Daughters of the Winter Queen

by Nancy Goldstone

  21. “ruined and destroyed their country”: Hassall, Louis XIV and the Zenith of the French Monarchy, 175.

  22. “Do not look upon”: Blaze de Bury, Memoirs of the Princess Palatine, 307.

  23. “I have wept so much”: The Letters of Madame, vol. 1, 42–43.

  24. “Unfortunately the Chevalier”: Ibid., 47.

  25. “I became so melancholic”: Ibid., 51–52.

  26. “You can judge whether I have good reason”: Ibid., 55–56.

  27. “Get the idea out of your head”: Ibid., 57.

  28. “If they were to kill me for it”: Ibid., 83.

  29. “What really grieves me”: Ibid., 84.

  30. “Now the King is the sole master”: The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Charlotte, 32.

  31. “the Maintenon woman”: The Letters of Madame, vol. 1, 131.

  32. “the old bawd”: Ibid., 116.

  33. “the old wretch”: Ibid., 139.

  34. “the dirty old slut”: Ibid., 140.

  35. “The Great Man [Louis XIV] is incredibly simple”: Ibid., 135.

  36. Catherine would turn on her former Huguenot allies: For more on this and the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, see my earlier work The Rival Queens.

  37. “Reunion”: Baird, The Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, vol. 2, 34.

  38. “A day was appointed”: Agnew, Protestant Exiles from France, Chiefly in the Reign of Louis XIV, vol. 2, 4.

  39. “Men and women”: Baird, The Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, vol. 2, 48.

  40. “This new grandeur, Sire”: Ibid., 7.

  41. “Soldiers are strange apostles”: Ibid., 67.

  42. “What I am going to relate”: The Letters of Madame de Sévigné to Her Daughter and Friends, 260.

  43. “It must be owned”: Strickland, Lives of the Queens of Scotland, 355.

  44. “I pray to God”: Strickland, Leibniz and the Two Sophies, 163.

  45. “the tranquility of mind”: Ibid., 167.

  46. “What gives me a very bad idea”: Duggan, Sophia of Hanover, 158–59.

  47. “I have again visited my aunt”: The Letters of Madame, vol. 1, 186–87.

  48. “The greater part of our manufacturing”: Baird, The Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, vol. 2, 77.

  49. “Never in my life”: The Letters of Madame, vol. 2, 23.

  50. “I have received the sad news”: Ibid.

  51. “the Abbesse de Maubuisson, Louise Hollandine”: The Letters of Madame, vol. 2, 108.

  Chapter 20. A Scandal in Hanover

  1. “Three days ago I arrived here”: Barine, Madame, Mother of the Regent, 44–45.

  2. “the Bishopess”: Ward, The Electress Sophia and the Hanoverian Succession, 159.

  3. “One cannot live more than once”: Ibid., 160.

  4. “was much addicted to laughing”: Strickland, Lives of the Queens of Scotland, 316.

  5. “Ma tante”: Ibid., 309.

  6. “The bonds of holy matrimony”: Memoirs of Sophia, Electress of Hanover, 101.

  7. “The Duke asked me”: Ibid., 107–8.

  8. “As I should have been mortified”: Ibid., 110.

  9. “play basset”: Ibid., 125.

  10. “I should have been very dull”: Ibid., 125–26.

  11. “returning alone in the carriage”: Ibid., 132.

  12. “a party to go to the country”: Ibid.

  13. “in a state of utter consternation”: Ibid., 146.

  14. “reflecting that a civil war”: Ibid.

  15. “She was grave and dignified”: Ibid., 150.

  16. “anti-contract of marriage”: Ibid., 152.

  17. “Hoping to touch the Duke”: Ibid.

  18. “Though it will be said”: Ibid., 154.

  19. “He died as a true German”: Wilkins, The Love of an Uncrowned Queen, 28.

  20. “At school I… should”: Mackie, Life of Godfrey William Von Leibnitz, 19.

  21. “Having experienced the good fortune”: Ibid., 86–87.

  22. “I suspect that what Newton”: Ibid., 99.

  23. “Madam [Sophia]… is a great genius”: Strickland, Leibniz and the Two Sophies, 2.

  24. “Monsieur Leibniz must have”: The Letters of Madame, vol. 1, 256.

  25. “It does both [Sophia and Figuelotte] a disservice”: Strickland, Leibniz and the Two Sophies, 3.

  26. “I do not concern myself”: Ibid., 170.

  27. “I cry about it all night long”: Ward, The Electress Sophia and the Hanoverian Succession, 201.

  28. “enter into Christian matrimony”: Wilkins, The Love of an Uncrowned Queen, 23.

  29. “The Duke of Celle would no longer”: Memoirs of Sophia, Electress of Hanover, 187–88.

  30. “He remembered you”: Strickland, Lives of the Queens of England, 79–80.

  31. “does not care much”: Wilkins, The Love of an Uncrowned Queen, 57.

  32. “This is a fair and beautiful princess”: Strickland, Lives of the Queens of Scotland, 324.

  33. “Here is my day”: Wilkins, The Love of an Uncrowned Queen, 226.

  34. “No, I mean to die”: Strickland, Lives of the Queens of England, 28.

  35. “You have given your daughter”: Ibid., 51.

  36. “It is a melancholy prospect”: Ibid., 140.

  37. “God help me”: Ibid., 176.

  38. “This court is as splendid”: Wilkins, The Love of an Uncrowned Queen, 102. I have translated from the French: “The Duchess Sophia is une personne incomparable d’un esprit, d’une bonté, et d’une civilité à charmer.”

  39. “To show us he doth not”: Ibid., 113.

  40. “A courier is come hither”: Ibid., 254.

  41. “I am in the depths of despair”: Ibid., 142.

  42. “Why do not the hours”: Ibid., 155.

  43. “My greatest grudge”: Ibid., 241.

  44. “The Electress talks about you”: Ibid., 269.

  45. “Marshal Podevils was the first”: Ibid., 322.

  46. “bathed in milk”: Ibid., 334.

  47. “I have been told his sister”: Ibid., 366.

  48. “had often gone away”: Ibid., 365.

  49. “They would never have believed”: Ibid., vii.

  50. “as to the Question whether”: Ibid., 369.

  Chapter 21. The Triumph of the Winter Queen

  1. “Be it enacted and declared”: Historical Association of Great Britain, Constitutional Documents, 2–3.

  2. “You may be sure”: Toland, An Account of the Courts of Prussia and Hanover, 53–54.

  3. “The Electress is three and seventy”: Ibid., 58.

  4. “I was the first”: Ibid., 60.

  5. “What makes it worse for me”: Duggan, Sophia of Hanover, 175.

  6. “I am afraid to contemplate”: The Letters of Madame, vol. 1, 249.

  7. “she herself would be”: Somerset, Queen Anne, 290.

  8. “I thank God, I am in good Health”: Sophia of Hanover, A Letter from Her Royal Highness, 1.

  9. “It is from the heart”: Macpherson, Original Papers, vol. 2, 31.

  10. “Madam, my sister and aunt”: Rait, Five Stuart Princesses, 329–30.

  11. “I believe I am more ill”: Ibid., 330.

  12. “This affair will certainly”: Ward, The Electress Sophia and the Hanoverian Succession, 431.

  13. “Not only did she dine in public”: Rait, Five Stuart Princesses, 331.

  14. “I am very ill”: Ibid.

  15. “for another hour… die in tranquility”: Duggan, Sophia of Hanover, 189.

  16. “The death of Madam the Electress”: Strickland, Leibniz and the Two Sophies, 28.

  17. “Without her”: The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Charlotte, 254.

  * In fact, it was not traditional for daughters to be taken from their mothers. Mary Stuart had lived with her mother, Mary of Guise, until she was engaged to the dauphin and sent to France to learn the customs of the kingdom it was expec
ted she would rule.

  † Queen Anne would give birth to another son and two daughters over the course of her marriage but none of these children survived longer than two years.

  * In later life, he developed a great dread of witches and pursued them obsessively. From this aversion sprang the inspiration for Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

  * Morton was one of the two high noblemen at James’s inaugural who had taken the oath of office in the king’s stead when he was too young to form the words himself.

  * He would later commission and personally oversee the production of the King James Bible, a signal achievement.

  * Henry was initially expected to stay in Scotland, but no sooner had James left for England than Anne defied her husband and went to take possession of her eldest son from his guardian, the earl of Mar, whom she detested for depriving her of her child. James chastised her by letter, observing that it was primarily due to the earl’s negotiations on his behalf that they owed their new positions as king and queen of England, to which his wife retorted “that she could rather have wished never to see England, than to be obliged for it to the Earl.” She chose her moment well. Reluctant to engage in a controversy that might delay his coronation, James relented and allowed Henry to accompany Anne and Elizabeth to England.

  * Elizabeth Stuart’s experience replicated that of her grandmother Mary Stuart to a startling degree: born in Scotland, Mary also lived frugally until her engagement at the age of five to Francis, eldest son of Henry II and Catherine de’ Medici, whereupon she was sent to France and grew up in splendor at the royal court.

  * The informer was concerned that the more moderate Catholic lords (one of whom was his brother-in-law), who were not in on the conspiracy, would be blown to bits along with their Protestant counterparts. The letter urged the Catholic peers to come up with a pretext for avoiding the session.

  * There is also the evidence that Elizabeth’s daughters were educated along these lines, and in my experience, parents tend to replicate their own schooling in their children; witness James’s insistence that his sons learn Latin.

  † “This is only my desire/This doth set my heart on fire/That I might receive my lyre/With the saints’ and angels’ quire [choir],” Elizabeth rhapsodized. Let’s hope she did better with botany.

  * Although publicly James blustered that he would never allow his daughter to become a Catholic, evidence indicates that he was in fact considering marrying her to Philip III and probably would have accepted this condition provided the conversion ceremony occurred in Spain and not England. But Elizabeth remained ignorant of this, as the Spanish ambassador never made a formal offer of marriage, thus relieving the king of the responsibility for broadcasting his views, and allowing all the blame to fall on the queen.

  * In cases where the office for emperor fell vacant or was in dispute, the matter was settled by election. Out of all the barons in Germany, only seven were allowed to cast votes; hence the term elector. Frederick was one of the seven.

  * Charles was actually twelve years old when Henry died, but he was so slight and physically immature that the Venetian ambassador may perhaps be excused for thinking him younger than he was.

  * This was an important ceremony. James sat in state; Elizabeth’s remaining brother, Charles, escorted Frederick to his place in front of the king’s great throne, where a large Turkish carpet had been specially spread for the occasion. All the government ministers, royal courtiers, and the princess’s ladies-in-waiting were in attendance. Frederick wore “a black velvet cloake caped with gold lace”; Elizabeth was also in black velvet, her gown richly embroidered in silver. Gout or no gout, it is difficult to believe that Anne would have missed such a critical day in her only daughter’s life if the queen were not intent on publicly signaling her opposition to the marriage.

  * Certainly Frederick had a conduit to the French government in the person of his uncle, the duke of Bouillon, one of the highest-ranking Huguenots in France.

  * Lord and Lady Harrington were ensnared in one of these clashes of etiquette and departed in July 1613, a mere six weeks after their arrival in Heidelberg. To Elizabeth’s great grief, Lord Harrington died of fever on the journey back to England. Her maid of honor stayed and married the count of Shomberg.

  * The three Crowns were the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

  * In English, Charles Louis, but Charles was such a popular name in the Stuart family that rather than always have to identify which Charles I am talking about, I have decided to use the German spelling.

  * Philip III, king of Spain, the dominant relation within the Habsburg dynasty, pressured Matthias to name one of his sons (the oldest was eleven) as king of Bohemia. Ferdinand, who was thirty-eight and had at least traveled in Germany and visited Prague, was considered the lesser evil by Matthias and his counselors. No one wanted the Spanish to have an excuse to invade the empire.

  * The three Catholics were the electors of Mainz, Cologne, and Treves; the Protestants were Frederick (Elector Palatine) and the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg.

  * This would not be the only time that the loss of Henry due to premature death would have a significant impact on English and European history.

  † When Elizabeth’s mother, Queen Anne, had died six months previously, on March 2, 1619, without leaving a written will, James had taken the opportunity to bestow many of her finest jewels, as well as her primary residence and other holdings, on Buckingham. The father did not set aside a single gem or other property of his wife’s, even as a token of remembrance, for his daughter, although Elizabeth grieved deeply at the loss of her mother. The rest of Anne’s estate went to Charles, who was present at her deathbed and was her vocal heir.

  * James’s excuse for this behavior was “that his subjects were as dear to him as his children, and therefore he would not embroil them in an unjust or needless quarrel.” But surely the time to have expressed this sentiment would have been before he signed the German defensive treaty. James had been happy enough to take on the role of the dominant Protestant power and leader of the Princes of the Union during peacetime.

  * Woodrow Wilson’s similarly studious insistence on neutrality and naive handling of the Germans in World War I comes to mind.

  * In other words, the Spanish were not invading for their own conquest but only so they would have the pleasure of giving it all back to James.

  * There is no reliable data on the size of Buquoi’s force, as it had been skirmishing in the field during the summer and its numbers were probably diminished and then refilled with recruits over that time. However, Buquoi was upset that he had not been named supreme commander and had wanted the duke of Bavaria’s army to go in a different direction in order to split the Bohemian forces, believing that he could then easily defeat his half. If true, this means he must have had at least 20,000 soldiers under his command, which in turn meant that, once Buquoi and the duke of Bavaria met up, Frederick’s army was looking at a combined imperial opposition force of over 40,000 men. And this was without the regiments advancing under the leadership of the elector of Saxony.

  * The duke of Württemberg also levied a small force from within his duchy and conducted it personally to Bohemia to aid Frederick. He would later pay dearly for this demonstration of loyalty.

  * This turned out to be a prudent move. Of Frederick’s supporters who remained behind, more than forty of the leading aristocrats were rounded up, and a mass execution was held in the public square by direct order of the emperor, to discourage future rebellions.

  * Maurice of Nassau was Frederick’s mother’s half brother. Frederick’s extended family was impressively confusing even by the standards of the day owing to his maternal grandfather, William the Silent, having had fifteen children by four wives. This was the same Maurice, prince of Orange—middle-aged and balding—who had once been a suitor for Elizabeth’s hand.

  * Approximately seven thousand of these soldiers were Englishmen who had volunteered for this assignme
nt under the command of Sir Horace Vere. The force was a far cry from the 30,000 promised.

  * “Ye shall present her with two fair long diamonds… and a fair pendent diamond hanging at them; ye shall give her a goodly rope of pearls, ye shall give her… thirteen great ballas rubies, and thirteen knots or conques of pearls, and ye shall give her a head-dressing of two and twenty great pear pearls… and three goodly pear pendent diamonds, whereof the biggest to be worn at a needle in the midst of her forehead, and one in every ear,” read a partial list of the rare gems dispatched to Spain in pursuit of the Infanta, as elucidated by James to Charles in a letter of March 17, 1623.

  * Louis was sickly from birth and would die the following year. He “was the prettiest child I had, and the first I ever lost,” Elizabeth would later write sadly.

  * It was during this trip that the duke of Buckingham took it into his head to try to seduce Louis XIII’s wife, Anne of Austria, queen of France, a diplomatic initiative of questionable value. This is the source of the liaison depicted in The Three Musketeers. Unlike the character of the French queen portrayed in the Dumas novel, however, Anne of Austria definitely rejected the duke’s overtures.

  * He had already signed a peace treaty with France the previous May.

  * That the cardinal and Louis XIII feared Ferdinand’s ambitions would eventually lead to an invasion of France if not checked was well documented. “They say the French king—though not yet in print, yet in words to those ambassadors and agents that are about him, and in deeds to all the world—hath now professed enmity more than ever against the house of Austria [the Habsburgs]: the main reason whereof is because he knows well enough that if he had not called that… king [of Sweden] into Germany, the Austrians had poured some four armies into France at one clap,” reported a member of the English government.

  * And this was the prince Elizabeth’s parents wouldn’t let her marry! What a couple these two would have made.

  * Frederick had an unfortunate habit of referring to himself in the third person, as “the King of Bohemia,” even in his personal letters to Elizabeth.

  * I know it is difficult to keep the different Elizabeths straight but I will try very hard to make it clear when I am talking about the mother and when the daughter. This Elizabeth is Frederick’s widow. As a rule, I will endeavor to always refer to her eldest daughter as Princess Elizabeth to avoid confusion.