Assassination: The Royal Family's 1000-Year Curse (39 page)

As decreed by the Act of Settlement, when Queen Anne died the House of Hanover took the throne. Sophia had missed out by six weeks. She had wanted the crown. Her son, George, was not in the least interested in England or its crown; he never would be. His interests were confined to horses, hunting, women and Hanover. In truth he was 56th in line, but because the 55 ahead of him were Catholics, he became the first King of Great Britain.
²⁷

Hanover was a north-German state in Lower Saxony, to the south of Denmark. It was not really the state of Hanover, it was the Duchy of Braunschweig-LÜneburg (‘Brunswick-Luneburg’ in English). However, when Hanover became the main town, the English and others called the duchy ‘Hanover’.

27 If Sophia had failed to provide an heir or had converted to Catholicism or married a Catholic, in order to find a Protestant monarch it would have been necessary to go back to Henry VIII’s younger sister, Mary. Her two sons died young, her daughter Frances’ three daughters left no legitimate children, so the line would have run through Mary’s younger daughter, Eleanor. As a result, her 3 x great-granddaughter Margaret Brydges (daughter of Lord Chandos) would have become queen, and her heir Lady Caroline Ogilvy (née Child Villiers) would now be queen; although there are other views on the descent.

The ruling family traced their descent from the Guelphs, a branch of the House of Este from Lombardy, themselves claiming Saxon ancestry. George Ludwig (George Lewis in English) was the oldest son of Duke Ernest Augustus and his wife, Duchess Sophia of the Rhineland Palatinate. Sophia was the twelfth child of Elizabeth Stuart (sister of King Charles I) and Frederick the Elector Palatine (the Palatinate of the Rhine being a small state in mid-west Germany) and for a short time the King of Bohemia. The electors each had a vote in the election of the Holy Roman Emperor. There were for a long time seven electors, then eight, and George Lewis would become the ninth.

Although Elizabeth Stuart was the daughter of a king of England and the sister of a king of England (both born in Scotland), there was little English in her. She was Scottish, and all of her parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were Scottish, German, Danish or French. Just one great-greatgrandparent was English (Henry VIII’s sister, Margaret Tudor). And through that one great-great-grandparent, Elizabeth was a 7 x great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford, and an 8 x great-granddaughter of Philippa of Clarence and Edmund Mortimer 3rd Earl of March. It was the thread that led to the crown for her grandson, George; although he was even less English than Elizabeth, none of his other grandparents having any English blood at all.

In England, the oldest son inherited his father’s titles and lands. Under the law of most German states, the titles and lands were divided amongst all the sons. That is why Germany was split into over 350 states and mini-states.

During the sixteenth century, the ruler of the duchy was Duke William, and he had seven sons. He did not want to see his duchy disintegrate into seven small territories. However, he accepted that each of his sons was entitled to inherit part of the duchy. So he devised a plan; he declared that all of his sons could inherit, but only one son would be allowed to marry. Then on the deaths of the six unmarried sons, their lands would pass to the married son (or if he had died, then to his heirs who would have to be bound by a similar arrangement) and the duchy would be reconstituted. They drew lots, and the sixth son, George, won. In time it went just as Duke William had planned, and the territories were re-united.

George himself had four adult sons. The oldest, Christian, had married, but he had no sons. That left the unmarried George William, John Frederick and Ernest Augustus. The family decided that the oldest of the three must marry and produce a male heir to preserve the family’s rule over the duchy. As a result, George William was betrothed to Sophia, daughter of Elizabeth Stuart. But when it came to the wedding, George William changed his mind, he just could not face matrimony. So he made an agreement with his youngest brother, Ernest Augustus: if Ernest agreed to marry Sophia, George William would never marry and on his death his lands would pass to Ernest or his heirs. Ernest agreed, and so did Sophia.

John Frederick complained bitterly; he was next in line, not Ernest. But it was too late. In time, both Christian and John Frederick died without leaving male heirs
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. Years later, George William, now Duke of Celle, broke his promise and married his mistress so as to legitimise their daughter, Sophia Dorothea. It was not a great problem for Ernest Augustus, because under the Salic Law females could not inherit territory or titles.

However, in order to acquire the Duke of Celle’s rights of income that were not covered by the Salic Law restriction, Ernest Augustus insisted that his oldest son, George Lewis, should marry his cousin, Sophia Dorothea. In the same year, Ernest Augustus established the right of primogeniture in the English style, so that George Lewis and his descendants would not face the same problem.

At first George Lewis and Sophia Dorothea disliked each other; within a short time they hated each other. Nevertheless, a son, George, was born and later they had a daughter.

28 John Frederick later converted to Catholicism and married, and his daughter Charlotte married the Duke of Modena who was the brother of James II’s wife Mary of Modena.

When the call of war came in 1683, young George Lewis led the Hanoverian troops, part of the Christian alliance against the Turks. The Battle of Vienna, won by the Polish-AustrianGerman forces led by King Jan III Sobieski of Poland, reversed the Turkish advance into Europe. The story is that to celebrate the victory, Viennese bakers created a new design for their
kipferl
pastry (itself possibly a descendant of the ancient Jewish
rugelach
rolled up dough pastry), shaped like the crescent on the Turkish flags.ItwasintroducedtoFrancewhenaformerAustrianofficer opened the Boulangerie Viennoise in Paris. Over time, it was developed in France into a rolled up buttery flaky bread still in a crescent-shape, and therefore known as a
croissant
(French for ‘crescent’). To this day, croissants and similar baked foods are called
Viennoiseries
in France.

Another story from the victory is that the Austrians found a huge store of coffee that had been abandoned by the fleeing Turks. Holy Roman Emperor Leopold tried the coffee, but found it too bitter; so one of his advisers, a Capuchin friar called Marco d’Aviano, added milk and honey to sweeten the coffee – he had invented the
cappucino
.

George Lewis returned to Hanover, and he soon acquired a mistress. When the dashing Swedish Count Philip von Konigsmark was appointed Colonel of Dragoons at court, he too acquired a mistress; he started an affair with Sophia Dorothea, and he made no effort to keep it secret. That could not be allowed. The Count was murdered, and George Lewis divorced Sophia Dorothea on terms that she was forbidden to re-marry and could never see her two children again. Only 28 years old, she was (with the agreement of her father) confined in Ahlden Castle for the rest of her life, not allowed to have any visitors other than her mother. Still confined, she died there 32 years later.

In 1693, George Lewis again led his forces, this time supporting the English and the Dutch against the French. At the Battle of Neerwinden, King William had taken up a defensive position. After protracted canon-fire, the French attacked. William ordered a counter-attack, but was forced back by the superior numbers of the enemy. In order to support his flanks, William decided to move troops from the centre. The French commander saw what was happening, and he ordered his cavalry to charge the weakened centre of William’s line. Before George Lewis and his cavalry could call for reinforcements, the French were upon them. Suddenly, George Lewis found himself detached from his men and surrounded by French horsemen. His fate was clear, the French moved in for the kill. But General von Hammerstein had seen his commander’s plight and, without a thought for his own safety, he immediately galloped through the French horsemen directly to George Lewis. At the very moment when the French came up to George Lewis and swords were swung at him, von Hammerstein arrived. He snatched the reins from George Lewis’s hands and led him to safety. The battle was lost, but the attempt to kill George Lewis had failed.

On the death of his father in 1698, George Lewis became Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg. Seven years later, on the death of the Duke of Celle, George recovered his uncle’s lands, thereby enlarging the duchy. There was still time to serve in the War of the Spanish Succession; but now that he was nearly 50 George resigned from active service, for which he was later rewarded with appointment as a Prince-Elector.