This biography, whose title says "Sophie Charlotte: Preußens erste Königin", is actually more the biography of two women, Sophie of Hannover and her daughter Sophie Charlotte. Partly because Sophie lived a far longer life - including outliving her daughter, who died at only 36 years of age - but also because Sophie left snarky memoirs and lots and lots of letters, whereas many of Sophie Charlotte's personal letters, aside of her correspondance with Leipniz, got disappeared over the years, which means we have a far more detailed picture of the first of the triad whom one historian refered to as "the three great Hannover Sophies" (the third one is of course SD).
Sophie the first was the daughter of Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen, daughter of James VI and I., and the sole reason why a lot of Germans ended up on the throne of England thereafter. I did actually read her memoirs a long time ago, and they are pretty entertaining, because Sophie is evenly sarcastic about the men in her life, including cousin Charles the later II, whom she met when he was penniless and in exile, and it went thusly:
Charles (with fare more finesse, but this is what he meant): I need cash. You're an heiress. How about it, Cousin? Sophie: Nope. You're nice to flirt with, but no more. Charles: Okay, but can you at least take a public stroll or two with me? Because then my creditors will be believe we're a match and will prolong my credit. Sophie:.... I suppose.
She next got seriously entangled with the Hannover brothers. The older, one Georg Wilhelm, showed interest in the cash, the younger, Ernst August, in Sophie herself. Georg Wilhelm when they were already engaged then suddenly had this to say:
GW: Sorry, Soph. I got syphilis and want to spend my remaining years in debauchery in Venice. Would you mind taking my younger brother? I promise I won't screw you over and marry smeone else at the last minute. He'll totally be my heir.
Sophie: Gladly. EA: *is charming the frst few years, does become the heir, but then* Soph, seeing as we still have Big Bro's former palace in Venice, I think we should use it. And when I say we I mean I. From this moment on, I'll spend five to six months a year debauching myself in Venice. Have fun ruling Hannover in the meantime!
Sophie: Men suck. I've decided to become the matriarch of Europe instead. Starting with co-raising my brother's kid Elisabeth Charlotte, aka Liselotte, whom I'll marry off to the Sun King's brother. I'm the main recipient of all her letters. Also, I'm encouraging the arts and starting a relationship with Leipniz which my daughter will later partake in. My daughter, btw, is also the goddaughter of Liselotte, who refers to her as "mein Patchen" in her letters.
Friedrich the not yet numbered: I'm the third son of the Great Elector of Brandenburg, coming through Hannover with my first beloved wife because Dad married my beastly stepmother and she's been poisoning my other full brothers. Setting a precedent for a crown prince getting out of the country without asking Dad first and on really bad terms with same. Hi, Hannover folk! Can I crash at your place for a while?
Sophie: Sure. Mind supporting my husband's plea with the Emperor to make him Prince Elector instead of just Duke of Hannover?
Friedrich: You're on.
Friedrich: *gets home after his father has given a guarantee he won't get murdered*
Lieselotte: Ma tante, how about you and mein Patchen visit me in France? She's hitting puberty, and I'm thinking...
Sophie: Hannover/France match the second? Maybe the Dauphin for my little Figuelotte (nickname for Sophie Charlotte)? You're on!
Maria Theresa, wife of Louis XIV: *dies*
Sophie: Or I could marry her to the Sun King himself.
Madame de Maintenon: No way. I have first dibs there. Begone, German relations of Madame! You shall never enter Versailles again.
Sophie: Ah well. Hang on, what's this I hear from Brandenburg? Young Friedrich's wife has died? Young Friedrich who still owes me, big time? Your highness, pray visit us again so we can comfort you in your grief. My daughter is now sixteen.
Friedrich: Barbara Beuys likes me way more than my grandson did and writes me as a woobie whose father never truly loved him because of my humpback. I've taken to the Hannover crowd as a replacement family like a duck to water.
Friedrich: *proposes*
Sophie Charlotte: *becomes Mrs. Kurprinz*
Barbara Beuys: Now, I know you heard the tales of how he loved her but she didn't love him and made fun of him, but listen, those are mostly told by the bitchy French ambassador and I don't think they are true. They did, however, have some obstacles at first. Two dead babies in a row, and also when his father died and Friedrich became Prince Elector, his former steward Danckelmann became PM and became the enemy of Sophie Charlotte, fearing she'd push Hannover interests above Prussian ones.
Selenak: I'm having a strange sense of deja vue.
Sophie Charlotte: *gives birth to Tiny Terror FW, who survives unlike the first two babies*
Universal rejoicing: *happens* (Not an emotion FW would evoke much in future years)
Leipniz: Want to become pen pals with me as well, your highness? I'm looking for a second patron and also I dig you, and will forever describe you as both the most beautiful and most smart woman of Europe
Leipniz: has to make two vain attempts before succeeding with his third letter, because Sophie Charlotte is busy changing Berlin into Athens on the Spree
Henritte von Pöllnitz: I'm Sophie Charlotte's right hand woman. I never marry and we're bffs; I write operas and masques for most court celebrations and hire and fire artists. No, Barbara Beuys does not mention how I am related to chatty writer Pöllnitz. But I'm way more discreet. SC tells me everything but I destroy nearly all of her letters after her death.
Peter the not yet Great: I'm making my first undercover visit to Europe at age 25, and spend a nice evening with Sophie, Sophie Charlotte and Henriette von Pöllnitz. They all agree I'm not a barbarian at all.
Sophie Charlotte: Speaking of, good lord. I just visited my kid, and that steward sucks beyond the telling of it. Husband, we need to appoint someone else pronto.
Friedrich: But Danckelmann said...
Sophie Charlotte: Listen, you just asked Mom to support you when you're about to petition the Emperor to make you King in Prussia. I'm just saying.
Friedrich: Danckelmann, you may retire. Sophie Charlotte, appoint whom you see fit. Wartensleben, want to become my new PM?
Wartensleben: Sure thing. How about you make my wife the official mistress?
Friedrich: I actually love my wife.
Wartensleben: You're going to be a King, and every King has a mistress. Trust me on this.
Friedrich: Frau von Wartensleben, you're now my official mistress. We don't need to have sex, do we?
Frau von Wartensleben: As long as your wife receives me in public, and my husband gets lots of cash, I'm fine with anything.
Friedrich: Are you cool with this as well, beloved wife?
Sophie Charlotte: As long as I get all the money I want for project "Make Berlin Athens".
Sophie Charlotte: makes Tiny Terror FW dance ballet at a cour masque; he dances Cupid*
Grandma Sophie: Awwwwww.
Barbara Beuys: Yeah, yeah, I know all the stories about the angry temper tantrums he threw as a child. I'm just saying that Sophie in her letters is totally melting at the adorableness of her grandson. Maybe both was true and he wasn't Tiny Terror all the time but also Little Cherub FW?
Selenak: Or maybe he decided to hate ballet for the rest of his life after having to dance in front of everyone as Cupid.
Sophie Charlotte: I support artists and philosophers like no one's business and gift my son with the new besteller by Fènelon, Telemaque, about how to be a compassionate, art-loving ruler. Mom, I'm totally optimistic about the future here! And moving on with the program "Making my kid love the arts", I'm now having him portrayed as young David. This is my favourite portrait of him:
Barbara Beuys: Nazi era biographer C. Hinrich called my girl Sophie Charlotte a narcissist who only loved her son as an extension of herself, and went on about how lucky he was to develop ethics and moral seriousness anyway, but I say bollocks to this. She did love her son and did her best to shape him into a tolerant, enlightened guy. Not her fault it didn't work out this way. Also the few surviving letters between them are affectionate. Though Grandma Sophie at some point stopped going awwww about her grandson, which is interesting.
Sophie: *to third party* Grandson FW is healthy. His father adores him.
Beuys: Note the "his father". Just a few years earlier, she adored him as well.
Sophie: Incidentally, I had news from England. Since cousin Anne is evidently not going to produce any more living kids, parliament has decided I'm the next Protestant heir. Now I doubt I'll survive her, seeing as I am a generation older, but my son Georg Ludwig is definitely going to be King now. Two of my kids with crowns! I'm so pleased. Granddaughter Sophia Dorothea, that's a goal to aspire to.
Sophie Charlotte: My foster daughter Caroline is about to get married. HabsburgCharles is an option, but you know: not sure becoming a Habsburg is going to make her happy. That family is a) so feudal, and b) so fanatically religious. Look, I'm not a hardcore Protestant; I'd have converted to marry the old Sun King, for example. But all those rosaries and the thought of the inquisition freak me out. Don't do it, Caroline. Take my Hannover nephew instead.
Barbara Beuys: No comment on FW as an option for Caroline from me. If you didn't now already he was, you wouldn't learn it here.
Leipniz: Let me tell you all about why this is a time to be optimistic, your majesty. We live in the best of all possible worlds.
Sophie Charlotte: I agree, but I also feel I have a cold. *coughs*
Sophie Charlotte: *dies after a short illness at age 36*
Friedrich: My heart is broken.
Sophie: Ditto.
Sophie: Though I'm also thinking... how about your son FW marries my boy Georg Ludwig's daughter SD? Then you'd have a Hannover royal at court again!
Friedrich: This is a wonderful idea. Let's do that at once.
Final comment: it's a readable book, but the supposedly central character remains surprisingly opaque, compared with everyone else. Also, while I'm perfectly willing to believe some of the anecdotes presenting Sophie Charlotte as disdainful of her husband aren‘t true, I'd like a reason given why Beuys is suspicious of the envoy report there, say, because "the surviving letters are respectful and affectionate" alone isn't it. I want something like Koser making mince meat out of Henri de Catt, preferably. Anyway: that was the life that was.
All About Grandma: Barbara Beuys: Sophie Charlotte
Sophie the first was the daughter of Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen, daughter of James VI and I., and the sole reason why a lot of Germans ended up on the throne of England thereafter. I did actually read her memoirs a long time ago, and they are pretty entertaining, because Sophie is evenly sarcastic about the men in her life, including cousin Charles the later II, whom she met when he was penniless and in exile, and it went thusly:
Charles (with fare more finesse, but this is what he meant): I need cash. You're an heiress. How about it, Cousin?
Sophie: Nope. You're nice to flirt with, but no more.
Charles: Okay, but can you at least take a public stroll or two with me? Because then my creditors will be believe we're a match and will prolong my credit.
Sophie:.... I suppose.
She next got seriously entangled with the Hannover brothers. The older, one Georg Wilhelm, showed interest in the cash, the younger, Ernst August, in Sophie herself. Georg Wilhelm when they were already engaged then suddenly had this to say:
GW: Sorry, Soph. I got syphilis and want to spend my remaining years in debauchery in Venice. Would you mind taking my younger brother? I promise I won't screw you over and marry smeone else at the last minute. He'll totally be my heir.
Sophie: Gladly.
EA: *is charming the frst few years, does become the heir, but then* Soph, seeing as we still have Big Bro's former palace in Venice, I think we should use it. And when I say we I mean I. From this moment on, I'll spend five to six months a year debauching myself in Venice. Have fun ruling Hannover in the meantime!
Sophie: Men suck. I've decided to become the matriarch of Europe instead. Starting with co-raising my brother's kid Elisabeth Charlotte, aka Liselotte, whom I'll marry off to the Sun King's brother. I'm the main recipient of all her letters. Also, I'm encouraging the arts and starting a relationship with Leipniz which my daughter will later partake in. My daughter, btw, is also the goddaughter of Liselotte, who refers to her as "mein Patchen" in her letters.
Friedrich the not yet numbered: I'm the third son of the Great Elector of Brandenburg, coming through Hannover with my first beloved wife because Dad married my beastly stepmother and she's been poisoning my other full brothers. Setting a precedent for a crown prince getting out of the country without asking Dad first and on really bad terms with same. Hi, Hannover folk! Can I crash at your place for a while?
Sophie: Sure. Mind supporting my husband's plea with the Emperor to make him Prince Elector instead of just Duke of Hannover?
Friedrich: You're on.
Friedrich: *gets home after his father has given a guarantee he won't get murdered*
Lieselotte: Ma tante, how about you and mein Patchen visit me in France? She's hitting puberty, and I'm thinking...
Sophie: Hannover/France match the second? Maybe the Dauphin for my little Figuelotte (nickname for Sophie Charlotte)? You're on!
Maria Theresa, wife of Louis XIV: *dies*
Sophie: Or I could marry her to the Sun King himself.
Madame de Maintenon: No way. I have first dibs there. Begone, German relations of Madame! You shall never enter Versailles again.
Sophie: Ah well. Hang on, what's this I hear from Brandenburg? Young Friedrich's wife has died? Young Friedrich who still owes me, big time? Your highness, pray visit us again so we can comfort you in your grief. My daughter is now sixteen.
Friedrich: Barbara Beuys likes me way more than my grandson did and writes me as a woobie whose father never truly loved him because of my humpback. I've taken to the Hannover crowd as a replacement family like a duck to water.
Friedrich: *proposes*
Sophie Charlotte: *becomes Mrs. Kurprinz*
Barbara Beuys: Now, I know you heard the tales of how he loved her but she didn't love him and made fun of him, but listen, those are mostly told by the bitchy French ambassador and I don't think they are true. They did, however, have some obstacles at first. Two dead babies in a row, and also when his father died and Friedrich became Prince Elector, his former steward Danckelmann became PM and became the enemy of Sophie Charlotte, fearing she'd push Hannover interests above Prussian ones.
Selenak: I'm having a strange sense of deja vue.
Sophie Charlotte: *gives birth to Tiny Terror FW, who survives unlike the first two babies*
Universal rejoicing: *happens* (Not an emotion FW would evoke much in future years)
Leipniz: Want to become pen pals with me as well, your highness? I'm looking for a second patron and also I dig you, and will forever describe you as both the most beautiful and most smart woman of Europe
Leipniz: has to make two vain attempts before succeeding with his third letter, because Sophie Charlotte is busy changing Berlin into Athens on the Spree
Henritte von Pöllnitz: I'm Sophie Charlotte's right hand woman. I never marry and we're bffs; I write operas and masques for most court celebrations and hire and fire artists. No, Barbara Beuys does not mention how I am related to chatty writer Pöllnitz. But I'm way more discreet. SC tells me everything but I destroy nearly all of her letters after her death.
Peter the not yet Great: I'm making my first undercover visit to Europe at age 25, and spend a nice evening with Sophie, Sophie Charlotte and Henriette von Pöllnitz. They all agree I'm not a barbarian at all.
Sophie Charlotte: Speaking of, good lord. I just visited my kid, and that steward sucks beyond the telling of it. Husband, we need to appoint someone else pronto.
Friedrich: But Danckelmann said...
Sophie Charlotte: Listen, you just asked Mom to support you when you're about to petition the Emperor to make you King in Prussia. I'm just saying.
Friedrich: Danckelmann, you may retire. Sophie Charlotte, appoint whom you see fit. Wartensleben, want to become my new PM?
Wartensleben: Sure thing. How about you make my wife the official mistress?
Friedrich: I actually love my wife.
Wartensleben: You're going to be a King, and every King has a mistress. Trust me on this.
Friedrich: Frau von Wartensleben, you're now my official mistress. We don't need to have sex, do we?
Frau von Wartensleben: As long as your wife receives me in public, and my husband gets lots of cash, I'm fine with anything.
Friedrich: Are you cool with this as well, beloved wife?
Sophie Charlotte: As long as I get all the money I want for project "Make Berlin Athens".
Sophie Charlotte: makes Tiny Terror FW dance ballet at a cour masque; he dances Cupid*
Grandma Sophie: Awwwwww.
Barbara Beuys: Yeah, yeah, I know all the stories about the angry temper tantrums he threw as a child. I'm just saying that Sophie in her letters is totally melting at the adorableness of her grandson. Maybe both was true and he wasn't Tiny Terror all the time but also Little Cherub FW?
Selenak: Or maybe he decided to hate ballet for the rest of his life after having to dance in front of everyone as Cupid.
Sophie Charlotte: I support artists and philosophers like no one's business and gift my son with the new besteller by Fènelon, Telemaque, about how to be a compassionate, art-loving ruler. Mom, I'm totally optimistic about the future here! And moving on with the program "Making my kid love the arts", I'm now having him portrayed as young David. This is my favourite portrait of him:
Barbara Beuys: Nazi era biographer C. Hinrich called my girl Sophie Charlotte a narcissist who only loved her son as an extension of herself, and went on about how lucky he was to develop ethics and moral seriousness anyway, but I say bollocks to this. She did love her son and did her best to shape him into a tolerant, enlightened guy. Not her fault it didn't work out this way. Also the few surviving letters between them are affectionate. Though Grandma Sophie at some point stopped going awwww about her grandson, which is interesting.
Sophie: *to third party* Grandson FW is healthy. His father adores him.
Beuys: Note the "his father". Just a few years earlier, she adored him as well.
Sophie: Incidentally, I had news from England. Since cousin Anne is evidently not going to produce any more living kids, parliament has decided I'm the next Protestant heir. Now I doubt I'll survive her, seeing as I am a generation older, but my son Georg Ludwig is definitely going to be King now. Two of my kids with crowns! I'm so pleased. Granddaughter Sophia Dorothea, that's a goal to aspire to.
Sophie Charlotte: My foster daughter Caroline is about to get married. HabsburgCharles is an option, but you know: not sure becoming a Habsburg is going to make her happy. That family is a) so feudal, and b) so fanatically religious. Look, I'm not a hardcore Protestant; I'd have converted to marry the old Sun King, for example. But all those rosaries and the thought of the inquisition freak me out. Don't do it, Caroline. Take my Hannover nephew instead.
Barbara Beuys: No comment on FW as an option for Caroline from me. If you didn't now already he was, you wouldn't learn it here.
Leipniz: Let me tell you all about why this is a time to be optimistic, your majesty. We live in the best of all possible worlds.
Sophie Charlotte: I agree, but I also feel I have a cold. *coughs*
Sophie Charlotte: *dies after a short illness at age 36*
Friedrich: My heart is broken.
Sophie: Ditto.
Sophie: Though I'm also thinking... how about your son FW marries my boy Georg Ludwig's daughter SD? Then you'd have a Hannover royal at court again!
Friedrich: This is a wonderful idea. Let's do that at once.
Final comment: it's a readable book, but the supposedly central character remains surprisingly opaque, compared with everyone else. Also, while I'm perfectly willing to believe some of the anecdotes presenting Sophie Charlotte as disdainful of her husband aren‘t true, I'd like a reason given why Beuys is suspicious of the envoy report there, say, because "the surviving letters are respectful and affectionate" alone isn't it. I want something like Koser making mince meat out of Henri de Catt, preferably. Anyway: that was the life that was.