Melusine von der Schulenburg
Ehrengard Melusine Baroness (since 1715 Countess ) von der Schulenburg , (* 25. December 1667 in Emden ; † 10. May 1743 in Kendal House, Isleworth at Brentford ) was the mistress of brunswick-Lüneburg electors and the English King George I . He made her Duchess of Munster in 1716 and Duchess of Kendal in 1719 . In 1722 she became Duchess of Eberstein .
Life
Melusine came from the old Brandenburg nobility family von der Schulenburg and was the daughter of Gustav Adolf Freiherr von der Schulenburg and his first wife, Petronella Ottilie von Schwencken (1637–1674). Her two older brothers were Field Marshal Matthias Johann Graf von der Schulenburg and General Daniel Bodo Graf von der Schulenburg .
From 1690 she was court maid of Georg's mother Sophie von der Pfalz . A year later she became the mistress of the Prince Elector, who had been married to Sophie Dorothea von Braunschweig-Lüneburg since 1682 . With Georg she had at least three illegitimate children: Anna Luise Sophie (1692–1773), Melusine (1693–1778) and Margarete Gertrud (1701–1728).
As a result of the Königsmarck affair , Georg divorced his wife in 1694. He became elector of Hanover in 1698 and King George I of England in 1714. Melusine followed her lover to England, and on July 18, 1716 he bestowed on her the non-hereditary Irish titles Duchess of Munster , Marchioness and Countess of Dungannon , and Baroness Dundalk . On March 19, 1719 he gave her the non-hereditary British titles Duchess of Kendal , Countess of Feversham and Baroness Glastonbury .
In 1722 Emperor Charles VI awarded her . the title of Reichsfürstin von Eberstein for life and gave her her own coat of arms. This led to speculation in London about a secret left-hand marriage to the divorced king. She lived with him at St James's Palace and Windsor Castle and almost officially played the role of wife at court. But she also owned Kendal House in Isleworth in the London Borough of Hounslow as her own residence .
The Duchess of Kendal was enterprising and sold titles, offices and rights in Great Britain (for example to William Wood the minting rights for Ireland, against whose inferior coins Jonathan Swift protested with his Drapier's Letters 1724/25). During the South Sea Bubble of 1720, along with the Treasury Secretary and other influential people, she received bribes from the South Sea Company to aid their plans.
Because of her thin figure she was called "the maypole " (the maypole) in England , while in Hanover she had the unflattering nickname "the scarecrow " .
progeny
Her connection with George I had three daughters:
- Anna Luise von der Schulenburg (* January 1, 1692 - January 2, 1773), (from December 10, 1722) Countess von Delitz , wife of Ernst August von dem Bussche-Ippenburg . For them the king had the later Delitz'sche Palais built in Herrenhausen in 1721 (today: Fürstenhaus Herrenhausen-Museum )
- Petronella Melusina von der Schulenburg (April 1, 1693 - September 16, 1778), Countess of Walsingham , wife of Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
- Margarethe Gertrud (* 1701; † 1728), Countess von Oeynhausen , wife of Albrecht Wolfgang Graf zu Schaumburg-Lippe ; Mother of Count Wilhelm
Melusine's sister Gertrud (1659–1697), married to Friedrich Achaz von der Schulenburg-Hehlen (1602–1661), officially raised the two older daughters as their own children, while the sister Margarethe (1668–1753), married to Raben Christoph von Oeynhausen , chamberlain and chief hunter George I, who raised the youngest. The king made sure that the Oeynhausen couple in thanks to Emperor Karl VI. 1722 was raised to the rank of imperial count . The youngest daughter, Margarethe Gertrud, had already received the personal count as Countess of Oeynhausen the year before in order to be able to marry the Hereditary Count of Schaumburg-Lippe.
literature
- Michael Roes : Zeithain, Schöffling und Co. Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2017, ISBN 9783895611773 (Roes shows a biographical portrait of his aunt Melusine von der Schulenburg and her daughter Petronella in his novel about Hans Hermann von Katte .)
- Dietrich Werner Graf von der Schulenburg, Hans Wätjen: History of the family von der Schulenburg 1237-1983 . Hempel, Wolfsburg 1984, ISBN 3-87327-000-5
- Ragnhild Hatton: George I, Elector and King . Thames and Hudson, London 1978, ISBN 0-500-25060-X
- Bernhard von Poten : Schulenburg, Melusine Countess of the . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 32, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1891, p. 664 f.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Johann Heinrich Zedler, Carl Günther Ludovici: Large complete Universal Lexicon of all sciences and arts. Johann Heinrich Zedler, Halle and Leipzig 1734, Volume 8, p. 63.
- ↑ Enter the Hanoverians . May 2, 2010.
- ^ The Monarch and the Maypole .
- ↑ John Carswell, The South Sea Bubble , London 1960 (Cresset Press), pp. 151-152; Harry T. Dickinson, Walpole and the Whig Supremacy , London (1973), p. 58; Ragnhild Hatton, George I: Elector and King , London 1978, p. 250
- ↑ Gerd Weiß: Fürstenhaus (Alte Herrenhäuser Strasse 14) , in: Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany , architectural monuments in Lower Saxony, City of Hanover, Part 1, [Bd.] 10.1 , ISBN 3-528-06203-7 , pp. 206f.
- ↑ Ulrike Weiß, Dame Herzog: Elector King. The house of the Hanoverian Guelphs 1636–1866. in the series of writings of the Historisches Museum Hannover , vol. 34, Hannover 2008, p. 105.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schulenburg, Melusine from the |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Schulenburg, Honor Guard Melusine Countess of the |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Mistress of the English King George I. |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 25, 1667 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Emden (Altenhausen) |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 10, 1743 |
| Place of death | Kendal House, Isleworth |