When a marriage reads like something out of a novel,
or at the very least, from another era, it is a bizarre and savage tale
that resulted in Britain having its second divorced ruler.
George I, unlike Henry VIII, did not remarry but founded the House of Hanover.
His son would become George II, and his wife a direct ancestor
of every British king going forward.
In 1664, Éléonore d’Olbreuse met George William,
and the Duke’s instant affection for her cemented her move to Germany.
She was awarded the title “Lady of Harbourg.”
Just two years later on 15
September 1666, our leading lady was born.
But due to her birth and parents would remain shrouded as an illigitimate
through the early part of her life, yet things were not about to improve.
The child would go on to live a miserable existence, upon reaching adulthood
she was sentenced to spend the majority of her life behind bars.
So join me as we look back at the 17th century
‘who done it’ mystery of Sophia Dorothea.
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Sophia Dorothea appears to have grown up in a carefree and loving household.
And she was undoubtedly helped by her father,
who gave her a substantial inheritance over time
so that she would have better marriage prospects.
Little is known about Sophia’s childhood.
At the age of eight, in 1674, she was eventually legitimised
and given the title of Duchess of Wilhelmsburg
since she was an only child and therefore posed no threat to the Duke.
However, It was in 1676 and long over
due that Eleonor and George tied the knot legally.
Almost immediately, a Danish prince and the nearby
Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel expressed interest
in marrying Sophia Dorothea, but nothing ever came of it.
The second engagement had more staying power,
but in the end, George William decided that his daughter would be happier
marrying her first cousin, George Louis of Hanover.
George William
attempted to settle the dukedom of Lüneburg.
His original plan was to have his daughter Sophia wed to Ernest Augustus, Elector
of Brunswick-Lüneburg, whose eldest son George Louis
would become King George I of Great Britain.
Because of the unusual circumstances surrounding Sophia Dorothea’s birth,
his brother and sister-in-law, were hesitant to support the engagement.
Sophia Dorothea’s parents did nothing to make her look
like a desirable bride to her future husband’s family,
but she represented a considerable dowry that Hanover desperately needed.
The fact that her parents made her sleep in their bed
because they found love letters she had been secretly
keeping was one story that has made it into history books.
One more is that when she was told she had to marry her cousin,
she hurled a miniature of him covered in diamonds against the wall
and vowed that her parents would have to pull her to the aisle.
Although some would say that anger could be justified,
considering George Louis wasn’t quite the picture-perfect groom.
Infact a little scandal erupted in 1676
when he was 16 after he impregnated his parents’ governess.
As a person, he was icy and unpleasant.
It was even suggested that he marry his cousin Anne Stuart,
the daughter of James, Duke of York, the heir
to the childless Charles II.
But eventually the ceremony was held on 21 November 1682.
when Louis was 22 and Sophia was 16.
It was evident from the start that the marriage was doomed to fail.
Sophia, George Louis’s mother, hated Sophia Dorothea,
thinking her birth and manners were beneath them.
George Louis was hostile to his new bride
and constantly reprimanded her for her poor behaviour.
Their conversations always ended with heated words.
However, they successfully had two children: George
Augustus, born on 30 October 1683, future King George
II of Great Britain and Sophia Dorothea, the future Queen Consort in Prussia
and Electress Consort of Brandenburg, who was born on
16 March 1687.
Once George Louis, felt he had completed his mission,
he took a mistress named Melusine von der Schulenburg
but even then continued mistreating his wife.
He couldn’t remove his wife permanently as they were worried about
losing the 100,000 in cash that would be his share of Sophia
Dorothea’s dowry and inheritance from her father if the marriage fell apart;
so in stepped his parents who asked him to be more discreet with his lover.
When Sophia Dorothea learned of the affair,
she made it known to her husband that his actions were inappropriate.
Dislike and resentment became the norm over the next
five years after initial irritation and disinterest.
It all led to Sophia Dorothea becoming preoccupied with her misery.
Melusine gave birth to George Louis’s daughter, Anna Louise, in January 1692.
In 1693, Petronella Melusine,
the second of the couple’s daughters, entered the world.
In the mean time no additional pregnancies or children were recorded
for Sophia Dorothea following the birth of her daughter,
suggesting that the pair had unofficially broken up.
What happened
next is up for grabs, but the conventional wisdom holds
that in 1790 Sophia Dorothea began exchanging letters with a Swedish colonel
in the Hanoverian army named Count Philip Christopher von Konigsmarck.
The pair sent their correspondence to the Count’s
sister twice a year to keep it out of prying hands.
However, some of these letters made their way into the hands
of their descendants, and it is believed that Sophia Dorothea’s son
had many of them destroyed to maintain the couple’s privacy.
Letters suggest they started having a sexual affair in March 1692,
not long after George Louis’s illegitimate daughter was born;
and it’s unclear if Sophia was aware of the birth.
They tried to keep the affair under wraps, but word quickly spread.
Sophia Dorothea’s mother and mother-in-law, warned her
to stop out of compassion for her deteriorating marriage.
Her sister-in-law was less sympathetic.
In 1694, Sophia
and her ladies-in-waiting enjoyed an evening stroll in the gardens.
On the grounds, they came to a small, recently constructed
building that Sophia insisted on entering.
She saw her husband and his mistress sitting on a couch
with their daughter in a cradle between them.
George tried to strangle his wife during a violent argument that ensued.
But if Sophia thought she’d have the support of her in-laws,
she was mistaken; she was informed politely but firmly
that she should ignore her husband’s infidelities and keep her own hands clean.
It was the final straw for Sophia; unable to accept her marriage,
she began plotting an escape with Konigsmarck.
She had no choice but to ask her parents for a personal side income
because her husband was entitled to her entire dowry
and riches per the provisions of their marriage contract.
Yet, they declined stating a lack of funds.
By now, the marriage was hopeless; George admitted to himself
and promised to approach his father to make plans for a legal separation.
Konigsmarck was spotted in Sophia Dorothea’s
residence on the evening of 1 July 1694.
Rumour has it that Ernest Augustus’ mistress, the Countess von Platen,
who hated Princess Sophia
Dorothea, sent him a message to meet her at a specific hour.
Konigsmarck informed Sophia Dorothea upon their arrival
that a carriage was waiting to transport them to Wolfenbuttel;
however, she requested that he remain 24 hours
so that she may spend time with her children before leaving.
Von Platen and her accomplices had been watching their every move
from a nearby building, and when they spotted Konigsmarck arrive,
she ran to Ernest Augustus and boasted that she would soon have the lovers
in her clutches and put a stop to their affair.
After he gave his consent, she returned to Sophia apartment
and bolted all the doors.
Konigsmarck realised what had happened when he wanted to depart
but was prevented from doing so.
After Von Platen and her accomplices broke into his apartment, they murdered him.
She panicked and tried to explain what had happened to Ernest Augustus.
But Ernest although he was all for outing the couple hadn’t
given his permission for the murder.
Realising his complicity, Ernest had the body dumped in the palace latrines,
doused in quicklime, and hidden behind an overnight-constructed brick wall.
Sophia Dorothea was presumably unaware of the incident
because she was on the opposite side of the building and didn’t
hear any noise.
The following day, she was greeted and informed
that she would remain inside her room under court order.
In the end, the official party line was that Konigsmarck had vanished of his own
free will, and the request for an official investigation was dismissed.
But everyone suspected foul play.
While this happened, George William, Ernest Augustus, and George Louis
began the legal process of divorcing Sophia Dorothea.
They made excuses for her refusal to live with her spouse,
which had nothing to do with her infidelity.
She was to be relocated from Hanover to Celle’s Ahlden.
Although the official line stated that she had been caught escaping
and had placed herself at her parents’ mercy
if influential people inquired about her whereabouts.
Sophia Dorothea
insisted on her innocence throughout the divorce process,
but the judge ultimately ruled in favour of her husband.
Her father and father-in-law agreed to allow George Louis to keep her dowry
for his children while barring her from leaving Ahlden Castle.
This information was, however, withheld from Sophia.
After her marriage ended on 28 December, she bid farewell to her children
and had no idea she would never see them again.
She hoped that by moving to Ahlden,
she would be given more flexibility to travel to see her parents.
However, not weeks or months later did she begin
to understand what had happened, and that she was a prisoner.
Her mother pleaded for her release and paid her numerous visits,
but her father refused to see her.
Although Louis was legally entitled to remarry as the “innocent” person,
her ex-husband never did so and forbade their children from having
contact with her.
Sophia Dorothea was sentenced to life in jail
at the demand of her previous husband and with her father’s approval.
A total of 40 men at arms, with anywhere from five to 10 on duty at any given
moment, kept vigil over her in the castle’s
two-story half-timbered north wing around the clock.
Her mother, however, was allowed unrestricted visits and mail.
Nobody knows if she ever tried to get away, although it seems unlikely.
At first, Sophia Dorothea could only roam the mansion’s courtyard unattended.
A little while later, she was given guarded access to the gardens.
She was only allowed to leave the walls for short, two-kilometre
supervised trips after the first two years.
Her time at Ahlden was repeatedly cut short
by conflict and construction on the home.
She was shipped off to either Celle Castle or Essel during those stints.
Her Hanover-loyal entourage included two ladies in waiting,
six chambermaids, and other home and culinary staff members.
Upon her eventual release from prison, Sophia
Dorothea became known as the Duchess of Ahlden.
She was completely numb to the whole situation.
In a letter of sympathy,
Sophia assured her now ex-husband that she still loved him.
“She begged God on her knees daily to forgive her
and give him a sign that she had finally gotten his attention.
If he grants her visitation with her two children,
she will be forever grateful to him.”
She also wrote a letter of condolence to the Electress Sophia, her
ex-mother-in-law, expressing her desire to “kiss Your Highness’s
hands before I die.” Both George Louis
and Sophia remained silent.
At the end of his life in 1705, Sophia Dorothea’s father wished to see her
so that he might make amends, but his chief minister, Count Bernstorff,
was against it because it would cause diplomatic tensions with Hanover.
In the end, George William did not get to meet his daughter.
Since her mother passed away
in 1722, Sophia Dorothea has been alone.
Dressed more impeccably than usual, Sophia waited
every day at the window of her home in 1725
when her daughter, the Queen of Prussia, travelled to Hanover to visit her father,
who was by then King George I of Great Britain.
She never appeared.
Sophia began to gain weight and became prone to frequent
bouts of illness, including high fevers and stomach pain.
She had a stroke early in 1726, and in August of that year,
she went to bed with acute colic and rejected all food and medication.
On 13 November 1726, just before midnight,
she passed away at 60.
Her ex-husband announced the death of the Duchess of Ahlden in The London Gazette,
but he banned any public mourning services in either London or Hanover.
Guards at Ahlden lowered Sophia Dorothea’s lead casket into a basement.
London issued the order for her unceremonious burial in the Ahlden
cemetery in January 1727,
but weeks of rain made that impossible.
The casket was returned to the basement and buried in the sand.
Sophia Dorothea was not laid to rest in Celle’s Stadtkirche
with her parents until May 1727,
when she was buried in secrecy at night.
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