Daughters of the Winter Queen
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Sophia received this letter, with its implied threat that the inheritance might be withdrawn if Anne so chose, on June 6. It upset her terribly. She was by this time nearing her eighty-fourth birthday, an astounding longevity for her century, and had been feeling poorly herself. “I believe I am more ill than she is,” Sophia had remarked of Anne when she first heard the English queen was failing. “Although, by the grace of God, I have only that sad complaint of being old, which is beyond remedy,” she added with her customary levity. Now the thought that after having waited thirteen long years, she might have done something irrevocable to jeopardize her family’s standing in England caused her deep distress. “This affair will certainly make me ill—I shall never get over it,” she told her lady-in-waiting after reading Anne’s letter.
But by June 8, 1714, she felt well enough to come down from her rooms to dinner. “Not only did she dine in public, but when, in the evening, the time came for her to walk, she showed a strong desire to do so, although the weather was somewhat cloudy and it threatened to rain,” reported the lady-in-waiting, who was a witness to these events. “She declined the bearer and walked as usual, talking ever of the English affairs with the Electoral Princess [Caroline]. These unfortunate affairs had taken the firmest hold of her heart, and the Queen’s letter… had made the deepest impression on our good Electress.” The three women were in the middle of their walk when Sophia suddenly felt faint and had a pain in her stomach. Her granddaughter-in-law and the lady-in-waiting were attempting to help her back toward the castle when it began to rain heavily, so they decided instead to take shelter in one of the huts that dotted the garden. They never made it. Within a few steps, Sophia had collapsed in their arms. “I am very ill; give me your hand” were the last words she said.
Although there was no autopsy, it was likely a heart attack. She was unconscious before they could summon aid, which was just as well, for once help arrived, “for another hour they tormented her” with bloodletting. “A sweeter death was never seen, nor a happier one,” the lady-in-waiting was able to report at last, “since that dear and good princess did not feel the attempts to revive her, and was thus able to die in tranquility.” She was buried quietly in the chapel of the elector’s palace in Hanover, where she had begun her married life.
Leibniz was bereft. “The death of Madam the Electress has upset me deeply,” the great philosopher grieved. “It is not her, it is Hanover, it is England, it is the world, it is I who have lost by it.”
LESS THAN TWO MONTHS later, in the early morning of August 1, 1714, Anne, majesty of Great Britain, died at Kensington Palace in London, and within hours George Louis was proclaimed king. Sophia had missed being queen by fifty-four days.
“Without her,” Liselotte noted, “he would never have become King of England.”
Epilogue
ON OCTOBER 18, 1714, SOPHIA’S eldest son was crowned George I in an opulent ceremony at Westminster Abbey, thus beginning a dynasty that has lasted to this day. As a result of this change of power, the name George became very popular within the British monarchy, no one having the slightest idea that it was originally inspired by a feckless suitor who couldn’t commit.
One of Sophia’s granddaughters, Sophie Dorothea’s daughter, also ascended to royalty, marrying her first cousin, Figuelotte’s son, the king of Prussia. Their child, Frederick the Great, would rise to power in the next century, only to be reined in by the Empress Maria Theresa, the most courageous woman of her time. As Maria Theresa married Liselotte’s grandson, this meant that her youngest daughter, a woman of some small notoriety by the name of Marie Antoinette, was Liselotte’s great-granddaughter.
The ideas of Descartes and Leibniz, fostered and disseminated throughout Germany by Princess Elizabeth and her sister Sophia, were enormously influential and helped lay the groundwork for the Enlightenment that was to come.
MANY WOULD ARGUE THAT the legacy of Mary, queen of Scots, was her unyielding adherence to Catholicism and thus discount her role in future events. But it is impossible to look at her granddaughter Elizabeth Stuart and not see Mary’s courage, intelligence, strength of mind, and absolute unwillingness to surrender. And just as clearly, the Winter Queen passed along these traits in varying degrees to her daughters. Even shy Henrietta Maria, the weakest of the four, achieved a position where she might have wielded political influence, although she died too soon to capitalize on it, a victim of her own beauty and a want of antibiotics.
The truth is that there was almost no major political, cultural, philosophical, religious, or artistic movement—and the seventeenth century was chock-full of them—in which the queen of Bohemia and her daughters did not figure prominently.
These women were not ahead of their time—they were their time. And that legacy—Mary’s—endures.
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The Court Paintings of Gerrit van Honthorst
The Winter Queen and King…
Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia (Royal Collection Trust © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2017/Bridgeman Images)
Frederick V, Elector Palatine and King of Bohemia (Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Wien)
And Their Children, in Order by Birth
Frederick Henry, the eldest son (Ashdown House, Berkshire, UK/National Trust Photographic Library/Bridgeman Images)
Although it says “Maurice,” this is actually a portrait of Karl Ludwig. It was mislabeled in a later century. (Ashdown House, Berkshire, UK/National Trust Photographic Library/Bridgeman Images)
Princess Elizabeth, “la Grècque [the Greek]” (Ashdown House, Berkshire, UK/National Trust Photographic Library/John Hammond/Bridgeman Images)
Rupert, “le diable [the devil]” (Ashdown House, Berkshire, UK/ Photo © National Trust Images/ John Gibbons/Bridgeman Images)
This is Maurice. (© Sotheby’s 2017, Private Collection of James Stunt of Stunt Acquisitions)
Louise Hollandine, “Louisa” (Lobkowicz Palace, Prague Castle, Czech Republic/ Bridgeman Images)
Edward (Private Collection/Johnny Van Haeften Ltd., London/Bridgeman Images)
Henrietta Maria (Ashdown House, Berkshire, UK/National Trust Photographic Library/Derrick E. Witty/Bridgeman Images)
Philip (© Sotheby’s 2017, Private Collection by courtesy of the Hoogsteder Museum Foundation)
Sophia, the youngest daughter (Royal Collection Trust © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2017/Bridgeman Images)
The Triumph of the Winter Queen, Allegory of the Just, 1636, by Gerrit van Honthorst
In the upper left-hand corner, the deceased family members: Frederick V, Elector Palatine and King of Bohemia; his eldest son, Frederick Henry; and two children who died as toddlers. The living members, from left to right: Philip; Edward; Gustavus Adolphus; Princess Elizabeth; Louise Hollandine; Henrietta Maria; Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia; Sophia (flying overhead); Rupert; Karl Ludwig; Maurice. Notice that, even though Karl Ludwig had by this time come of age and was the ostensible head of the family, he is not the one driving the chariot!
(Oil on canvas/Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Private Collection/L-R 12.2011/Photo © 2018, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Selected Art of Louise Hollandine
The Finding of Erichthonius, an allegorical painting. The woman on the far right in the gold dress is almost certainly Louisa’s first cousin Mary, daughter of Charles I and princess of Orange, which means that the baby pictured is very likely Mary’s son, William III, prince of Orange and future King of England.
(Private Collection/Photo © Christie’s Images/Bridgeman Images)
Self-portrait by Louisa as a young, unmarried woman living at her mother’s court at The Hague (© Sotheby’s 2017)
Self-portrait of Louisa as a nun at the abbey of Maubuisson
(© Sotheby’s 2017, Private Collection by courtesy of the Hoogsteder Museum Found
ation)
Acknowledgments
As I have never studied the history of art, and make absolutely no pretension to be anything other than an interested layman, the chapters in this book on Louise Hollandine and the Golden Age of Dutch painting obviously presented a particular challenge. Luckily, I had assistance from a number of people who gave generously of their time and expertise, and without whom this work would be much the poorer. Chief among these were Ronni Baer, the William and Ann Elfers Senior Curator of Paintings, Art of Europe, at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; and Adam Eaker, Assistant Curator, Department of European Painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Each of these scholars taught me more in fifteen minutes than I had managed to glean on my own from books. Dr. Baer took time out of an incredibly busy schedule to discuss Gerrit van Honthorst’s career, and even took me to a museum workroom where one of his early paintings was being restored. Dr. Eaker not only helped provide insight into Louise Hollandine’s allegorical paintings, but also aided the effort to track down the images of her work that appear in this book, and which add so much to her story. Barbara von Barghahn, Full Professor, Department of Fine Art and Art History at George Washington University, was also kind enough to read the chapter on Honthorst and the general history of seventeenth-century Dutch art to ensure that I did not make any glaring errors.
As regards the illustrations, I must also thank Carolyn Cruthirds at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston for helping me to obtain the rights to publish Honthorst’s Triumph of the Winter Queen; Karen Serres and Louisa Dare at the Courtauld Gallery in London for “Boye the dog” and research on other images of Louise Hollandine’s work; David Pollack and Sarah Evans from Sotheby’s and Amparo Martinez Russotto at Christie’s for their aid in locating and obtaining permissions from private collections for paintings sold at auction; and Susanna Feder at Bridgeman Images for her patience and good humor in the face of an onslaught of emails from an obsessive author. My deepest appreciation also goes to Dr. Willem Jan Hoogsteder and his assistant Emilie den Tonkelaar at Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder for providing the images and permissions for Louise Hollandine’s self-portrait as a nun and the portrait of Prince Philip. Dr. Hoogsteder, who wrote his dissertation on Elizabeth Stuart and Frederick V, has assembled perhaps the defining collection of paintings relating to the Winter Queen and her family. To see some of them, go to hoogsteder.com/exhibitions/previous-exhibitions/buy-winter-queen-exhibition and download the exhibition newspaper.
To Simon Wright at Orion (another recipient of those obsessive emails), whose time I’m afraid I rather monopolized, many thanks for all the help finding images and securing permissions. I am also grateful to be represented in the UK by Tom Robinson, who has stayed with me throughout my career. And of course my deepest appreciation as always to Alan Samson, my editor and publisher at Weidenfeld & Nicolson, upon whose friendship and support I can always rely.
Similarly, I must also thank Asya Muchnick, my editor at Little, Brown, for her careful read, warmth, and praise for the book; the same goes for her former assistant, Sarah Haugen, who helped me through the publishing process. And to my agent Michael Carlisle, who placed this work exactly where it should be, and who I consider at this point to be a de facto member of my family, my enduring thanks.
And finally, this book was an immense effort for me that I could not have undertaken, let alone finish, without the love and support of my family. To my daughter, Lee, who took the time to read the book in manuscript and was so enthusiastic and helpful when I was anxious and uncertain, I cannot thank you enough. You gave me such insightful edits, and your love and approbation absolutely buoyed me. And to my husband, Larry, who also took days away from his own pressing deadlines to read the book in manuscript even after the poor guy had heard most of it while I was writing it, and who has steadfastly maintained throughout all my wailing that this was my best work, all my love and gratitude.
About the Author
NANCY GOLDSTONE’S previous books include The Rival Queens: Catherine de’ Medici, Her Daughter Marguerite de Valois, and the Betrayal That Ignited a Kingdom; The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc; Four Queens: The Provençal Sisters Who Ruled Europe; and The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily. She has also coauthored five books with her husband, Lawrence Goldstone. She lives in Sagaponack, New York.
nancygoldstone.com
By Nancy Goldstone
The Rival Queens: Catherine de’ Medici, Her Daughter Marguerite de Valois, and the Betrayal That Ignited a Kingdom
The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily
The Maid and the Queen: The Secret History of Joan of Arc
Four Queens: The Provençal Sisters Who Ruled Europe
Trading Up: Surviving Success as a Woman Trader on Wall Street
By Nancy Goldstone and Lawrence Goldstone
The Friar and the Cipher: Roger Bacon and the Unsolved Mystery of the Most Unusual Manuscript in the World
Out of the Flames: The Remarkable Story of a Fearless Scholar, a Fatal Heresy, and One of the Rarest Books in the World
Warmly Inscribed: The New England Forger and Other Book Tales
Slightly Chipped: Footnotes in Booklore
Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World
Deconstructing Penguins: Parents, Kids, and the Bond of Reading
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