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.

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

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Amelia of Great Britain, Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansback, Frederick Louis Prince of Wales, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm von Grumbkow, King George I of Great Britain, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, Wilhelmine of Prussia

Part III

Anglo-Prussian marriage alliance.

Sophia-Dorothea held a longtime ambition to arrange a double marriage of her eldest son, Crown Prince Friedrich, to Princess Amelia of Great Britain, and her eldest daughter Wilhelmine to Frederick-Louis, future Prince of Wales. This was a project that had first been raised during the children’s infancy and would result in a strong alliance between Prussia and Great Britain.

Her plan was opposed by the king’s favorites Friedrich Wilhelm von Grumbkow and Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, who wished to arrange a marriage between Wilhelmine and Anhalt’s nephew, Friedrich-Wilhelm, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt (the Prussian King’s first cousin). He was next in line to inherit the throne after the crown prince, whose health was delicate. If he succeeded, Prince of Anhalt and Grumbkow hoped to come into a position of power.

Sophia-Dorothea, Queen in Prussia

In 1723, the queen convinced the king to give his consent to the Prussian-British marriage alliance. In October of that year, they hosted a visit by King George I in Berlin, who inspected Wilhelmine and agreed to the double marriage alliance if it was approved by Parliament. One day, King Friedrich-Wilhelm went to visit King George I in Goehr. Sophia-Dorothea did not accompany him, because she gave birth unexpectedly just before they were to leave.

Sophia-Dorothea had been unaware of her pregnancy, leading to a rumor that she had tried to hide it. This caused Friedrich-Wilhelm to suspect her of adultery. Upon his return, he had to be prevented from beating her by her chief lady-in-waiting, Sophie de Kameke, who held his arm and told him “if he had only come there to kill his wife, he had better have kept away.”

The king questioned the physician Stahl, his regimental surgeon Holzendorf, and de Kameke about the queen’s suspected adultery, upon which de Kameke told him that “if he were not her king she would strangle him on the spot” for his accusation, which resulted in him making an apology to the queen and dismissing the affair.

Friedrich-Wilhelm I, King in Prussia

George I promised that the double marriage alliance would be formally agreed upon in connection with the Treaty of Hanover (1725). Sophia-Dorothea accompanied Friedrich-Wilhelm to meet George in Hanover to discuss the matter, and was left there to handle the negotiations when he returned to Berlin.

However, she failed to accomplish anything, as the matter was avoided by both George I and his ministers. When she returned to Berlin, Friedrich-Wilhelm was so discontent with her failure that he had the passage between their apartments walled up (it remained so for six weeks). Through his agent, Frederick-Louis, future Prince of Wales sent his agent La Motte to ask whether she would permit a secret visit by him to see his intended bride, Wilhelmine.

The queen agreed, but made the mistake of saying so to the British ambassador Dubourguai, which obliged him to inform George I. George recalled Frederick-Louis to England, and had La Motte arrested and imprisoned. All this damaged the queen and the prospect of the marriage alliance in the eyes of the king, causing a great row between them.

Princess Wilhelmine

From 1726 until 1735, Friedrich-Heinrich von Seckendorff was the Austrian ambassador in Berlin and the king’s favorite. He came to be the main opponent of the queen, due to his opposition to the British-Prussian marriage alliance. The animosity between the queen and Seckendorff was well known and commented on by the king:

My wife and the whole world are against him; the Prince of Anhalt and my Fritz hate him like the pest, but he is a brave fellow, and loves me

In 1729, negotiations for the British marriage alliance were disrupted by the activities of Friedrich-Wilhelm’s army recruiters. Friedrich-Wilhelm wanted tall soldiers for his army; his agents went all over Germany paying or even kidnapping such men. They snatched men from Hanover, whose ruler was also the King George II of Great Britain (George I passed away in 1727).

This caused diplomatic incidents, and Friedrich-Wilhelm stopped all negotiations. But the queen renewed them. When Grumbkow revealed her independent negotiations to the king, the king stated that he would marry Wilhelmine to either a prince of Schwedt or Weissenfels, and that Sophia-Dorothea could consent or be imprisoned for life.

Friedrich Wilhelm von Grumbkow

She was advised by Borck to suggest Prince Friedrich of Bayreuth as an alternative, which she did. Then she wrote to the Queen Caroline of Great Britain, claiming illness. The reply was unsatisfactory, and the king leanerd of her pretense.

King Friedrich-Wilhelm beat Wilhelmine in Sophia-Dorothea’s presence, and Sophia-Dorothea agreed to drop the British marriage, provided that Wilhelmine was married to Friedrich of Bayreuth, not the Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels. She fell genuinely ill shortly afterward, and successfully asked him to reconcile with their eldest son and daughter, and afterwards beat them only in private.

Matters changed when the British ambassador Hotham arrived and officially suggested marriage between Wilhelmine and the Prince of Wales, providing the king agreed to marriage between Crown Prince Friedrich and Amelia of Great Britain, and the dismissal of his favorite, the anti-British Grumbkow, whom they accused of treason against him.

Amelia of Great Britain

The king agreed to the terms, if proof of Grumbkow’s guilt was shown, and if his son was appointed governor of Hanover. Grumbkow allied with Seckendorff to prevent the marriage alliance and thus his own fall, while the latter informed the king that the British suggestion was a result of the queen’s intrigues to depose him in favor of his son and make Prussia a de facto British province through “the vain and haughty English daughter-in-law”, whose extravagance would ruin the state.

When ambassador Hotham returned with the proof of Grumbkow’s guilt, the king reportedly flew into a rage and beat the ambassador. The queen had the crown prince wrote to Hotham and unsuccessfully ask him to reconcile with the king; before departing Prussia, however, he left the evidence against Grumbkow with the queen.

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

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Act of Settlement 1701, Act of Union 1707, George Augustus, George I of Great Britain, House of Hanover, King George I of Great Britain, Kingdom of Great Britain, Queen Anne of Great Britain

Part III

Accession to the British Throne.

Though both England and Scotland recognised Anne as their queen, only the English Parliament had settled on Sophia, Electress of Hanover, as the heir presumptive. The Parliament of Scotland (the Estates) had not formally settled the succession question for the Scottish throne. In 1703, the Estates passed a bill declaring that their selection for Queen Anne’s successor would not be the same individual as the successor to the English throne, unless England granted full freedom of trade to Scottish merchants in England and its colonies.

Georg-Ludwig, Elector of Hanover

At first Royal Assent was withheld, but the following year Anne capitulated to the wishes of the Estates and assent was granted to the bill, which became the Act of Security 1704. In response the English Parliament passed measures that threatened to restrict Anglo-Scottish trade and cripple the Scottish economy if the Estates did not agree to the Hanoverian succession.

Eventually, in 1707, both Parliaments agreed on an Act of Union, which united England and Scotland into a single political entity, the Kingdom of Great Britain, and established the rules of succession as laid down by the Act of Settlement 1701. The union created the largest free trade area in 18th-century Europe.

Whig politicians believed Parliament had the right to determine the succession, and to bestow it on the nearest Protestant relative of the Queen, while many Tories were more inclined to believe in the hereditary right of the Catholic Stuarts, who were nearer relations. In 1710, George announced that he would succeed in Britain by hereditary right, as the right had been removed from the Stuarts, and he retained it. “This declaration was meant to scotch any Whig interpretation that parliament had given him the kingdom [and] … convince the Tories that he was no usurper.”

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

George’s mother, the Electress Sophia, died on May 28, 1714 at the age of 83. She had collapsed in the gardens at Herrenhausen after rushing to shelter from a shower of rain. George was now Queen Anne’s heir presumptive. He swiftly revised the membership of the Regency Council that would take power after Anne’s death, as it was known that Anne’s health was failing and politicians in Britain were jostling for power.

Queen Anne suffered a stroke, which left her unable to speak, and she died on August 1, 1714. The list of regents was opened, the members sworn in, and George was proclaimed King of Great Britain and Ireland. Partly due to contrary winds, which kept him in The Hague awaiting passage, he did not arrive in Britain until September 18.

George was crowned at Westminster Abbey on October 20. The accession of George of Hanover was not widely popular. His coronation was accompanied by rioting in over twenty towns in England.

George mainly lived in Great Britain after 1714, though he visited his home in Hanover in 1716, 1719, 1720, 1723 and 1725; in total George spent about one fifth of his reign as king in Germany. A clause in the Act of Settlement that forbade the British monarch from leaving the country without Parliament’s permission was unanimously repealed in 1716. During all but the first of the king’s absences power was vested in a Regency Council rather than in his son, George Augustus, Prince of Wales.

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

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

Part II

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

George I of Great Britain

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

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

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

Sophia-Dorothea of Brunswick-Celle

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

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

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

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

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

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

May 1, 1707: The Acts of Union goes into effect.

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Act of Union 1707, Act of Union 1800, King George I of Great Britain, King George II of Great Britain, King George III of Great Britain, King George III of the United Kingdom, king James I-VI of England and Scotland, Kings and Queens of England, Kings and Queens of Great Britain, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Kings of france, Queen Anne of Great Britain, Queen Elizabeth I of England

The Acts of Union were two Acts of Parliament: the Union with Scotland Act 1706 passed by the Parliament of England, and the Union with England Act passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland. They put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed on July 22, 1706, following negotiation between commissioners representing the parliaments of the two countries. By the two Acts, the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland—which at the time were separate states with separate legislatures, but with the same monarch—were, in the words of the Treaty, “United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain”.

Elizabeth I, Queen of England and Ireland

Prior to 1603, England and Scotland were separate kingdoms; as Elizabeth I never married, after 1567, her heir became the Stuart king of Scotland, James VI, who was brought up as a Protestant. James was the double first cousin twice removed, of Queen Elizabeth I. After her death in 1603 the two countries shared a monarch when King James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne.

Although described as a Union of Crowns in 1603 there were in fact two separate Crowns resting on the same head (as opposed to the implied creation of a single Crown and a single Kingdom, exemplified by the later Kingdom of Great Britain). The two Crowns were held in personal union by James, as James I of England, and James VI of Scotland. He announced his intention to unite the two, using the royal prerogative to take the title “King of Great Britain”, and give a British character to his court and person. However, the titles and the attempted uniting of the two crown were not sanctioned by Parliament.

James I-VI, King of England, Scotland and Ireland

Prior to the Acts of Union there had been three previous attempts (in 1606, 1667, and 1689) to unite the two countries by Acts of Parliament, but it was not until the early 18th century that both political establishments came to support the idea, albeit for different reasons.

The Acts took effect on 1 May 1707 during the reign of Queen Anne who then became the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. On this date, the Scottish Parliament and the English Parliament united to form the Parliament of Great Britain, based in the Palace of Westminster in London, the home of the English Parliament. Hence, the Acts are referred to as the Union of the Parliaments. On the Union, the historian Simon Schama said “What began as a hostile merger, would end in a full partnership in the most powerful going concern in the world … it was one of the most astonishing transformations in European history.”

Anne, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland (1702-1707). Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1707-1714).

Political Background prior to 1707

1603–1660

The 1603 Union of England and Scotland Act established a joint Commission to agree terms, but the English Parliament was concerned this would lead to the imposition of an absolutist structure similar to that of Scotland. James was forced to withdraw his proposals, and attempts to revive it in 1610 were met with hostility.

The Acts of Union should be seen within a wider European context of increasing state centralisation during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, including the monarchies of France, Sweden, Denmark and Spain. While there were exceptions, such as the Dutch Republic or the Republic of Venice, the trend was clear.

The dangers of the monarch using one Parliament against the other first became apparent in 1647 and 1651. It resurfaced during the 1679 to 1681 Exclusion Crisis, caused by English resistance to the Catholic James succeeding his brother Charles. James was sent to Edinburgh in 1681 as Lord High Commissioner; in August, the Scottish Parliament passed the Succession Act, confirming the divine right of kings, the rights of the natural heir ‘regardless of religion,’ the duty of all to swear allegiance to that king and the independence of the Scottish Crown. It then went beyond ensuring James’s succession to the Scottish throne by explicitly stating the aim was to make his exclusion from the English throne impossible without ‘…the fatall and dreadfull consequences of a civil war.’

English perspective

The English purpose was to ensure that Scotland would not choose a monarch different from the one on the English throne. The two countries had shared a king for much of the previous century, but the English were concerned that an independent Scotland with a different king, even if he were a Protestant, might make alliances against England. The English succession was provided for by the English Act of Settlement 1701, which ensured that the monarch of England would be a Protestant member of the House of Hanover. Until the Union of Parliaments, the Scottish throne might be inherited by a different successor after Queen Anne: the Scottish Act of Security 1704 granted parliament the right to choose a successor and explicitly required a choice different from the English monarch unless the English were to grant free trade and navigation.

Scottish perspective

The Scottish economy was severely impacted by privateers during the 1688 to 1697 Nine Years War, and the 1701 War of the Spanish Succession, with the Royal Navy focusing on protecting English ships. This compounded the economic pressure caused by the Darien scheme, and the Seven ill years of the 1690s, when between 5–15% of the population died of starvation. The Scottish Parliament was promised financial assistance, protection for its maritime trade, and an end of economic restrictions on trade with England.

George I, King of Great Britain and Ireland

George II, King of Great Britain and Ireland

It’s interesting to note that only four monarchs reigned with title of “King/Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. With the passing of the Act of Union on May 1, 1707 Queen Anne’s title changed from Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland to Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. Kings George I and King George II reigned as King of Great Britain and Ireland.

King George III reigned as the King of Great Britain until The Acts of Union 1800 (sometimes referred to as a single Act of Union 1801) where parallel acts of the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland which united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland (previously in personal union) to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The acts came into force on 1 January 1801, and the merged Parliament of the United Kingdom had its first meeting on January 22, 1801. George III’s title then changed to King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

George III, King of Great Britain and Ireland (1760-1801). King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. (1801-1820).

From the 1340s to the 19th century, excluding two brief intervals in the 1360s and the 1420s, the Kings and Queens of England (and, later, of Great Britain) also claimed the throne of France. The claim dates from King Edward III, who claimed the French throne in 1340 as the sororal nephew of the last direct Capetian, Charles IV.

Edward III and his heirs fought the Hundred Years’ War to enforce this claim, and were briefly successful in the 1420s under Henry V and Henry VI, but the House of Valois, a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty, was ultimately victorious and retained control of France. Despite this, English and British monarchs continued to prominently call themselves Kings/Queens of France, and the French fleur-de-lis was included in the royal arms. This continued until the 1801 Act of Union when the claim to the title was officially dropped. By this time France no longer had any monarch, having become a republic. The Jacobite claimants, however, did not explicitly relinquish the claim.

History of the Prince of Wales titles. Part II

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Font of All Honours, House of Hanover, King George I of Great Britain, King George II of Great Britain, King George III of Great Britain, Kings and Queens of Great Britain, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Prince, Princess, Princess of Wales, Queen Victoria, titles

Since the time of the House of Tudor and through the times of the House of Stuart, when sons of the Sovereign were granted the courtesy title of Prince, questions of how far in the male line to extend the title was not an issue for grand children of the Sovereign in the male line hadn’t yet occurred. With the accession of King George I in 1714 and the Hanoverians, new situations arose.

First issue that George I faced in the need to regulate titles was with his siblings. Since they were not the sons of a British sovereign, they were German princes and sons of the Elector of Hanover, were they entitled to be prince or princess of Great Britain? King George I, as the “Font of All Honours” was able to grant peerage titles to his youngest brother, Ernest-Augustus. In 1716, Ernest-Augustus visited England where, on June 29, 1716, he was created Duke of York, Albany and Earl of Ulster. On April 30, 1718 (OS), he was created a Knight of the Garter together with his grand-nephew Frederick-Louis, later Prince of Wales. Another brother of George I, Prince Maximilian-William, converted to Catholicism, losing his place in the line of succession to the British throne and therefore didn’t receive any peerage titles. However, neither Ernest-Augustus or Maximilian-William were created Princes of Great Britain and remained Princes of Hanover and Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

George I came to the throne a grandfather, his eldest son, future George II, had several children. The children of the Prince of Wales were given the title of Princes and Princesses, and the style of “Highness”.  This arrangement was changed in 1737 when George II granted his grandchildren, all children of his eldest son, Frederick-Louis, Prince of Wales the title Prince and Princess and their style was raised to “Royal Highness.” This occurrence was an exception and wouldn’t become formalized by letters patent until 1864 by Queen Victoria with the birth of Prince Albert-Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, the eldest son of the future King Edward VII. 


George III’s reign also saw the first great-grandchildren of a sovereign in male line, Prince William-Frederick, 2nd duke of Gloucester and his sister, Sophia, were also nephew and niece of a sovereign. They were titled “Prince” and “Princess”, but were only styled “Highness. It is not absolutely clear, however, whether the title of Prince was due to being great-grandson of George II or nephew of George III. On July 22, 1816, Sophia’s brother Prince William-Frederick, Duke of Gloucester, married their cousin, Princess Mary, a daughter of George III. On their wedding day, the Prince Regent bestowed the style of Royal Highness on the Duke of Gloucester, Princess Mary was a Royal Highness by birth. The next day, the Duke of Gloucester’s sister Princess Sophia was also bestowed with this style, giving her equal rank with her brother.

Despite raising the Gloucesters to the style of Royal Highness, a tradition was emerging: all male-line descendants from the Sovereign were styled Prince/ss; children of the sovereign and the sovereign’s eldest son were Royal Highnesses, all others were Highnesses. The Letters Patent of 1864, which only deal directly with the style of Royal Highness, state the custom in the preamble: “Princes and Princesses of [the] Royal Family descended from and in lineal succession to the Crown as now established by law all bear the style and title of Highness”.

The statement does not say exactly who is a prince or princess.  But an opinion of the Lord Chancellor in July 1878 states that “there is not, in my opinion, any limit among those in Succession to the Throne within which the use of the style of Prince is to be confined, until some such limit is imposed by the Will of the Sovereign as the Fountain of all Honour”.  Queen Victoria cared enough about this opinion that, to put an end to controversies, she sent a copy to Garter King of Arms.


It is interesting to note that the Letters Patent of 1864 say “descended from and in lineal succession to the Crown”  It is impossible to state what the custom might have been for female-line descendants, since the habit of marrying daughters into foreign royal houses meant that no such descendants lived in Britain.  As of 1864, the first and only marriage of a prince or princess in Great Britain, had been that of the duke of Gloucester (great-grandson of George II) to the daughter of George III, in 1816. That marriage remained childless and if they had had children, those children would have been great-great grandchildren in the male line from the Sovereign and it would have been interesting to see what these children would have been styled.

It wouldn’t be until the early part of the 20th Century would the need once again arise to address what to call the great-grandchildren of a sovereign in male line. This time the results would be different. More on that in my next post.