June 28, 1757: Death of Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, Queen Consort in Prussia. Part II.

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Berlin, Emperor Peter the Great, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, Friedrich-Ludwig of Prussia, Gambling, King Friedrich I of Prussia, King George II of Great Britain, Princess Philippine-Charlotte of Prussia, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover

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?”
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. However, she gave birth to 14 children in all and 10 of them survived into adulthood.

Queen of Prussia

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

Friedrich-Wilhelm I, King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg

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, Princess Philippine-Charlotte of Prussia. During the war, the king left directions to his ministers to consult her and take no action without her approval in the case of 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.

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.

On one occasion, the queen took the opportunity of the king being ill to host a ball at Monbijou with dancing and music, and where she herself gambled while wearing her diamond set. When the king suddenly arrived, the dancing and music stopped immediately, and the queen unclasped her jewelst and hid them in her pocket. His manner toward her was described as rough and so noted that when he displayed the opposite, it was seen as a surprise.

King George II of Great Britain

Upon the death of her mother in 1726, Sophia-Dorothea inherited a sum of three million pounds whereupon it attracted attention that Friedrich-Wilhelm suddenly treated her very well: the Imperial ambassador reported that this was merely because he wanted her money, and when she never received it (as her brother King George II of Great Britain refused to release the sum), Friedrich-Wilhelm resumed his usual abusive manner toward her. For her part, Sophia-Dorothea did not have a high opinion of the king’s military interest or skill, and at one occasion, when he spoke disparagingly of the English commanders retorted: “No doubt they must wish to give you the command of their army.”

On these dates in History: May 27.

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Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Countess of Salisbury, Duchess of Montpensier, Elizabeth-Charlotte, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, Emperor of Russia, Emperor Peter the Great, King Edward IV of England, King Louis XIV of France and Navarre, Madame de Montespan, Margaret Pole, Princess Palatine, Tsar Simeon I the Great

* 1153 – Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland.

Malcolm IV (between April 23 and May 24, 1141 – December 9, 1165) was King of Scotland from 1153 until his death. He was the eldest son of Henry, Earl of Huntingdon and Northumbria (died 1152) and Ada de Warenne. He succeeded his grandfather David I, and shared David’s Anglo-Norman tastes.

* 1199 – John is crowned King of England.

John (December 24, 1166 – October 19, 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philippe II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empire and contributing to the subsequent growth in power of the French Capetian dynasty during the 13th century. The baronial revolt at the end of John’s reign led to the sealing of Magna Carta, a document sometimes considered an early step in the evolution of the constitution of the United Kingdom. John was the youngest of the four surviving sons of King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine.

* 1257 – Richard of Cornwall, and his wife, Sanchia of Provence, are crowned King and Queen of the Germans at Aachen Cathedral.

Richard (January 5, 1209 – April 2, 1272), second son of John, King of England, was the nominal Count of Poitou (1225–43), Earl of Cornwall (from 1225) and King of Germany (from 1257). He was one of the wealthiest men in Europe and joined the Barons’ Crusade, where he achieved success as a negotiator for the release of prisoners and assisted with the building of the citadel in Ascalon.

* 1703 – Emperor Peter I the Great of Russia founds the city of Saint Petersburg.

The city was founded by Emperor Peter I the Great on May 27, 1703, on the site of a captured Swedish fortress. It served as a capital of the Russian Tsardom and the subsequent Russian Empire from 1713 to 1918 (being replaced by Moscow for a short period of time between 1728 and 1730). After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks moved their government to Moscow.

Emperor Peter I the Great of Russia

* 1883 – Alexander III is crowned Emperor of Russia.

Alexander III (March 10, 1845 – November 1, 1894) was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 13, 1881 until his death on November 1, 1894. He was highly reactionary and reversed some of the liberal reforms of his father, Alexander II. Under the influence of Konstantin Pobedonostsev (1827–1907) he opposed any reform that limited his autocratic rule. During his reign, Russia fought no major wars; he was therefore styled “The Peacemaker”

On March 13, 1881 Alexander’s father, Emperor Alexander II, was assassinated by members of the extremist organization Narodnaya Volya. As a result, he ascended to the Russian imperial throne in Nennal. Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark) were officially crowned and anointed at the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow on May 27, 1883. Alexander’s ascension to the throne was followed by an outbreak of anti-Jewish riots.

Births

* 1537 – Ludwig IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Marburg (d. 1604)

Landgrave Ludwig IV of Hesse-Marburg (May 27, 1537 – October 9, 1604) was the son of Landgrave Philipp I of Hesse and his wife Christine of Saxony. After the death of his father in 1567, Hesse was divided among his sons and Louis received Hesse-Marburg (Upper Hesse) including Marburg and Giessen.

1626 – Willem II, Prince of Orange (d. 1650)

Willem II, Prince of Orange

Willem II (May 27, 1626 – November 6, 1650) was sovereign Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, Overijssel and Groningen in the United Provinces of the Netherlands from March 14, 1647 until his death three years later. His only child, William III, co-reigned as King of England, Ireland, and Scotland along with his wife Queen Mary II.

* 1627 – Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier (d. 1693)

Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier, (May 27, 1627 – April 5, 1693) known as La Grande Mademoiselle, was the only daughter of Gaston d’Orléans with his first wife Marie de Bourbon, Duchess of Montpensier. Gaston d’Orléans the third son of King Henri IV of France and his wife Marie de’ Medici.

Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier

One of the greatest heiresses in history, she died unmarried and childless, leaving her vast fortune to her cousin, Philippe of France. After a string of proposals from various members of European ruling families, including Charles II of England, Afonso VI of Portugal, and Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy, she eventually fell in love with the courtier Antoine Nompar de Caumont and scandalised the court of France when she asked Louis XIV for permission to marry him, as such a union was viewed as a mésalliance. She is best remembered for her role in the Fronde, her role in bringing the famous composer Lully to the king’s court, and her Mémoires.

* 1652 – Elizabeth-Charlotte, Princess Palatine of Germany (d. 1722)

Princess Elisabeth-Charlotte (May 27, 1652 – December 8, 1722) was a German princess and, as Madame, the second wife of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, younger brother of Louis XIV of France, and mother of France’s ruler during the Regency. Louis invoked her hereditary claim to the Palatinate as pretext to launch the Nine Years’ War in 1688. Her vast, frank correspondence provides a detailed account of the personalities and activities at the court of her brother-in-law, Louis XIV, for half a century, from the date of her marriage in 1672.

Princess Elisabeth-Charlotte was born in Heidelberg Castle, to Charles I Ludwig, Elector Palatine of the Simmern branch of the House of Wittelsbach, and Landgravine Charlotte of Hesse-Cassel. Princess Elisabeth-Charlotte is directly related to several iconic European monarchs. Her grandmother Elizabeth Stuart was a Scottish and later English princess, daughter of James I-VI of England, Scotland and Ireland and granddaughter of Mary I, Queen of Scots. Her first cousin became George I, the first Hanover King of Great Britain.

* 1756 – Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria (d. 1825)

Maximilian I Joseph (May 27, 1756 – October 13, 1825) was Duke of Zweibrücken from 1795 to 1799, prince-elector of Bavaria (as Maximilian IV Joseph) from 1799 to 1806, then King of Bavaria (as Maximilian I Joseph) from 1806 to 1825. He was a member of the House of Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Zweibrücken, a branch of the House of Wittelsbach.

King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria

Maximilian-Joseph was the son of the Count Palatine Friedrich-Michael of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld and Maria-Francisca of Sulzbach, was at Schwetzingen, between Heidelberg and Mannheim.

Deaths

* 866 – Ordoño I of Asturias (b. 831)

Ordoño I (c. 821 – May 27, 866) was King of Asturias from 850 until his death. He was probably raised in Lugo, capital of the province of Galicia, of which his father, Ramiro, had been named governor. There he was educated, including in the military arts.

On January 1, 850, Ordoño succeeded his father as king. As he was his father’s heir, he was the first king of Asturias to ascend the throne without election. Ordoño married Muniadona. He had six children, including his successor, Alfonso III.

Ordoño died in Oviedo and was succeeded by his eldest son.

* 927 – Simeon I of Bulgaria first Bulgarian Emperor (b. 864)

Tsar Simeon I the Great ruled over Bulgaria from 893 to 927, during the First Bulgarian Empire. Simeon’s successful campaigns against the Byzantines, Magyars and Serbs led Bulgaria to its greatest territorial expansion ever, making it the most powerful state in contemporary Eastern and Southeast Europe. His reign was also a period of unmatched cultural prosperity and enlightenment later deemed the Golden Age of Bulgarian culture.

* 1039 – Dirk III, Count of Holland (b. 981)

Dirk III (also called Dirik or Theodoric) was Count of Holland from 993 to 27 May 1039, until 1005 under regency of his mother. It is thought that Dirk III went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land around 1030, hence his nickname of Hierosolymita (‘the Jerusalemite’ in Latin).

The area over which Dirk ruled was called Holland for the first time only in 1101 and was known as West Friesland at this time. The actual title of Count Dirk III was ‘Count in Friesland’. Western Frisia was very different from the area (North and South Holland) of today. Most of the territory was boggy and subject to constant flooding and hence very sparsely populated. The main areas of habitation were in the dunes at the coast and on heightened areas near the rivers.

* 1508 – Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (b. 1452)

Ludovico Maria Sforza (July 27, 1452 – May 27, 1508), was an Italian Renaissance prince who ruled as Duke of Milan from 1494, following the death of his nephew Gian Galeazzo Sforza, until 1499. A member of the Sforza family, he was the fourth son of Francesco I Sforza. He was famed as a patron of Leonardo da Vinci and other artists, and presided over the final and most productive stage of the Milanese Renaissance. He is probably best known as the man who commissioned The Last Supper.

* 1541 – Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (b. 1473)

Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (August 14, 1473 – May 27, 1541), was an English peeress. She was the daughter of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, the brother of kings Edward IV and Richard III of England. Margaret was one of two women in 16th-century England to be a peeress in her own right with no titled husband. One of the few surviving members of the Plantagenet dynasty after the Wars of the Roses, she was executed in 1541 at the command of Henry VIII, who was the son of her first cousin Elizabeth of York. Pope Leo XIII beatified her as a martyr for the Catholic Church on December 29, 1886.

* 1707 – Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan, French mistress of Louis XIV of France (b. 1640)

Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise of Montespan (October 5, 1640 – May 27, 1707), better known as Madame de Montespan was the most celebrated maîtresse-en-titre of King Louis XIV of France and Navarre, by whom she had seven children.

Born into one of the oldest noble families of France, the House of Rochechouart, Madame de Montespan was called by some the “true Queen of France”‘ during her romantic relationship with Louis XIV due to the pervasiveness of her influence at court during that time.

Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise of Montespan

Her so-called “reign” lasted from around 1667, when she first danced with Louis XIV at a ball hosted by the king’s younger brother, Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, at the Louvre Palace, until her alleged involvement in the notorious Affaire des Poisons in the late 1670s to 1680s. Her immediate contemporary was Barbara Villiers, mistress of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland.

In 1673, the couple’s three living illegitimate children were legitimated by Louis XIV and given the royal surname of de Bourbon. Their mother’s name, however, was not mentioned in the legitimization documents, as Madame de Montespan was still married to her husband. If their maternal parentage had been revealed, the marquis could have legally claimed Madame de Montespan’s illegitimate children with the king as his own.

The last years of Madame de Montespan’s life were given up to a very severe penance. Real sorrow over her death was felt by her three youngest children. She died on May 27, 1707 at the age of almost sixty-seven while taking the waters at Bourbon-l’Archambault in order to try to heal an illness. The king forbade her children to wear mourning for her.

She is an ancestress of several royal houses in Europe, including those of Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg.

March 23, 1801: Assassination of Emperor Paul of Russia.

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Catherine II of Russia, Catherine the Great, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, Emperor Paul of Russia, Emperor Peter III of Russia, Emperor Peter the Great, Emperors of Russia, Empress Elizabeth of Russia, Empress of Russia, Paul Petrovich of Russia

Paul I (October 1, 1754 – March 23, 1801) reigned as Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. Officially, he was the only son of Peter III and Catherine the Great, although Catherine hinted that he was fathered by her lover Sergei Saltykov.

Paul’s “father” was as Charles Peter Ulrich of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp the only child of Charles Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (the son of Hedvig Sophia of Sweden, sister of Carl XII of Sweden) and Anna Petrovna (the elder surviving daughter of Peter the Great).

Tsarevich Paul Petrovich of Russia

Paul was born in Saint Petersburg. His nominal father, the future Emperor Peter III, was the nephew and heir apparent of the Empress Elizabeth of Russia the daughter of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia, by his second wife, Catherine I, Polish or Lithuanian peasant woman, born Marta Samuilovna Skavronskay. His mother, Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst born the daughter of a minor German prince, Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, who would later depose her own husband (Paul’s father) and reign in her own right as Catherine II, known to history as Catherine the Great.

Paul was taken almost immediately after birth from his mother by the Empress Elizabeth, whose overwhelming attention may have done him more harm than good. Some claim that his mother, Catherine, hated him and was restrained from putting him to death. Robert K. Massie is more compassionate towards Catherine; in his 2011 biography of her, he claims that once Catherine had done her duty in providing an heir to the throne, Elizabeth had no more use for her and Paul was taken from his mother at birth and allowed to see her only during very limited moments. In all events, the Russian Imperial court, first of Elizabeth and then of Catherine, was not an ideal home for a lonely, needy and often sickly boy.

Emperor Peter III and Empress Catherine II of Russia

Empress Elizabeth died in 1762, when Paul was 8 years old, and he became crown prince with the accession of his father to the throne as Peter III. However, within a matter of months, Paul’s mother engineered a coup and not only deposed her husband but, for a long time, was believed to have had him killed by her supporters. It was later found that Peter III probably died due to a fit of apoplexy when exerting himself in a dispute with Prince Feodor, one of his jailers.

In 1772, her son and heir, Paul, turned eighteen. Paul and his adviser, Panin, believed he was the rightful Emperor of Russia, as the only son of Peter III. His adviser had also taught him that the rule of women endangered good leadership, which was why he was so interested in gaining the throne. Distracting him, Catherine took trouble to find Paul a wife among the minor princesses of the Holy Roman Empire. She chose Princess Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstad, (who acquired the Russian name “Natalia Alexeievna”), a daughter of Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and Countess Palatine Caroline of Zweibrücken.

Princess Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstad, “Natalia Alexeievna”

The bride’s older sister, Frederika Louisa, was already married to the Crown Prince of Prussia (the future Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia). Around this time, Catherine allowed Paul to attend the Council in order that he might be trained for his work as Emperor. Wilhelmina died in childbirth on April 15, 1776, three years after the wedding.

After her daughter-in-law’s death, Catherine began work forthwith on the project of finding another wife for Paul, and on October 7, 1776, less than six months after the death of his first wife, Paul married again. The bride was the beautiful Sophia Dorothea of Württemberg, a daughter of Friedrich II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg and his wife, Princess Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt. Sophia Dorothea received the new Orthodox name Maria Feodorovna. Their first child, Alexander, (future Russian Emperor) was born in 1777, within a year of the wedding, and on this occasion the Empress gave Paul an estate, Pavlovsk.

Paul was of difficult character but Maria Feodorovna was completely satisfied with her fate. “My dear husband is a perfect angel and I love him to distraction” she wrote to a friend. Maria Feodorovna never changed her feelings for Paul, and despite everything that happened later, despite his difficult and often tyrannical character, she truly loved him.

Sophia Dorothea of Württemberg, Maria Feodorovna

The close relationship between Paul and Catherine Nelidova, one of Maria’s ladies-in-waiting, was the cause of the first crack in their marriage. Paul’s liaison, a deeply intense but, according to him, only platonic attachment to Nelidova, was particularly painful for Maria Feodorovna as the other woman had been her friend. Her relations with Nelidova became very bitter for several years. Later, however, she began to accept Paul’s word that it was only a friendship, and eventually Maria Feodorovna not only reconciled with the idea, but joined forces with Nelidova in an attempt to moderate Paul’s increasingly neurotic temperament.

Catherine Nelidova

Paul’s early isolation from his mother created a distance between them that later events would reinforce and from which the relationship would never recover. She never considered inviting him to share her power in governing Russia. And once Paul’s son Alexander was born, it appeared that she had found a more suitable heir. The use made of his name by the rebel Yemelyan Pugachev, who impersonated his father Peter, tended no doubt to render Paul’s position more difficult.

As Catherine grew older, she became less concerned that her son attend court functions; her attentions focused primarily on the future Emperor Alexander I. It was not until 1787 that Catherine may have in fact decided to exclude her son from succession. After Alexander and his brothers Constantine and Nicholas were born, she had them placed under her charge, just as Elizabeth had done with Paul.

Catherine suffered a stroke on November 17, 1796, and died without regaining consciousness. Paul’s first act as Emperor was to inquire about and, if possible, destroy her testament, as he feared it would exclude him from succession and leave the throne to Alexander. These fears may have contributed to Paul’s promulgation of the misogynist Pauline Laws, which established the strict principle of primogeniture in the House of Romanov, leaving the throne to the next male heir.

Paul, Emperor of Russia

Emperor Paul was idealistic and capable of great generosity, but he was also mercurial and capable of vindictiveness. In spite of doubts of his legitimacy, he greatly resembled his father, Peter III and other Romanovs as well and shared the same character. During the first year of his reign, Paul emphatically reversed many of his mother’s policies. Paul’s early foreign policy can largely be seen as reactions against his mother’s. In foreign policy, this meant that he opposed the many expansionary wars she fought and instead preferred to pursue a more peaceful, diplomatic path.

Paul’s premonitions of assassination were well-founded. His attempts to force the nobility to adopt a code of chivalry alienated many of his trusted advisors. The Emperor also discovered outrageous machinations and corruption in the Russian treasury. As he repealed Catherine’s law allowing corporal punishment of the free classes, directed reforms that resulted in greater rights for the peasantry, and provided for better treatment for serfs on agricultural estates, most of his policies were viewed as a great annoyance to the noble class and induced his enemies to work out a plan of action.

A conspiracy was organized, some months before it was executed, by Counts Peter Ludwig von der Pahlen, Nikita Petrovich Panin, and Admiral de Ribas, with the alleged support of Great Britain’s representative in Saint Petersburg, Charles Whitworth. The death of de Ribas in December 1800 delayed the assassination, but on the night of March 23, 1801, a band of dismissed officers murdered Paul in his bedroom in the newly-built St. Michael’s Castle. The assassins included General Bennigsen, a Hanoverian in the Russian service, and General Yashvil, a Georgian.

They charged into his bedroom, flushed with drink after dining together, and found Paul hiding behind some drapes in the corner. The conspirators pulled him out, forced him to the table, and tried to compel him to sign his abdication. Paul offered some resistance, and Nikolay Zubov struck him with a sword, after which the assassins strangled and trampled him to death. Paul’s successor on the Russian throne, his son, the 23-year-old Alexander, was actually in the palace at the time of the killing. General Nikolay Zubov announced his accession to the heir, accompanied by the admonition, “Time to grow up! Go and rule!” Alexander I did not punish the assassins, and the court physician, James Wylie, declared apoplexy the official cause of death.

Historians still debate Alexander’s role in his father’s murder. The most common theory is that he was let into the conspirators’ secret and was willing to take the throne but insisted that his father should not be killed. Becoming emperor through a crime that cost his father’s life would give Alexander a strong sense of remorse and shame.

On the night of her husband’s assassination, Maria Feodorovna thought to imitate the example of Catherine II and tried to claim the throne on the grounds that she had been crowned with Paul. It took Maria’s son, Alexander I, several days to persuade her to relinquish her reckless claim, for which she had no party to support her. For some time afterward, whenever her son came to visit, the Dowager Empress would place a casket between them containing the bloodstained nightshirt that Paul was wearing on the day of the murder, as a silent reproach.

Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia.