Because I knew I had these somewhere, and looking for something else, I found them again and refreshed my memory. Sophie wrote these memoirs in 1680, going through a midlife crisis, to put it mildly - her favourite sister and brother both died that year, she turned 50, and her husband took off for the half year debauchery in Venice, and like her great granddaughter, she chose memoir writing as a method to cope and vent. She had more than thirty years more to live - she only died in 1714, just a few weeks before thirtyfive years younger Cousin Anne in Britain, so missed out being Queen of England by said weeks - , and they were very eventful indeed, for her and others, but Sophie writing these memoirs doesn't know this yet. There's nothing about Prussia in them; her daughter's marriage and all this is still ahead. The memoirs' big climax therefore is the visit to Versailles Sophie and young Sophie Charlotte undertook, which does deliver on various fronts - it's an entertaining look at Versailles at that time, a big spectacle, and lots of snark (though not, interestingly enough, about Monsieur; Philippe d'Orleans, husband to Sophie's niece Liselotte, hasn't been described as sympathetic in any other contemporary document I've read. Now you could argue this is because he is her niece's husband, but Sophie is pretty sharp tongued about lots of other people she's related to. She didn't write for publication. The memoirs' existence wasn't known until the mid 19th century. The only manuscript still in existence is a hand written copy Leipniz made for himself, who was given the memoirs when getting the official job of writing the history of the Welfs in 1785. (We don't just know he got the manuscript from her because he says so, there's also a letter in existence.) Sophie's memoirs are much shorter than Wilhelmine's memoirs (not even 200 pages in the edition I have), and that has a preface and afterword, and covers a lot of people not in our focus, but here are a few highlights that would indicate that not just the intellectual streak but also the snark might hail from her.
Kontext for the first quote: Sophie was born the twelfth child of Elizabeth Stuart the Winter Queen and her husband Friedrich the Winter King. These poetic names for mocking taunts at the same, meant to ridicule her parents for having ruled only for a winter, enough to kick start the 30 Years War by accepting the crown of Bohemia. Her parents spent their remaining years in exile, with her father dying relatively young and tragically of the plague after siring 13 kids (the only one younger than Sophie died as a child), and her mother living in the Netherlands in exile for 40 years until the Restoration; Elizabeth returned to England to die (and be buried in Westminster Abbey) then. Now, Elizabeth, who was the daughter of James VI. and I. and the sister of Charles I., did with her children what not just British monarchs, but expecially them, had been doing for eons - have them raised not just by other people, but in a different place altogether, and only seeing them on special occasions until they were teenagers. (See Elizabeth I. famously spending much of her childhood and youth at Hatfield, for example.) But Elizabeth Stuart was a Queen in name only (and for the Catholics not even that - in Catholic documents, she's the Countess of the Palatinate only), and Sophie wasn't impressed by this distant raising when they all lived on a tiny budget with the Dutch anyway. Therefore, the memoirs open with parents snark:
I think the only reason why my birth might have brought them joy was because I inhabited another place after it than I had before. (...) When I was old enough to be brought away, my mother the Queen sent me to Leyden, which is only a three hours away from The Hague and where Her Majesty let all her children be raised far from herself, for she decidedly preferred the sight of her dogs and long-tailed monkeys to ours.
Sophie's education: I was taught the Heidelberg catechism, which was written in the German language. I knew it by heart without understanding a word of it. At seven in the morning I rose and had to present myself each day in a house dress to Mademoiselle von Quadt (...), who let me pray to God and read the bible. She taught me Pibrac's verses while rinsing her mouth and brushing her teeth which direly needed it. The grimaces she made while doing so I remember better than anything she wanted to teach me. Then I was dressed up. This happened at half past eight, and I then saw one teacher after the other until around ten, unless God sent them a cold to spare me. Now it was time for the dancing master, who taught me until eleven, the time for lunch. Which happened always with great ceremony at a long table. When I entered the hall, all my brothers were standing in line with their governors and their cavaliers, always in the same order. Court etiquette demanded of me to first make a deep curtsey to the princes, then a less deep one to everyone else, then another very deep one when taking my place opposite of them, then a small one in front of my governess whose daughters in turn curtseyed to me after having entered the room.
Young Sophie thinks all this is dull. Being the youngest but one, she remains in Leyden with her little brother when everyone else is with Mom or already married.
I remember when the Queen ordered us both one afternoon to the Hague, in order to present us to her cousin, the Princess of Nassau, as horses are presented if one wants to sell them, and that Madame Gorin, when she saw my little brother and myself, said: "He is very pretty, but she's thin and ugly. I hope she doesn't understand our English."
In fact, I understood it all too well, and was saddened by it for I believed there was no remedy for my affliction. However, it wasn't as bad as my poor little brother's, who soon after died among the most terrible pain, which touched and frightened me deeply.
(Languages: all in all, Sophie was fluent in Dutch, German, French, Latin and English, and she would pick up some Italian, too.) After her brother's death, nine or ten years old Sophie (she's not sure) goes to live with her mother, because maintaining the Leyden estate for just one child is too expensive. Since her sisters are seen as the pretty ones, she decides to become the witty one. By now, the fortunes of the House of Stuart are on the decline. England had a Civil War, Charles I. has been captured, and most o his family are on the continent in exile, including his wife, Henrietta Maria, who visits her sister-in-law. In better times, Van Dyck had portrayed the English royals, that's what Sophie is alluding to when noting down her impressions on her aunt: Through the Van Dyck portraits I ha dsuch a beautiful idea of English ladies that I was suprrised to find the Queen, who had appeared so pretty to me on her paintings, a small person sitting on her chair, with long, thin arms, bent shoulders and teeth which emerged from her mouth like canons from a fortress. When I regarded her more closely, I found her to have very beautiful eyes, a well formed nose and great skin. She honored me by saying that I resembled her daughter somewhat; this pleased me so much that I decided she was pretty after all from this point onwards.
I was told that some Mylords flattered me by declaring I would surpass all my sisters in beauty once I had grown up. This immediately jumpstarted my affection for their entire nation, for when one is young, one loves being regarded as pretty.
Sophie's newfound affection for the Brits doesn't mean she's willing to marry Cousin Charles (the soon to be II), who's just one year older than her, though. Sure, he's charming, but he's also broke, and using her to get money from his creditors. Sophie then lucks out because her oldest brother - fourteen years older, in fact - who has gotten the Palatinate as a part of the peace treaty after the 30 Years War, invites her. This brother is her fave and about to become Liselotte's father, and the reason why Liselotte and Sophie have a life long intense relationship is that Sophie co-raises Liselotte. First in the Palatinate, then in Lower Saxony, because Sophie's brother and sister-in-law have a really bad marriage with non stop arguments. Case in point, when Sophie's sister-in-law already suspects Sophie's brother to have a mistress (and btw, Sophie is entirely on her brother's the Prince Elector's side; Degenfeld is her brother's mistress):
One night, the Princess Elector received certainty when she woke up and saw that the Prince Elector was with the girl. The noise she made due to her stormy temper was incredible. The Prince Elector had a great deal of trouble to protect his mistress from his wife grabbing at her; in the end, she only caught the girl's little finger and in her rage bit into it. When her rage had calmed down somewhat, her ladies talked her into moderation. (...) In order to amuse the Princess Elector, the balls and comedies started happening again, and it would have all continued if not for the Princess Elector to do such evil things. When she searched Degenfeld's cabinet she didn't just find all the Prince Elector's love letters but also the jewelry which he had given his mistress. This enraged her so much that she caused a terrible noise once more. She summoned me and my sister, while Degenfeld called the Prince Elector, and when we entered, we were witnesses to an extraordinary scene. The Prince Elector stood in front of his mistress and protected her from the beatings which Madame his wife was attempting to give her. The Princess Elector marched up and down in the room with Degenfeld's jewelry in her hands. Full of rage, she approached us and cried: "Princesses, look at a whore's reward! Doesn't all of this belong to me?"
I couldn't help myself, I had to laugh at this lament, I just burst into laughter, so much so that the Princess Elector got infected and started to laugh as well. But within moments, her rage erturned, when Monsieur the Prince Elector told her she should return the jewelry to its owner. She threw them across the entire room and cried: "If they don't belong to me, well, here they are!"
Sophie's brother , Liselotte's father, ended up doing a Henry VIII and deciding since he was the nominal head of his Protestant principalities church, he could divorce himself unilaterally and morganatically marry his mistress. However, his (first) wife refused to move out, and he didn't have Henry's power. So he lived with two wives and the children from two marriages, and that's why Liselotte ended up with Sophie for years.
The Hannover brothers show up in Sophie' life as suitors as her brother's marriage goes from bad to worse. First Georg Wilhelm, who, however, gets Syphilis. Here's Sophie's way of putting it:
In the meantime, the Duke of Hannover had arrived in Venice, and enjoyed himself with the first courtisan available, a Greek woman who had nothing beautiful to recommend her other than her dresses. However, she immediately put him in a condition which is less than advantageous for a marriage, and he thought no longer of me.
Georg Wilhelm gives it in writing - a document Sophie reproduces in her memoirs - that if Sophie marries younger brother Ernst August, he swears he himself won't marry and have children, and Ernst August will be his heir. Why does Sophie reproduce this document? Because wouldn't you know it, once Georg Wilhelm realised he wasn't dying of Syphilis just yet, he didn't just go back to debauching, but ended up with a favourite mistress he wanted to marry. And have children with. Sophie and Ernst August were thrilled, as you can imagine. In the end, the marriage was a morganatic one, there was no son, and Ernst August did become Duke of Hannover after Georg Wilhelm's death, but by then he'd gotten the "go to Venice for half the year, have fun" habit himself.
I'm glad you talked about this, because this is quite excellent snark :D
I think the only reason why my birth might have brought them joy was because I inhabited another place after it than I had before. (...) When I was old enough to be brought away, my mother the Queen sent me to Leyden, which is only a three hours away from The Hague and where Her Majesty let all her children be raised far from herself, for she decidedly preferred the sight of her dogs and long-tailed monkeys to ours.
Lol forever, this is great. (Also thank you for the context -- again me failing at synthesis, because I did know about Elizabeth and Hatfield, and also of course about Fritz of Wales :P but would never have put it together -- but fortunately you provide the context so I understand why it's so funny :D )
I then saw one teacher after the other until around ten, unless God sent them a cold to spare me.
Ha!
Since her sisters are seen as the pretty ones, she decides to become the witty one.
Valid life choice!
The Prince Elector had a great deal of trouble to protect his mistress from his wife grabbing at her; in the end, she only caught the girl's little finger and in her rage bit into it.
Wow. On one hand, being a woman sucks and I get it! On the other hand... wow.
Isn't it just? That's also what I meant about Sophie being such a vivid personality that she takes over her daughter's biography just by virtue of being so eminently quotable when reviewing Barbara Beuys' biography of Sophie Charlotte.
Morgenstern: This is also why I insist in my tinhat "young FW was in love with Caroline!" theory that Sophie was the one inspiring Caroline to be sarcastic when rejecting FW's proposal instead of letting him down gently. Even I, someone living two generations later, have heard about Sophie being the snarkiest!
Wow. On one hand, being a woman sucks and I get it! On the other hand... wow.
Liselotte: this is why I'm able to take life at Versailles in stride later. I've seen it all as a kid during those times I wasn't living with ma tante, dear Sophie. And I didn't even bite the Chevalier de Lorraine's finger once!
Thank you for this! I had some knowledge of facts about her life, but not much of a sense of her personality. She seems very vivid indeed!
The only manuscript still in existence is a hand written copy Leipniz made for himself, who was given the memoirs when getting the official job of writing the history of the Welfs in 1785.
I was about to comment on the lucky survival, and how cool it is that the manuscript is in his hand!, when I saw that your fingers had typed 17 out of habit, as mine often do, and I should point out to cahn that this must be a typo for 1685. Leibniz died in *checks* 1716, just as our period is starting.
I think the only reason why my birth might have brought them joy was because I inhabited another place after it than I had before. (...) When I was old enough to be brought away, my mother the Queen sent me to Leyden, which is only a three hours away from The Hague and where Her Majesty let all her children be raised far from herself, for she decidedly preferred the sight of her dogs and long-tailed monkeys to ours.
Yep, it should be 1685, of course. Oh, and I forgot to include the sad punchline to the at first funny tale of Georg Wilhelm going "I have syphilis, can't marry, never will, here it is in writing, bro and Sophie, marry each other instead!" and then the "oops, not dying of syphilis yet, and also I've fallen for a pious huguenot who won't be my mistress unless I promise marriage" follow-up, which was this: Georg Wilhelm/His morganatic wife did produce a child, a daughter. Who was, drum roll, none other than....Sophia Dorothea the first, G1's unfortunate wife. Because while Georg Wilhelm couldn't make a daughter of a morganatic marriage the heir of the duchy (couldn't have even if she'd been Sophie's daughter, because Salic law about women), but he could make her heiress to his considerable fortune, which he did. Then everyone had the bright idea to reooncile Georg Wilhelm & Ernst August (and transfer Georg Wilhelm's money to Hannover after all) by marrying the cousins, despite SD the first feeling as warmly about her cousin G1 as FW would feel about his cousin G2.
(Sophie is ultra discreet about her oldest son's marriage in the memoirs, btw, she just says she'd have prefered he'd marry someone else, but in the interest of family reconciliation... But then the big scandal hadn't happened yet when she is writing the book.)
Another reminder: Georg Wilhelm's morganatic wife, Huguenot Eleonore d'Olbreuse, did side with her daughter after SDC got locked up, and campaigned on her behalf until her own deat, petitioning G1 for allow SDC to live with her in her widow's seat in Lüneburg, living part of the year with her, even peitioning Louis XIV - who had been repsonsible for Eleonore having to flee France as a Huguenot in the first place - to use his influence on the Hannover clan to achieve mercy. Louis responded he was willing to do that, and even grant Eleonore and her daughter asylum afterwards, IF they both converted to Catholicism. Which Eleonore wasn't willing to do. Still, her behavior towards her daughter is such a great contrast to what Charlotte would do two generations later that I had to mention it.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
Sophie of Hannover: Memoirs - I
Date: 2021-03-27 10:30 am (UTC)Kontext for the first quote: Sophie was born the twelfth child of Elizabeth Stuart the Winter Queen and her husband Friedrich the Winter King. These poetic names for mocking taunts at the same, meant to ridicule her parents for having ruled only for a winter, enough to kick start the 30 Years War by accepting the crown of Bohemia. Her parents spent their remaining years in exile, with her father dying relatively young and tragically of the plague after siring 13 kids (the only one younger than Sophie died as a child), and her mother living in the Netherlands in exile for 40 years until the Restoration; Elizabeth returned to England to die (and be buried in Westminster Abbey) then. Now, Elizabeth, who was the daughter of James VI. and I. and the sister of Charles I., did with her children what not just British monarchs, but expecially them, had been doing for eons - have them raised not just by other people, but in a different place altogether, and only seeing them on special occasions until they were teenagers. (See Elizabeth I. famously spending much of her childhood and youth at Hatfield, for example.) But Elizabeth Stuart was a Queen in name only (and for the Catholics not even that - in Catholic documents, she's the Countess of the Palatinate only), and Sophie wasn't impressed by this distant raising when they all lived on a tiny budget with the Dutch anyway. Therefore, the memoirs open with parents snark:
I think the only reason why my birth might have brought them joy was because I inhabited another place after it than I had before. (...) When I was old enough to be brought away, my mother the Queen sent me to Leyden, which is only a three hours away from The Hague and where Her Majesty let all her children be raised far from herself, for she decidedly preferred the sight of her dogs and long-tailed monkeys to ours.
Sophie's education: I was taught the Heidelberg catechism, which was written in the German language. I knew it by heart without understanding a word of it. At seven in the morning I rose and had to present myself each day in a house dress to Mademoiselle von Quadt (...), who let me pray to God and read the bible. She taught me Pibrac's verses while rinsing her mouth and brushing her teeth which direly needed it. The grimaces she made while doing so I remember better than anything she wanted to teach me. Then I was dressed up. This happened at half past eight, and I then saw one teacher after the other until around ten, unless God sent them a cold to spare me. Now it was time for the dancing master, who taught me until eleven, the time for lunch. Which happened always with great ceremony at a long table. When I entered the hall, all my brothers were standing in line with their governors and their cavaliers, always in the same order. Court etiquette demanded of me to first make a deep curtsey to the princes, then a less deep one to everyone else, then another very deep one when taking my place opposite of them, then a small one in front of my governess whose daughters in turn curtseyed to me after having entered the room.
Young Sophie thinks all this is dull. Being the youngest but one, she remains in Leyden with her little brother when everyone else is with Mom or already married.
I remember when the Queen ordered us both one afternoon to the Hague, in order to present us to her cousin, the Princess of Nassau, as horses are presented if one wants to sell them, and that Madame Gorin, when she saw my little brother and myself, said: "He is very pretty, but she's thin and ugly. I hope she doesn't understand our English."
In fact, I understood it all too well, and was saddened by it for I believed there was no remedy for my affliction. However, it wasn't as bad as my poor little brother's, who soon after died among the most terrible pain, which touched and frightened me deeply.
(Languages: all in all, Sophie was fluent in Dutch, German, French, Latin and English, and she would pick up some Italian, too.) After her brother's death, nine or ten years old Sophie (she's not sure) goes to live with her mother, because maintaining the Leyden estate for just one child is too expensive. Since her sisters are seen as the pretty ones, she decides to become the witty one. By now, the fortunes of the House of Stuart are on the decline. England had a Civil War, Charles I. has been captured, and most o his family are on the continent in exile, including his wife, Henrietta Maria, who visits her sister-in-law. In better times, Van Dyck had portrayed the English royals, that's what Sophie is alluding to when noting down her impressions on her aunt:
Through the Van Dyck portraits I ha dsuch a beautiful idea of English ladies that I was suprrised to find the Queen, who had appeared so pretty to me on her paintings, a small person sitting on her chair, with long, thin arms, bent shoulders and teeth which emerged from her mouth like canons from a fortress. When I regarded her more closely, I found her to have very beautiful eyes, a well formed nose and great skin. She honored me by saying that I resembled her daughter somewhat; this pleased me so much that I decided she was pretty after all from this point onwards.
I was told that some Mylords flattered me by declaring I would surpass all my sisters in beauty once I had grown up. This immediately jumpstarted my affection for their entire nation, for when one is young, one loves being regarded as pretty.
Sophie's newfound affection for the Brits doesn't mean she's willing to marry Cousin Charles (the soon to be II), who's just one year older than her, though. Sure, he's charming, but he's also broke, and using her to get money from his creditors. Sophie then lucks out because her oldest brother - fourteen years older, in fact - who has gotten the Palatinate as a part of the peace treaty after the 30 Years War, invites her. This brother is her fave and about to become Liselotte's father, and the reason why Liselotte and Sophie have a life long intense relationship is that Sophie co-raises Liselotte. First in the Palatinate, then in Lower Saxony, because Sophie's brother and sister-in-law have a really bad marriage with non stop arguments. Case in point, when Sophie's sister-in-law already suspects Sophie's brother to have a mistress (and btw, Sophie is entirely on her brother's the Prince Elector's side; Degenfeld is her brother's mistress):
One night, the Princess Elector received certainty when she woke up and saw that the Prince Elector was with the girl. The noise she made due to her stormy temper was incredible. The Prince Elector had a great deal of trouble to protect his mistress from his wife grabbing at her; in the end, she only caught the girl's little finger and in her rage bit into it. When her rage had calmed down somewhat, her ladies talked her into moderation. (...) In order to amuse the Princess Elector, the balls and comedies started happening again, and it would have all continued if not for the Princess Elector to do such evil things. When she searched Degenfeld's cabinet she didn't just find all the Prince Elector's love letters but also the jewelry which he had given his mistress. This enraged her so much that she caused a terrible noise once more. She summoned me and my sister, while Degenfeld called the Prince Elector, and when we entered, we were witnesses to an extraordinary scene. The Prince Elector stood in front of his mistress and protected her from the beatings which Madame his wife was attempting to give her. The Princess Elector marched up and down in the room with Degenfeld's jewelry in her hands. Full of rage, she approached us and cried: "Princesses, look at a whore's reward! Doesn't all of this belong to me?"
I couldn't help myself, I had to laugh at this lament, I just burst into laughter, so much so that the Princess Elector got infected and started to laugh as well. But within moments, her rage erturned, when Monsieur the Prince Elector told her she should return the jewelry to its owner. She threw them across the entire room and cried: "If they don't belong to me, well, here they are!"
Sophie's brother , Liselotte's father, ended up doing a Henry VIII and deciding since he was the nominal head of his Protestant principalities church, he could divorce himself unilaterally and morganatically marry his mistress. However, his (first) wife refused to move out, and he didn't have Henry's power. So he lived with two wives and the children from two marriages, and that's why Liselotte ended up with Sophie for years.
The Hannover brothers show up in Sophie' life as suitors as her brother's marriage goes from bad to worse. First Georg Wilhelm, who, however, gets Syphilis. Here's Sophie's way of putting it:
In the meantime, the Duke of Hannover had arrived in Venice, and enjoyed himself with the first courtisan available, a Greek woman who had nothing beautiful to recommend her other than her dresses. However, she immediately put him in a condition which is less than advantageous for a marriage, and he thought no longer of me.
Georg Wilhelm gives it in writing - a document Sophie reproduces in her memoirs - that if Sophie marries younger brother Ernst August, he swears he himself won't marry and have children, and Ernst August will be his heir. Why does Sophie reproduce this document? Because wouldn't you know it, once Georg Wilhelm realised he wasn't dying of Syphilis just yet, he didn't just go back to debauching, but ended up with a favourite mistress he wanted to marry. And have children with. Sophie and Ernst August were thrilled, as you can imagine. In the end, the marriage was a morganatic one, there was no son, and Ernst August did become Duke of Hannover after Georg Wilhelm's death, but by then he'd gotten the "go to Venice for half the year, have fun" habit himself.
Re: Sophie of Hannover: Memoirs - I
Date: 2021-03-28 01:02 am (UTC)I think the only reason why my birth might have brought them joy was because I inhabited another place after it than I had before. (...) When I was old enough to be brought away, my mother the Queen sent me to Leyden, which is only a three hours away from The Hague and where Her Majesty let all her children be raised far from herself, for she decidedly preferred the sight of her dogs and long-tailed monkeys to ours.
Lol forever, this is great. (Also thank you for the context -- again me failing at synthesis, because I did know about Elizabeth and Hatfield, and also of course about Fritz of Wales :P but would never have put it together -- but fortunately you provide the context so I understand why it's so funny :D )
I then saw one teacher after the other until around ten, unless God sent them a cold to spare me.
Ha!
Since her sisters are seen as the pretty ones, she decides to become the witty one.
Valid life choice!
The Prince Elector had a great deal of trouble to protect his mistress from his wife grabbing at her; in the end, she only caught the girl's little finger and in her rage bit into it.
Wow. On one hand, being a woman sucks and I get it! On the other hand... wow.
This is great gossipy sensationalism :D
Re: Sophie of Hannover: Memoirs - I
Date: 2021-03-28 06:11 am (UTC)Isn't it just? That's also what I meant about Sophie being such a vivid personality that she takes over her daughter's biography just by virtue of being so eminently quotable when reviewing Barbara Beuys' biography of Sophie Charlotte.
Morgenstern: This is also why I insist in my tinhat "young FW was in love with Caroline!" theory that Sophie was the one inspiring Caroline to be sarcastic when rejecting FW's proposal instead of letting him down gently. Even I, someone living two generations later, have heard about Sophie being the snarkiest!
Wow. On one hand, being a woman sucks and I get it! On the other hand... wow.
Liselotte: this is why I'm able to take life at Versailles in stride later. I've seen it all as a kid during those times I wasn't living with ma tante, dear Sophie. And I didn't even bite the Chevalier de Lorraine's finger once!
Re: Sophie of Hannover: Memoirs - I
Date: 2021-03-28 12:44 pm (UTC)Valid life choice!
I agree!
Re: Sophie of Hannover: Memoirs - I
Date: 2021-03-28 12:41 pm (UTC)The only manuscript still in existence is a hand written copy Leipniz made for himself, who was given the memoirs when getting the official job of writing the history of the Welfs in 1785.
I was about to comment on the lucky survival, and how cool it is that the manuscript is in his hand!, when I saw that your fingers had typed 17 out of habit, as mine often do, and I should point out to
I think the only reason why my birth might have brought them joy was because I inhabited another place after it than I had before. (...) When I was old enough to be brought away, my mother the Queen sent me to Leyden, which is only a three hours away from The Hague and where Her Majesty let all her children be raised far from herself, for she decidedly preferred the sight of her dogs and long-tailed monkeys to ours.
Like
So he lived with two wives and the children from two marriages
This whole post is great gossipy sensationalism!
Re: Sophie of Hannover: Memoirs - I
Date: 2021-03-29 05:59 am (UTC)(Sophie is ultra discreet about her oldest son's marriage in the memoirs, btw, she just says she'd have prefered he'd marry someone else, but in the interest of family reconciliation... But then the big scandal hadn't happened yet when she is writing the book.)
Another reminder: Georg Wilhelm's morganatic wife, Huguenot Eleonore d'Olbreuse, did side with her daughter after SDC got locked up, and campaigned on her behalf until her own deat, petitioning G1 for allow SDC to live with her in her widow's seat in Lüneburg, living part of the year with her, even peitioning Louis XIV - who had been repsonsible for Eleonore having to flee France as a Huguenot in the first place - to use his influence on the Hannover clan to achieve mercy. Louis responded he was willing to do that, and even grant Eleonore and her daughter asylum afterwards, IF they both converted to Catholicism. Which Eleonore wasn't willing to do. Still, her behavior towards her daughter is such a great contrast to what Charlotte would do two generations later that I had to mention it.
Re: Sophie of Hannover: Memoirs - I
Date: 2021-03-30 04:47 pm (UTC)