing a breakdown in the Prussian command.

Severely wounded, the Duke was carried with his forces before the advancing French. Augusta, with the Hereditary Prince and Hereditary Princess, fled to Altona, where they were present at her dying spouse’s side. Because of the advancing French army, they were advised by the British ambassador to flee, and they left shortly before the death of the Prince. He died of his wounds in Ottensen on November 10, 1806.

The Duke and Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg

Augusta then went to stay at the Duchy of Augustenborg, where her nephew-in-law was sovereign. She remained there with her niece, the Duchess of Augustenborg (daughter of her sister the late Queen Caroline Mathilde of Denmark), until her brother George III of the United Kingdom finally relented in September 1807, and allowed Augusta to come to London. There she resided at Montagu House, at Blackheath in Greenwich, with her daughter, Caroline the Princess of Wales, but soon Augusta fell out with her, and purchased the house next door, Brunswick House. Augusta lived out her days there and died in 1813 aged 75.

Part II will be a discussion about their children.