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.
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timeasmymeasure
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.
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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)