18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 32

[cahn]

:) Still talking about Charles XII of Sweden / the Great Northern War and the Stuarts and the Jacobites, among other things!

Comments

Re: Sophia Dorothea of Celle, the Hatton take

[mildred_of_midgard]

Which historians: British historians, yes. Hatton was a Norwegian expat working at a university in London, specializing in Continental politics, writing in English for an English-speaking audience, and constantly frustrated with British historians who refused to familiarize themselves with Continental sources, whereas she was reading as many archives as she could. And so she's trying to set the record straight.

Some excerpts for you:

Excerpt 1: English anti-Hanoverian propaganda after 1714 blamed Sophia Dorothea's imprisonment (usually thought much harsher than it was) on George I; it was assumed that the divorce had been at his insistence and that Königsmarck's disappearance must be laid at his door, whether the wife's lover had been murdered and laid under the floorboards at the Leineschloss or plastered into a niche or whether – as other stories had it – he had been allowed to flee the country.

Excerpt 2: Anti-Hanoverian propaganda took advantage of British ignorance of the roles played by Ernst August and Georg Wilhelm in the divorce proceedings to make George the central figure; on Königsmarck's presumed fate it could utilize sensational manuscript and printed material circulating in Germany from 1695 onwards, for an analysis of which see Schnath, A.B., Königsmarck, 68–74.

Excerpt 3: See e.g. Jordan, Sophia Dorothea, 206–08, lending support to these accounts ‘sanctioned by tradition’ by her choice of endpapers: the drawings by Rex Whistler for A. E. W. Mason's Königsmarck; and Trench, George II, 3–4, who takes for gospel at least some of the stories related in Horace Walpole's Letters I and Memoirs III.

Does Hatton have any take on Platen's role in this?

She does, and she's with wiki.

Tradition has ascribed a prominent share in a plot to murder Königsmarck to countess Platen and, as in all aspects of the whole affair, the few known facts have been embroidered with sensational details...Klara von Platen's influence over Ernst August. The general awareness of this influence, and rumours of great tension between Sophia Dorothea and her father-in-law's mistress who was assumed also to have seduced Philipp Christoph are at the base of stories which — though interesting as ingredients of popular mythology – would not be worth mentioning here but for the fact that one or more of them are still repeated in recent British books touching on George I: countess Platen, jealous because Königsmarck has deserted her bed for Sophia Dorothea's, determines to kill him, hires some officers to intercept him in the Leineschloss, grinds her heel in his face as he lies dying on the floor; Ernst August being informed only after the deed is done.

These tales derive, with a host of others, from contemporary treatments of Königsmarck's life and death circulated in manuscript or print, with which the anonymous author of the Histoire secrette de la duchesse d'Hanovre (published in 1732 with many later editions and translations) spiced his concoction. His main source, volume seven of duke Anton Ulrich's Römische Octavia, was so discreet that it did not even hint at Königsmarck's murder. In the first version (1707), the book ends with Aquilius leaving court of his own will so as to save the reputation of his beloved; in the second version (1712), Petilius Cerealis (a clearer pseudonym for the Königsmarck figure) returns to free his beloved from unjust imprisonment and then nobly disappears from her life. In both versions the lovers are innocent, the romance totally chivalric in tone.

The unlikelihood of the countess Platen figure of tradition does not need much labouring. For anyone moderately familiar with the historical background to the Königsmarck affair, the myth's lack of political content renders it suspect. On the personal level it would seem improbable that the countess would have risked her position with Ernst August by a love affair with Königsmarck; though she may, before the extent of the young man's financial inaptitude was known, have considered him a suitable bridegroom for her daughter by Ernst August. And it is incredible that she should have organized Königsmarck's murder without the elector's previous consent, given Ernst August's firm control of his entourage. It would be a reasonable assumption, however, that Ernst August discussed with her possible countermeasures, as an elopement scandal seemed imminent, and she may therefore have been an accessory to a murder plan. But the throwing of all blame on the countess, thus postulating Ernst August's innocence, may also point to an inspired story meant to divert attention from the person of the elector.

Footnote: It should be noted that Professor Schnath, for whose work I have the greatest respect, deduces from the Königsmarck-Sophia correspondence and from diplomatic reports that the count had been Gräfin Platen's lover and that the Gräfin was extremely jealous of Sophia Dorothea. He therefore allocates more responsibility than I am inclined to do to the Gräfin for the Königsmarck murder.

Okay, this is genuinely new. And fascinating! Does Hatton have any explanation for SD not visiting SDC when she was in Hannover, if she was willing to negotiate for her?

Refreshing myself instead of going by memory, it seems SDC approached her daughter via messengers before the Hanover visit, SD thought negotiating for amnesty would be a great idea, SDC said "No amnesty, I want a complete clearing of my name and compensation for damages, or else I'm going with the Jacobites!" SD was like, "Uh, yeah, so, it turns out I'm busy with this other thing, Mom, byyyyeeee."

SD being more politically realistic than the other party for once. :P

I don't see Hatton explicitly mentioning the failure to visit SDC, but extrapolating from her account of SD's priorities in 1725, it seems SD was trying to stay extremely on G1's good side until she'd gotten what she wanted (double marriage), and staying on G1's good side meant not visting SDC. And since SD never got the double marriage she wanted, that would be consistent with never visiting SDC. Especially since SD thought she was always on the verge of making it happen, and presumably thought she could always advocate for and/or visit her mother afterwards. And then her mother died before her father.