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

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

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

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

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

As the fourth son, Ernst August had little chance of succeeding his father as ruler. Therefore, the couple had to live in the Leineschloss at the Hanover court of Ernst August’s eldest brother Christian Ludwig. However, in the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, it had been agreed between the Catholic and Protestant powers that the rulership of the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück should alternate between the two churches, and that the respective Protestant bishops should be members of the House of Welf.

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

Christian Ludwig died childless in 1665, leaving Lüneburg to the second brother, Georg Wilhelm who had ceded his right to Ernst August, who thus succeeded to that title. Georg Wilhelm kept the district of Celle for himself. In 1679, Ernst August inherited the Principality of Calenberg from the third brother Johann Friedrich. In 1680 the family moved back to Hanover.

In 1683, against the protestations of his five younger sons, Ernst August instituted primogeniture, so that his territory would not be further subdivided after his death, and also as a pre-condition for obtaining the coveted electorship. He participated in the Great Turkish War on the side of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1692, he was appointed Prince-Elector by the Emperor, thus raising the House of Hanover to electoral dignity, the elevation becoming effective in 1708 when confirmed by the Imperial Diet.

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

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

August 26, 1596: Birth of Friedrich V, King of Bohemia.

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Elizabeth Stuart, Frederick V of Bohemia, Frederick V of the Rhine, House of Habsburg, House of Wittelsbach, king James I-VI of England and Scotland, Sophia of the Rhine (Electress Sophia), Thirty Years War

Friedrich V. (August 26, 1596 – November 29, 1632) was the Elector Palatine of the Rhine in the Holy Roman Empire from 1610 to 1623, and reigned as King of Bohemia from 1619 to 1620. He was forced to abdicate both roles, and the brevity of his reign in Bohemia earned him the derisive sobriquet “the Winter King”.

Friedrich V was born at the Jagdschloss Deinschwang (a hunting lodge) near Amberg in the Upper Palatinate. He was the son of Friedrich IV and of Louise Juliana of Orange-Nassau, the daughter of Willem I the Silent Prince of Orange and Charlotte de Bourbon-Montpensier. An intellectual, a mystic, and a Calvinist, he succeeded his father as Prince-Elector of the Rhenish Palatinate in 1610. He was responsible for the construction of the famous Hortus Palatinus gardens in Heidelberg.

Friedrich IV’s marriage policy had been designed to solidify the Palatinate’s position within the Reformed camp in Europe. Two of Frederick V’s sisters were married to leading Protestant princes: his sister Luise Juliane to his one-time guardian Johann II, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken, and his sister Elizabeth Charlotte to Georg Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg. Friedrich IV had hoped that his daughter Katharina would marry the future King Gustaf II Adolph of Sweden, although this never came to pass.

In keeping with his father’s policy, Friedrich V sought a marriage to Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James I-VI of England and Scotland. James had initially considered marrying Elizabeth to Louis XIII of France, but these plans were rejected by his advisors. Friedrich’s advisors in the Palatinate were worried that if Elizabeth were married to a Catholic prince, this would upset the confessional balance of Europe, and they were thus resolved that she should marry Friedrich V.

Hans Meinhard von Schönberg, who had served as Friedrich V’s Hofmeister since his return to Heidelberg, was sent to London to court the princess in spring 1612. After intense negotiations, a marriage contract was signed on May 26, 1612, over the objection of her mother, Queen Anne.

Friedrich V travelled to London to collect his bride, landing on English soil on October 16, 1612. Friedrich and Elizabeth, who had previously corresponded in French, now met each other for the first time, and got on well together. They were formally engaged in January 1613 and married on February 14, 1613 at the royal chapel at the Palace of Whitehall.

In 1618 the largely Protestant estates of Bohemia rebelled against their Catholic King Ferdinand, triggering the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War. Friedrich was asked to assume the crown of Bohemia. He accepted the offer and was crowned on 4 November 1619, as Friedrich I. The estates chose Friedrich since he was the leader of the Protestant Union, a military alliance founded by his father, and hoped for the support of Friedrich’s father-in-law, James I- VI of England and Scotland.

However, James opposed the takeover of Bohemia from the Habsburgs and Friedrich’s allies in the Protestant Union failed to support him militarily by signing the Treaty of Ulm (1620). His brief reign as King of Bohemia ended with his defeat at the Battle of White Mountain on 8 November 1620 – a year and four days after his coronation.

After the battle, the Imperial forces invaded Friedrich’s Palatine lands and he had to flee to his uncle Prince Maurice, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic in 1622. An Imperial edict formally deprived him of the Palatinate in 1623. He lived the rest of his life in exile with his wife and family, mostly at The Hague, and died in Mainz in 1632.

His eldest surviving son Charles I Ludwig, Elector Palatine, returned to power in 1648 with the end of the war. Another son was Prince Rupert of the Rhine, one of the most colourful figures of his time. His daughter Princess Sophia was eventually named heiress presumptive to the British throne, and is the founder of the Hanoverian line of kings.

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.

June 7, 1660: Birth of George I, King of Great Britain and Elector of Hanover. Part I.

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Elector of Hanover, Electress Sophia of Hanover, Ernst August of Hanover, George I, George I of Great Britain, Holy Roman Empire, Imperial Elector of Hanover and of Brunswick-Lüneburg., King of Great Britain and Ireland, Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Celle, Sophia Dorothea of Great Britain, Sophia of the Palatinate of the Rhine, Sophia of the Rhine (Electress Sophia)

George I (George-Louis; German: Georg-Ludwig; May 28/June7, 1660 – June 11, 1727) was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 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. Under the old Julian Calendar (OS for Old Style) George I was born May 28 1660. When the Julian Calendar was replaced by the Gregorian Calendar (NS for New Style) his birthday was recognized as being June 7, 1660.

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

George was born in the city of Hanover in the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire. He was the eldest son of Ernst-August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and his wife, Sophia of the Palatinate of the Rhine. Sophia was the granddaughter of King James I of England through her mother, Elizabeth Stuart of England. Sophie’s father was Friedrich V.; (1596-1632) was the Elector Palatine of the Rhine in the Holy Roman Empire from 1610 to 1623, and reigned as King of Bohemia from 1619 to 1620. He was forced to abdicate both roles, and the brevity of his reign in Bohemia earned him the derisive sobriquet “the Winter King.”

Sophia of the Palatinate of the Rhine, Electress of Hanover and Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Mother)

Ernst-August, Elector of Hanover, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Father)

For the first year of his life, George was the only heir to the German territories of his father and three childless uncles. George’s brother, Friedrich-August, was born in 1661, and the two boys (known as Görgen and Gustchen by the family) were brought up together. Their mother was absent for almost a year (1664–65) during a long convalescent holiday in Italy, but corresponded regularly with her sons’ governess and took a great interest in their upbringing, even more so upon her return. Sophia bore Ernst-August another four sons and a daughter. In her letters, Sophia describes George as a responsible, conscientious child who set an example to his younger brothers and sisters.

Friedrich V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine in the Holy Roman Empire, King of Bohemia

By 1675 George’s eldest uncle had died without issue, but his remaining two uncles had married, putting George’s inheritance in jeopardy as his uncles’ estates might pass to their own sons, should they have had any, instead of to George.

In 1679 another uncle died unexpectedly without sons, and Ernst-August became reigning Duke of Calenberg-Göttingen, with his capital at Hanover. George’s surviving uncle, Georg-Wilhelm of Celle, had married his mistress in order to legitimise his only daughter, Sophia-Dorothea, but looked unlikely to have any further children. Under Salic law, where inheritance of territory was restricted to the male line, the succession of George and his brothers to the territories of their father and uncle now seemed secure. In 1682, the family agreed to adopt the principle of primogeniture, meaning George would inherit all the territory and not have to share it with his brothers.

Ernest-Augustus, Duke of York (Brother)

The same year, George married his first cousin, Sophia-Dorothea of Brunswick-Celle, thereby securing additional incomes that would have been outside Salic laws. The marriage of state was arranged primarily as it ensured a healthy annual income and assisted the eventual unification of Hanover and Celle. His mother at first opposed the marriage because she looked down on Sophia Dorothea’s mother, Eleonore (who came from lower nobility), and because she was concerned by Sophia-Dorothea’s legitimated status. She was eventually won over by the advantages inherent in the marriage.

Sophia-Dorothea of Brunswick-Celle

In 1683 George and his brother Friedrich-August served in the Great Turkish War at the Battle of Vienna, and Sophia-Dorothea bore George a son, Georg-August. The following year, Friedrich-August was informed of the adoption of primogeniture, meaning he would no longer receive part of his father’s territory as he had expected. This led to a breach between Friedrich-August and his father, and between the brothers, that lasted until his death in battle in 1690.

With the imminent formation of a single Hanoverian state, and the Hanoverians’ continuing contributions to the Empire’s wars, Ernst-August was made an Imperial-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire in 1692. George’s prospects were now better than ever as the sole heir to his father’s electorate and his uncle’s duchy.

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

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

June 4, 1738: Birth of King George III of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

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Act of Settlement 1701, Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg- Strelitz, Electress Sophia of Hanover, Frederick II of Prussia, Frederick Louis Prince of Wales, Frederick the Great, George I of Great Britain, King George II of Great Britain, King George III of the United Kingdom, King George IV of the United Kingdom, King of Great Britain, King of Hanover, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Sophia of the Rhine (Electress Sophia)

George III (George William Frederick; June 4, 1738 – January 29, 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from his accession on October 25, 1760 until the union of the two countries on January 1, 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death in 1820. He was concurrently Duke and Prince-Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg (“Hanover”) in the Holy Roman Empire before becoming King of Hanover on October 12, 1814. He was a monarch of the House of Hanover, but unlike his two predecessors, he was born in Great Britain, spoke English as his first language, and never visited Hanover.

George III, King of the United King of Great Britain and Ireland. King of Hanover

Family

George was born in London at Norfolk House in St James’s Square. As he was born two months prematurely and thought unlikely to survive, he was baptised the same day by Thomas Secker, who was both Rector of St James’s and Bishop of Oxford. One month later, he was publicly baptised at Norfolk House, again by Secker. His godparents were King Friedrich I of Sweden (for whom Lord Baltimore stood proxy), his uncle Friedrich III, Duke of Saxe-Gotha (for whom Lord Carnarvon stood proxy), and his great-aunt Sophia-Dorothea, Queen in Prussia (for whom Lady Charlotte Edwin stood proxy).

George II, King of Great Britain and Ireland.

George III was the grandson of King George II, and the eldest son of Frederick-Louis, Prince of Wales, and Augusta of Saxe-Gotha.

George III’s father was Frederick-Louis, Prince of Wales, (1707-1751), was heir apparent to the British throne from 1727 until his death from a lung injury at the age of 44. He was the eldest but estranged son of King George II and Caroline of Ansbach.

Under the Act of Settlement passed by the English Parliament in 1701, Frederick-Louis was fourth in the line of succession to the British throne at birth, after his great-grandmother (Electress Sophia of Hanover) paternal grandfather (George I) and father (George II). He moved to Great Britain following the accession of his father, and was created Prince of Wales. He predeceased his father, however, and upon the latter’s death on October 25, 1760, the throne passed to Prince Frederick’s eldest son, George III.

Frederick-Louis, Prince of Wales (Father)

George III’s mother, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg was born in Gotha to Friedrich II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1676–1732) and Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst (1679–1740). Her paternal grandparents were Friedrich I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and Magdalena-Sibylla of Saxe-Weissenfels, a daughter of August, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, and his wife Anna-Maria of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Magdalena-Sibylla’snpaternal grandparents were Johann-Georg I, Elector of Saxony, and Magdalene Sibylle of Prussia.

Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (Mother)

Friedrich I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, was the eldest surviving son of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and his cousin Elisabeth-Sophie of Saxe-Altenburg.

Princess Augusta did not speak French or English, and it was suggested that she be given lessons before the wedding, but her mother did not consider it necessary as the British royal family were from Germany (Holy Roman Empire). She arrived in Britain, speaking virtually no English, for a wedding ceremony with Frederick-Louis, Prince of Wales, which took place almost immediately, on May 8,1736, at the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace, London.

Although he was the first British King of the House of Hanover born in England with English his native language, the ancestry of George III was thoroughly German.

Marriage

In 1759, George was smitten with Lady Sarah Lennox, sister of Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond, but Lord Bute advised against the match and George abandoned his thoughts of marriage. “I am born for the happiness or misery of a great nation,” he wrote, “and consequently must often act contrary to my passions.” The prominent Lennox Family of Richmond were illegitimate descendants of King Charles II of England.

Lady Sarah Lennox

In 1753 attempts were made by King George II to marry his grandson George, Prince of Wales to Princess Sophie-Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, eldest daughter of Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, and his wife, Philippine-Charlotte of Prussia, sister of Friedrich II the Great of Prussia.

This was an attempt to improve relations with Prussia, as Sophie-Caroline was a niece of Friedrich II of Prussia and George II needed Prussian troops to help offset the alliance between France and Austria that had occurred as a result of the Diplomatic Revolution. Prince George’s mother, Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales, thwarted George II’s plans, however, which increased tensions within the British royal family. Sophie-Caroline married Friedrich, Margrave of Bayreuth, instead.

Princess Sophie-Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

Though this match was not to be, Sophie-Caroline’s brother Charles II, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, married George’s sister Princess Augusta in 1764, and George III’s son George IV married their daughter Caroline of Brunswick, thus continuing the close ties between the two houses.

The following year, at the age of 22, George succeeded to the throne when his grandfather, George II, died suddenly on 25 October 25, 1760, two weeks before his 77th birthday. The search for a suitable wife intensified. On September 8, 1761 in the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace, the King married Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, whom he met on their wedding day.

Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles-Ludwig-Friedrich of Mecklenburg (1708–1752; known as “Prince of Mirow”) and of his wife Princess Elisabeth-Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen (1713–1761). Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a small north-German duchy in the Holy Roman Empire.

Young George III

A fortnight after the wedding on September22, both were crowned at Westminster Abbey. George remarkably never took a mistress (in contrast with his grandfather and his sons), and the couple enjoyed a genuinely happy marriage until his mental illness struck.

They had 15 children—nine sons and six daughters. In 1762, George purchased Buckingham House (on the site now occupied by Buckingham Palace) for use as a family retreat. His other residences were Kew Palace and Windsor Castle. St James’s Palace was retained for official use. He did not travel extensively and spent his entire life in southern England. In the 1790s, the King and his family took holidays at Weymouth, Dorset, which he thus popularised as one of the first seaside resorts in England.

George III’s life and reign, at 59 years, which was longer than those of any of his predecessors at the time, were marked by a series of military conflicts involving his kingdoms, much of the rest of Europe, and places farther afield in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years’ War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India. However, many of Britain’s American colonies were soon lost in the American War of Independence. Further wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France from 1793 concluded in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

George III, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King of Hanover

In the later part of his life, George had recurrent, and eventually permanent, mental illness. Although it has since been suggested that he had bipolar disorder or the blood disease porphyria, the cause of his illness remains unknown. After a final relapse in 1810, a regency was established. His eldest son, George, Prince of Wales, ruled as Prince Regent until his father’s death, when he succeeded as George IV. Historical analysis of George III’s life has gone through a “kaleidoscope of changing views” that have depended heavily on the prejudices of his biographers and the sources available to them.

Changing Titles.

The nation went through many changes through his reign and his titles reflected these changes.

In Great Britain, George III used the official style “George the Third, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and so forth”. In 1801, when Great Britain united with Ireland, he dropped the title of King of France, which had been used for every English monarch since Edward III’s claim to the French throne in the medieval period. His style became “George the Third, by the Grace of God, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the Faith.”

In Germany, he was “Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg, Arch-Treasurer and Prince-Elector of Hanover of the Holy Roman Empire” (Herzog von Braunschweig und Lüneburg, Erzschatzmeister und Kurfürst des Heiligen Römischen Reiches) until the end of the empire in 1806. He then continued as Duke until the Congress of Vienna declared him “King of Hanover” in 1814.

May 23, 1629: Birth of Wilhelm VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel.

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Elector of Hesse, Hesse, Hesse and By Rhine, Hesse-Cassel, Hesse-Darmstadt, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, Margravine Hedwig-Sophie of Brandenburg, Philip of Hesse, Sophia of the Rhine (Electress Sophia), William VI of Hesse- Cassel

Wilhelm VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel (May 23, 1629 – July 16, 1663), known as Wilhelm the Just, was Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel from 1637 to 1663.

Wilhelm VI, Landgrave of Hesse Cassel

History of the Landgravite

Landgrave was a noble title used in the Holy Roman Empire, and later on in its former territories. The German titles of Landgraf, Markgraf (“margrave”), and Pfalzgraf (“count palatine”) are in the same class of ranks as Herzog (“duke”) and above the rank of a Graf (“count”).

The Landgraviate of Hesse-Cassel was founded by Wilhelm IV the Wise, the eldest son of Philipp I. On his father’s death in 1567, the Landgraviate of Hesse was divided into four parts. Wilhelm IV received about half of the territory, with Cassel as his capital. Hesse-Cassel expanded in 1604 when Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel inherited the Landgraviate of Hesse-Marburg from his childless uncle, Ludwig IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Marburg (1537–1604). The other sons received the Landgraviate of Hesse-Marburg, the Landgraviate of Hesse-Rheinfels and the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Wilhelm V of Hesse-Cassel, father of Wilhelm VI.

The reign of the Landgrave William IX (1743-1821) (the great-great grandson of Landgrave Wilhelm VI) was an important epoch in the history of Hesse-Cassel. Ascending the throne in 1785, he took part in the War of the First Coalition against French First Republic a few years later, but in 1795 the Peace of Basel was signed. In 1801 he lost his possessions on the left bank of the Rhine, but in 1803 he was compensated for these losses with some former French territory round Mainz, and at the same time he was raised to the dignity of Prince-elector Wilhelm I of Hesse, (the territorial designation of Cassel was dropped) a title he retained even after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire.

Upon 1806 dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and the dispossession of his Elector Wilhelm I of Hesse, Landgrave Ludwig X of Hesse-Darmstadt and joined the Napoleonic Confederation of the Rhine and took the title of Grand Duke Ludwig I of Hesse. At the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15, Ludwig had to give up his Westphalian territories, but was compensated with the district of Rheinhessen, with his capital Mainz on the left bank of the Rhine. Because of this addition, he amended his title to Grand Duke Ludwig I of Hesse and by Rhine.

Amalie-Elisabeth, Gräfin of Hanau-Münzenberg, mother of Landgrave Wilhelm VI

In 1866, the end came. Elector Friedrich-Wilhelm of Hesse, full of grievances against Prussia, threw in his lot with Austria when Prussia was at war with Austria. The electorate was at once overrun with Prussian troops; Cassel was occupied (20 June); and the Elector was taken as a prisoner to Stettin. By the Peace of Prague, Electoral Hesse was annexed to Prussia.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Landgrave Wilhelm VI was born in Cassel, the son of Wilhelm V (whom he succeeded) and his wife Amalie-Elisabeth, Gräfin of Hanau-Münzenberg (daughter of Philipp-Ludwig II of Hanau-Münzenberg and his wife Countess Catharina Belgica of Nassau). His mother remained his guardian until he came of age. Despite Hesse-Cassel’s defeat in the Thirty Years’ War, Wilhelm’s mother did not wish to acknowledge the accord of 1627.

This required that the unmarried Marburger heir and the Landgraves of Hessen-Darmstadt should fall, but Amalie-Elisabeth had other ideas and led Hesse-Cassel in 1645 into the “Hessenkrieg”, ruling as Landgräfin on her son’s behalf. This war began when Hesse-Cassel troops began to besiege the city of Marburg. Three years later, in 1648, the war ended with a victory for Cassel, although the citizens of Darmstadt also gained from it.

Domination over the Marburger territories went over to the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, after the accord was dissolved and a new agreement was reached. Wilhelm VI succeeded in what his ancestors had tried to do in vain since 1604, that is, to end the Hesse-Marburg landgraviate, and to annex the Marburger lands to Hesse-Cassel.

After these wars, Wilhelm VI attended above all to the extension of the universities within his domains and the foundation of more new Lehranstalts. To finally resolve the quarrel with Landgrave Georg II of Hesse-Darmstadt, Wilhelm VI delivered to Georg II the territory around Gießen, along with Ämtern by Biedenkopf.

Shortly before his death, Wilhelm VI joined the League of the Rhine on its foundation in 1658. He also sought to effect a union between his Lutheran and Reformed subjects, or at least to lessen their mutual hatred. In 1661 he had a colloquy held in Kassel between the Lutheran theologians of the University of Rinteln and the Reformed theologians of the University of Marburg.

Wilhelm VI died at Haina in 1663. Control of his Landgraviate went to his eldest son Wilhelm VII, though – not yet of age – he remained under the guardianship of his mother Hedwig Sophie of Brandenburg until his early death in 1670.

Marriage and issue

Landgrave Wilhelm VI married Margravine Hedwig-Sophie of Brandenburg (1623–1683), daughter of daughter of Georg-Wilhelm, Elector of Brandenburg and Elizabeth-Charlotte of the Palantine of the Rhine. Their children were:

Margravine Hedwig-Sophie of Brandenburg

* Charlotte Amalie (1650–1714), married Christian V of Denmark
* Wilhelm VII (1651–1670), his successor, Landgraf 1663-1670.
* Luise (1652-1652)
* Charles (1654-1730), Landgraf 1670-1730
* Philipp (1655-1721), Landgrave of Hesse-Philippsthal, married Katharina-Amalia Gräfin von Solms-Laubach
* Georg of Hesse-Kassel (1658–1675);
* Elisabeth-Henriëtte (8 November 1661-1683), married King Friedrich I of Prussia as his first wife.

Friedrich V, Elector Palantine of the Rhine

Princess Elizabeth (Stuart) of England, Scotland and Ireland

Wilhelm VI’s mother-in-law, Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palantine of the Rhine was the daughter of Friedrich IV, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, and Louise-Juliana of Orange-Nassau. Her brother Friedrich became famous as the Elector-Palatine Friedrich V and “Winter King” of Bohemia. Friedrich’s daughter Sophia (1630–1714), with his wife, Princess Elizabeth (Stuart) of England, Scotland and Ireland, was the heir presumptive to the thrones of England and Ireland by the Act of Settlement, 1701. Sophia, married Ernst-August, Elector of Hanover. Her son became King George I of Great Britain in 1714.

Sophia of the Palatine of the Rhine

King George I of Great Britain was the grandfather of my previous blog entry, Prince August-Ferdinand of Prussia, making Landgrave Wilhelm VI and his wife, Margravine Hedwig-Sophie of Brandenburg the great-great grand uncle and aunt to both Friedrich II the Great of Prussia and his youngest brother, Prince August-Ferdinand of Prussia.

Are the descendants of the Duke of Edinburgh also Prince/Princess of Greece and Denmark? Part I.

Tags

Grand Duchess Olga of Russia, House of Glucksburg, House of House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, King George I of the Hellenes, king George II of the Hellenes, King George VI of the United Kingdom, Prince of Greece and Denmark, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Sophia of the Rhine (Electress Sophia)

George I, King of the Hellenes, (December 24, 1845 – March 18, 1913) was born as Christian Wilhelm Ferdinand Adolf George, the second son and third child of King Christian IX of Denmark and Princess Louise of Hesse-Cassel. Until his accession in Greece, he was known as Prince Wilhelm. At age only 17, he was elected King of the Hellenes on March 30, 1863 by the Greek National Assembly under the regnal name of George I.

King George I of the Hellenes

King George I of the Hellenes married Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia (September 3, 1851 – June 18, 1926), the daughter of Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich and his wife, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg, at the chapel of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg on October 27, 1867 when she was barely 16 and he was he was 21. Over the next twenty years, they had eight children.

Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia

All male line descendants of King George are entitled to the be a Prince of Greece and Denmark. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, was born the only son and fifth and final child of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg, was a prince of both Greece and Denmark by virtue of his patrilineal descent from George I of Greece and Christian IX of Denmark.

The Duke of Edinburgh is also member of the House of Glücksburg, itself a branch of the House of Oldenburg. The House of Glücksburg (also spelled Glücksborg), shortened from House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, is a Dano-German branch of the House of Oldenburg, members of which have reigned at various times in Denmark, Norway, Greece and several northern German states.

The question I raise is, are the Duke of Edinburgh’s children and other descendants also princes/princesses of Greece and Denmark?

At birth the Duke of Edinburgh was in the line of succession to both thrones of Greece and Denmark; the 1953 Succession Act removed his family branch’s succession rights in Denmark.

In 1947 Philip was granted permission by George VI to marry Princess Elizabeth. Before the official announcement of their engagement in July of that year, Philip renounced his Greek and Danish royal titles, became a naturalised British subject, and adopted his maternal grandparents’ surname Mountbatten.

Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark

However, it wasn’t necessary for Philip to under go the naturalization process due to the fact that he was born a British national as a descendant of the Electress Sophia of Hanover and the subsequent Sophia Naturalization Act of 1705 which granted British nationality in perpetuity to Sophia’s descendants. The act was superseded in 1949 by the passage of the British Nationality Act.

Although born a Prince of Greece and Denmark his upbringing was thoroughly British. On September 22, 1922, Philip’s uncle, King Constantine I of the Hellenes was forced to abdicate and the new military government arrested Prince Andrew, his father, along with others. In December, a revolutionary court banished Prince Andrew from Greece for life. The British naval vessel HMS Calypso evacuated Prince Andrew’s family, with Philip carried to safety in a cot made from a fruit box.

Because Philip left Greece as a baby, he does not speak Greek, and has stated that he thinks of himself as Danish. In 1928, he was sent to the United Kingdom to attend Cheam School, living with his maternal grandmother, Victoria Mountbatten, Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven, at Kensington Palace and his uncle, George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, at Lynden Manor in Bray, Berkshire. Philip has always lived in the United Kingdom ever since.

Prince Philip initially started the process of renouncing his Greek and Danish titles in 1941, after he had joined the British Royal Navy. The renunciation of his Greek and Danish titles was done in a private via a letter to King George II, then in exile, in December of that year. The king accepted the renunciation with some reluctance, but only accepted his request due to Philip’s desire to serve in the British Royal Navy. After George II returned there was never any official action taken by the Greek government to remove Philip’s Greek and Danish, but the decision was accepted by the Greek king therefore that action in itself has been considered official by many historians and governmental figures.

However, there are some historians that believed since there isn’t any direct evidence that official documentation was submitted by King George II of the Hellenes to the government to remove Philip’s titles, therefore it is believed that Philip just simply stopped using his titles. Therefore theoretically, do Philip and his descendants still have their Dynastic titles such as Prince/Princesses of Greece and Denmark as well as other dynastic titles, Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn, Dithmarschen, Lauenburg, and Oldenburg? Are they still there, and just in a state of disuse?

Is that true? That is what we’ll examine in part II.

December 17, 1619: birth of Prince Rupert of the Rhine & his life, Part I.

Tags

Charles I of England, Charles II of England, Elizabeth Stuart, English Civil War, Frederick V of the Rhine, George I of Great Britain, James I of England, James VI of Scotland, King of Bohemia, Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Sophia of the Rhine (Electress Sophia)

Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, (December 17, 1619 – November 29, 1682) was a German-British army officer, admiral, scientist and colonial governor. He first came to prominence as a Cavalier, commander of a cavalry unit during the English Civil
War.

Parents and ancestry

His father was Friedrich V of the Palatinate, of the Palatinate-Simmern branch of the House of Wittelsbach. He was the Elector Palatine of the Rhine in the Holy Roman Empire from 1610 to 1623, and reigned as King of Bohemia from 1619 to 1620. He was forced to abdicate both roles, and the brevity of his reign in Bohemia earned him the derisive sobriquet “the Winter King.” As Elector Palatine, Friedrich was one of the most important princes of the Holy Roman Empire. He was also head of the Protestant Union, a coalition of Protestant German states. The Palatinate was a wealthy state, and Friedrich lived in great luxury.

Friedrich’s mother, Countess Louise Juliana of Nassau, was daughter of Willem the Silent, Prince of Orange and sister of Maurice, Prince of Orange, who as stadtholders of Holland and other provinces were the leaders of the Dutch Republic.

His mother was Elizabeth of England and Scotland daughter of King James I-VI of England, Scotland and Ireland. Thus Rupert was nephew of King Charles I of England, and first cousin of King Charles II of England, who made him Duke of Cumberland and Earl of Holderness. His sister Electress Sophia was the mother of George I of Great Britain.

Rupert was named in honour of Rupert, King of Germany, a famous Wittelsbach ancestor.

Rupert (right) with his brother, Charles I Ludwig, Elector Palatine (left), in a 1637 portrait by Anthony van Dyck

As a child, Rupert was at times badly behaved, “fiery, mischievous, and passionate” and earned himself the nickname Robert le Diable, or “Rupert The Devil”. Nonetheless, Rupert proved to be an able student. By the age of three he could speak some English, Czech, and French, and mastered German while still young, but had little interest in Latin and Greek. He excelled in art, being taught by Gerard van Honthorst, and found mathematics and science easy. By the time he was 18 he stood about 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) tall.

Friedrich set about convincing an alliance of nations—including England, France and Sweden—to support his attempts to regain the Palatinate and Bohemia. By the early 1630s Frederick had built a close relationship with the Swedish King Gustaf II Adolph, the dominant Protestant leader in Germany. In 1632, however, the two men disagreed over Gustaf’s insistence that Friedrich provide equal rights to his Lutheran and Calvinist subjects after regaining his lands; Friedrich refused and set off to return to The Hague.

Friedrich V Palatine of the Rhine died of a fever along the way and was buried in an unmarked grave. Rupert had lost his father at the age of 13, and Gustaf’s death at the battle of Lützen in the same month deprived the family of a critical Protestant ally. With Frederick gone, King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland proposed that the family move to England; Rupert’s mother declined, but asked that Charles extend his protection to her remaining children instead.

Prince Rupert as a teen

Rupert spent the beginning of his teenage years in England between the courts of The Hague and his uncle King Charles I, before being captured and imprisoned in Linz during the middle stages of the Thirty Years’ War. Rupert had become a soldier early; at the age of 14 he attended the Dutch pas d’armes with the Protestant Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. Later that year he fought alongside him and the Duke of Brunswick at the Anglo-German siege of Rheinberg, and by 1635. Rupert went on to fight against imperial Spain in the successful campaign around Breda in 1637 during the Eighty Years’ War in the Netherlands. By the end of this period, Rupert had acquired a reputation for fearlessness in battle, high spirits and considerable industry.

In between these campaigns Rupert had visited his uncle’s court in England. The Palatinate cause was a popular Protestant issue in England, and in 1637 a general public subscription helped fund an expedition under his brother Charles Ludwig to try and regain the electorate as part of a joint French campaign. Rupert was placed in command of a Palatinate cavalry regiment. The campaign ended badly at the Battle of Vlotho (October 17, 1638) during the invasion of Westphalia; Rupert escaped death, but was captured by the forces of the Imperial General Melchior von Hatzfeldt towards the end of the battle.

Rupert was imprisoned in Linz and his mprisonment was surrounded by religious overtones. His mother was deeply concerned that he might be converted from Calvinism to Catholicism; his captors, encouraged by Emperor Ferdinand III, deployed Jesuit priests in an attempt to convert him. The Emperor went further, proffering the option of freedom, a position as an Imperial general and a small principality if Rupert would convert. Rupert refused.

Rupert’s imprisonment became more relaxed on the advice of the Archduke Leopold, Ferdinand’s younger brother, who met and grew to like Rupert. Rupert practised etching, played tennis, practised shooting, read military textbooks and was taken on accompanied hunting trips. He also entered into a romantic affair with Susan Kuffstein, the daughter of Count von Kuffstein, his gaoler. He received a present of a rare white poodle that Rupert called Boy, or sometimes Pudel, and which remained with him into the English Civil War.

Despite attempts by a Franco-Swedish army to seize Linz and free Rupert, his release was ultimately negotiated through Leopold and the Empress Maria Anna; in exchange for a commitment never again to take up arms against the Emperor, Rupert would be released. Rupert formally kissed the Emperor’s hand at the end of 1641, turned down a final offer of an Imperial command and left Germany for England.

Part II on the life of Prince Rupert will coincide with the articles I will be doing on Charles I and the English Civil War and his subsequent trial.

Legal Succession: The House of Hanover & Jacobite resistance

Tags

George IV, King George I of Great Britain, king James I-VI of England and Scotland, Kings and Queens of England, kings and queens of Scotland, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Sophia of the Rhine (Electress Sophia), United Kingdom of Great Britain, William III and Mary II

With the succession now legally in the hands of William III and Mary II and with the death of the future Queen Anne’s son, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, it necessitated the Act of Settlement of 1701 that placed the succession on the nearest Protestant heir, the Electress Sophia of Hanover. She was a granddaughter of King James I-VI of England and Scotland. The Electress Sophia was married to the Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Imperial Elector of Hanover.

Ernst August of Hanover died January 23, 1698 and his son, Georg Ludwig became Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Imperial Elector of Hanover. He was also 2nd in line to the English and Scottish thrones throne via the Act of Settlement. Although not the topic of this series, in 1707 the Parliaments of England and Scotland were united to form the kingdom of Great Britain. The titles of King and Queen of England and the Scots passed into history. Georg-Ludwig’s mother, the Electress Sophia, did not live long enough to inherit the British throne she died June 8, 1714 a few weeks before the death of Queen Anne on August 1, 1714. Upon the death of Queen Anne the legal succession passed to Elector Georg-Ludwig of Hanover who became King George I of Great Britain. Although George was Elector of Hanover that country was not politically united with Great Britain.

The deposed king, James II-VII, died in 1701 and the Stuart claim passed to his son, James Francis, Prince of Wales who then claimed the throne as King James III-VIII of England and Scotland. The followers of James, known as Jacobites, did not recognize the union of England and Scotland so you will often see the Jacobite claimants call themselves Kings of England and Scotland rather than Great Britain. When James claimed the titles to his father’s thrones these claims were recognised as by France, Spain, the Papal States and Modena. These states refused to recognise William III, Mary II or Queen Anne as legitimate sovereigns. Another consequence of James claims to the throne was that the British government charged him with treason and his title, Prince of Wales, was attainted March 2, 1702, and were considered forfeited under English law. For the rest of this post James will be called The Old Pretender.

It is not the scope of this series to delve in-depth with he Jacobite uprisings but I will give a brief synopsis. James had support in France from King Louis XIV who had been the first cousin to both Charles II and James II-VII. Also, at this time France was at war against Britain as the War of the Spanish Succession raged throughout Europe as Louis XIV’s grandson, Felipe V, became the new King of Spain. In 1715 the year after the accession of George I, John Erskine, 22nd Earl of Mar, began a rebellion with the aim of placing James, the Old Pretender on the throne. This rebellion failed.

In 1745 another rebellion occurred under the Old Pretender’s son, Charles Edward, known to his supporters as King Charles III and to history as Bonnie Prince Charlie. This uprising moved as far into England as Derby and culminated in the Battle of Culloden. The armies of Field Marshal George Wade and of William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, son of King George II of Great Britain led the British forces to victory. Bonnie Prince Charlie fled to Europe with a large price on his head.

After the Battle of Culloden the Jacobite movement dwindled considerably. Charles Edward married Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern but had no legitimate offspring. He left a natural daughter, Charlotte Stuart, created Duchess of Albany by her father but this title had no legal standing in Britain. When Charles Edward died in 1788 the Jacobite claim to the throne went to his brother, Henry Benedict Stuart, Cardinal Duke of York. He was a Catholic Priest and to his supporters he was Known as King Henry IX of England, Scotland, Ireland and France.

After the French Revolution, Henry lost his French Royal benefices and sacrificed many other resources to assist Pope Pius VI. He also lost all of his French property which caused him to descend into poverty. Ironically, the British Minister in Venice arranged for Henry to receive an annuity of £4,000 from King George III of Great Britain. In his will,  which he signed as “Henry R”, he was succeeded his claim to the British/English/Scottish throne to his nearest blood-relative, King Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia. However, Charles never asserted nor renounced his Jacobite claims, nor have any of his successors to this day.

In the near future I will do a post about Jacobitism and the succession of those claimants. My next entry in the Legal Succession series will be the last as I bring it up to date with current times.

Succession to the Crown Bill 2012

Tags

1772 Royal Marriage Act, Act of Settlement 1701, Act of Union (Ireland) 1800, Bill of Rights 1689, Buckingham Palace, Duke of Cambridge, King George V of Great Britain, Kings and Queens of England, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II, Sophia of the Rhine (Electress Sophia), Treason Act 1351, Union with England Act 1707, Union with Ireland Act 1800, Union with Scotland Act 1706

Here is more information on the law that is to be passed changing the succession to the throne.

Here are the main issues this bill will cover.

1. Gender: There was speculation that like the 1701 Act of Settlement which limits those eligible for the Crown to be the Protestant descendants of the Electress Sophia of Hanover, this new law would limit the succession to the Crown to the Descendants of George V. Instead the succession will go to the eldest child, regardless of gender, for those born after October 28, 2011.

2. Marriage to Roman Catholics: When this law passes those in line will be able to marry Roman Catholics without losing their place in the line of succession. The good news is that people who had married Catholics will be restored to their place in the succession. This means that Prince Michael of Kent for example, will regain his place in the succession. What is not known at this time is whether or not the Monarch themselves can be Catholic or marry a Catholic.

3. Sovereign’s consent for marriage: The 1772 Royal Marriage Act will be repealed. This act was created to prevent those in line from marrying unsuitable individuals and still retaining their right to the throne. However, the first 6 in line to the throne will be required to seek the sovereign’s consent before they can marry.

Here are some other amendments to the law: source: wikipedia.

Provisions in the Union with Scotland Act 1706, Union with England Act 1707, Union with Ireland Act 1800 and Act of Union (Ireland) 1800 involving the crown will be “subject to provisions of” this bill. Several clauses in Bill of Rights 1689 and Act of Settlement 1701nvolving marriages with “papists” will be repealed.

As the monarch’s eldest son would no longer automatically be heir apparent, the Treason Act 1351 will also be amended such that an act or attempt to murder the monarch’s “eldest Son and Heir” will become “eldest child and Heir”, while the “if a Man do violate […] the Wife the King’s eldest Son and Heir” will become “… son if the heir”.^[15] The result of the second amendment is that rape of the eldest son’s wife will only be high treason if that son is the heir apparent. That act already provided for high treason in the case of “if a Man do violate […] the King’s eldest Daughter unmarried”.

Some previous acts (like those mentioned in the two paragraphs from Wikipedia) will not be completely repealed but only amended.

What has not been mentioned is what to do with the title “Prince of Wales.” I am not sure if there is an Act or Law that covers this and maybe this title is under the Sovereign’s prerogative as the Font of All Honours and will be decided at a later date.

I am happy to see these changes and they are historical changes in the history of the British monarchy. I am pleased with the removal of the prohibition against Catholics. But what is even more fair, and makes me happy, is to see that those who have already married Catholics will be restored to their proper place in the succession.