Is King Charles III of the United Kingdom German? Conclusion

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Act of Settlement of 1701, Act of Union of 1707, Citizenship, Ethnicity, Glorious Revolution, King Charles III of the United Kingdom, King George I of Great Britain, King George II of Great Britain, King George III of Great Britain, Sophia Naturalization Act of 1705

From The Emperor’s Desk: This entry is a bit longer than usual but instead of dividing this entry and belaboring my point i decided to post it in its entirety.

The German ancestry of the British Royal Family begins with the accession of Duke Georg Ludwig of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Imperial Elector of Hanover. But how did this German Prince come to succeed to the throne of Great Britain?

Following the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in which King James II-VII of England, Scotland and Ireland, was deposed, the line of succession to the English throne was governed by the Bill of Rights 1689, which declared that the flight of James II-VII from England to France during the revolution amounted to an abdication of the throne and that James’s daughter Queen Mary II and her husband/cousin, King William III (Willem III of Orange, who was also James’s nephew), were James’s successors.

The Bill of Rights also provided that the line of succession would go through Mary’s Protestant descendants by William and any possible future husband should she outlive him, then through Mary’s sister Anne and her Protestant descendants, and then to the Protestant descendants of William III by a possible later marriage should he outlive Mary. During the debate, the House of Lords had attempted to append Electress Sophia of Hanover and her descendants to the line of succession, but the amendment failed in the Commons.

Queen Mary II died childless in 1694, after which William III did not remarry. In 1700, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, who was future Queen Anne’s only child to survive infancy, died of what may have been smallpox at the age of 11. Thus, Anne was left as the only person in line to the throne.

The Bill of Rights excluded Catholics from the throne, which ruled out James II and his children (as well as their descendants) sired after he converted to Catholicism in 1668. However, it did not provide for further succession after Anne. Parliament thus saw the need to settle the succession on Sophia and her descendants, and thereby guarantee the continuity of the Crown in the Protestant line.

With religion and lineage initially decided, the ascendancy of Willem of Orange in 1689 would also bring his partiality to his foreign favourites that followed. By 1701 English jealousy of foreigners was rampant, and action was considered necessary. It was considered necessary to create an Act of Parliament to settle the succession to the English throne.

The Act of Settlement

The Act of Settlement provided that the throne would pass to the Electress Sophia of Hanover – a granddaughter of James I-VI and a niece of King Charles I – and her descendants.

One the issues the Act of Settlement did not address was granting English citizenship to the Sovereign. The Act did address who can be a member of the Privy Council:

No foreigner (“no Person born out of the Kingdoms of England Scotland or Ireland or the Dominions thereunto belonging”), even if naturalised or made a denizen (unless born of English parents), can be a Privy Councillor or a member of either House of Parliament, or hold “any Office or Place of Trust, either Civill [sic] or Military, or to [sic] have any Grant of Lands, Tenements or Hereditaments from the Crown, to himself or to any other or others in Trust for him”.

Before I go further, let me define who or what is a British national. Over the many years there have been many Acts of Parliament that dealt with the subject and various related issues. I’m not going into all of them but I will mention a few of them.

Nationality is a legal identification of a person in international law, establishing the person as a subject, a national, of a sovereign state. It affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the state against other states.

The British Nationality Act 1948 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom on British nationality law which defined British nationality by creating the status of “Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies” (CUKC) as the sole national citizenship of the United Kingdom and all of its colonies.

The British Nationality Act 1948 formed the basis of the United Kingdom’s nationality law until the British Nationality Act 1981, which came into force in 1983. Most of its provisions have been repealed or otherwise superseded by subsequent legislation, though parts remain in force.

British nationality law details the conditions by which a person is a national of the United Kingdom. The primary law governing these requirements is the British Nationality Act 1981, which came into force on January 1, 1983. Regulations apply to the British Islands (the UK itself and the Crown dependencies) as well as the 14 British Overseas Territories.

The Act of Parliament that did address the nationality of the English monarch and the English Royal Family was the Sophia Naturalization Act of 1705.

Prior to the Act of Union which United the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain, each country had their own separate succession laws. Since the Sovereign of Ireland was always the Sovereign of England, Ireland followed England’s succession laws.

The Act for the Naturalization of the Most Excellent Princess Sophia, Electress and Duchess Dowager of Hanover, and the Issue of her Body was an Act of the Parliament of England (4 & 5 Ann. c. 16.) in 1705. It followed the Act of Settlement 1701, whereby Dowager Electress Sophia of Hanover and her Protestant descendants were declared to be in the line of succession to the throne (her son George I later became king).

Electress Sophia of Hanover, a granddaughter of James VI of Scotland and I of England, was not considered to be an Englishwoman as she had not been born in England. This Act naturalized her and “the issue of her body”, provided they were not Catholic, as English subjects. Any person born to a descendant of Sophia could also claim to be an English Subject (citizen) by being her descent of Sophia and to be the “issue of her body”.

In 1947, Prince Friedrich of Prussia succeeded in a claim to British citizenship under the Act, having renounced his German citizenship.

The Act was repealed by the British Nationality Act 1948. However, any non-Catholic descendant of the Electress born before the repealing statute was enacted had already automatically acquired the status of a British subject, so there are still people alive who can claim British nationality under the Sophia Naturalization Act.

Therefore, despite being born in Germany, technically the Holy Roman Empire at the time, King George I, King George II and Prince Frederick Louis, the Prince of Wales were all naturalized British Subjects.

However, for the sake of argument, let me say that these first three heads of the House of Hanover were ethnically German.

Now let me define ethnicity. An ethnicity or ethnic group is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, society, nation, religion, or social treatment within their residing area. The term ethnicity is often used interchangeably with the term nation, particularly in cases of ethnic nationalism.

Ethnicity may be construed as an inherited or as a societally imposed construct. Ethnic membership tends to be defined by a shared cultural heritage, ancestry, origin myth, history, homeland, language, dialect, religion, mythology, folklore, ritual, cuisine, dressing style, art, or physical appearance. Ethnic groups may share a narrow or broad spectrum of genetic ancestry, depending on group identification, with many groups having mixed genetic ancestry. Ethnic groups often continue to speak related languages.

As previously mentioned the first three heads of the House of Hanover were ethnic Germans:

King George I of Great Britain: George was born on May 28, 1660 in the city of Hanover in the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire.

King George II of Great Britain: George was born November 9, 1683 in the city of Hanover in the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire.

Prince Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales and Duke of Edinburgh: Prince Frederick Louis was born on January 31, 1707 in the city of Hanover, in the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire as Duke Friedrich Ludwig of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

However, the next monarch of Great Britain was different. He was born in the Kingdom of Great Britain.

King George III of Great Britain: George was born on June 4, 1738 at Norfolk House in St James’s Square, London, England in the Kingdom of Great Britain.

George III was the first monarch of the House of Hanover who—unlike his two predecessors, and his father—was born in Great Britain, spoke English as his first language, and never visited Hanover.

In my eyes and the legal definition of citizenship and ethnicity he meets the criteria for being British.

Again, I have to ask a question at what point does an individual, or a family, need to live in a certain country to be considered a national of that country and ethnically from that country?

Legally those born in a certain country are a citizen of that country. Forgetting for a moment that King George I, King George II and Prince Frederick Louis, the Prince of Wales were all naturalized British Subjects (citizens); but beginning with King George III he and all subsequent British Monarchs have been born and bread in the United Kingdom.

That’s seven generations of British monarchs born and raised in the United Kingdom. Certainly right now they can be considered British and not German both by the definition of legal citizenship and by the definition of ethnicity.

This is why I consider King Charles III as being 100% British. At least seven generations of his ancestors were born in the United Kingdom.

The closest ancestor that King Charles had that was born a German citizen was his paternal Great-great grandfather, Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and by Rhine. Ludwig was born on September 12th, 1837 at the Prinz-Karl-Palais in Darmstadt, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine in the German Confederation.

Charles’ great grandmother, Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, (Victoria Mountbatten, Marchioness of Milford Haven) was born in Windsor Castle. Her husband, and cousin once removed, Prince Louis of Battenberg (Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven) was born in Austria.

Also remember the King’s maternal grandmother was Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon the daughter Claude Bowes-Lyon, the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne in the Peerage of Scotland, and his wife, Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck. Her mother was descended from British prime minister William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, and Governor-General of India Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, who was the elder brother of another prime minister, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington.

This also gives Charles a considerable amount of Scottish and English ancestry.

In the future the German ancestry of the British Royal Family becomes even more distant and diluted. The Prince of Wales is the son of Lady Diana Spencer the daughter of John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer. The Spencer family is an aristocratic family in the United Kingdom. From the 16th century, its members have held numerous titles including the dukedom of Marlborough, the earldoms of Sunderland and Spencer, and the Churchill barony. Prime Minister Winston Churchill was a member of the Spencer family.

The mother of the future King George VII, Catherine Middleton, brings a great deal of English blood into the Royal Family. The Princess of Wales is the eldest of three children born to Michael Middleton (b. 1949) and his wife, Carole (née Goldsmith; b. 1955). Tracing their origins back to the Tudor era, the Middleton family of Yorkshire of the late 18th century were recorded as owning property of the Rectory Manor of Wakefield. The land passed down to solicitor William Middleton who established the family law firm in Leeds which spanned five generations.

So you can see in the future of the British Monarchy, both short term and long term, the German ancestry of the British Royal Family will fade into the background.

To conclude though King Charles does have German ancestry (as well as Danish and Russian and Greek ancestry) but he is both legally and ethnically a quintessential British person.

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.

History of the Title Duke of Edinburgh

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Duke of Edinburgh, King Charles III of the United Kingdom, King George I of Great Britain, King George VI of the United Kingdom, Peerage of Great Britain, Peerage of the United Kingdom, Prince Alfred, Prince Edward, Prince Frederick Louis, Prince Philip, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, is a substantive title that has been created four times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produce any revenue for the title holder.

1726 Creation

HRH Prince Frederick Louis, Duke of Edinburgh

The title was first created in the Peerage of Great Britain on July 26, 1726 by King George I of Great Britain, who bestowed it on his grandson Prince Frederick Louis, who also became Prince of Wales the following year.

The subsidiary titles of the dukedom were Marquess of the Isle of Ely, Earl of Eltham, in the County of Kent, Viscount of Launceston, in the County of Cornwall, and Baron of Snowdon, in the County of Caernarvon, all of which were also in the Peerage of Great Britain.

The marquessate was gazetted as Marquess of the Isle of Wight, apparently erroneously. In later editions of the London Gazette the Duke is referred to as the Marquess of the Isle of Ely.

After Prince Frederick Louis was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester and had inherited all the other titles associated with the Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester titles: Duke of Cornwall (as heir to the throne in England) titles: Duke of Rothesay (heir apparent to the King of Scots), High Steward of Scotland and Lord of the Isles, he still remained Duke of Edinburgh.

Upon Frederick Louis death in 1751 the titles were inherited by his son Prince George. When Prince George became King George III in 1760, the titles merged in the Crown and ceased to exist.

1866 Creation

HRH Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh

Queen Victoria re-created the title, this time in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, on 24 May 1866 for her second son Prince Alfred, instead of Duke of York, the traditional title of the second son of the monarch. The subsidiary titles of the dukedom were Earl of Kent and Earl of Ulster, also in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.

When Alfred became the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1893, he retained his British titles. His only son that survived birth, Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, committed suicide in 1899, so the Dukedom of Edinburgh and subsidiary titles became extinct upon the elder Alfred’s death in 1900.

1947 Creation

HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

The title was created for a third time on November 19, 1947 by King George VI, who bestowed it on his son-in-law Philip Mountbatten, when he married Princess Elizabeth. Subsequently, Elizabeth was styled “HRH The Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh” until her accession in 1952.

The subsidiary titles of the dukedom were Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich, of Greenwich in the County of London; all these titles were in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Earlier that year, Philip had renounced his Greek and Danish royal titles (he was born a Prince of Greece and Denmark, being a male-line grandson of King George I of the Hellenes and male-line great-grandson of King Christian IX of Denmark) along with his rights to the Greek throne. In 1957, Philip became a Prince of the United Kingdom in his own right.

Upon Philip’s death on April 9, 2021, his eldest son Charles, Prince of Wales, succeeded to all of his hereditary titles. Upon Charles’s accession to the throne on September 8, 2022, the peerages merged in the Crown and ceased to exist.

2023 Creation

HRH Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh

It was announced in 1999, at the time of the wedding of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, that he would eventually follow his father as Duke of Edinburgh.

It was expected that a new, fourth creation would be bestowed on Prince Edward after the third creation reverted to the Crown when Charles III acceded to the throne. In July 2021, The Times reported that Charles had decided not to give the title to his brother upon accession. Clarence House stated that “all stories of this nature are speculation, no final decisions have been taken” and declined to comment further.

The title was created for a fourth time on March 10, 2023 by King Charles III, who bestowed it on his brother Prince Edward, when he turned 59. The title will be held by Prince Edward for his lifetime, as a non-hereditary peerage title.

December 28, 1757: Death of Princess Caroline of Great Britain

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Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Elector of Hanover, King George I of Great Britain, King George II of Great Britain, Lord H, Lord Hervey, Princess Caroline of Great Britain and Hanover

Princess Caroline Elizabeth of Great Britain (June 10, 1713 – December 28, 1757) was the fourth child and third daughter of King George II of Great Britain and his wife Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach.

Early life

Princess Caroline was born at Herrenhausen Palace in Hanover, Germany, on June 10, 1713. Her father was George Augustus, Hereditary Prince of Hanover, the eldest son of George Louis, Elector of Hanover. Her mother was Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach, daughter of Johann Friedrich, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach.

As a granddaughter of the Elector of Hanover, she was styled Princess Caroline of Hanover at birth. Under the Act of Settlement 1701, she was seventh in the line of succession to the British throne. She was baptised the day after her birth at Herrenhausen Palace.

Princess Caroline of Great Britain and Hanover

Great Britain

In 1714, Queen Anne died, and Caroline’s grandfather became George I of Great Britain and Ireland and her father Prince of Wales. At the age of one year, Caroline accompanied her mother and elder sisters, the Princesses Anne and Amelia, to Great Britain, and the family resided at St James’s Palace, London.

She was then styled as a Princess of Great Britain. A newly attributed list from January–February 1728 documents her personal expenses, including charitable contributions to several Protestant groups in London.

In 1722, at the direction of her mother, she was inoculated against smallpox by variolation, an early type of immunisation popularised by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Charles Maitland.

Princess Caroline was her mother’s favourite, and became known as “the truth-telling Caroline Elizabeth” (or “the truth-loving”). When any disagreement took place among the royal children, her parents would say, “Send for Caroline, and then we shall know the truth!”

According to Dr. John Doran, “The truth-loving Caroline Elizabeth was unreservedly beloved by her parents, was worthy of the affection, and repaid it by an ardent attachment. She was fair, good, accomplished, and unhappy.”

Later life

Lord Hervey

According to popular belief, Caroline’s unhappiness was due to her love for the married courtier Lord Hervey. Hervey, who was bisexual, may have had an affair with Caroline’s elder brother, Prince Frederick Louis, Duke of Edinburgh and later Prince of Wales and was romantically linked with several ladies of the court as well.

When Hervey died in 1743, Caroline retired to St. James’s Palace for many years prior to her own death, accessible to only her family and closest friends. She gave generously to charity.

Princess Caroline died, unmarried and childless, on December 28, 1757, aged 44, at St James’s Palace. She was buried at Westminster Abbey.

Horace Walpole, of the death of Princess Caroline, wrote: “Though her state of health had been so dangerous for years, and her absolute confinement for many of them, her disorder was, in a manner, new and sudden, and her death unexpected by herself, though earnestly her wish. Her goodness was constant and uniform, her generosity immense, her charities most extensive; in short, I, no royalist, could be lavish in her praise.”

August 17, 1786: Death of Friedrich II, King of Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg

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Elector of Brandenburg, Elisabeth Christine Of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Empress Maria Theresa, Friedrich II the Great of Prussia, Friedrich-Wilhelm I in Prussia, Georg Ludwig of Hanover, House of Hohenzollern, King George I of Great Britain, King in Prussia, King of Prussia, Silesian Wars, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover

Friedrich II (January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. He was also Friedrich IV, Elector of Brandenburg.

Friedrich was the son of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia and his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, the only daughter of Elector Georg Ludwig of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, later King George I of Great Britain, and his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Celle. She was detested by her elder brother, King George II of Great Britain.

Friedrich was born sometime between 11 and 12 p.m. on January 24, 1712 in the Berlin City Palace and was baptised with the single name Friedrich by Benjamin Ursinus von Bär on January 31.

The birth was welcomed by his grandfather, Friedrich I in Prussia, Elector of Brandenburg, as his two previous grandsons had both died in infancy. With the death of Friedrich I in 1713, his son Friedrich Wilhelm I became King in Prussia, thus making young Friedrich the Crown Prince of Prussia.

Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia

Friedrich had nine siblings who lived to adulthood. He had six sisters. The eldest was Wilhelmine, who became his closest sibling. He also had three younger brothers, including August Wilhelm and Heinrich. The new king wished for his children to be educated not as royalty, but as simple folk. They were tutored by a French woman, Madame de Montbail, who had also educated King Friedrich Wilhelm I.

Friedrich Wilhelm I, popularly dubbed the “Soldier King,” had created a large and powerful army that included a regiment of his famous “Potsdam Giants”, carefully managed the kingdom’s wealth, and developed a strong centralised government. He also had a violent temper and ruled Brandenburg-Prussia with absolute authority.

In contrast, Friedrich’s mother Sophia, whose father, Georg Ludwig of Brunswick-Lüneburg, had succeeded to the British throne as King George I in 1714, was polite, charismatic and learned. The political and personal differences between Friedrich’s parents created tensions, which affected Friedrich’s attitude toward his role as a ruler, his attitude toward culture, and his relationship with his father.

In the mid-1720s, Queen Sophia Dorothea attempted to arrange the marriage of Friedrich and his sister Wilhelmine to her brother King George II’s children Amelia and Frederick Louis, who was the heir apparent. Fearing an alliance between Prussia and Great Britain, Field Marshal von Seckendorff, the Austrian ambassador in Berlin, bribed the Prussian Minister of War, Field Marshal von Grumbkow, and the Prussian ambassador in London, Benjamin Reichenbach.

The pair undermined the relationship between the British and Prussian courts using bribery and slander. Eventually Friedrich Wilhelm became angered by the idea of the effete Friedrich being married to an English wife and under the influence of the British court.

Instead, he signed a treaty with Austria, which vaguely promised to acknowledge Prussia’s rights to the principalities of Jülich-Berg, which led to the collapse of the marriage proposal.

Initially, Friedrich Wilhelm considered marrying Friedrich to Elisabeth of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the niece of Empress Anna of Russia, but this plan was ardently opposed by Prince Eugene of Savoy. Friedrich himself proposed marrying Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria in return for renouncing the succession.

Instead, Eugene persuaded Friedrich Wilhelm, through Seckendorff, that the Crown Prince should marry Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel a daughter of Duke Ferdinand Albert II of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Duchess Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

Princess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

Having failed in his attempt to flee from the tyrannical regime of his father, Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia was ordered to marry Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in 1733 in order to regain his freedom. Elisabeth was the niece of Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, wife of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. The match had thus been arranged by the Austrian court in the hopes of securing influence over Prussia for another generation.

On June 12 1733, the 17-years-old Elisabeth Christine was married to Friedrich at her father’s summer palace, Schloss Salzdahlum in Wolfenbüttel.

Crown Prince Friedrich wrote to his sister that, “There can be neither love nor friendship between us”, and he threatened suicide, but he went along with the wedding. He had little in common with his bride, and the marriage was resented as an example of the Austrian political interference that had plagued Prussia.

Nevertheless, during their early married life, the royal couple resided at the Crown Prince’s Palace in Berlin. Later, Elisabeth Christine accompanied Friedrich to Schloss Rheinsberg, where at this time she played an active role in his social life.

After his father died and he had secured the throne, King Friedrich II separated from Elisabeth Christine. He granted her the Schönhausen Palace and apartments at the Berliner Stadtschloss, but he prohibited Elisabeth Christine from visiting his court in Potsdam.

Friedrich II of Prussia

Friedrich and Elisabeth Christine had no children, and Friedrich bestowed the title of the heir to the throne, “Prince of Prussia”, on his brother August Wilhelm. Nevertheless, Elisabeth Christine remained devoted to him. Friedrich gave her all the honours befitting her station, but never displayed any affection. After their separation, he would only see her on state occasions. These included visits to her on her birthday and were some of the rare occasions when Friedrich did not wear military uniform.

His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Silesian wars, his re-organisation of the Prussian Army, the First Partition of Poland, and his patronage of the arts and the Enlightenment.

Friedrich II was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled King in Prussia and declared himself King of Prussia after annexing Polish Prussia from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772. Prussia greatly increased its territories and became a major military power in Europe under his rule. He became known as Frederick the Great (German: Friedrich der Große) and was nicknamed “Old Fritz” (German: “Der Alte Fritz”).

Europe at the time when Frederick came to the throne in 1740, with Brandenburg–Prussia in violet.

Europe at the time of Frederick’s death in 1786, with Brandenburg–Prussia in violet, shows that Prussia’s territory has been greatly extended by his Silesian Wars, his inheritance of East Frisia and the First Partition of Poland.

In his youth, Friedrich was more interested in music and philosophy than in the art of war, which led to clashes with his authoritarian father, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia. However, upon ascending to the Prussian throne, he attacked and annexed the rich Austrian province of Silesia in 1742, winning military acclaim for himself and Prussia. He became an influential military theorist whose analyses emerged from his extensive personal battlefield experience and covered issues of strategy, tactics, mobility and logistics.

Friedrich was a supporter of enlightened absolutism, stating that the ruler should be the first servant of the state. He modernised the Prussian bureaucracy and civil service, and pursued religious policies throughout his realm that ranged from tolerance to segregation. He reformed the judicial system and made it possible for men of lower status to become judges and senior bureaucrats.

Friedrich also encouraged immigrants of various nationalities and faiths to come to Prussia, although he enacted oppressive measures against Catholics in Silesia and Polish Prussia. He supported the arts and philosophers he favoured, and allowed freedom of the press and literature.

King Friedrich II was presumably homosexual, and his sexuality has been the subject of much study. He is buried at his favourite residence, Sanssouci in Potsdam. Because he died childless, he was succeeded by his nephew, Friedrich Wilhelm II.

Friedrich II the Great of Prussia

Nearly all 19th-century German historians made Friedrich into a romantic model of a glorified warrior, praising his leadership, administrative efficiency, devotion to duty and success in building Prussia into a great power in Europe.

Friedrich II remained an admired historical figure through Germany’s defeat in World War I, and the Nazis glorified him as a great German leader pre-figuring Adolf Hitler, who personally idolised him.

His reputation became less favourable in Germany after World War II, partly due to his status as a Nazi symbol. Regardless, historians in the 21st century tend to view Friedrich II as an outstanding military leader and capable monarch, whose commitment to enlightenment culture and administrative reform built the foundation that allowed the Kingdom of Prussia to contest the Austrian Habsburgs for leadership among the German states.

Accession of Queen Anne of Great Britain and Ireland. Conclusion

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Archduke Charles of Austria, Duke of Marlborough, Electress Sophia of Hanover, King Carlos II of Spain, King Felipe V of Spain, King George I of Great Britain, Philippe of Anjou, Queen Anne of Great Britain and Ireland, Sarah Churchill, Treaty of Utrecht, War of the Spanish Succession

The War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1715) was a conflict involving many of the leading European powers that was triggered by the death in November 1700 of the childless Carlos II of Spain.

Prince Louis, The Grand Dauphin, had the strongest genealogical claim to the Spanish throne held by King Carlos II who was his maternal uncle. The Grand Dauphin was the son and heir-apparent of King Louis XIV of France and Navarre.

However, since neither the Grand Dauphin nor his eldest son, Louis, Duke of Burgundy, could be displaced from the succession to the French throne, King Carlos II named the Philippe, Duke of Anjou as his heir. The Duke of Anjou was the second son of Louis, Grand Dauphin, Duke of Anjou as his heir-presumptive.

If Philippe, Duke of Anjou refused the crown, the alternative was Archduke Charles of Austria, younger son of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.

King Felipe V of Spain

Having accepted, Philippe was proclaimed King Felipe V of an undivided Spanish Empire on November 16, 1700. The proclamation led to war, with France and Spain on one side and the Grand Alliance on the other to maintain the separation of the Spanish and French thrones.

At issue wasn’t just who had hereditary right to the Spanish throne; at it’s heart was to established the principle that dynastic rights were secondary to maintaining the balance of power between different countries.

As the expensive War of the Spanish Succession grew unpopular, so did the Whig administration. The impeachment of Henry Sacheverell, a high church Tory Anglican who had preached anti-Whig sermons, led to further public discontent.

Anne thought Sacheverell ought to be punished for questioning the Glorious Revolution, but that his punishment should only be a mild one to prevent further public commotion.

In London, riots broke out in support of Sacheverell, but the only troops available to quell the disturbances were Anne’s guards, and Secretary of State Sunderland was reluctant to use them and leave the Queen less protected.

Anne declared God would be her guard and ordered Sunderland to redeploy her troops. In line with Anne’s views, Sacheverell was convicted, but his sentence—suspension of preaching for three years—was so light as to render the trial a mockery.

The Queen, increasingly disdainful of the Marlboroughs and her ministry, finally took the opportunity to dismiss Sunderland in June 1710.

Godolphin followed in August. The Junto Whigs were removed from office, although Marlborough, for the moment, remained as commander of the army. In their place, she appointed a new ministry headed by Harley, which began to seek peace with France.

Unlike the Whigs, Harley and his ministry were ready to compromise by giving Spain to the Bourbon claimant, Philippe of Anjou, in return for commercial concessions. In the parliamentary elections that soon followed his appointment, Harley, aided by government patronage, secured a large Tory majority.

In January 1711, Anne forced Sarah to resign her court offices, and Abigail took over as Keeper of the Privy Purse. Harley was stabbed by a disgruntled French refugee, the Marquis de Guiscard, in March, and Anne wept at the thought he would die. He recovered slowly. Godolphin’s death from natural causes in September 1712 reduced Anne to tears; she blamed their estrangement on the Marlboroughs.

Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I, died in April 1711and his brother Archduke Charles of Austria, succeeded him in Austria, Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire as Emperor Charles VI.

To also give him the Spanish throne was no longer in Britain’s interests, but the proposed Peace of Utrecht submitted to Parliament for ratification did not go as far as the Whigs wanted to curb Bourbon ambitions.

In the House of Commons, the Tory majority was unassailable, but the same was not true in the House of Lords. The Whigs secured the support of the Earl of Nottingham against the treaty by promising to support his Occasional Conformity bill.

Seeing a need for decisive action to erase the anti-peace majority in the House of Lords, and seeing no alternative, Anne reluctantly created twelve new peers, even though such a mass creation of peers was unprecedented.

Abigail’s husband, Samuel Masham, was made a baron, although Anne protested to Harley that she “never had any design to make a great lady of [Abigail], and should lose a useful servant”. On the same day, Marlborough was dismissed as commander of the army. The peace treaty was ratified and Britain’s military involvement in the War of the Spanish Succession ended.

By signing the Treaty of Utrecht, King Louis XIV of France recognised the Hanoverian succession in Britain. Nevertheless, gossip that Anne and her ministers favoured the succession of her Catholic half-brother, Prince James Francis, Prince of Wales rather than the Hanoverians continued, despite Anne’s denials in public and in private.

The rumours were fed by her consistent refusals to permit any of the Hanoverians to visit or move to England, and by the intrigues of Harley and the Tory Secretary of State Lord Bolingbroke, who were in separate and secret discussions with her half-brother about a possible Stuart restoration until early 1714.

Death

Anne was unable to walk between January and July 1713. At Christmas, she was feverish, and lay unconscious for hours, which led to rumours of her impending death. She recovered, but was seriously ill again in March.

By July, Anne had lost confidence in Harley; his secretary recorded that Anne told the cabinet “that he neglected all business; that he was seldom to be understood; that when he did explain himself, she could not depend upon the truth of what he said; that he never came to her at the time she appointed; that he often came drunk; [and] last, to crown all, he behaved himself towards her with ill manner, indecency and disrespect.”

On July 27, 1714, during Parliament’s summer recess, she dismissed Harley as Lord Treasurer. Despite failing health, which her doctors blamed on the emotional strain of matters of state, she attended two late-night cabinet meetings that failed to determine Harley’s successor.

A third meeting was cancelled when she became too ill to attend. She was rendered unable to speak by a stroke on July 30, 1714, the anniversary of Gloucester’s death, and on the advice of the Privy Council handed the treasurer’s staff of office to Whig grandee Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury.

Anne died around 7:30 a.m. on August 1, 1714. John Arbuthnot, one of her doctors, thought her death was a release from a life of ill-health and tragedy; he wrote to Jonathan Swift, “I believe sleep was never more welcome to a weary traveller than death was to her.”

She was buried beside her husband and children in the Henry VII Chapel on the South Aisle of Westminster Abbey on August 24.

Succession

The Electress Sophia of Hanover had died on May 28, two months before Anne, so the Electress’s son, Georg Ludwig, Elector of Hanover, succeeded to the British throne as King George of Great Britain and Ireland pursuant to the Act of Settlement 1701.

The possible Catholic claimants, including Anne’s half-brother, James Francis, Prince of Wales were ignored. The Elector’s accession was relatively stable: a Jacobite rising in 1715 failed. Marlborough was reinstated, and the Tory ministers were replaced by Whigs.

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

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George William of Brunswick-Celle, Johann Friedrich Struensee, King Christian VII of Denmark, King Friedrich-Wilhelm I of Prussia, King George I of Great Britain, King George II of Great Britain, Princess Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, Princess of Ahlden, Queen of Denmark and Norway, Queen of Prussia, Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Celle, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover

Divorce and Imprisonment

Königsmarck was eliminated, but that was not enough to restore the Electoral Prince’s honor. He demanded a legal separation from his wife, with her as the only responsible part. Sophia Dorothea is transferred to Lauenau Castle in late 1694 and placed there under house arrest during the divorce proceedings. On 28 December 1694 the dissolutionSeptember 15, 1666: Birth of Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle. Part I. of the marriage was officially pronounced with the Electoral Princess as the sole guilty party for “maliciously leaving her husband” (desertion). The fact that her husband, Georg Ludwig, had a long term mistress was not mentioned.

Sophia Dorothea was forbidden to remarry or seeing her children again; her name was removed from all official documents, she was no longer mentioned in the prayers and the title of Electoral Princess was stripped of her. After the verdict, she was sent to the remote Ahlden House, a stately home on the Lüneburg Heath, which served as a prison appropriate to her status. Although the sentence says nothing about continued imprisonment, she should never regain her freedom.

At the behest of her former husband and with the consent of her own father, Sophia Dorothea was imprisoned for life. He confiscated her assets brought into the marriage and gave her an annual maintenance. She initially received 8,000 thalers for herself and her court, later raised to 28,000 thalers (her father and former father-in-law had committed to this in equal parts). She was quartered in the north wing of the castle, a two-story half-timbered building. A guard of 40 men was deployed for Sophia Dorothea, five to ten of whom guarded the castle 24 hours. All her mail and visitis were strictly controlled; however, there was never any attempt at liberation or escape.

Initially, Sophia Dorothea was only allowed to walk unaccompanied inside the mansion courtyard, later also under guard in the outdoor facilities. After two years in prison, she was allowed to take supervised trips only within 2 kilometers outside the residence. Her stay in Ahlden was interrupted several times due to war events or renovation work on the residence. During these times she was housed in Celle Castle or in Essel. Her mother had unlimited visits. Her court included two ladies-in-waiting, several chambermaids and other household and kitchen staff. These had all been selected for their loyalty to Hanover.

Sophia Dorothea was allowed to call herself “Princess of Ahlden” after her new place of residence. In the first few years she was extremely apathetic and resigned to her fate, later she tried to obtain her release. When her former father-in-law died in 1698, she sent a humble letter of condolence to her former husband, assuring him that “she prayed for him every day and begged him on her knees to forgive her mistakes. She will be eternally grateful to him if he allows her to see her two children”. She also wrote to Electress Sophia in a letter of condolence that she wanted nothing more than “to kiss your Highness’ s hands before I die”. Their requests were in vain.

When Sophia Dorothea’s father was on his deathbed in 1705, he wanted to see his daughter one last time to reconcile with her, but his Prime Minister, Count Bernstorff, objected and claimed that a meeting would lead to diplomatic problems with Hanover; Georg Wilhelm no longer had the strength to assert himself against him.

After the devastating local fire of Ahlden in 1715, Sophia Dorothea contributed with considerable sums of money to the reconstruction.

Death and Burial

The death of her mother —the only one who until the end fight for her release— in 1722 leave Sophia Dorothea completely alone and surrounded only by enemies, with the lasting hope of seeing her children again. Her daughter Sophia Dorothea of Hanover the Queen of Prussia (husband of Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia) came to Hanover in 1725 to meet her father (who is now King of Great Britain since 1714); Sophia Dorothea, who dressed even more carefully than usual, waited every day at the window of her residence in vain for her visit, which never came.

In the end she only seems to have found pleasure in eating. Her defenses waned and became overweight due to the lack of exercise. Increasingly she suffered from febrile colds and indigestion. In early 1726 she suffered a stroke, and in August of that year she went to bed with severe colic, which she never left. She refused medical help and refused to eat.

Within a few weeks she grew emaciated. Sophia Dorothea died shortly before midnight on November 13, 1726 aged 60; her autopsy revealed a liver failure and gall bladder occlusion due to 60 gallstones. Her former husband placed an announcement in The London Gazette to the effect that the “Duchess of Ahlden” had died, but would not allow the wearing of mourning in London or Hanover. He was furious when he heard that his daughter’s court in Berlin wore black.

Sophia Dorothea’s funeral turned into a farce. Because the guards had no instructions in this case, her remains were placed in a lead coffin and deposited in the cellar. In January 1727 the order came from London to bury her without any ceremonies in the cemetery of Ahlden, which was impossible due to weeks of heavy rain. So the coffin came back into the cellar and was covered with sand. It wasn’t until May 1727 that Sophia Dorothea was secretly buried at night beside her parents in the Stadtkirche in Celle. Her former husband Georg Ludwig (now King George I of Great Britain), died four weeks later while visiting Hanover.

Inheritance

Sophia Dorothea’s parents must have secretly believed to the last that their daughter would one day be released from prison. In any case, in January 1705, shortly before her father’s death, he and his wife drew up a joint will, according to which their daughter receive the estates of Ahlden, Rethem and Walsrode, extensive estates in France and Celle, the great fortune of her father and the legendary jewelry collection of her mother. Her father appointed Count Heinrich Sigismund von Bar as the administrator of Sophia Dorothea’s fortune. He was twelve years older than the princess, a handsome, highly educated and sensitive gentleman, whom Sophia Dorothea showed deep affection for, which didn’t go unrequited. She named him as one of the main beneficiaries of her will, but unfortunately he died six years before her.

Trivia

Sophia Dorothea’s great-granddaughter Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, Queen consort of Denmark and Norway (1751–1775) shared her same fate. The youngest and posthumous daughter of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, by Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Caroline Matilda was raised in a secluded family atmosphere away from the royal court. At the age of fifteen, she was married to her first cousin, King Christian VII of Denmark and Norway, who suffered from a mental illness and was cold to his wife throughout the marriage. She had two children: the future Frederik VI and Louise Augusta, whose biological father may have been the German physician Johann Friedrich Struensee.

After the Struensee affair in 1772, she was divorced from her husband, separated from her children and sent to Celle Castle, where she died three years later. In the crypt of the Stadtkirche St. Marien, both women are united in death.

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.

Fight over Crown Jewels between Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her uncle King Ernst-August of Hanover.

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Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz., Crown Jewels, Duke of Cumberland, Elector of Hanover, House of Hanover, King Ernst-August of Hanover, King George I of Great Britain, King George III of the United Kingdom, King of Great Britain, Kingdom of Hanover, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

From the Emperor’s Desk: After Queen Victoria came there was an ongoing struggle between her and her uncle King Ernst-August of Hanover over which Crown Jewels belonged to the Queen and which belonged to the King of Hanover.

Below is an article that originally appeared in the Times of London, Dec 23, 1857 Concerning the matter.

Coronation portrait of Queen Victoria

“The Crown Jewels”

We find the following in a letter from Hanover, of December 19:

“The hearts of the King and Royal Family of this country have been much rejoiced by intelligence which has just reached them through the Hanoverian Minister at the Court of St. James’s, that the long dispute between the King of Hanover and the Queen of England respecting the right to certain jewels of enormous value, in the possession of the Sovereign of England, and forming no inconsiderable portion of what have been hitherto called the British Crown jewels, has been decided in favour of Hanover.

“Many of your readers are no doubt aware that when the kingdom of Hanover was severed from the United Kingdom by the accession of Queen Victoria to the throne, a claim was made by the late King of Hanover, formerly the Duke of Cumberland, to nearly the whole of the jewels usually worn on State occasions by the English Sovereign, on the ground that part of them, which had been taken over to England by George I, belonged inalienably to the Crown of Hanover; and that the remainder had been purchased by George III out of his privy purse, and had been left him by his Queen Charlotte to the Royal Family of Hanover.

“As the jewels thus claimed are supposed to be worth considerably more than 1,000,000 pounds, a single stone having cost nearly 20,000 pounds, they were not to be relinquished without a struggle; and I am assured that every possible expedient was resorted to in England to baffle the claimant. 

King Ernst-August of Hanover

“Ultimately, in the lifetime of the late King, the importunity of the Hanoverian Minister in London drove the English Ministry of the day to consent that the rights of the two Sovereigns abroad should be submitted to a commission composed of three English judges; but the proceedings of the commission were so ingeniously protracted that all the commissioners died without arriving at any decision; and until Lord Clarendon received the seals of the British foreign office all the efforts of the Court of Hanover to obtain a fresh commission were vain. Lord Clarendon, however, seems to have perceived that such attempts to stifle inquiry were unworthy of his country, for he consented that a fresh commission should be issued to three English judges of the highest eminence, who, after investigation, found the Hanoverian claim to be indisputably just, and reported in its favour.

“The Court here consequently is in high glee this Christmas at the prospect of removing the Crown and regalia, so jealously guarded in the Tower of London, almost bodily to Hanover.” — Globe

***

Note: Queen Victoria subsequently returned only a few items to her Hanoverian cousins, including Queen Charlotte’s small diamond nuptial crown and a few other diamond pieces.

July 17, 1717 : King George I sponsors the premier performance of Handel’s Water Music on the Thames.

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City of London, Georg Ludwig of Hanover, George Frideric Handel, King George I of Great Britain, King George II of Great Britain, Royal Barge, The Thames River, Water Music

The Water Music is a collection of orchestral movements, often published as three suites, composed by George Frideric Handel. It premiered on July 17, 1717, in response to King George I’s request for a concert on the River Thames.

George I, King of Great Britain and Ireland. Duke and Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover)

George I (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) in the Holy Roman Empire from 23 January 1698 until his death in 1727. He was the first British monarch of the House of Hanover.

George Frideric Handel (born Georg Friedrich Händel; March 5, – April 14, 1759) was a German, later British, Baroque composer who spent the bulk of his career in London, becoming well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi and organ concertos. Handel received important training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712; he became a naturalised British subject in 1727. He was strongly influenced both by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition. He would become a huge influence on classical composers such as Mozart and Beethoven.

George Frideric Handel

First performance

The first performance of the Water Music is recorded in The Daily Courant, the first British daily newspaper. At about 8 p.m. on Wednesday, July 17, 1717, King George I and several aristocrats boarded a royal barge at Whitehall Palace, for an excursion up the Thames toward Chelsea. The rising tide propelled the barge upstream without rowing.

Another barge, provided by the City of London, contained about 50 musicians who performed Handel’s music. Many other Londoners also took to the river to hear the concert. According to The Courant, “the whole River in a manner was covered” with boats and barges. On arriving at Chelsea, the king left his barge, then returned to it at about 11 p.m. for the return trip. The king was so pleased with Water Music that he ordered it to be repeated at least three times, both on the trip upstream to Chelsea and on the return, until he landed again at Whitehall.

King George’s companions in the royal barge included Anne Vaughan, Duchess of Bolton, Harriet Pelham-Holles, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Evelyn Pierrepont, 1st Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull, Sophia von Kielmansegg, Countess of Darlington, Henrietta Godolphin, 2nd Duchess of Marlborough, and George Douglas-Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney.

Handel’s orchestra is believed to have performed from about 8 p.m. until well after midnight, with only one break while the king went ashore at Chelsea.

It was rumoured that the Water Music was composed to help King George refocus London attention from his son and heir (later George II of Great Britain), who, worried that his time to rule would be shortened by his father’s long life, threw lavish parties and dinners to compensate for it; the Water Music’s first performance on the Thames was the King’s way of reminding London that he was still there and showing he could carry out gestures even grander than his son’s.