The King's Mistress: The True & Scandalous Story of the Woman Who Stole the Heart of George I (36 page)

13
. The canal was not built with the sole purpose of enhancing the carnival-goers’ enjoyment. Its primary function was as a buffer against flooding. See Komachi and Queren,
Herrenhausen Gardens
, p. 74.

14
. Frederick the Great, quoted in Richie,
Faust’s Metropolis
, p. 72.

15
. Hatton,
George I
, p. 29.

16
. ibid., p. 45.

17
. Kroll,
Sophie
, p. 178.

18
. Hatton,
George I
, p. 34.

19
. ibid., p. 82.

20
. ibid., p. 38.

21
. ibid., p. 40.

22
. Sophia,
Memoiren
, p. 121.

23
. It was probably symptomatic of Klara Platen’s insecurity and jealousy of Sophia that she named her daughter by Ernst August Sophia Charlotte; Figuelotte, Sophia and Ernst August’s only daughter, was christened Sophia Charlotte.

24
. Liselotte,
Letters
, trans. and ed. Kroll, p. 78.

25
. ibid.

4. The Mistress

1
. See Schnath,
Geschichte Hannovers im Zeitalter der neunten Kur und der englischen Sukzession 1674–1714
.

2
. Schnath, vol. 4, p. 60.

3
. Jesse,
Memoirs of the Court of England
. The editor claims that Melusine was standing behind Sophia at the time.

4
. Aurora von Königsmarck, sister of Count Philipp Christoph von Königsmarck, talking about the princess in 1693. Cited in Hatton,
George I
, p. 49.

5
. Sophia,
Letters to the Raugravines
, to Louise, 24 Sept 1702.

6
. For George feeling things deeply, see Hatton’s essay,
George I: In Search of an Elusive Ruler
.

7
. Richie,
Faust’s Metropolis
, p. 6.

8
. Thackeray, W. M.,
The Four Georges: Sketches of Manners, Morals, Court and Town Life
, p. 45.

9
. Hatton,
George I
, p. 57.

10
. ibid., p. 54.

11
. See Sophia Dorothea,
Der Königsmarck-Briefwechsel: Korrespondenz der Prinzessin Sophie Dorothea von Hannover mit dem Grafen Philipp Christoph Königsmarck, 1690 bis 1694. Kritische Gesamtausg. in Regestenform
, (Hildesheim 1952) p. 48.

12
. Hatton, p. 55.

13
. See Sophia Dorothea,
Der Königsmarck-Briefwechsel
.

14
. ibid., p. 56.

15
. Hatton,
George I
, p. 57, quotes
Königsmarck-Briefwechsel
, 23 June 1693.

16
. For a full account see Hatton, p. 59.

17
. Schnath, p. 59.

18
. Liselotte,
Letters
, trans. and ed. Kroll, p. 87.

19
. On her marriage to Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Prussia young Sophia Dorothea became queen of Prussia. She was the mother of Frederick the Great.

20
. Wilhelmine,
The Misfortunate Margravine
, ed. Rosenthal (1970).

5. Beloved

1
. Ernst August,
Letters
, ed. Kielmansegg, p. 256.

2
. Hatton quotes Prüser,
George I
, p. 69.

3
. Ernst August,
Letters
, ed. Kielmansegg.

4
. Schnath,
Geschichte Hannovers
, vol. 2.3, p. 418.

5
. Toland,
Account of the Courts of Prussia and Hanover
, p. 54.

6
. ibid., p. 70.

7
. Hatton,
George I
, p. 99.

8
. See HMC,
Report on the Mss of His Grace the Duke of Portland preserved at Welbeck Abbey
, pp. 437–8.

9
. Scott Stevenson, trans. and ed.,
The Letters of Madame from 1661 to 1708
.

10
. Schaumburg-Lippe,
Letters
, 12/23 June 1724.

11
. Thompson, Andrew,
George II: King and Elector
, p. 30.

12
. George, ‘George I’s letters to his daughter’, in
EHR
1937, ed. Arkell.

13
. ibid.

14
. Arkell quotes G. Schnath,
Briefwechsel der Kurfürstin Sophie von Hannover mit dem Preussischen Königshause
(Berlin 1927), p. 105.

15
. Schnath, p. 198.

16
. Ernst August,
Letters
, ed. Kielmansegg, p. 89.

17
. Schnath, pp. 156–7.

18
. Hatton,
George I
, p. 78.

19
. Ribeiro p. 42 quotes Swift, Jonathan,
The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift
ed. T. Scott (1877) p. 285.

20
. Ribeiro quotes Edmond-Jean-François Barbier,
Chronique de la Régence
.

21
. Ribeiro quotes
The Present Sate of the Court of France, and City of Paris, in a Letter from Monsieur Mxxx to the Honourable Matthew Prior
(1712) p. 35.

22
. Ribeiro p. 38 quotes Mrs Delany, Delany, M.,
Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs Delany
, ed. Llanover (6 vols. 1861–2) p. 99.

23
. Ribeiro p. 41 quotes the anonymous author of
The Art of Dress
, p. 25.

24
. Hatton,
George I
, p. 161.

25
. Fabrice,
Memoiren
, pp. 156–7.

26
. See Hatton,
George I
, p. 135.

27
. Hatton,
George I
, p. 99.

28
. Cowper,
Diary
, p. 13.

29
. Wilhelmina,
The Misfortunate Margravine
, ed. Rosenthal, p. 86.

30
. Quoted in Komachi and Queren,
Herrenhausen Gardens
, p. 22.

31
.
The letters and diplomatic instructions of Queen Anne
, ed. B. C. Brown (1935), p. 413.

32
. Diary of Sir David Hamilton, quoted in Edward Gregg, ‘Anne (1665–1714)’,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2009.

33
. Quoted in Hatton,
George I
, pp. 109–10.

6. The Crown at Last

1
. King James I, 21 March 1609, see Brian MacArthur, ed.,
The Penguin Book of Historic Speeches
(1996).

2
. The population of 1714 was eight and a half million; six million resided in England and Wales, one and a half million in Ireland, and the union with Scotland in 1707 had added a million more souls.

3
. Quoted in Speck,
Stability and Strife: England, 1714–1760
, p. 2.

4
. Menasseh ben Israel, “To His Highnesse the Lord Protector’, in
Menasseh ben Israel’s Mission to Oliver Cromwell
, ed. Wolf.

5
. Uglow,
Hogarth
, p. 12.

6
. Ackroyd,
London
, p. 307.

7
. ‘Trivia’, John Gay,
Poetry and Prose
ed. Winton A Dearing, (2 vols. Oxford 1974) vol. 1, p. 138.

8
. Daniel Defoe,
Review
, 11, 9; 6 March 1705. Quoted in Uglow,
Hogarth
, p. 42.

9
. The impetus for William’s ‘invasion’ was as much about trade as religious ideology.

10
. In her last years Anne herself felt guilty at denying her half-brother James Frances Edward Stuart the throne, but as he refused to abandon his Roman Catholic faith the kingdom remained out of his grasp – at least legally. Both Bolingbroke and Oxford had corresponded with James. Bolingbroke was genuinely sympathetic towards him, while Oxford, a staunch supporter of the Hanoverian succession, played the politician’s pragmatic game of keeping his options open should a successful Jacobite invasion materialize on Anne’s death.

11
. G. deForest Lord, ed.,
Poems on Affairs of State
(7 vols, New Haven, 1962–75), vol 7.

12
. Michael, vol. 1, p. 28.

13
. Quoted in Michael,
England Under George I
, vol. 2, p. 281.

14
. Liselotte,
Letters
, trans. and ed. Kroll, p. 170.

15
. HMC,
Report on the Mss of His Grace the Duke of Portland preserved at Welbeck Abbey
.

16
. Quoted in Speck,
Stability and Strife
, p. 178.

17
. ibid., p. 181.

18
. Add. MSS 47028. Entry 26 Jan 1715.

19
. Kroll,
Sophie, Electress of Hanover
.

20
. ibid., p. 182.

21
.
Memoirs of the Secret Services of John Macky
, ed. A.R. (1733), quoted in
DNB
entry on Charles, Second Viscount Townshend.

7. Germans in England

1
. Beattie,
English Court
, quotes James Ralph,
A Critical Review of the Public Buildings . . . in and about London and Westminster
(1734), p. 48.

2
. Gwynn,
London & Westminster Improved
, pp. 10–11.

3
.
Cal. of Treasury Books
, ed. W. A. Shaw, xxix, 1957,
passim
.

4
. Saussure,
A Foreign View of England
, trans. and ed. Madame Van Muyden, p. 68.

5
. Swift,
Journal to Stella
, ed. Ryland, p. 328.

6
. HMC,
Report on the Mss of His Grace the Duke of Portland preserved at Welbeck Abbey.

7
.
Letter Books of John Hervey, First Earl of Bristol
(3 vols. 1894), vol. II, p. 9.

8
.
Daily Post
, Saturday 16 December 1721.

9
. Cowper,
Diary
.

10
. Hervey,
Memoirs
, p. 66, quoted in Beattie, p. 262.

11
. Hatton,
George I
, p. 264.

12
. See Beattie, p. 80.

13
. ibid., p. 261.

14
. Liselotte,
Letters
, trans. Forster, p. 96.

8. A Strange Family

1
. Worsley,
Courtiers
, p. 109.

2
. Worsley quotes Suffolk Records Office (SRO) 941/53/1, p. 219, William Hervey’s commonplace book, ‘Ballad of Molly Le Pell’ (1726).

3
. Worsley quotes Romney Sedgwick,
The House of Commons, 1715–54
(1970), vol. 2, p. 115.

4
. Bonet, reprinted in Michael, vol. 2.

5
. Hamilton,
Diary
, ed. Roberts, p. 87, n. 145.

6
. Saussure,
A Foreign View
, trans. and ed. Van Muyden, p. 43.

7
. ibid.

8
. Thackeray – Punch, under the title ‘George the First – Star of Brunswick’. Here, George is depicted as an illiterate and maleable buffoon with no taste in the arts, or in women. In Melville, L., ‘The First George’, vol. I, p. 217.

9
. Walpole,
Reminiscences
, pp. 29–30.

10
. Beattie, p. 136, note 1.

11
. Franklin,
Lord Chesterfield
, p. 92.

12
. Cowper,
Diary
, 4 Feb 1716.

13
. ibid.

14
. Kroll quotes Liselotte to Luise, Paris 14 January 1716, p. 197.

15
.
Manuscripts in the Possession of his Grace the Duke of Portland.

16
. Letter from John Clavering to Mary Cowper printed in Cowper,
Diary
, Appendix E.

17
. Quoted and translated from the original German by Hatton, p. 291. (German text: Verlasse nie einen Freund Strebe, jeden Gerechtigkeit zu erwiesen, Fürchte niemand.)

18
. Hatton,
George I
, p. 137.

19
.
Daily Post
, 18 Jan 1724.

20
. Hatton,
George I
, p. 137, quotes PRO, SPD Regencies 43 vol. 5 Townshend to Walpole, Hanover 17 and 23 Sept. NS 1723, on the money order composed of two bills of £500 each drawn on the treasury.

9. A City out of Rubble

1
. Henry Kett, quoted in Ackroyd,
London
, p. 517.

2
. Horace Walpole, quoted in Ackroyd,
London
, p. 309.

3
. Swift,
Poems
, ‘A Description of Morning’ (1709).

4
. Uglow,
Hogarth
, p. 13, quotes Lord Mayor’s ordinance; Henry Morley,
Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair
(1880)

5
. Bonet’s description of the English court to the Prussian king, reproduced in Michael, vol. 2.