Sophie of the Palatinate

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Sophie von der Pfalz, portrait from 1650

Sophie, Princess of the Palatinate , also known as Sophie of Hanover, (born October 14, 1630 in The Hague ; † June 8, 1714 in Herrenhausen ) became Duchess of Braunschweig and Lüneburg and Electress of Braunschweig-Lüneburg through her marriage to Ernst August . Through the Act of Settlement , she was the designated heir to the throne of the British monarchy from 1701 .

Life

Early years

Sophie von der Pfalz as an Indian (around 1644), painted by her sister Luise Hollandine

Princess Sophie was born in 1630 as the twelfth child of Elector Friedrich V of the Palatinate , the Bohemian "Winter King" from the House of Wittelsbach , and of Elisabeth Stuart , daughter of King Jacob I / VI. Born in England and Scotland in exile in Holland, where her parents lived in The Hague and in a hunting lodge in Rhenen . Her father died when she was only two years old. Her mother, like her siblings, gave her to a noble family in Leiden , which at that time was often practiced in royal houses, just as the mother herself was raised in Scotland. The financial situation of the "Winter Queen" became increasingly difficult. Sophie spoke English with her mother, German or Dutch with her siblings, and fluent French; in her letters she often uses Dutch expressions or proverbs, often with ironic intent.

After the failure of the marriage project with her cousin, later Charles II of England and Scotland , she moved to Heidelberg in 1650 to the residence of her brother Karl Ludwig , the Elector of the Palatinate, who had returned there in 1649 after the end of the Thirty Years' War, and lived there until they were married. Sophie took care of his children Elisabeth Charlotte and Karl . The children, suffering from the constant quarrels of their parents, needed the care of their aunt, whereby the girl - commonly known as Liselotte von der Pfalz - was their particular favorite.

Marriage in the house of the Guelphs

Duke Georg Wilhelm zu Braunschweig-Lüneburg from the house of the Guelphs had been advised by his estates to marry and care for offspring, as it was his ducal duty - and to receive an increase in his pension in return . The suitable bride was introduced to him in the form of Sophie von der Pfalz, whom he and his youngest brother Ernst August met in autumn 1656 on a trip to Heidelberg. Although she was actually engaged to her older brother Georg Wilhelm, Princess Sophie married Duke Ernst August zu Braunschweig-Lüneburg on October 17, 1658 in Heidelberg . The reason was that Georg Wilhelm had contracted a venereal infection on his bachelorette party in Venice, where the Welfen brothers went to Carnival every year , and then postponed the planned wedding indefinitely, much to the annoyance of Sophie and her brother Karl Ludwig. By persuading his brother Ernst August to take the bride in his place, he tried to save the honor of the house; Later he once told Sophie that he was very sorry that he had not taken her. At the same time, Georg Wilhelm made a promise to renounce his marriage, so that the Principality of Lüneburg would later fall to Ernst August and this would become a match for the princess, which he did not adhere to; this would later lead to the unhappy marriage of their children, Georgs and Sophie Dorotheas , the "Duchess of Ahlden".

The couple initially lived in the Leineschloss in Hanover at the court of Georg Wilhelm who ruled there. Sophie had brought her 7-year-old niece Liselotte von der Pfalz from Heidelberg after her parents separated, and was now their foster mother for four years. Together they visited their mother and grandmother, the "Winter Queen", in The Hague. Ernst August became Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück in 1662 and the couple moved to Iburg Castle with two young sons and Liselotte . In 1663 Liselotte returned to Heidelberg; After she was married to the French royal court in 1671, until Sophie's death she would send 20–30 page long letters to “ma tante” twice a week and receive them accordingly.

The French nobleman Antoine Carré published in Paris in 1671 Livre des Guitarre contenant plusieurs pieces (with compositions for the baroque guitar ), which he dedicated to Sophie.

Osnabrück Castle

In 1673 the prince-bishop's family moved into the new residence built by Ernst August, Osnabrück Castle . Sophie also came up with ideas for this after she had been inspired by visiting many castles and gardens in France. In particular, she made the design of the palace gardens her task. In 1679 she and her 13-year-old daughter Sophie Charlotte (known as "Figuelotte") visited her niece Liselotte in Paris and Versailles, incognito as Madame de Osnabruck ; the desired engagement of Figuelotte with the Grand Dauphin did not take place, however, because Louis XIV decided on another candidate.

Shortly after their return, Ernst August's older brother Johann Friedrich died in 1679 without an heir and so he was able to take over the rule of the Principality of Calenberg in 1679 . They moved back to Hanover, but Sophie mourned the Osnabrück residence: I will miss the garden and the palace in Osnabrück all my life. My garden, my flowers, my house, my furniture: I suddenly find myself deprived of these joys.

Ernst August was awarded the ninth electoral dignity in 1692 for his service to the emperor . He was now officially called Elector of Braunschweig-Lüneburg , but was commonly referred to as Elector of Hanover .

Act

From 1664–65 Sophie traveled to Italy. During her Grand Tour she gained a lot of experiences that would shape her later work in her electorate.

She made numerous embroidery works , including a hanging for altars that has survived to this day and which she donated to Loccum Monastery in 1691 .

Monument to Electress Sophie by Wilhelm Engelhard in the Great Garden
Large garden in Hanover-Herrenhausen, the castle in the foreground

In her new role as Electress of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Sophie took care of the design of the Hanoverian summer residence in Herrenhausen Palace , while her husband and his mistress, the Platen , mostly lived in the Leineschloss .

In order to meet the high demands, the Great Garden , which her brother-in-law Johann Friedrich had laid out, was redesigned and expanded under her management from 1680, with Henry Perronet at her side, who had already laid out the Osnabrück garden with her. In addition to the Italian and French travel impressions, it was above all the Dutch baroque garden art of her youth that inspired her. The court librarian Johann Friedrichs, whom Ernst August had taken over, also contributed his philosophical advice: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz . In this way the garden became a "coagulated philosophy". By the time she died in 1714, the Great Garden quadrupled its size.

A memorial in the Great Garden commemorates Sophie, who, at the age of 83, stumbled and died during a downpour in the garden. She was first buried in the chapel of the Leineschloss. After the Second World War , the sarcophagus was transferred to the Guelph mausoleum in the Berggarten in Herrenhausen.

and display information about the image
Sophie symbolically puts on Leibniz the laurel wreath;
Relief by Karl Gundelach in the historical frieze of the New City Hall of Hanover

British heritage

Sophie of the Palatinate (1706)
Christine van den Heuvel from the main state archive in Hanover with a facsimile of the succession certificate from 1706 issued for Sophie

When the anti-Catholic Act of Settlement was passed in England by parliamentary resolution in 1701 , the Protestant Sophie, daughter of the English Princess Elisabeth and cousin of King Jacob II, unexpectedly came second in the English line of succession, as she was next to Jacob's daughter, the heir to the throne Anne Stuart who at the time was the only Protestant descendant of the kings of England and Scotland. The Act of Settlement stipulated that from now on only Protestant heirs could lay claim to the English throne. Since the relevant members of the Palatinate line of the Wittelsbachers had all either died or converted to Catholicism, only Sophie, the youngest daughter of the Protestant "Winter King", remained.

Queen Anne viewed the relatives from Hanover with suspicion and denied them entry, an appanage or the right to be allowed to take a country residence in Great Britain. She would have preferred that the succession to the throne would have been awarded to her father Jacob and his (Catholic) descendants from a second marriage. Out of insight into the political necessity of a Protestant succession, she was forced to accept the provisions of the Act of Settlement. Since Queen Anne was 35 years younger than Sophie, she herself did not expect her accession to the throne. Only three weeks before her death, Sophie quoted the Dutch proverb in a letter to Leibniz - with a view to the ailing Anne - "Krakende wagens gaan lang" (squeaking wagons drive long). If Sophie had lived only seven weeks longer, she would still have become Queen of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland . On August 1, 1714, her son Georg Ludwig, Elector of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (Hanover), ascended the British throne as Georg I as the first king of the House of Hanover . The subsequent personal union between Great Britain and Hanover lasted 123 years - until Queen Victoria's accession to the throne in 1837, the rule of the House of Hanover over the British Empire until her death in 1901.

The Act of Settlement is in force to this day. This means that the future British heir to the throne will only be the Protestant descendants of Sophie von der Pfalz. She is the legally guaranteed ancestor of the British royal family.

Children from the marriage with Ernst August

  • Georg Ludwig (1660–1727), from 1714 as George I King of Great Britain
  • Friedrich August (1661–1690), killed in the war against the Turks
  • Maximilian Wilhelm (1666–1726), imperial field marshal
  • Sophie Charlotte (1668–1705), Queen of Prussia since 1701 , Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin is named after her
  • Karl Philipp (1669–1690), killed in the war against the Turks
  • Christian Heinrich (1671–1703), drowned in the Danube during the campaign against the French
  • Ernst August (1674–1728), Duke of York and Albany, Bishop of Osnabrück

ancestors

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Louis VI. Elector Palatinate (1539–1583)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Friedrich IV. Elector of the Palatinate (1574–1610)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Elisabeth of Hesse (1539–1582)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Friedrich V Elector Palatinate (1596–1632)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 William I of Orange (1533–1584)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Luise Juliana of Orange-Nassau (1576–1644)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Charlotte de Bourbon-Montpensier (1547–1582)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sophie of the Palatinate
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mary Stuart Queen of France and Scotland (1542–1587)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 James I (VI.) King of England and Scotland (1566–1625)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley (1545–1567)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Elisabeth Stuart (1596–1662)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Frederick II, King of Denmark and Norway (1534–1588)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Anna of Denmark (1574-1619)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sophie of Mecklenburg (1557–1631)
 
 
 
 
 
 

literature

(Sorted alphabetically by author.)

Web links

Commons : Sophie von der Pfalz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Thea Leitner : Scandal at Hof , p. 12, Ueberreuter, 1993, ISBN 3-8000-3492-1
  2. ↑ Dirk van der Cruysse, Madame sein ist ein ellendes Handwerck, Liselotte von der Pfalz , 14th edition 2015, p. 57ff.
  3. ^ Renate du Vinage: An excellent woman. The fate of Eleonore d'Olbreuse, the last Duchess of Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Celle . 2nd Edition. Otto Meissners, Berlin 2010, pp. 41, 43
  4. ↑ James Tyler: A Guide to Playing the Baroque Guitar. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis 2011, ISBN 978-0-253-22289-3 , pp. 45 f.
  5. ↑ Dirk van der Cruysse, Madame sein ist ein ellendes Handwerck, Liselotte von der Pfalz , pp. 261–272.
  6. ↑ Wolf Schneider: Ernst August I and Sophie von der Pfalz as bishops in Iburg and Osnabrück (1662-1672) in: Heimatjahrbuch Osnabrücker Land 2003, p. 204
  7. ^ Ulrich Ackermann: The trip to Italy of the Electress Sophie of Hanover . Foreign experiences of a princess of the baroque age. In: Academic series . tape V144968 . Grin Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-640-54144-7 .
  8. ↑ Charlotte-Elisabeth Orléans, Malte-Ludolf Babin: Liselotte von der Pfalz in her Harling letters , Volume 1, 2007, p. 245
  9. ↑ Horst Bredekamp , Leibniz and the Revolution of Garden Art , Wagenbach 2012, ISBN 3-8031-5183-X
  10. ↑ Helmut Knocke , Hugo Thielen : Mausoleum , in: Hannover Art and Culture Lexicon , p. 92
  11. ↑ R. Geerds (ed.), The mother of the kings of Prussia and England. Memoirs and letters from Electress Sophie von Hannover , Ebenhausen-Leipzig, Langewiesche-Brandt, 1913, letter to Leibniz dated May 20, 1714, p. 437
personal data
SURNAME Pfalz, Sophie von der
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hanover, Sophie von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Electress of Hanover
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1630
PLACE OF BIRTH The hague
DATE OF DEATH June 8, 1714
Place of death Herrenhausen