Sophia of Hanover
Electress Sophia of Hanover (born
Sophia, Countess Palatine of Simmern, at
The Hague) (
October 14,
1630 –
June 8,
1714 in
Herrenhausen) was the youngest daughter of
Frederick V, Elector Palatine, of the
House of Wittelsbach, the "Winter King" of Bohemia, and
Elizabeth Stuart. She was also the mother of
King George I of Great Britain and is therefore an ancestor of the Hanovarian
line of succession to the British throne. As Electress Sophia she was the consort to
Ernst August, Elector of Hanover.
Before her marriage, Sophia, as the daughter of Frederick V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, was referred to as Sophie, Princess Palatine of the Rhine, or as Sophia of the Palatinate.
On
September 30,
1658, she married Ernst August, Duke of
Brunswick-Lüneburg, at
Heidelberg, who in 1692 became the first
Elector of
Hanover. (Electors were princes who had the right to vote to elect the emperor of the
Holy Roman Empire.)
Sophia became a friend and admirer of
Gottfried Leibniz while he was a courtier to the House of Brunswick, from 1676 until his death in 1716. This friendship resulted in a substantial correspondence, published in the 19th century (Onno 1973), that reveals Sophia to have been a woman of unusual intellectual ability and curiosity.
Sophia commissioned significant work on the
Herrenhausen Gardens surrounding the palace at
Herrenhausen and died there during an evening walk.
Sophia plays an important role in British history and royal lineage. As the daughter of Elizabeth Stuart and the grand-daughter of
James I of England/James VI of Scotland, she was the closest
Protestant relative to
King William III after his childless sister-in-law,
Princess Anne. In 1701, the
Act of Settlement made her
heir presumptive, for the purpose of cutting off any claim by the Catholic
James Francis Edward Stuart, who would otherwise have become King James III, as well as denying the throne to many other Catholics who held a claim. The act restricts the British throne to the "Protestant heirs" of Sophia of Hanover who have never been Catholic and who have never married a Catholic. Presently there are almost 5,000 descendants of Sophia although not all are in the line of succession. The
Sophia Naturalization Act of
1705 granted the right of British nationality to Sophia's non-Catholic descendants (though this has been modified by subsequent laws).
[Picknett, Lynn, Prince, Clive, Prior, Stephen & Brydon, Robert (2002). War of the Windsors: A Century of Unconstitutional Monarchy, p. 206. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1-84018-631-3.]Some
Whigs had intended to establish Sophia on the throne as
Queen of Great Britain in the event of
Queen Anne dying without issue. This would have disinherited Anne's next-of-kin, her brother
James Francis Edward Stuart, who would otherwise have succeeded to the throne according to the principles of
primogeniture. Although considerably older than Anne, she enjoyed much better health. Upon her death, Sophia's eldest son
Elector Georg Ludwig of Hanover became
heir presumptive in her place, and weeks later succeeded Queen Anne as
King George I of Great Britain. Sophia's daughter
Sophia Charlotte of Hanover (1668-1705) married
Frederick I of Prussia, from whom the later Prussian kings and German emperors descend. The connection between the German emperors and the British royal family, which was renewed by several marriages in future generations, would become an issue during
World War I.
Sophia had additional sons, none of whom had children. Those who reached adulthood were:
*Friedrich August von Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Imperial General, (1661-1691)
*Maximilian Wilhelm von Braunschweig-Lüneburg,
field marshal in the Imperial Army, (1666-1726)
*Karl Philipp von Braunschweig-Lüneburg, colonel in the Imperial Army, (1669-1690)
*Christian von Braunschweig-Lüneburg, (1671-1703)
*
Ernst August II von Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Duke of York and Albany, became
bishop of Osnabrück (1674-1728)
Other references
*Klopp, Onno, ed., 1973 (1873).
Correspondenz von Leibniz mit der Prinzessin Sophie. Hildesheim: Georg Olms. In French.
*
British monarchy*
UK topics*
Gottfried Leibniz
