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The funny thing is that Sophia Dorothea
could easily have been the heiress to the Duchy of Hanover herself.
Her father, George William, was the Duke of
Brunswick Lüneburg, and was set to inherit Hanover someday. But
his claim to the Duchy came with one condition: George
William had to marry the bride that his father had selected for him
– Princess Sophia of Palatinate. George couldn’t stand Sophia, and
promised to hand over Hanover to his brother, Ernest Augustus,
if he would marry Sophia and free George from his betrothal. Ernest
Augustus agreed, and went on to become the 1st Elector of Hanover,
while George William settled for the smaller Duchy of Celle.
A few years later, George William fell in love with Eleanore
d’Olbreuse, and their only child, Sophia Dorothea, was born on
15th September 1666. But the child had been born out of
wedlock, and in an effort to legitimise her, George William and
Eleanore were officially married in 1676. With her birthright
secure, Sophia Dorothea had many suitors, and received offers of
marriage from the future King of Denmark, and, when that fell
through, from the Duke of Wolfenbüttel. However, Electress
Sophia was of the mind that Hanover and Celle should stay within
the same family, and proposed to Sophia Dorothea’s parents that the
young girl marry her son George Ludwig, the future King George
I.
Sophia Dorothea wasn’t happy with this idea. She had her heart set
on the Duke, and when her future mother-in-law showed her a
miniature of George, she is said to have flung the
portrait across the room, shouting: “I will not marry the pig
snout!” Despite her protests, Sophia Dorothea was, extremely
unwillingly, forced to accept the marriage proposal, and when she
met her future husband for the first time she fell into a dead
faint. It would prove to be a rocky start to an extremely turbulent
relationship.
The feeling of discontent was mutual. George was not fond of the
bride that had been chosen for him either, and only looked forward
to the marriage for the dowry that it would bring him. In fact,
even Electress Sophia didn’t like her daughter-in-law very much,
and wrote about her in a letter: “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 Ludwig, the most pigheaded,
stubborn boy who ever lived, and 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.”
In November 1682, George and Sophia Dorothea were married in Celle
Castle. The marriage produced two children; a son, George Augustus,
and a daughter, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover. However, George soon
took a mistress, and even began to behave violently towards his
wife. Alone, and feeling betrayed and neglected, Sophia Dorothea
began an affair with the handsome Swedish Count, Philip
Christoph von Königsmarck. They had met in her native Celle, and
were soon exchanging love letters and writing their names on the
palace windows.
When George found out about his wife’s adultery, he confronted her.
Not wanting to be wronged, Sophia Dorothea retaliated, questioning
her husband about his own mistresses. The ensuing argument turned
violent, and ended with attendants having to pull George away
to stop him from attacking his wife. Sophia Dorothea was
extremely distressed by her husband’s behaviour, and planned to
leave him and elope with Count Königsmarck. However, the Elector of
Hanover, having got wind of her plans, had his guards arrest the
Count. The Count mysteriously disappeared after that, and it is
believed that was killed and hurriedly buried beneath the
floorboards in the palace.
George, who had enough of his wife’s infidelity, started divorce
proceedings against her. Sophia Dorothea was found guilty of
“malicious desertion”, and their marriage was legally dissolved in
1694. Sophia Dorothea was glad to be rid of her husband. She said:
“We desire nothing so much as that separation of marriage requested
by our husband may take place”, but her happiness was not to last.
The very next year, George had her imprisoned at the Castle of
Ahlden, and, to make matters worse, she was forbidden from
contacting either of her children. This caused a rift between
George and his son, who deeply resented the fact that he was not
allowed to see his mother.
Meanwhile, in England, after it became clear that neither King
William III nor the future Queen Anne were likely to produce any
heirs, the Act of Settlement was passed in 1701,
naming Electress Sophia, a protestant, as the heir presumptive
to the throne. Despite being over 70 years old, Sophia was as fit
as a fiddle, and certainly in better health than Queen Anne, who
suffered from gout and pain in her limbs. And she would
have been Queen too, if it were not for the fact that she died,
only two months before Queen Anne. George took her place as heir
presumptive, and ascended the throne in 1714, following Anne’s
death. Sophia remained in imprisonment, and no one was ever told
exactly what had become of the woman who would have been Queen.
In 1726, Sophia Dorothea died of liver failure, still locked up in
Ahlden. On her deathbed, she wrote an angry letter to George, now
King of England, cursing him for his treatment of her. George
refused to allow mourning for her in either England or Hanover, but
his daughter, who was the Queen of Prussia by that time, went
against her father’s wishes and wore black in her mother’s honour.
Sophia Dorothea wasn’t buried until nearly six months after her
death. Her final resting place is in the Old Chapel in Celle,
next to that of her parents. Around four weeks later, King George
suffered from a fatal stroke while on a visit to Hanover.
Coincidentally, the King had received his late wife’s last
letter only a couple of days previously, which led to the spreading
of ghostly stories about Sophia Dorothea’s spirit coming
back to haunt her much despised husband.
George I and Sophia Dorothea may not have had the best of
relationships, but their son, George Augustus, and his wife
were much happier together. Look out for the next
instalment in this series to read about the second Georgian Queen –
Caroline of Ansbach.
Photo credit: ‘Sophie Dorothea, Princess of Hannover by Henry
Gascard’ via Wikimedia Commons]]>
So awful that he locked her up!