The Love of an Uncrowned Queen

Appendix. — List of Authorities Quoted, and Books to Which Reference Has Been Made

Unpublished Mss

The Correspondence of Princess Sophie Dorothea and Philip Christopher, Count Königsmarck, 1691-1693 (in French). Preserved in the University Library of Lund, Sweden.

The Despatches and Correspondence of Sir William Dutton Colt, Envoy-Extraordinary to the Princes of Brunswick and Lüneburg, 1689-1693. In the State Paper Office, London.

The Despatches and Correspondence of Mr. Cresset (who succeeded Sir W. D. Colt at Hanover) and his Secretaries, 1693-1702. In the State Paper Office, London.

The Despatches of Mr. Poley (who succeeded Mr. Cresset at Hanover), 1705. In the State Paper Office, London.

Sundry Letters of Mr. Stepney, sometime British Envoy to the Court of Dresden, 1694-1695. In the State Paper Office, London.

Sundry Letters and Papers (in French and German), specified elsewhere. Preserved in the Royal Archives and Library, Hanover, and at Brunswick and Dresden.

Some Published Works

Die Herzogin von Ahlden, Stammutter der Königlichen Häuser Hannover und Preussen. Leipzig, 1852. Now out of print. Written anonymously by Count Schulenburg-Klosterrode.

Die Prinzessin von Ahlden. By Dr. Adolph Köcher. Two articles in Sybel’s Historische Zeitschrift, 1882, vol. xlviii.

Römischen Octavia, 1707, vol. vi. By Duke Antony Ulrich of Wolfenbüttel.

The Magazine of the Historical Association of Lower Saxony, 1879.

Sophie Dorothea, Prinzessin von Ahlden und Kurfürstin Sophie von Hannover. By A. F. H. Schaumann. Hanover, 1879.

Briefe der Herzogin von Orleans, Elizabeth Charlotte, an die Kurfürstin Sophie von Hannover.

Briefe der Prinzessin Elizabeth Charlotte von Orleans, 1676-1722.

Memoiren der Herzogin Sophie, nachmals Kurfürstin von Hannover. Dr. Adolph Köcher. Leipzig, 1879.

Memoires du règne de George I. “Anon.” The Hague, 1729.

Letters with Varied Contents. Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1772.

Geschichte der Herzogin von Ahlden. Copenhagen, 1786.

Short Narrative of My Fate and Imprisonment. Hamburg, 1840. Edited by “W. L. Mollor” (Major Müller).

This purports to be an autobiography written by the Princess Sophie Dorothea, but it is spurious. Yet the deeds and letters quoted show that the author had access to genuine documents, and show the writer to be Major Müller, librarian to the late Duke of Cambridge, Regent of Hanover.

Memoirs of Sophie Dorothea. Two vols. London, 1845. Out of print. Translated into the German also. Written anonymously. [By Major Müller, sometime librarian to the late Duke of Cambridge.]

This covers much the same ground as the Short Narrative, and also contains some authentic documents and papers. Like the Short Narrative it is evidently based on Duke Antony Ulrich’s Octavia. But the “Diary of Conversations,” in vol. ii., purporting to be written by Sophie Dorothea, is undoubtedly spurious.

Aurora Königsmarck. By Professor W. F. Palmbald. Six vols. Translated from the Swedish into the German. Leipzig, 1853. Out of print.

Memoirs of Aurora von Königsmarck. By Cramer.

An article on Fresh Contributions to the History of the Hanoverian Princess Sophie Dorothea. By Edward Bodemann.

Histoire Secrette de la Duchesse d’Hanover, Épouse de Georges Premier. London, 1732. Ascribed to Baron von Poëllnitz (some say erroneously).

The Electress Sophia. Article in The Quarterly Review, vol. 161.

Eléonore d’Olbreuse. By the Baroness von Amstel. Article in Nineteenth Century, 1898.

Footnotes

1. Written by Leibniz on the margin of an account of the divorce sent by the Duchess of Orleans to the Electress Sophia (vide Köcher’s Hist. Zeitschrift, vol. xlviii., p. 233, note).

2. I have also condensed the later chapters which deal with the death of the Electress Sophia and the accession of George I. to the English throne. These events are not strictly germane to the history of Sophie Dorothea, and moreover I have treated of them much more fully in Caroline the Illustrious, Queen Consort of George II., which may be regarded as a sequel to this book.

3. The Love of an Uncrowned Queen, Edinburgh Review, January, 1901, No. 395, pp. 56-86.

4. “The Letters of the Duchess of Ahlden and Count Philip Christopher von Königsmarck,” by Dr. Robert Geerds (Supplement to the Allgemeine Zeitung, 1902, No. 77).

5. I quote from these critics because they have examined the letters themselves and can speak with first-hand knowledge. I do so with more freedom because they have not been slow in pointing out my shortcomings. I should also like to express my indebtedness for many other critical reviews, notably to the Athenæum, to Monsieur de Wyzewa for his essay in the Revue des deux Mondes, and to Mr. Andrew Lang in Longman’s Magazine.

6. On attaining to man’s estate, this youth filled the office of Master of the Horse at the court of Celle; later he became a colonel of the dragoons. He seems to have been of a jealous disposition, and was always grumbling because his putative father did not do more for him.

7. Osnabrück was a see founded by Charlemagne. Luther had many followers among the citizens, and at the Treaty of Westphalia, 1648, which was concluded at Osnabrück, it was arranged that the Prince Bishop should be alternately a Lutheran and a Roman Catholic, the selection of the Lutheran bishop being left with the chapter, restricted, however, to the family of Brunswick-Lüneburg. This arrangement resulted in some very odd bishops. The last member of the English Royal Family to hold the title was Frederick Augustus Duke of York, son of George III.

8. There is a portrait of her, dressed in a blue robe, in the Guelph Gallery at Herrenhausen, as she was in middle life—a beautiful woman, with masses of dark brown hair and a superb figure.

9. A marriage ad morganaticum, sanctioned by the Church, but so far disallowed by law that the children of such wedlock were infantes nullius, and could succeed to no inheritance.

10. He married later, 1668, but his wife brought him no children.

11. Short genealogical table showing descent of King Edward VII. and the Emperor William II. from SOPHIE DOROTHEA of Celle.

Sophie Dorothea,
married her first cousin, George Louis (afterwards George I.); they had two children—viz.
George II.					The Queen of Prussia.
Frederick Prince of Wales.
				Frederick		Prince William Augustus.
George III.				the Great.
						Frederick William II.
The Duke of Kent.
						Frederick William III.
Queen Victoria.
						Emperor William I.
Edward VII.
						Emperor Frederick.
						Emperor William II.

12. The theatre is in the old part of the castle at Celle, approached by vaulted, stone corridors, with walls five feet thick, and has a large stage and a number of little boxes, the Royal box of course occupying a position of prominence. The decorations are simple; most of the theatre is whitewashed. Like the rest of the castle of Celle, it has changed little, though the castle has witnessed many changes. On the death of George William, the castle passed into the possession of George III., and through him to successive kings of England. On the accession of Queen Victoria, the schloss became the property of the King of Hanover, Ernest Augustus (Duke of Cumberland), who altered it somewhat inside, not for the better, and it remained in the possession of the Royal Family of Hanover until the Revolution of 1866, when it was seized, together with other Hanoverian possessions, by Prussia, and merged into the Province of Brunswick. For some time it was used as one of the summer palaces of the present Prince Regent of Brunswick; but he rarely goes there now, and the schloss is almost dismantled of furniture, but well kept and in perfect order.

13. Table showing descent of Sophia from James I. of England, and her children.

			James I.
			Queen of Bohemia.
			Sophia, m. Ernest Augustus (afterward Elector of Hanover).
George Louis,		Maximilian		Charles		Ernest
b. 1660, d. 1727		William,		Philip,		Augustus
(afterward		b. 1666,		b. 1669,		Duke of York,
George I. of		d. 1726.		d. 1690.		b. 1674,
England), m.						d. 1728.
Sophie
Dorothea of			Sophia,		Christian,
Celle.			Charlotte		b. 1671,
	Frederick		Brandenburg		d. 1703.
	Augustus,		(Electress of
	b. 1661,		Brandenburg
	d. 1691.		and first Queen
			of Prussia),
			b. 1668, d. 1705.

14. The authority for this statement is to be found in the Protocol of the trial of Knesebeck, published in Cramer’s Memoirs of Aurora Königsmarck.

15. Wolfenbüttel is an old town on the Oker, not far from Brunswick. The famous library contains Luther’s Bible, and the ducal schloss and mortuary chapel are the only other buildings worth mentioning. The seat of the duchy was at Brunswick.

16. A similar pastime was frequently indulged in by her grand-daughter-in-law, Queen Caroline, wife of George II., who was also most tolerant of her husband’s mistresses. No doubt she learned both these peculiarities from Sophia.

17. She died less than three months before Queen Anne.

18. “She [Sophia] told me,” writes Lord Dartmouth many years later, “that she was once like to have been married to King Charles II., which would not have been worse for the nation, considering how many children she had brought, to which I most sincerely agreed.”

19. The room remains the same to this day.

20. This did not actually take place until the reign of George I.

21. I have been taken to task by eminent critics for accepting, on the authority of the Roman Octavia, the night journey of the Duchess Sophia to Celle, and the discomfiture of Duke Antony Ulrich and his son. But I would in all humility point out that the Roman Octavia was written by Duke Antony Ulrich himself, and published within the life-time of nearly all the parties concerned. Though the form in which it is written, a dramatic dialogue with the personages disguised under fictitious names, precludes absolute accuracy, yet it is generally admitted that the narrative closely followed in many respects what actually happened. The Duchess Sophia read the Roman Octavia when it appeared, but we do not find any record that she contradicted Antony Ulrich’s version of the part she played in bringing about the marriage. The Duchess of Orleans, writing to her aunt of Antony Ulrich’s book, says: “In all matters his truth is mixed with a modicum of lies,” and she proceeds to criticise it in detail, but she says nothing about this incident. If it were untrue we should expect to find Sophia denouncing it with her customary vigour; but she was probably ashamed of the part she had played and so passed it by in silence, tacitly admitting its truth. Dr. Köcher has clearly shown that negotiations for the marriage had been going on between the two courts for years more or less definitely, but I do not see that this affects the truth of Antony Ulrich’s version of the action which Sophia took at the last.

22. Hanover is still in some respects the same as it was in the time of Ernest Augustus and Sophia. Until the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign, it must have been almost exactly the same; but the divorce from the English crown which then ensued made a difference, and the expulsion of the King of Hanover, in 1866, brought the town under Prussian rule, and resulted in the abolition of many landmarks. Under the iron heel of Prussia, Hanover is losing many of its distinctive features. It has become much like any other modern Prussian city, with wide streets, huge barracks, and enormous and hideous buildings, vast manufactories and breweries. The town has advanced in prosperity, but has lost in picturesqueness.

23. The morning bath was not a daily institution at the end of the seventeenth century, even with princesses; for aught I know, it may not be in Germany to-day. Cleanliness was not a prominent virtue, and in the long list of servants at the court of Hanover there appear to have been only two washerwomen employed!

24. George II. succeeded his father in 1727.

25. This collection is called Mémoires de Monsieur de Lassaye. It bears also the better title of Recueils de différentes choses, for the parts of which it is composed are very varied and disconnected—love affairs, philosophy, ethics, satire, reflections on various matters, and letters, all jumbled up together. Lassaye had only a few copies of this collection printed for himself and a select circle of friends, so copies are extremely rare and cannot be bought. Herr Edward Bodemann managed to stumble across one in a second-hand bookshop in Paris, and to him I am indebted for the perusal of the correspondence in the original French.

26. Many years later Duchess of Kendal.

27. The vexed question of the date of Königsmarck’s birth is settled by Count Adam Lewenhaupt in an article in Historisk Tidskrift, Stockholme, 1898, in which he quotes from documents deposited in the Record Office, Stockholme.

28. We have dwelt thus on the career of Count Carl John Königsmarck because Horace Walpole and other chroniclers have fallen into the error of confounding him with his younger brother, Philip Christopher; and Horace Walpole even goes so far as to describe Philip Christopher, in his Reminiscences of the Court of George II., as the murderer of Thynne, which he certainly was not.

29. Published in Hanover, 1847, under the title of Der Hannoversche Hof.

30. The fact that Sophie Dorothea and Königsmarck were children together is proved by a reference to the Protocol of the judicial inquiry with regard to Fräulein von Knesebeck, tried before the Vice-Chancellor Hugo and Count Platen. In it appear these questions:—
“How long is it that the Count and the Princess have loved each other?” The answer was: “They have loved each other from childhood. The Countess Rens (? Reuss) has related to me that when they were yet children they loved.” “How old were they then?” “Nine or ten years.” “And they always loved each other?” “Yes, that was always so, and thus he came to this court to serve.”

31. Histoire Secrette de la Duchesse d’ Hanover, Épouse de Georges Premier, etc., said to be written by the Baron von Poellnitz. Published in French, London, 1732. This work is not trustworthy.

32. In King William’s chest was found a large bundle marked “The Electress Sophia’s correspondence with St. Germains”.

33. A doubt has been raised as to whether Königsmarck was ever in the army of Brunswick-Lüneburg at all, in consequence of the trouble which was taken subsequently to erase his name from all official documents of Hanover and Celle relating to the troops. But the doubt is settled by the auditor of his regiment, named Rudiger, in his evidence in the Secret Senate Chamber of Hanover on July 27, 1694. Rudiger stated he had served in a regiment of foot-guards commanded by Königsmarck in Flanders. He had also served in a regiment of dragoons in which Königsmarck held the same rank. This document may be found in the Archives of Saxony, Royal Courts of Justice, Dresden. The correspondence of Colt, sometime English envoy at Hanover, also (as we shall shortly show) contains reference to Königsmarck as holding a commission in the Hanoverian troops. This correspondence is in the State Paper Office, London.

34. The Duchess Sophia was the daughter of one Elector Palatine (the “Winter King” of Bohemia) and the sister of another.

35. Colt’s Despatch, Celle, July 19, 1689.

36. Colt’s Despatch, Hanover, July 26, 1689.

37. Ibid., Hanover, July 30, 1689.

38. Letter of De la Roque, July 26, 1689.

39. Thackeray calls her a “hideous old court lady”; on what authority I know not. She certainly was not old at that time, and far from hideous. There is a picture of her at Herrenhausen in a rich crimson robe, a fine voluptuous-looking woman, with black hair and an ample bust, just the sort of woman one would expect her to be. Curiously enough the picture hangs immediately beneath that of Königsmarck.

40. Poellnitz asserts that on receiving the Countess Platen’s compliments on his dancing at the ball, “Königsmarck comprit tout le sens de ces paroles, et la passion qu’il avoit pour la Princesse ne le rendit pas insensible aux avances d’une aussi belle personne que la Comtesse. Il lui répondit qu’il étoit confus des bontez qu’elle vouloit bien avoir pour lui qui le méritoit si peu, et que puisqu’elle lui permettoit de l’aller trouver le soir.... Königsmarck fut chez la Comtesse, qu’il trouva en deshabillé sur un lit de repos. Elle se leva et ayant laissé toute modestie, elle courut l’embrasser, en lui avoüant sa foiblesse et lui faisant voir tant de charmes, que Königsmarck ne se fit point scrupule de répondre à sa tendresse. Le jour étoit prêt à paroître quand il se retira chez lui. Il se jetta sur son lit pour y prendre quelque repos, mais ce fut en vain, et il se reprochoit continuellement d’avoir été sensible aux charmes de l’ennemie déclarée de la Princesse” (Histoire Secrette de la Duchesse d’Hanover, pp. 80-81).

41. “Every prince here keeps more troops than he can possibly maintain” (Colt’s Despatch, Hanover Correspondence, December 4, 1689).

42. Colt’s Despatch, Hanover, January 24, 1690.

43. Colt’s Despatch, January 28, 1690.

44. Ibid., Hanover, February 25, 1690.

45. Colt’s Despatch Celle, May 27, 1690.

46. The authority for this incident, and the episode of the embroidered glove which follows, may be traced either to the Roman Octavia, by Duke Antony Ulrich, or to the writings of Major Müller, who was for some time librarian to the late Duke of Cambridge, when Regent of Hanover, and who had free access to the Hanoverian archives. Count Schulenburg considered his writings worthy of credit, but I cannot vouch for their accuracy, though the inherent probability of these incidents justifies their insertion here.

47. Colt’s Hanover Correspondence, August 12, 1690.

48. Ibid., October 24, 1690.

49. Macaulay’s History of England, vol. iv., p. 7. Macaulay’s authority was Relation de la Voyage de son Majesté Britannique en Hollande (Brunet, ii., 72).

50. Colt’s Despatches, Locknam, June 10, 1691.

51. Ibid., Hanover.

52. Colt’s Despatch, Celle, May 8, 1691.

53. Ibid., Celle, May 22, 1691.

54. Ibid., Hanover.

55. This chapter is an interpolation dealing with the history and authenticity of the correspondence and does not affect the narrative.

56. Those published in this book are all from the collection at Lund. But many more (doubtless those seized by the Hanoverian Government) are stated to exist, unpublished, at Berlin and Gmünden.

57. In the Protocol of the trial of Fräulein Knesebeck, she states that she was commanded by the Princess always to return his own letters to Königsmarck, because she herself did not dare to keep them, nor did she think them safe even in the hands of Knesebeck.

58. Table showing the descent and ownership of the letters from the time Aurora Königsmarck gave them to her sister until the present day.

Amalie, Countess Lewenhaupt (née Königsmarck),

Count Charles Emil Lewenhaupt (her son),

Count Adam Lewenhaupt (his son),

Amalie Beata Baroness Ramel (his sister),

Countess Sparre (her daughter),

Countess de la Gardie (her daughter),

Count de la Gardie (her husband),

The University Library of Lund, 1848.

59. Fräulein Knesebeck in the Protocol of her trial expressly states that the Princess was able to write two different hands.

60. In this task I was aided by the fragment of a key to the cypher found with the letters at Lund.

61. This is an error, she was born in 1687.

62. Against the adverse opinion of these authorities may fairly be set Thackeray and Carlyle, who accept the letters as genuine. But, like Schaumann and Köcher, they never saw the originals.

63. The letter of Lassaye, quoted on pp. 73-74, affords an excellent illustration of this.

64. Colt’s Despatch, Celle, June 28/July 7, 1691.

65. Possibly Alt = Altkloster.

66. Wherever square brackets occur the matter is interpolated.

67. “Since my last, July 31, the Count Königsmarck is sent from Hanover with the ratification of the late Treaty to Hamburg, either to carry it to Sweden himself or send it thence.”—Colt’s Despatch, Celle, August 4, 1691.

68. Some lines of German doggerel which can only be rendered thus.

69. Colt’s Despatch, Brunswick, August 28, 1691.

70. Probably Prince Ernest Augustus, youngest son of the Duke of Hanover.

71. Here and elsewhere the writers are responsible for their French.

72. Prince Ernest Augustus.

73. The Count de Reuss was the uncle by marriage of Sophie Dorothea; he had married Angelica d’Olbreuse, sister of the Duchess of Celle.

74. I.e., the commands of the Princess.

75. Colt’s Despatch, October, 1691, Epsdorff.

76. Probably he refers to an appointment offered him by the King of Sweden.

77. A reference to their early friendship.

78. This is a reference to the fact that some of the Princess’s letters to him at this time were dictated by her only, and actually written by Knesebeck (La Confidente) to disarm suspicion. Some too she wrote in a disguised hand.

79. Colt’s Despatch, October 9
19, 1691.

80. Colt’s Despatch, November 19, 1691.

81. Troops were being sent to the Morea at this time, and Prince Christian, son of the Duke of Hanover, wished to go with them. He did not go.—Vide Colt’s despatches.

82. This is a literal rendering of Königsmarck’s French.

83. Grand Master of the Hunt.

84. Colt’s Despatch, Celle, December 8, 1691.

85. Colt’s Despatch, Hanover, January 5, 1692.

86. Ibid., January 8, 1692.

87. As, in point of fact, they did, George Augustus as George II. of Great Britain; Sophie Dorothea as Queen of Prussia, and mother of Frederick the Great.

88. “Baron Welling is come hither to prepare matters.”—Colt’s Despatch, Hanover, January, 1692.

89. The Princess-Dowager of East Friesland. “The two Princesses of East Frise [Friesland] arrived yesterday.”—Colt’s Despatch, Hanover, February 9, 1692.

90. The Princess of East Friesland.

91. “The Duke of Hanover hath sent all the women hither.”—Colt’s Despatch, Celle, February 23, 1692.

92. “The Duke of Celle hath at last given the new-raised regiment of Foot to the Count Lewenhaupt, a Swede, brother-in-law to Count Königsmarck, who commands a regiment of Hanover.”—Colt’s Despatch, January 22, 1692.

93. “The Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Eisenach are come hither.”—Colt’s Despatch, Celle, March 4, 1692.

94. Countess Platen.

95. Duke of Celle.

96. “The courts of Hanover and Saxe-Eisenach go from hence after to-morrow; there has been much company here for several days.”—Colt’s Despatch, Celle, March 8, 1692.

97. Colt’s Despatch, Hanover, April 15, 1692.

98. East Friesland. Colt sometimes calls her “Otfrise” too.

99. Count and Countess Lewenhaupt.

100. It is worthy of note that the same charge, boasting when he was in his cups, of his intimacy with the Princess was made against Königsmarck two years later (1694) at the court of Dresden.

101. This refers to Aurora von Königsmarck and the recent appointment of Count Lewenhaupt to a regiment of Celle.

102. Reinbek is a village close to Hamburg.

103. The letter concludes with many more expressions of devotion.

104. The Hanoverian troops were away about six months—June to late October.

105. For whom the Duchess Sophia wished the command of an English regiment, which he did not get.

106. Colt’s Despatches, Hanover, June 20, 1692.

107. This must have been another name for the Fräulein von Knesebeck, La Confidente.

108. I.e., with La Confidente.

109. La Gazelle may have been Countess Lewenhaupt (so called because of her gazelle-like eyes), whose husband was about to march with the Duke of Celle’s troops to Flanders.

110. “Count Bielke (a Swedish envoy), the most dangerous man in these parts... full of French designs.”—Vide Colt’s Despatches, June, 1692.

111. “According to that old Teutonic fashion with which Shakespeare has made his countrymen familiar, as often as any of the great princes proposed a health, the kettledrums and trumpets sounded.”—Macaulay’s History of England, vol. iv., p. 7.

112. Field-Marshal Heinrich von Podevils is spoken of in this correspondence as le bon ami, the good friend of Königsmarck and Sophie Dorothea; and indeed he was so. Marshal Podevils was born in 1615 in Pomerania, and took service in the Thirty Years War. His military talent was first discovered by the famous Duke Bernard of Saxe-Weimar. At the death of the Duke, Podevils entered the French Army, and advanced rapidly in honour, and, because of his good services, he was naturalised in France. But Podevils was a Huguenot, and, in consequence of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he left the French Army, and took service under Duke John Frederick of Hanover as Colonel-in-Chief of the Hanoverian Army. When Duke Ernest Augustus succeeded to the Duchy of Hanover he appointed Podevils successively General, Field-Marshal, President of the Council of War, and Governor of the Royal Palaces of Hanover. Podevils died at Hamburg in 1696, full of years and of honour. The fact that such a man was the true friend of Königsmarck, and thought highly of him, speaks much in Königsmarck’s favour.

113. Some lines are missing here.

114. The letter is torn off here. Doubtless the Princess is beginning to allude to Aurora’s intrigue with Count Bielke, mentioned in Königsmarck’s letter.

115. King William III. of England, commanding the allied armies.

116. This Bussche must not be confounded with Bussche who married Catherine Meisenbug (sister of Countess Platen), sometime the mistress of Prince George Louis. That Bussche died in 1688, and, as we have seen, his widow subsequently married General Weyhe. The Bussche above mentioned was a kinsman. He was subsequently president of the court which divorced the Princess Sophie Dorothea from the Electoral Prince.
A little later we find Colt also writing: “They have sent Monsieur Bussche, one of their privy councillors, to the Elector of Brandenburg, to press him to a speedy compliance with his former promise.”—Colt’s Despatches, Hanover, June 26, 1692.

117. For Brockhausen.

118. The Duke of Celle’s hunting-box at Brockhausen was very small, and, as the accommodation was insufficient, the Princess and her suite were lodged in a house hard by.

119. Prince Max was staying with the Duke of Celle for a time, who was trying to talk him to reason (vide Colt’s despatches). The Princess’s estimate of Prince Max’s character agreed in the main with that of Colt, who, speaking of his share in the Moltke plot, says: “Nor indeed was his [Prince Max’s own capacity very fit for it, though he is a very worthy gentleman, and much improved since he hath been at home these two years, having before lost his time by being too much delighted with the pleasures of Venice, where he had been in service five years.”

120. Marshal Jeremiah Chauvet was one of the Frenchmen whom the Duchess Eléonore brought in her train to the court of Celle. He was not of noble birth, but the son of a blacksmith in Lorraine. In 1670 the Duke of Celle advanced him to the rank of colonel, and he became successively major-general, general, and field-marshal.

121. Probably some court lady at Hanover.

122. They were probably special envoys, who had come to Hanover on business connected with the campaign against the Turks in the Morea, the intrigues concerning the Electorate, and other matters. Colt mentions that a Baron Eck came to the court of Hanover in June from the Elector of Saxony, and also a Baron Hasfelt “on his way to France”.

123. Prince George Louis, who had now joined the troops.

124. Here follow pages of reproaches and upbraidings.

125. Colt’s fête was given on Sunday, June 18.

126. “The extraordinary floods have kept the Duke from Celle.”—Colt’s Despatches, July 4, 1692.

127. “The Duke, since his return hither...”—Colt’s Despatches, Celle, July 11, 1692.

128. Aurora von Königsmarck.

129. Countess von Lewenhaupt.

130. Some Hanoverian courtier.

131. (?) The Countess Platen.

132. Prince George Louis, commanding the Hanoverian troops.

133. Ermengarda Melusina von Schulenburg, afterwards Duchess of Kendal, mistress of the Prince of Hanover.

134. This must refer to something in a missing letter.

135. I.e., to Brockhausen after the review, which was held on June 6, and, as we have seen, he did not return to Hanover for some days.

136. “The little man”—the Prince, who set forth for Flanders on the 15th (25th).

137. Colt’s party and the public rejoicings to celebrate the victory of La Hogue.

138. A nickname for one of the “foreigners”.

139. Perhaps to Herrenhausen.

140. I.e., went to her parents at Brockhausen. It is noteworthy that Hanover is not “home” to her.

141. Namur was besieged throughout the first weeks of June. The citadel fell about June 21.

142. “Moltke was executed on Monday, and the court has gone to Luisburg to be out of the way.”—Colt’s Despatches, Hanover, July 18, 1692. The Electress changed her mind.

143. La Sentinelle—one of the pseudonyms of the Fräulein von Knesebeck.

144. Probably the Elector of Bavaria.

145. Hans William Bentinck, first Earl of Portland and ancestor of the present Duke, accompanied William of Orange to England as confidential adviser, who created him Earl of Portland in 1689. He was in command of a regiment of Dutch Guards at the battle of the Boyne, and probably held the same commission in Flanders. Colt mentions in his despatches that Lord Portland was with King William at Brussels and during the campaign.

146. Colt’s Despatches, Celle, August, 1692.

147. “This Duke here is really very much troubled for the loss of his troops in the late action.”—Colt’s Despatch, Celle, August 5, 1692.

148. Le Barbouilleur, the scribbler, the spoiler of paper. He must have been some one holding high office at the court of Hanover.

149. Charles Lennox, illegitimate son of King Charles II. by Louise de Querouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, was created Duke of Richmond in 1675, and is ancestor of the present Duke. He was born in 1672, and would therefore be in his twenty-first year at this time.

150. In view of subsequent events this is almost prophetic.

151. Bull-baiting was a popular pastime in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, patronised by royalty and persons of rank. Queen Elizabeth gave one in honour of the French ambassadors in 1559, and the Queen and the ambassadors greatly enjoyed “the sport”. This barbarous pastime was also practised as late as the reign of Queen Anne, and was very popular, too, in market towns and rural villages. But these bull-baitings drew such a mob of low and dissipated persons together that they were at last abolished in the interests of the public peace.

152. Two beauties of Brussels.

153. This anecdote is unfit for publication.

154. Ferdi, i.e., Ferdinand, the favourite musician of the Electress of Brandenburg, a violinist.

155. “This court will the next week remove from hence: the Duke to follow his hunting, and the Duchess goes to Wiesbaden, near Mayence, for her health.”—Colt’s Despatch, Celle, August 5, 1692.

156. The Countess Aurora, who was then at Hanover. Many of the letters passed through her hands, though they were sometimes sent direct.

157. “The Electress of Brandenburg is passing by here on her way to Luisburg, where the Hanoverian court is at a country house.”—Colt’s Despatch, Celle, August 12, 1692.

158. Eimbeck, a little town on the road, in Grubenhagen.

159. La Marionette was a German princess, probably a princess of Hesse. The mention of her brother being “with the army” refers not to the campaign in Flanders, but to the fact that on the Upper Rhine, and along the frontier which separates France from Piedmont, there was a desultory war being carried on in connection with the Palatinate. The letters mentioned are two, one from La Marionette, commending her brother to the Princess and expressing a hope of meeting at the Frankfort fair, and the letter enclosed from her brother, containing extravagant expressions of his admiration of Sophie Dorothea.

160. “Just now we have the news that the Electress of Brandenburg doth not come so soon as she intended, all things having been provided for her.”—Colt’s Despatch, Celle, August 12, 1692.

161. This may have some reference to Moltke’s plot, in connection with which Duchess Sophia was examined by the Cabinet. Vide Colt’s Despatch, August 29, 1692: “The Duchess of Hanover hath been examined in several articles before the Duke and his Council”.

162. Ferdinand was the Electress of Brandenburg’s violinist. She took him with her wherever she went and treated him with marked favour. But she was passionately fond of music, and we need not therefore accept Königsmarck’s construction of the intimacy, which, however, agrees with the common scandal of the court of Berlin at that time.

163. The beginning of this letter is missing.

164. Colt mentions that the Duke of Celle was at Epsdorff (vide Despatch, September 15, 1692); and he was also there on October 7. On the 10th he went to Göhre.

165. Evidently in answer to the Princess’s letter of August 24/September 3.

166. Another reference to their early friendship at Celle.

167. Most probably Prince Henry Casimir of Nassau-Dietz, Hereditary Governor of Friesland, and nephew of William of Orange.

168. This marriage has been alluded to before—in 1691.

169. The mission to Sweden; he went no farther than Hamburg.

170. A Swedish noble of high rank, sometime envoy at Hanover. This letter is very characteristic, and undoubtedly shows that Königsmarck had made sacrifices of his worldly prospects to be near the object of his devotion. But it was hardly generous of him to remind the Princess of it, even indirectly, for she had made a much greater sacrifice for him.

171. Königsmarck to the Princess, Ghent, September 11
21;

172. Colt’s Despatch, Hanover, September 27, 1692.

173. At the Duke of Celle’s hunting-seats of Epsdorff and Göhre. In his Despatch, September 30, 1692, Colt mentions that the “Elector of Brandenburg has gone home and that the Duke of Hanover is with his brother, hunting”.

174. The end of this letter is not to be found.

175. The Prince of Hanover had returned from the campaign to Luisburg.

176. The Duke evidently thought the Countess Aurora was coming to Hanover for the carnival in the winter.

177. Countess Platen.

178. Contemporary evidence of the quarrel between Countess Platen and Aurora is given in a letter of the Electress Sophia, published in Cramer’s Memorials of the Countess Königsmarck.

179. Colt’s Despatch, Göhre, October 17: “We have just heard the welcome news that the French have failed in their design on Charleroy; they were for the most part sure here that Charleroy must be taken”.

180. The King of Sweden was threatening to confiscate his estates.

182. This is not quite fair, for the Electress of Brandenburg never attached herself to one man in particular and her numerous friendships were most of them intellectual.

181. Another visit to Lützenburg, near Berlin; this was deferred for a time (Colt’s Despatch).

183. Colt’s Despatch, Celle, November 1, 1692.

184. The visit to the Elector of Brandenburg at Berlin and the Electoral investiture at Vienna by the Emperor.

185. The journey to Berlin was postponed (vide Colt’s Despatch, November 18).

186. La Dondon, the plump woman, a lady-in-waiting.

187. “Pauvre enfant! Que ne souffrez-vous point! Suer, se faire frotter, sans avoir de mal c’en est trop.” Apparently a seventeenth-century form of massage.

188. La Rose was the court physician.

189. Colt’s Despatch, December 20, 1692.

190. By permission.

191. The Duchess Sophia, henceforth known as the Electress, and Duke Ernest Augustus as the Elector.

192. This refers to the second cypher—in numbers.

193. The French envoy.

194. The key to this cypher is lost.

195. For the campaign in Flanders, June, 1692.

196. But meantime the Princess had gone again to her parents at Brockhausen.

197. This letter of the Princess is missing; it must have referred to some accident after their meeting.

198. The letters must have crossed.

199. 110, probably some courtier at Hanover, but the key is missing. (? Sitardie.)

200. I cannot find the key to these numbers in the cypher.

201. Buccow (Le Bâtard), the illegitimate son of the Duke of Celle.

202. This number cannot be traced; it must be some court lady at Hanover.

203. The little Princess Sophie Dorothea and Prince George Augustus. This and the following letter contain the only mention of the Princess’s children throughout the correspondence.

204. “Monsieur Pless, who formerly belonged to the Prince of Denmark.”—Vide Colt’s Despatches.

205. Count Steinburg (or Steinbock) was an Imperial envoy, who was probably at Hanover trying to arrange matters about the Danes on the part of the Emperor. Colt mentions him a little later as being in the Palatinate on a similar mission.

206. Lady Colt, who lived at Celle, was Sir William Dutton Colt’s second wife. The only child of this second marriage, Leonora Sophia, was born at Celle, and the Electress Sophia and the Duchess of Celle stood as her godmothers. One of her descendants is Mr. N. Bond, to whom I am indebted for this information.

207. Countess Platen’s daughter, Charlotte Sophia, who afterwards became Madame Kilmansegge and accompanied George I. to England, where she was created Countess of Darlington.

208. A fragment of this letter relating to the Princess’s marriage settlement is quoted (in the original French) by Palmblad in his Aurora Königsmarck, and Dr. Köcher has seized on it as an inaccuracy which goes to prove that the letters are not genuine. Yet it is substantially correct. The Duke of Celle was undoubtedly beguiled into a marriage contract most unfavourable to his daughter. He gave her a marriage portion of one hundred thousand thalers and the estates already settled on her. The hundred thousand thalers promptly went into the Hanoverian coffers (there was no Married Woman’s Property Act in those days). The estates were not disposed of so easily. If no son were born, these estates, particularly the lordship of Wilhelmsburg, were to remain the Princess’s; and should the Prince die before his consort, this property and all its revenues were to revert to his widow, and her children could only inherit them after her death, and, as a widow, the Princess was to be entitled to a dower of twelve thousand thalers. But the Princess had a son, Prince George Augustus, and so these estates were locked up; she could not realise them or raise money on them in any way. She was not likely to become a widow (however devoutly she might hope for that consummation), and so she was penniless, with nothing of her own save the allowance the Elector of Hanover thought fit to dole out to her for her dress and petty expenses. Her father, of course, might subsidise her occasionally, but that was merely a matter of his good-will. Hence her efforts to obtain a sufficient sum to enable her to set up a separate establishment and be independent. In this, as in other things, the evidence is all in favour of the absolute genuineness of these letters.

209. The seventh in our liturgy.

210. Here we have another proof of the authenticity of the letters. Königsmarck’s account of the sending of the Danish Commissioner Bülow is in complete agreement with that given by the Electress Sophia in her letters now preserved in the Prussian National Archives. The sending of Bülow is mentioned nowhere else.

211. He was ill, but there is no need to quote his detailed description of his illness.

212. This must refer to a visit Sophie Dorothea was going to make to the Electress of Brandenburg at Lützenburg. The Electress was probably staying at Hanover and Sophie Dorothea was returning with her to Lützenburg.

213. Probably Ferdinand, the favourite violinist of the Electress of Brandenburg.

214. Cresset’s Despatches, Celle, March 20, 1694. Prince Max subsequently became a Roman Catholic and Jacobite, and died in open rebellion against his elder brother (George I.) in 1726.

215. Schaumann is my authority for this statement. The Elector’s illness is not mentioned in the English envoy’s despatches.

216. This lady, Charlotte Sophia, the young Countess Platen referred to once or twice in the correspondence, was said to be the daughter of Countess Platen by the Elector Ernest Augustus. She married, later, Baron Kielmansegge, Master of the Horse, and accompanied George I. to England. On the death of her husband George I. raised her to the rank of Countess of Darlington. There is evidence to show that George I. recognised the kinship between him and Lady Darlington, but she was generally supposed to be his mistress. The precise relationship must always remain a mystery.

217. Stepney’s Despatches, Dresden, May 18
28, 1694, State Paper Office, “Foreign Papers,” Germany.

218. Stepney’s Despatches, Dresden, May 29/June 8, 1694.

219. Many chroniclers have puzzled their heads to reconcile these two facts, but the question is absolutely set at rest by the despatches of Stepney, which are now published for the first time in this book. They will be quoted later, and show quite clearly that Königsmarck was major-general in the Saxon army at the same time that he was a colonel in the Hanoverian service.

220. Cresset’s Despatches, Celle.

221. The Princess asserted later that this note was not hers at all; it was a forgery written by the Countess Platen as a snare, and she was greatly surprised when Königsmarck appeared and showed her the note. She gave it back to him saying that she had not written it. Knesebeck, on the other hand, in her statement asserts that the Princess had appointed to meet Königsmarck. It is therefore impossible to credit the poor Princess’s denial, which was natural enough under the circumstances, but cannot be believed. If she had not expected Königsmarck, how came he to be admitted to her chamber at that hour of the night?

222. From this point to the end of the chapter a curtain of impenetrable darkness descends and no gleam of light can be gathered from historical documents. All the English envoy’s despatches which might contain reference to the tragedy are destroyed. The account which follows is built upon the Roman Octavia by Duke Antony Ulrich of Wolfenbüttel; Cramer’s Memoirs of Aurora von Königsmarck, a work which contains many genuine documents and some spurious ones; Schulenburg’s Herzogin von Ahlden, a critical, honest and painstaking book, and Müller’s Sophia Dorothea, a work which, though not trustworthy, compels consideration from the fact that the author was private secretary to the late Duke of Cambridge when Regent of Hanover, and had access to the Guelph domestic papers. Moreover this account of the catastrophe is the one that gained acceptance at European courts and is supported by tradition.

223. I visited the scene of the murder in 1898. This chimneypiece still remains, elaborately carved and wrought, a splendid monument of masonry. The rittersaal, too, has little changed, except that it was redecorated in the early part of this century. The long corridor has been laid down with parquet, but the attendants show the spot where the murder was committed.

224. Of these halberdiers little is known. One was named Bushmann, and is said to have made a confession on his deathbed to a priest named Cramer of his part in the murder. He is said to have been so badly wounded in the struggle by Königsmarck that he could do nothing for six weeks, but the authority for this statement is doubtful. Local tradition gives the name of another of these men as Luders, who, from the date of the crime, became the owner of an estate given him by the Hanoverian government. His descendants until recently lived at Hanover, and may be living there still for aught I know, and are well-to-do people. Some information of both these men is given in Cramer’s book on Aurora Königsmarck.

225. Cresset’s Despatch, Celle, July 3, 1694.

226. We have the following evidence of how a portion of them were rescued, even at the eleventh hour. In the Memoirs of Countess [Aurora] Königsmarck, Auditeur Rüdiger, a confidant of Königsmarck’s, states that Metsch, one of the intermediaries employed by the lovers in their secret correspondence, was with Secretary Hildebrand after Königsmarck’s disappearance on July 1. Hildebrand asked him if he knew of any letters that might incriminate the Count. “As I answered in the affirmative,” proceeds Rüdiger’s statement, “and added I had seen a packet of letters in the small box on the Dresden journey, tied together with a yellow ribbon, of which the Count took especial care, the secretary requested me to take the box with me to my room and when the packing up was done to send it unopened by the lackey Mickel to Celle.” Aurora and her sister we know were at Celle soon after, and we are justified in surmising that these letters reached them by the hand of some trustworthy person, and thus ultimately came to hand with the other letters.

227. Stepney to Blathwayt, Dresden Despatch, July 10
20, 1694.

228. The Magazine of the Historical Association for Lower Saxony, 1879, p. 65.

229. Communication of Bernstorff at the Conference of Engesen, August 5, 1694.

230. Vide Article in Magazine for Lower Saxony, 1879.

231. Stepney to Cresset, Dresden Despatch, July 24/August 3, 1694.

232. Stepney’s Despatch, Dresden, August 14
24, 1694.

233. Stepney to Blathwayt, Dresden, August 17
27, 1694.

234. Stepney to Blathwayt, Dresden, August 21
31, 1694.

235. Yet Köcher knew that letters did exist, for he quotes himself the testimony of Leibniz: “They would never have thought her so guilty at Celle had not her letters been produced” (Hist. Zeitschrift, vol. xlviii., p. 233).

236. Cresset’s Despatch, August 14, 1694. The letter which Cresset mentions as being about to write to the Duke of Shrewsbury is not preserved in the State Paper Office, nor indeed are any letters of his at this time, save a few fragments probably overlooked, which have been quoted here. There is nothing bearing on the Princess or Königsmarck. As the English envoy’s correspondence is voluminous just before and just after the catastrophe, these letters have been doubtless suppressed purposely: it is a pity, as they would have thrown great light on this vexed question.

237. Some of these letters are probably those now at Berlin; others probably at Gmünden.

238. But Sophie Dorothea thought she would be allowed to see her children occasionally after the divorce. She had no idea that her retirement involved perpetual imprisonment.

239. “The Carnaval here is very provoking, but they cannot live without it; they are a sort of people that can rejoice even in their own disgraces.”—Cresset’s Despatch, Hanover, January 11, 1695.

240. “The unlucky Princess is still in this country and they talk of removing her suddenly into her father’s territory.”—Knatchbull’s (secretary to Cresset) Despatch, Hanover, February 22, 1695.

241. Lord Hervey’s Memoirs, vol. ii.

242. The next in blood, after the children of James II., was the Duchess of Savoy, daughter of Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans (a daughter of Charles I.), and then the family of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia (daughter of James I.); but all these, save the Electress Sophia, were Roman Catholics. It is interesting to note that the lineal descendant of Charles I., through the Duchess of Savoy, is Mary, Consort of Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, eldest son of the Prince Regent and heir-presumptive to the throne of Bavaria.

243. The letter dated September 20, 1702, is said to be in the State Paper Office, but I cannot find it, though mention is made by Cresset of a letter from the Duchess of Celle to Queen Anne, and he writes to the Foreign Minister at home for an answer.

244. Poley’s Despatch, Hanover, August 18, 1705.

245. Poley’s Despatch, Hanover, July 21, 1705.

246. Still preserved in the State Paper Office. “Called Mr. Poley’s account of the House of Brunswick, etc., upon his return from being Her Majesty’s envoy at Hanover, November 9, 1705.”

247. He created her Countess of Darlington, and in the patent of her peerage, which by the courtesy of Count Kielmansegg I have been permitted to see at Gülzow, the words “dilectam consanguineam nostram” appear.

248. It is probable that the Queen of Prussia knew also of her mother’s mistakes, for the letters which passed between Sophie and Königsmarck, now in the Berlin archives, are supposed to have been sent to Berlin from Hanover to prejudice the Queen against the prisoner of Ahlden.

249. Walpole’s Reminiscences.

250. Lord Hervey’s Memoirs.

---

2.36	But, Mons[e]igneur	Inserted.
11.42	Geo[gr/rg]e William was glad	Transposed.
79.18	To do E[r]mengarda Melusina justice	Inserted.
124.5	K[o/ö]nigsmarck’s	Replaced.
124.40	Fr[aü/äu]lein Knesebeck	Replaced.
146.36	Epsdorff and Göhre[.]	Added.
162.8	K[o/ö]nigsmarck	Replaced.
162.17	to have sounded K[o/ö]nigsmarck	Replaced.
162.40	K[o/ö]nigsmarck	Replaced.
225.20	you wrote from Eimbeck[.]	Added.
269.20	the end of the week for Brockhausen.[’/”]	Replaced.
315.18	Let us taste its delights.[”/’]	Replaced.
448.8	Crossing the [r/R]ubicon	Replaced.
448.39	Duke of Brunswick[-]Lüneburg	Added.
449.42	Meissenbu[r]g, Count Carl Philip von, 30	Inserted.