August 1, 1714: The Elector of Hanover becomes King George I of Great Britain and Ireland. Part I.

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Duke of Brunswick-Calenberg Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Elector Ernst-August of Hanover, Elector of Hanover, Holy Roman Empire, King George I of Great Britain and Ireland

George I (George Louis; German: Georg Ludwig; May 28, 1660 – June 11, 1727) was King of Great Britain and Ireland from August 1, 1714 and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) within the Holy Roman Empire from January 23, 1698 until his death in 1727. He was the first British monarch of the House of Hanover.

George was born in the city of Hanover in the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire. He was the eldest son of Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and his wife, Sophia of the Palatinate. Sophia was the granddaughter of King James I-VI of England, Scotland and Ireland through her mother, Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia.

For the first year of his life, George was the only heir to the German territories of his father and three childless uncles. George’s brother, Friedrich August, was born in 1661, and the two boys (known as Görgen and Gustchen by the family) were brought up together. Sophia bore Ernst August another four sons and a daughter. In her letters, Sophia describes George as a responsible, conscientious child who set an example to his younger brothers and sisters.

By 1675 George’s eldest uncle, Christian Ludwig, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, died without issue, but his remaining two uncles had married, putting George’s inheritance in jeopardy as his uncles’ estates might pass to their own sons, should they have had any, instead of to George. George’s father took him hunting and riding, and introduced him to military matters; mindful of his uncertain future, Ernst August took the fifteen-year-old George on campaign in the Franco-Dutch War with the deliberate purpose of testing and training his son in battle.

In 1679 George’s uncle, Johann Friedrich of Brunswick-Lüneburg died unexpectedly without sons, and Ernst August became reigning Duke of Calenberg-Göttingen, with his capital at Hanover. George’s surviving uncle, Georg Wilhelm of Celle, had married his mistress in order to legitimise his only daughter, Sophia Dorothea, but looked unlikely to have any further children.

Under Salic law, where inheritance of territory was restricted to the male line, the succession of George and his brothers to the territories of their father and uncle now seemed secure. In 1682, the family agreed to adopt the principle of primogeniture, meaning George would inherit all the territory and not have to share it with his brothers.

The same year, George married his first cousin, Sophia Dorothea of Celle, daughter of Georg Wilhelm of Celle and his mistress and later wife, Éléonore Desmier d’Olbreuse thereby securing additional incomes that would have been outside Salic laws. The marriage of state was arranged primarily as it ensured a healthy annual income and assisted the eventual unification of Hanover and Celle.

His mother at first opposed the marriage because she looked down on Sophia Dorothea’s mother, Eleonore (who came from lower nobility), and because she was concerned by Sophia Dorothea’s legitimated status. She was eventually won over by the advantages inherent in the marriage.

In 1683 George and his brother Friedrich August served in the Great Turkish War at the Battle of Vienna, and Sophia Dorothea bore George a son, George Augustus. The following year, Friedrich August was informed of the adoption of primogeniture, meaning he would no longer receive part of his father’s territory as he had expected.

This led to a breach between Friedrich August and his father, Ernst August, and between the brothers, that lasted until his death in battle in 1690. With the imminent formation of a single Hanoverian state, and the Hanoverians’ continuing contributions to the Empire’s wars, Ernst August was made an Imperial Elector of the Holy Roman Empire in 1692. George’s prospects were now better than ever as the sole heir to his father’s electorate and his uncle’s duchy.

Sophia Dorothea had a second child, a daughter named after her, in 1687, but there were no other pregnancies. The couple became estranged—George preferred the company of his mistress, Melusine von der Schulenburg, and 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. 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 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.

November 20, 1629: Birth of Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire.

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Elector Ernst-August of Hanover, Ernst August of Hanover, George I of Great Britain, George Wilhelm of Brunswick, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, Holy Roman Empire, Prince-Bishop of Osnabruck, Sophia of the Rhine (Electress Sophia), Sophie of the Palatinate

Ernst August (November 20, 1629 – January 23, 1698) was ruler of the Principality of Lüneburg from 1658 and of the Principality of Calenberg from 1679 until his death. He was appointed as the ninth Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire in 1692, but died before the appointment became effective.

Ernst August was born at Herzberg Castle near Göttingen, Principality of Calenberg, the youngest son of Georg, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Prince of Calenberg, and Anne Eleonore of Hesse-Darmstadt.

On September 30, 1658, he married Sophia of the Palatinate in Heidelberg. She was the daughter of Friedrich V, Elector Palatine and Princess Elizabeth of England, and granddaughter of King James I-VI of England and Scotland. 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 ceded to Ernst August his claim to Lüneburg.

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 Ernst August’s eldest brother Christian Ludwig. However, in the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, it had been agreed between the Catholic and Protestant powers that the rulership of the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück should alternate between the two churches, and that the respective Protestant bishops should be members of the House of Welf.

When the Osnabruck throne became vacant in 1662, the family appointed Ernst August Prince-Bishop. Ernst August and Sophia moved to Iburg Castle, together with their two living sons and Sophia’s niece Princess Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate (future sister-in-law of Louis XIV of France). In 1667 they began to build a more up-to-date residence, Osnabruck Palace, and in 1673 they moved there. Their youngest son was born there in 1674.

Christian Ludwig died childless in 1665, leaving Lüneburg to the second brother, Georg Wilhelm who had ceded his right to Ernst August, who thus succeeded to that title. 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. He participated in the Great Turkish War on the side of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1692, he was appointed Prince-Elector by the Emperor, thus raising the House of Hanover to electoral dignity, the elevation becoming effective in 1708 when confirmed by the Imperial Diet.

He was nonetheless recognized as Elector of Hanover, the very first. Ernst August died in 1698 at Herrenhausen Palace, Hanover. He was succeeded as Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire by his eldest son, Georg Ludwig, later King George I of Great Britain.

His main residences were the Leineschloss, in Hanover, and the Herrenhausen, a summer residence a short distance outside the city. Ernst August and Sophia had the Great Garden at Herrenhausen enlarged after Italian and Dutch models, creating one of the most distinguished baroque formal gardens of Europe.

September 15, 1666: Birth of Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle. Part II.

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affair, Count Philip Christoph von Königsmarck, Elector Ernst-August of Hanover, Elector of Hanover, Georg Wilhelm of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle, King George I of Great Britain, Melusine von der Schulenburg, Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle

The desire for the marriage was almost purely financial, as Duchess Sophia wrote to her niece Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orléans:

“One hundred thousand thalers a year is a goodly sum to pocket, without speaking of a pretty wife, who will find a match in my son George Louis, the most pigheaded, stubborn boy who ever lived, who has round his brains such a thick crust that I defy any man or woman ever to discover what is in them. He does not care much for the match itself, but one hundred thousand thalers a year have tempted him as they would have tempted anybody else”.

Georg Ludwig also acquired a mistress, Melusine von der Schulenburg, and started pointedly neglecting his wife. His parents asked him to be more circumspect with his mistress, fearful that a disruption in the marriage would threaten the payment of the 100,000 thalers he received as a part of Sophia Dorothea’s dowry and inheritance from her father.

In the meanwhile Sophia Dorothea herself was reunited around 1690 with the Swedish Count Philip Christoph von Königsmarck, whom she had known since childhood when he was a page at the court of Celle. At first, their contact was little and sporadic but this probably changed in 1691, although initially went unnoticed; however, the careless preference that the Electoral Princess showed to Königsmarck aroused suspicions, and by 1694 the Hanoverian court rumoured that they indeed entered into a love affair.

Historical research was able to use contemporary sources to show that Sophia Dorothea and Königsmarck (presumably since March 1692) had a sexual relationship, which she denied her entire life.

After a violent argument with her husband, Sophia Dorothea traveled to her parents in Celle in the spring of 1694. She wanted an official separation, but her parents were completely against it: Sophia Dorothea’s father was in the middle of the war against Denmark and Sweden and was dependent on the help of his brother Ernst August, so she eventually was sent back to Hanover.

In the summer of 1694 Sophia Dorothea, together with Königsmarck and her lady-in-waiting Eleonore von dem Knesebeck, planned their escape to either to Wolfenbüttel under the protection of Duke Anthon Ulrich or to the Electorate of Saxony, where the Swedish Count held an officer position as major general of the cavalry. But their plan was soon revealed.

Königsmarck’s disappearance

Countess Clara Elisabeth von Platen, a former mistress of Elector Ernest Augustus, had tried in January 1694 to persuade Königsmarck to marry her daughter Sophia Charlotte, but he refused. Offended, she then revealed to the Electoral Prince Georg Ludwig the love affair of his wife with the Swedish Count and their planned escape; soon, the whole Hanoverian found out about this and the scandal erupted.

On the night of July 11, 1694 and after a meeting with Sophia Dorothea in the Leineschloss, Königsmarck disappeared without a trace. According to diplomatic sources from Hanover’s enemies, he was probably killed, possibly with the connivance of either the Electoral Prince or his father, and his body thrown into the river Leine weighted with stones.

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, which was about one hundred times the annual salary of the highest paid minister.

Sophia Dorothea should never find out what had happened to her lover. No trace of him was found, officially he is still missing today. The real facts remained unclear and all documents that could have provided information were confiscated and destroyed by the Hanoverian government.

Königsmarck’s disappearance turned into a state affair when not only relatives, diplomats and the population began to be puzzled over it. King Louis XIV of France asked his sister-in-law Elizabeth Charlotte (maternal first-cousin of the Electoral Prince), but she pretended to be clueless. The French king then sent agents to Hanover, but they could no more shed light on the mystery than King August II of Poland, who spent weeks searching for his missing general.

In return, the brothers Elector Ernst August and Duke Georg Wilhelm turned to the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I with a formal complaint. If the Imperial court didn’t prevent the Polish King from continuing to create “unfriendly acts” against Hanover and Celle, they would withdraw their troops from the Allied forces.

Although the Emperor and Elector Friedrich III of Brandenburg exerted pressure on Augustus II, his envoy continued the investigation and even faced the Count von Platen, telling him that von Königsmarck had either been captured or killed by order of his wife the Countess out of jealousy.

In 2016, construction workers found human bones in a pit while installing an elevator in the Leineschloss. Anthropological examinations of the bones showed that it is very unlikely that the remains were of von Königsmarck’s, as was initially assumed.

The love letters between Sophia Dorothea and Königsmarck

When his affair with Sophia Dorothea threatened to become public, Königsmarck handed their love letters to his brother-in-law, the Swedish Count Carl Gustav von Löwenhaupt. His heirs later offered the dangerous material to the House of Hanover for money, but they wanted such a high price that the court decided not to buy it and instead questioned the authenticity of the correspondence.

The correspondence was published in the middle of the 19th century. The majority of the letters are now in the possession of the Swedish Lund University, with a few ended up in the hands of Sophia Dorothea’s grandson, King Friedrich II the Great of Prussia after allegedly being stolen by his sister, Swedish Queen consort Louisa Ulrika. Today the authenticity of the letters is beyond any doubt.

The Hanoverian historian Georg Schnath calculated on the basis of the existing letters, which were rarely dated, but often numbered, that there were originally 660 letters, 340 letters wrote by Königsmarck and 320 letters wrote in response by Sophia Dorothea.

The missing letters were confiscated and destroyed after the affair became known. In general, the holdings of the State Archives in Hanover hardly provide any information about the critical years. Even the correspondence between Electress Sophia and her niece Elizabeth Charlotte, which could have shed some light on some things, were obviously censored afterwards.

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!