Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/339

 10 B. xii. OCT. 2, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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of the German queens, on the very proper ground that the materials for a serious and impartial review were inadequate for the purpose. We quote the present author :

" That barrier no longer exists ; rather the flood of information poured forth in published memoirs and correspondence, together with the stores available in the Public Record Office, the British Museum, and the volumes of the Historical MSS. Commission, render the bio- grapher's task that of selection from embar- rassing riches. All that the present writer can lay claim to is to have endeavoured to select from the most trustworthy of reprinted sources and the most promising of the unprinted what appears to be the best evidence upon the character and activities of these five German princesses."

The volume under review is the first instal- ment of these biographies, and is concerned with only the first two, viz., Sophia Dorothea of Celle, and Caroline of Ansbach, the wives respectively of George I. and George II.

Although Sophia Dorothea was actually wife to George I. she was never introduced by him as Queen Consort ; in fact, she never set foot in this country. At the tune of the accession of George she was immured at Ahlden, where no intercourse with the outside world was allowed, and from which only death released her. The inclusion of her biography in this series is more for the sake of completeness, as she was the ancestress of the succeeding royal house.

The tragic history of Sophia Dorothea of Celle is dealt with in detail. We are still in doubt as to the amount of direct evidence which ultimately consigned the lady to a lifelong imprisonment and doomed her lover to a mysterious end. That she was foolish and wayward is certain, but there appears to be no proof that her character was vicious. The neglect and eventual hatred of her husband were undoubtedly contributory causes for her dallying with Konigsmarck.

To estimate exactly the extent of her folly and guilt, if guilt it was, is difficult, even with the sources of information which have now been laid open. Weighing the incidents set down in care- ful detail, the reader must draw his own con- clusions as to the extent of the intrigue between the ill-starred pair. That such an intrigue did exist is undoubted ; that it should have existed is surprising when we consider that Sophia Dorothea was born and educated in a species of hot-house elegance which accorded ill with the coarse animalism evident in her lover.

Contemporary opinion on the subject of her guilt appeared to be evenly divided, but most people were at one in condemning the brutal callousness of George himself as the author of the murder of Konigsmarck and the life-long imprisonment of his unhappy wife, both con- demned without adequate trial. The author quotes a letter written by Cressett, the British agent at Celle :

" Connegsmarck's commerce with our Electoral Princess is now all come out, and it is murder as bad as that of his brother's upon poor Mr. T. (Mr. Thynne, murdered in London by the bravos of the elder Count Konigsmarck). Connegsmarck's papers have all been seized, and the Princess and her letters discovered. She is undone, and her father and mother will hardly outlive the disgrace. I am in their confidence, and comfort

them all I can, you may be sure, for better Princes or people there cannot be on earth."

Throughout the whole of the events which led up to the catastrophe, its fatal termination and the aftermath, the figure of George stands out in a most unenviable light :

" Not only did George destroy all the authentic papers of the trial, but he and his ministers sought out every document bearing upon it for similar destruction. Whatever these letters contained which the ducal agents found in Konigsmarck '

apartments, they seem now lost for ever

No evidence was to remain which could consoli- date the special account agreed upon by the Court and Ministry of Hanover. . . .The mean vindictiveness of George I. refused to allow either her name or her mother's to be inscribed on their coffins, far less in the church above."

After the accession of George I. to the English throne, it might have been imagined that en- deavours would be made to preserve at least an outward show of cordiality towards his family, in particular to the Prince of Wales. Such attempts were, however, of a perfunctory charac- ter, and the ultimate open quarrel with the Prince and Princess, culminating by order of the King, in the separation for years of the Prince and his; children, caused a terrible scandal.

The death of George I. and the accession of George II. brought to the front of high politics a personage who was destined for the remainder of her life to hold almost uninterrupted sway over the monarch and the fortunes of the English people. Caroline of Ansbach had early in her married life, whilst yet the succession of the- Hanoverian dynasty was by no means a certainty, realized her position and the responsibilities entailed thereby, and had endeavoured by the utmost means in her power to qualify herself for the high station which she rightly anticipated she would occupy. Her prevailing character- istic was an even temper combined with great tact. This was most in evidence in her dealing with her husband. George II. cordially disliked: being dictated to by any one, and yet was most effectually ruled by the Queen, and to the last was unaware of the fact that he was but a puppet in the hands of his resourceful wife, ably assisted by the wise if unscrupulous Walpole.

The author sums up the Queen's methods as follows :

" By whatever means she succeeded, her suc- cess was a national blessing. Caroline understood England well enough to see that the position of her family was not yet established there.. Precious years had been wasted during the last reign, and the forces of disorder were so active that order, and its attendant prosperity, could only be got by maintaining Walpole and Walpole's rigidly peaceful policy."

We commend the book as an impartial review^ by a thorough historian of Court life concerning which there has not hitherto been too much in- formation available. Hervey's memoirs, spoilt by his bias against George II. and Queen Caroline, are not particularly trustworthy ; but the present work, being written in an easy anecdotal manner, should prove acceptable to readers whose tastes Incline them to the study of an interesting and somewhat obscure phase o the Georgian era.