00:00:00.000hello and welcome to vulgar history a feminist women's history comedy podcast0.99
00:00:19.200my name is ann foster and the season's theme is women trapped in towers and the assholes who sent0.78
00:00:25.160them there and this week's subject is Sophia Dorothea of Selle which is a place in modern day
00:00:34.120Germany and I had never ever ever heard about her until this past I think February I just kind of
00:00:43.320asked on Instagram for some suggestions of who might be interesting topics for future podcasts
00:00:48.100and this was this woman was suggested and I just went through all my messages I can't find who the
00:00:53.740person was who suggested it because I know I've corresponded with this person a few other times
00:00:57.680about Sophia Dorothea of Sela so if it was you shout out and thank you so much because I found
00:01:02.120her story so interesting Sophia Dorothea and then I kind of retrofitted the rest of the season just
00:01:09.200around wanting to talk about her so I thought like well I want to do a thing about Sophia Dorothea
00:01:13.280but I always like to go in chronological order so I found some other women who fit the same theme
00:01:18.420of women trapped in towers and but it was really sofia dorothea or as i refer to her in my notes
00:01:24.460sd is truly the muse for this whole season so and this is also hopping over there are going to be
00:01:33.580connections to british history because everything seems to kind of tie back to there on this podcast
00:01:40.360but also we're going to be looking at an area of what we now consider germany but back then like
00:01:47.640all these other places it was a whole bunch of little kingdoms and stuff with their own royalty
00:01:52.680and i don't super know a lot about the history of germany so there's going to be some stuff here
00:01:58.340that i will make my best guesses about to explain them to you some of my main source for this so
00:02:03.160part of the thing was i was like oh my god what an interesting story like i just read some online
00:02:06.960stuff about her and i'm like oh what's that only there were a biography and then guess what was
00:02:12.480just published a biography called the imprisoned princess the scandalous life of sophia dorothea
00:02:17.840of cella by katherine curzon i've got a link to that in the show notes because it's i was the
00:02:24.780timing was perfect like the existence of this book just when i wanted to read more so that's a mega
00:02:29.720source for this podcast as well as some online articles that i found as per always wikipedia as
00:02:36.840well as an article on rebecca star brown.com the extraordinary case of george the first's wife
00:02:41.040sophia dorothea of sela um the biography of sophia dorothea from englishmonarch.co.uk
00:02:46.540an article about sophia dorothea from the history buff.org and then katherine curzon who wrote the
00:02:54.100biography also wrote an article for historyanswers.co.uk um i'll read you the i don't i can't
00:03:01.620read you the title of the article because it'll sort of spoil what's going to come but just know
00:03:06.380it's a great title of the article maybe i'll say it at the end and then an article on julia
00:03:10.860herdman.com princess sophia dorothea the uncrowned queen of britain and i'm just going to go through
00:03:16.840a little bit of names because as per always there are several repeated names and so to try and make
00:03:24.600this podcast be least confusing possible i'm gonna i'm gonna say their names a bit differently from
00:03:31.340how they usually went so our heroine is sophia dorothea of cella which is spelled c-e-l-l-e
00:03:37.960and i'm just going to call her sd because in my notes i just started calling her sd and i think
00:03:44.740of her as sd and the thing is there's another sophia in the story who is sophia of hanover
00:03:49.720so that is the her aunt sd's aunt by marriage so sophia of hanover we're going to call sophia
00:03:57.760of hanover she is the daughter of elizabeth stewart granddaughter of james the first slash
00:04:03.880sixth and great-granddaughter of mary queen of scots her husband is called ernest augustus
00:04:11.140we're going to call him by both of his names sd's father is george there's a lot of george's in the
00:04:17.680story so her father we're going to call first name middle name george william and then her son
00:04:22.700or sorry her husband is george lewis so effectively sd is our heroine sophia of hanover is her aunt
00:04:31.560her father is george william her husband is george lewis and here we go so estie was born on
00:04:41.320september 15 1666 her parents were george william the duke of brunswick luneberg and his non-married
00:04:50.820partner eleanor desmere d'olbreuze who was a french noblewoman and also a huguenot
00:04:57.680eleanor and george william met in 1664 so two years before sd was born george william immediately
00:05:06.540fell in love with her and so she decided to move permanently to germany she was given the title
00:05:12.400lady of harbourg and sophie sd born two years later was their first and only child george
00:05:19.140william and eleanor entered into what is called a morganatic marriage which means i think i looked
00:05:27.100it up but effectively they weren't married but they were committed to each other but they couldn't
00:05:31.020get married for reasons i'm going to explain so this meant that sd was purposely left illegitimate
00:05:36.400because george william became the duke of brunswick luneberg when his older brother died
00:05:44.280and then he was pressured to marry sophia of hanover the daughter of elizabeth stewart
00:05:49.700granddaughter of james the first great-granddaughter of mary queen of scots but he didn't want to marry
00:05:53.820sophia of hanover because he was in love with eleanor so he proposed that he would never marry
00:06:01.440thus he would never have legitimate heirs and promise which meant that the bulk of his inheritance
00:06:06.420would go to his younger brothers so oh wait no he didn't bulk because he'd met eleanor he just
00:06:13.020bulked because he didn't want to marry sophia of hanover he's just like not for me how about if i
00:06:17.880never marry at all which is an interesting and bold choice for him to make so in 1658 his youngest
00:06:25.100brother ernest augustus married sophia of hanover instead and so those pieces are all in place so
00:06:34.180we've got george william his partner is eleanor and his daughter is sd his brother ernest augustus
00:06:40.980married sophia of hanover and they have a son called george lewis so george lewis and sd cousins
00:06:47.880So Esty grew up in a carefree, carefree in a loving environment. Unusual for literally every
00:06:55.360story I've ever told. Like her mother, Eleanor, Esty was attractive and lively. Her parents were
00:07:02.200unlike, well, my notes say unlike many noble and royal couples of that time, but I would say
00:07:07.120most. Her parents were actually deeply and genuinely in love with each other and gave
00:07:11.620warmth and affection to their bright and talented daughter, which is so nice to hear.
00:07:16.000since Eleanor had no official status she was able to personally raise her daughter who was very
00:07:22.260similar to her in personality um Eleanor was able to spend more time with SD than other upper class
00:07:29.020women of her time were able to because Eleanor had no official title because the whole George1.00
00:07:34.500William never gonna marry situation so SD she had no rights as a member of the house of Brunswick
00:07:41.660but but her father still wanted to secure her future which is understandable because they all
00:07:45.420loved each other which is nice he transferred large assets to her over time which made her
00:07:49.680an interesting marriage candidate because she was wealthy and connected to this royal family
00:07:55.620so there were various candidates for her hand in marriage including the augustus frederick
00:08:06.860the hereditary prince of brunswick wolfenbutel and then sd's status was enhanced even more
00:08:15.020and an imperial order of in 1674 so when she was eight years old in recognition to the military
00:08:22.620assistance given by her father to the emperor she and her mother eleanor received the higher title
00:08:27.660of countess of harburg and wilhelmsburg with the rights to to some other lands at first her parents
00:08:37.120agreed to the marriage between sd and what was his name augustus frederick the hereditary prince
00:08:43.720of brunswick wolf and butel because this guy was the child of relatives who had supported george
00:08:50.920william and eleanor's relationship from the beginning so they they like that family thought
00:08:54.840this would be a good family to connect themselves to so an official betrothal was signed december
00:08:59.8801675 so when sd was uh nine years old unfortunately the groom who was an adult was mortally wounded
00:09:09.940at the siege of phillipsburg in one year later so after the death of his daughter's fiance
00:09:14.800george william was keen to negotiate an agreement over the inheritance of the duchy of lunaburg
00:09:20.200he initially approached his younger brother ernest augustus to arrange a marriage between
00:09:26.520sd and ernest augustus's oldest son george lewis so that's the son of ernest augustus and sophia
00:09:34.360hanover however um ernest augustus and sophia of hanover both had misgivings about the proposed
00:09:41.640match because of the circumstances of sd's birth in the sense of that her parents weren't married
00:09:47.560so after his daughter was rejected by his brother to marry her cousin george william decided to
00:09:53.640improve once and for all sd's status as well as that of eleanor so there's a contract signed in
00:09:59.160In 1675, openly violating his previous vow to never marry, George William declared that Eleanor was his lawful wife in both church and state, and they had a wedding ceremony on April 2nd, 1676.
00:10:13.600Ernest Augustus and Sophia of Hanover stayed away from this wedding, and 22 days later, Eleanor was officially addressed at court as the Duchess of Brunswick, and SD therefore became legitimate.
00:10:26.080This development alarmed George William's relatives.
00:10:29.160Now that Esty was legitimate, she could potentially, not that she would personally, but just like she as a concept, could threaten the planned union of the Lunaberg territories, which like, I don't know.
00:10:41.520But she, her being legitimate was a threat to some people because it just was.
00:10:46.740So in 1680, the Lunaberg royal family recognized Eleonore as Duchess of Brunswick, and then Esty was declared princess of Brunswick Lunaberg Sella with all appertaining rights of birth.
00:10:59.160now that sd had this pedigree her cousin's parents e.g her aunt and uncle agreed to the0.71
00:11:07.360proposed union of george lewis to sd but sd herself did not want to marry her gross cousin
00:11:15.280eleanor did not want her daughter to marry her daughter's cousin but george william went ahead
00:11:20.320with the arrangements for the wedding anyway for because he'd supported it one anecdote that has
00:11:25.480made it so into history books is that um love letters were once found in sd's possession so
00:11:31.840i'm not sure who she's writing love letters to although i have a theory and i'll tell you in a
00:11:34.860bit so she might have been in love with somebody else maybe that's why she didn't want to marry
00:11:38.240her cousin after the love letters are found allegedly her parents forced her to sleep in
00:11:42.680their bedroom to keep her from sneaking off with anybody else so let me see so she's born in 1660
00:11:47.200so she's like 14 at this time of this arranged marriage another story is that when she was told0.61
00:11:55.780she had to marry george lewis she said quote i will not marry the pig snout a name by which he
00:12:01.600was known in hanover where he was from because nobody liked him and she threw a diamond studded0.86
00:12:08.200miniature of him against a wall and swore her parents would have to physically drag her to the
00:12:12.140altar so this is big caroline of brunswick energy if you remember season one episode one of this
00:12:19.840podcast and that's part of why i really am fond of the story of sophia dorothea because it really
00:12:25.440reminds me of that as well but just this whole like that she's a teenager maybe secretly in love
00:12:30.280with somebody that she pitched a fit and refused to get married like she's not pretending to be0.86
00:12:35.360pregnant and to avoid going to a ball but i feel like she would have done that if she had thought
00:12:39.600of it her cousin george lewis was not an ideal bridegroom anyway so when he was 16 years old
00:12:46.920he impregnated a governess in his parents household a matter which caused a minor scandal
00:12:52.060which is i don't know what to say about that he was 16 i do not know the age of the governess was
00:12:58.200she his governess i don't know what that situation would be how consensual or not any of that would
00:13:05.480have been uh other than that he was cold stiff and not wholly pleasant he also already had a
00:13:13.840mistress and was happy in his life with a soldier and didn't want to marry his cousin sd and he was
00:13:19.380also uh boring i wrote here even his mother didn't like him but his mother who didn't like him
00:13:27.040sophia of hanover wanted the financial benefits e.g the dowry of merrick's son to sd as well as
00:13:32.900guarantee that he George Lewis will be granted his father-in-law's kingdom so SD's father's
00:13:39.760kingdom upon his death so the wedding took place between these two teenagers who were cousins and
00:13:47.140did not want to marry each other 21st November 1682 so SD was 16 George Lewis was 22 from its
00:13:54.980early days the marriage was a complete failure it was an unhappy and tempestuous one and I think
00:14:01.440it's interesting too that sophia would have grown up seeing her parents who genuinely were in love
00:14:05.380with each other and treated each other with warmth and compassion so she would have had expectations
00:14:09.980for married life that were not going to be met by her marriage to this guy who seems like a real0.98
00:14:15.120jerk so her mother-in-law slash aunt sophia of hanover was not super thrilled with sd as daughter0.93
00:14:23.480in love but sophia started out the marriage attempting to make sd feel at home ernest augustus
00:14:29.320who is sd's father-in-law slash uncle found sd charming and her george lewis's younger brothers
00:14:36.920all thought her pretty however george lewis treated his bride with coldness and formality
00:14:41.700he frequently scolded her for her lack of etiquette and the two had loud and bitter
00:14:46.060arguments which again reminds me of caroline of benswick so and also on top of this they were
00:14:53.200first cousins and so they'd known each other for years and never liked each other which is probably
00:14:56.980way also they didn't want to marry each other marriage did little to help the fact that they
00:15:02.520did not like each other regardless they had a son named george augustus when he was born when sd was
00:15:11.38017 the following year earnest augustus so again sd's father-in-law uncle announced to his family
00:15:18.800that he intended to implement primogeniture to the succession of his estate and what did this mean
00:15:23.620it meant that George Lewis stood to inherit everything, and George Lewis's five younger
00:15:28.560brothers would not inherit anything. Needless to say, this news delivered at Christmas wasn't well
00:15:34.820received. 1686. Esty joined her in-laws, slash aunt and uncle, for a trip to Venice during
00:15:44.160Carnival, which then as now, I'm sure was such a fun time. It was her first visit abroad, like out
00:15:51.440of germany and she was a splashing success particularly with italian men who admired her
00:15:56.820beauty and charm this did not please george lewis who continued to find his wife cousin irritating
00:16:02.740but by now she was pregnant with her second child and so she had two children the daughter let's see
00:16:11.360so the the sequence of events so she's pregnant i'm going to talk about when she has the daughter
00:16:16.260in a minute but so basically george lewis having done his duty by the succession you know having
00:16:21.600had a son and now another baby on the way he acquired i don't know if this is the same mistress
00:16:25.960or it's a new mistress but his mistress at this time was called there's some incredible names in
00:16:31.460that story just so you know melusine van der schulenberg and he with melusine's company he
00:16:38.900started increasingly to neglect his wife asterix even more than before apparently sd discovered
00:16:45.440this affair while she was pregnant and she didn't shy away from complaining to her husband that his
00:16:49.800behavior was unacceptable because again she had grown up seeing a display of a genuine loving
00:16:55.240marriage and knew what a marriage could be like and she knew that hers was not what she wanted to
00:17:01.340settle for at one point sd grew so upset that she fell ill and physicians were afraid that she would
00:17:07.220miscarry sophia of hanover intervened and forced her son to visit his pregnant wife's bedside where
00:17:13.060he sat in silence holding her hand so comforting i'm sure the daughter was named sophia dorothea
00:17:20.520the same name as sd so she was born in march 1687 sd was 20 at the time so seeing how upset this
00:17:29.880whole situation was making sd george lewis's parents asked him to be more circumspect circumspect
00:17:36.180with his mistress uh fearful that a disruption in the marriage would threaten the payment
00:17:40.620of the money that he was to receive as part of sd's dowry and inheritance from her father so
00:17:46.820they didn't care that the marriage was happy they just didn't want the marriage to fall apart
00:17:50.180because they wanted sd's money which is gross so again having produced two children george lewis
00:17:58.600became if it was at all possible even more distant from his wife spending more time with his dogs and
00:18:04.980horses and knights with his mistress, who's a new mistress, who is the married daughter of his
00:18:10.660father's mistress. So his father's mistress's daughter, a woman named Sophia Charlotte von
00:18:18.040Keilmansegg, who is rumored to be George Lewis's half sister because Sophia Charlotte's mother was
00:18:25.640sleeping with his father. So could be. Over the next five years, annoyance and indifference gave
00:18:32.060way to harden resentment and dislike sophia of hanover continued to try and mediate because she0.98
00:18:37.920wanted money and in order to get the money the marriage had to succeed so sophia of hanover0.99
00:18:42.660comforted sd that the marriage would eventually make her queen of great britain for reasons that
00:18:49.280i guess i'll explain right now which were i'm trying to remember so what happened is in great
00:18:54.540britain there was mary queen scott's son james became king and then his sons and then all became
00:19:04.280kings and then there kind of just wasn't a son anymore and then that's when william and mary
00:19:09.900became king and queen and then after them anne became queen who was the one who's in the movie
00:19:16.080the favorite which you might have seen and remember that she did not have any children but she did have
00:19:22.220a lot of rabbits so with her well she had a lot of children they just all really horribly sadly
00:19:29.640um all died she had no surviving children queen anne the first so then they had to look at the
00:19:35.840family tree and be like who's going to be the next monarch of great britain asterix it has to be
00:19:40.480a protestant so then they crossed off all the catholics from the family tree
00:19:43.920And who that left was Sophia of Hanover, Esty's aunt by marriage, who was a descendant of James.0.58
00:19:54.940So at this point, Sophia of Hanover was actually heir to the throne of Great Britain, which meant that her son would be the next king.
00:20:04.080And her son is George Lewis. And that would mean that Esty would be the queen.
00:20:07.680so basically so if you handover is like try and be nicer to your husband who is my son who we both
00:20:13.920hate because one day he'll be king and you can be queen of great britain sd was like guess what
00:20:19.020that is not reassuring at all she was too wrapped up in her own unhappiness to care and why should
00:20:26.120she in january 1692 melusine one of george lewis's several mistresses gave birth to george
00:20:34.180Louis's bastard daughter, Anna Louise. And then one year later, she had a second daughter who is
00:20:41.300named Petronella Melusine. As for SD, there were no further pregnancies or children after her
00:20:47.500daughter's birth, indicating the couple likely stopped sleeping together, which makes sense as
00:20:52.520they clearly couldn't stand each other. So when she was about 24 years old, having now been married
00:20:59.380for eight years the mother of two young children sd was reunited with someone she had known in her
00:21:04.680teen years the swedish count philip christophe von kogesmark he was one year older than her so
00:21:11.120age appropriate and apparently they had hit things off when they were young teens and that's who i
00:21:16.160think the love letters were to and or from when her parents found them and made her sleep with
00:21:21.120them in her room now he's swedish and apparently super handsome and tall so i'm just want us all
00:21:26.540to picture alexander scars guard because that is the vibe of this guy so you you picture sd married
00:21:35.600to this guy who's just like boring and treats her badly and is awful and his awful parents and then
00:21:41.680into this situation comes the swedish count philip christoph von kogusmark looking all alexander
00:21:48.440scars guardy but like nice so sd took an interest in the tall and handsome swedish count
00:21:55.720the two had previously met in cella when they were younger teens where he'd worked as a page
00:22:00.420at the court they had indulged in flirtation and traced their names on the palace windows with the
00:22:05.600words forget me not but written presumably in german count koenigsmark was seemed he was very
00:22:15.300experienced and exciting to be around because he had you know traveled lots and he was worldly
00:22:21.580and when the couple danced together at a masked ball their friendship was more than rekindled
00:22:27.380george lewis's younger brothers liked the dashing count philip and brought him to esty's salon in
00:22:34.000the evening to cheer her because they saw that he cheered her up which is just like i don't know if0.96
00:22:38.560they were just fucking with her or if they were just that clueless but this was great because0.52
00:22:42.440she got to hang out with a guy who was super hot and liked her but the thing is that konigsmark was0.96
00:22:48.520a dashing handsome man and the former lover of sd's father-in-law's mistress so george lewis's
00:22:57.760parents sophia of hanover i think we all know about her now and his father was ernest augustus
00:23:02.600so ernest augustus had a mistress who was countess elizabeth clara von platen so countess
00:23:08.720elizabeth clara von platen had been lovers with konigsmark before so countess elizabeth was also
00:23:15.420very jealous so she watched with jealousy to see if konigsmark would move on to be with someone new
00:23:21.720because she liked being his lover even though she was also the king's lover so konigsmark remained
00:23:27.240in hanover for two years but left to take part in a military expedition to the peloponnese in 1690
00:23:32.360which turned out to be a disaster it was during this absence that konigsmark and sd realized that
00:23:37.500their feelings ran far deeper than just friendship the letters between the two grew increasingly
00:23:42.760heated passionate and incriminating until upon his return they succumb to their desires and we
00:23:49.160know this because the letters like literally exist i'll get into more details read the letters
00:23:53.260in a bit there are statistics for how many letters they wrote but it was like a lot so
00:23:57.660let's see they exchanged passionate and lurid love letters but to ensure secrecy twice a year
00:24:04.580the couple sent their letters to count philip's sister so that they wouldn't be found however
00:24:10.380smatterings of them have fallen into the hands of their various descendants and sd's son is
00:24:15.420believed to have had many destroyed what survives of the letters indicates that they began a
00:24:20.240physical relationship in march 1692 shortly after the birth of george lewis's bastard daughter anna
00:24:26.140though it's unknown whether sd knew that that daughter had been born who cares she was busy
00:24:31.540with her hot lover alexander skarsgård but countess elizabeth so count philip konigsmarx
00:24:39.840ex-lover who is also the lover of sd's uncle father-in-law was enraged to see herself usurped
00:24:47.540by this younger woman and was overcome by jealous fury so in 1692 countess elizabeth brought these
00:24:54.380letters to the attention of sd's father-in-law ernest augustus who was mad about it and sent
00:25:00.260konigsmark to fight with the hanoverian army against louis the 14th in france i guess so
00:25:06.860konigsmark was banished from the hanoverian court but soon found a position in the neighboring court
00:25:12.320of saxony where one night he was when he was drinking he let slip the state of affairs
00:25:17.760in the royal bench chamber of the house of hanover e.g that he was sleeping with
00:25:22.280sd and then this confession somebody heard it somebody told somebody else and then george
00:25:27.460lewis learned what was up and he was mad about it even though you know he was sleeping with
00:25:32.400however many people like let her live George Lewis honestly so everybody was hearing about this
00:25:37.500and then people warned SD that she really should stop having this affair Sophia of Hanover0.53
00:25:43.380her mother Eleanor and her sister-in-law all repeatedly warned her to put a stop to it
00:25:48.480um so and they did this potentially with some pity because they knew how bad her marriage was
00:25:56.140but they also knew that this was just going to not end well for her but SD could not be restrained
00:26:02.260she bowed out of family occasions to make frequent visits to cella where she had more freedom of
00:26:07.240movement and she could be with her hot swedish lover by 1694 rumors filled the court that
00:26:13.600sd and count von koningsmark were having a love affair so everybody knew so when his affair
00:26:21.180with sd threatened to become even more widely known although i feel like it is like
00:26:25.280about as widely known as it could be count philip handed their love letters to his brother-in-law
00:26:30.360the Swedish Count Karl Gustav von Lohenhaupt.
00:26:35.260It was his heirs who later offered the correspondence
00:26:37.900to the House of Hanover for money, e.g. blackmailing them,
00:26:41.340but they demanded such a high price that he rebuffed them
00:26:43.840and questioned the authenticity of the letters.
00:26:46.480The correspondence between S.D. and Count Philip
00:26:49.240was published in the middle of the 19th century,
00:26:51.780and the majority of the letters are now in the possession
00:26:56.060A few of the letters ended up in the possession of S.D.'s grandson,
00:26:58.900king frederick the great of prussia after his sister swedish queen consort luisa ulrica allegedly
00:27:05.640stole them and sent them to him i love this journey of these sexy letters frankly this make for a good
00:27:11.840book today the authenticity of the letters have been established beyond any doubt the lovers
00:27:17.960rarely dated their letters but they numbered them the historian georg schnaff calculated on the
00:27:25.300basis of the existing correspondence there must have been originally about 660 letters and this
00:27:31.260is like their affair was going on for not like 12 years it was just like a couple years about 340
00:27:38.800letters written by count philip and about 320 letters written by sd the missing letters seem
00:27:44.180to have been confiscated and destroyed by the hanoverian authorities after the affair became
00:27:50.640public. State archives in Hanover provide scant information about these critical years of sexy
00:27:56.040letter writing. Even the correspondence between Sophia of Hanover and her niece Elizabeth, which
00:28:02.700might have shed some light on the events based on them, what they were talking about were censored
00:28:06.260afterwards. So quite a scandal, lots of unknown little bits. And then one evening in 1694, SD went
00:28:14.300out walking in the gardens with her ladies and waiting. They encountered a small newly built
00:28:18.960building on the grounds that they had never seen, and Esty, being a curious person, insisted on
00:28:23.820entering. And when they entered, she came face to face with her husband and his mistress, reclining
00:28:28.860on a sofa with their infant daughter, sleeping in a cradle. A furious fight broke out. So George
00:28:36.960Lewis screamed at her about her affair with Count Philip, and she reacted by pointing out his own
00:28:42.460affair and baby that he was having. They had a physical altercation. George threw himself at Esty
00:28:48.100started tearing out her hair and strangling her leaving purple bruise marks on her neck her1.00
00:28:52.960attendants managed to pull him off her um sd did not get the support of her in-laws slash and an
00:29:01.000uncle sophia of hanover and ernest augustus she's told by them kindly but firmly she should turn a1.00
00:29:07.860blind eye to her husband's indiscretions and keep her hands clean like eg stop having an affair0.97
00:29:12.700and just like suck it up and worst advice terrible she needs more support so you need to talk to is1.00
00:29:20.020her own parents member of the loving marriage so that's where she went she traveled to see her0.98
00:29:24.680parents in cella to persuade them to support an official separation from her husband but her
00:29:29.920parents george william and eleanor opposed this probably for financial reasons yes this is
00:29:35.900partially because esty's father was waging war was dependent on the help of his brother and so he
00:29:41.760couldn't break up this marriage the marriage was needed for like financing for his war or whatever
00:29:46.300so she was sent back to hell aka the royal henover court so sd as you might understand like unable to0.85
00:29:57.760reconcile herself to like being in this loveless marriage with this horrible man who treated her0.98
00:30:01.540terribly she began to plan make plans to run away with sexy swedish count philip all of her dowry0.97
00:30:08.580and personal fortune was held by her husband thanks to the terms of her marriage contract0.99
00:30:12.560so meaning she had no money at her disposal so she began petitioning her parents for a private
00:30:18.960side income unfortunately they were in no financial situation to do so waiting for all of this to sort1.00
00:30:25.540itself out sd refused to sleep under the same roof as her husband and begged for her own household
00:30:30.160so george lewis was preparing to make a long a lengthy trip to visit his sister in berlin
00:30:35.380he agreed there was no saving the marriage and promised to ask his father for a formal separation
00:30:39.840once he returned and then that summer sd together with count philip and her lady-in-waiting eleanor
00:30:48.220von dem knythaback planned their escape hoping to find refuge either in wolfenbutel under the
00:30:54.200protection of duke anthony though that's the person who she was almost going to marry originally
00:31:00.280originally and then he died in the war remember this was the family who supported her parents
00:31:04.160sexy secret marriage so maybe she thought that they would support her now as well if they were
00:31:09.440just like bands of love they also thought maybe they could go to the electorate of saxony
00:31:14.160where count philip held an officer position as major general of the cavalry but their plan was
00:31:20.280discovered so on the night of july 1st 1694 count philip was seen entering sd's apartments
00:31:30.880legend has it he had received a note to meet her at an appointed time however this note wasn't from
00:31:36.680sd but it was a forgery and you know who it was from countess elizabeth the woman who had been
00:31:43.700count philip's lover before who is jealous of him who is now the lover of the king who is sd's
00:31:50.080father-in-law slash uncle so countess elizabeth has her revenge for being usurped as the lover
00:31:56.640of sexy swedish count philip so upon entering the apartments count philip told sd there was a
00:32:02.360carriage waiting to take them to wolfenbutel but she asked him to wait 24 hours so that she could
00:32:07.220say goodbye to her children so after this meeting count philip disappeared without a trace what
00:32:15.140happened is that countess elizabeth and her evil allies were monitoring the movements of the couple
00:32:20.140from nearby so when they saw count philip enter she went to earnest augustus and told him she
00:32:25.340could catch the lovers and put an end to the affair altogether he agreed and she returned
00:32:30.360to her post ordering all the exits from sd's apartments locked when count philip tried to
00:32:35.080leave he found himself blocked and figured out what had happened he had been bamboozled
00:32:39.040um countess elizabeth and her comrades entered the apartments and murdered him
00:32:44.500however i mean allegedly allegedly however realizing that earnest augustus hadn't authorized
00:32:50.860his death she was forced to explain what happened to him in a panic realizing he was also implicated
00:32:55.920earnest augustus ordered that the body be thrown into the palace latrines covered in quicklime
00:33:00.340and hidden with a brick wall built overnight so that's like that's what might have happened
00:33:07.060okay for sure count philip was murdered by who and where did his body go is what we don't know
00:33:13.720so others believe the body was weighted and thrown into a river he just disappeared body
00:33:17.800never found countess elizabeth was exonerated from any involvement in the death by the deathbed
00:33:22.980confessions of two of her henchmen so two of her henchmen on the deathbed said like it wasn't her
00:33:27.320who killed him or did all the scheming but like can we trust them i don't know so his death the
00:33:32.300death of count philip von konigsmark remains one of history's unsolved mysteries while this was
00:33:40.080all happening though sd didn't know what was going on apparently the walls were so thick she
00:33:44.320didn't hear the attack from the other side of her apartments she was met the next morning and told
00:33:49.420that she had been ordered to be confined to her apartments and she didn't know why count philip
00:33:53.260was simply believed missing when a formal inquiry was requested it was eventually dropped and the
00:33:57.920official party line was he had clearly disappeared of his own free will despite this foul play was
00:34:04.080widely suspected count philip's disappearance turned into a diplomatic affair when not only
00:34:09.420relatives and the hanoverian population but foreign diplomats and their governments began
00:34:14.080to puzzle over it king louis the 14th of france questioned his sister-in-law elizabeth charlotte
00:34:20.180who is the maternal first cousin of george lewis but she pretended ignorance the french king then
00:34:29.480sent agents to hanover but they could no more shed light on the mystery than the king then king
00:34:34.240augustus ii of poland who spent weeks searching for his missing general so i feel like this is
00:34:39.400why maybe some of those letters were redacted because maybe people were writing about it and
00:34:43.620maybe the royal family was involved in the murder but they couldn't let that be known in retaliation
00:34:49.560ernest augustus and his brother george william sd's father turned to emperor leopold the first
00:34:55.620with a formal complaint against the king of poland oh because the king of poland
00:34:59.020was spending weeks searching for the missing general um so they said if the polish king
00:35:07.640wasn't stopped from carrying out his investigation they would withdraw their troops from the grand
00:35:12.240alliance in the war against france so let's see but the polish king did not back down um
00:35:21.800oh and then he even faced down count van platen who was the husband of countess elizabeth
00:35:28.840telling him that count philip had either been captured or killed on the orders of his wife
00:35:34.000out of jealousy meanwhile ernest augustus and george william brothers brothers-in-law
00:35:41.880got to work on the formal separation of george lewis and sd without referencing her infidelity
00:35:48.880they instead used the reason that she refused to live under the same roof as her husband as grounds
00:35:52.940for the dissolution of the marriage she was removed from hanover to alden within cella
00:35:58.060if anyone asked about her the official answer was that she had been apprehended fleeing and
00:36:04.360had thrown herself at her parents mercy the whole situation with count philip had been
00:36:09.080kind of sorted in the sense of him being murdered and disappeared
00:36:13.480but this was not enough for george lewis who felt like he had been
00:36:19.260you know humiliated with his wife's affair in the eyes of everybody he demanded a legal separation
00:36:24.060from his wife citing her as sole culprit on grounds of desertion so he banned her from his
00:36:29.760house and then said that she deserted him so awful in addition to divorce proceedings he had sd
00:36:37.660imprisoned and transferred to lawanau castle and placed under house arrest that december remember
00:36:44.360the murder was like july so that december the dissolution of their marriage was officially
00:36:48.980pronounced so sd was named the guilty party for quote maliciously leaving her husband
00:36:55.600throughout the divorce proceedings sd maintained her innocence which eventually found her guilty
00:37:00.500and her husband innocent her father and father-in-law worked at an agreement which let
00:37:06.000george lewis keep her dowry for their children deprived her visitation with the children and
00:37:11.100kept her strictly confined to alden castle so her father just did not stand up for her at all
00:37:15.900she was not told any of this on december 28th when the marriage was legally dissolved she said
00:37:22.640goodbye to her children not knowing that she would literally never see them again she was
00:37:27.480moved to alden believing that she would eventually be allowed to visit her parents or be granted more
00:37:31.540freedom of movement but in fact so she was just 28 at this point so she is forbidden to remarry or
00:37:40.120to see her children again official documents removed her name she stripped of her title of
00:37:44.840electoral princess and churches in hanover were no longer to mention her name in prayers
00:37:49.240after the divorce george lewis sent her to let's see oh no we know this so she was sent to alden0.56
00:37:57.280house a stately home in the luneberg heath which served as a prison appropriate to her status
00:38:02.500although the divorce judgment said nothing about continued imprisonment she was never
00:38:06.920to regain her freedom spoiler it wasn't until several weeks or months later that it slowly
00:38:13.080dawn on her what was going on and what had happened like she didn't realize at first that
00:38:17.560she was literally a prisoner her mother was the only visitor permitted to see her and correspondence
00:38:23.380with her two children was forbidden her mother eleanor attempted to improve sd's condition like
00:38:29.880how she was being kept but her efforts which included negotiations with both louis the 14th
00:38:35.760and william the third did not succeed her father refused to see her george lewis her awful husband
00:38:44.800was free to remarry as the quote innocent party in their divorce he never remarried
00:38:50.380um he forbade their children from seeing her there are stories of her son george augustus
00:38:56.420trying to break into alden to see his mother but these might be made up what isn't made up is the
00:39:02.440treatment that of sd deeply soured the children's opinion of their father i mean spoiler sd's ex
00:39:10.820husband george lewis would go on to become george the first of great britain and he was the first
00:39:15.320in the line of four kings of great men i'll name george each of whom truly hated their father for
00:39:20.680understandable reasons so george augustus sd's son hated his father forever largely because of
00:39:26.620what he did to the mother so george lewis confiscated the assets sd had brought to the
00:39:31.840marriage and allocated her an annual maintenance let's see she was detained in the north wing of
00:39:39.740the castle a two-story half-timbered building guarded 24 hours a day by by 40 men five to ten0.94
00:39:46.720of whom were on duty at any one time so they really thought she was gonna make a run for it
00:39:51.060her mail and visits were strictly controlled though her mother had unlimited visiting rights
00:39:56.200as far as history historians know she never attempted to escape i hope like queen margo0.80
00:40:03.640she had books to read or something something to do initially she was only allowed to walk0.56
00:40:10.180unaccompanied inside the mansion courtyard later she was permitted under guard to walk
00:40:14.660in the outdoor facilities after two years in prison she could take supervised trips two
00:40:19.860kilometers outside the castle walls her stay in alden was interrupted several times due to war
00:40:25.200or renovation work on the residence during these times she's transferred to sell a castle or to
00:40:30.760her court included two ladies in waiting several chambermaids and other household and kitchen staff
00:40:37.000who had all been selected for the loyalty to her ex-husband but also frankly she can't leave and0.96
00:40:42.820she's in prison but she doesn't have to be with her husband so could be worse although she can't
00:40:48.500her children so that's sad uh sd became known as the princess of alden which was not an actual0.57
00:40:55.540title but she was a princess or an ex-princess and she was trapped in alden castle so named after
00:41:02.420that her place of residence at first apparently she was she was resigned to her fate and just
00:41:10.060didn't try to didn't try to convince anyone to let her out in later years she tried to obtain
00:41:16.040her release. When her father-in-law, Ernest Augustus, died, she sent a letter of condolence
00:41:22.960to her former husband, George Lewis, assuring him that she prayed for him every day and begged him
00:41:27.500on her knees to forgive her mistakes. She will be eternally grateful to him if he allows her to see
00:41:31.500her two children, who at that point she hadn't seen in like 30 years. She also wrote a letter
00:41:36.500of condolence to Sophie of Hanover, claiming she wanted nothing more than to kiss your hands before
00:41:42.040i die but george lewis never forgave her nor did his mother from april to september of 1700 george
00:41:51.160lewis allowed sd to live at cella in the face of a french invasion of the brunswick duchies
00:41:55.960once that threat subsided george william sent her back to imprisonment when sd's father was on his
00:42:03.680deathbed in 1705 he wanted to see his daughter one last time to reconcile with her but his prime
00:42:09.300minister count bernstorff objected and claimed that a meeting would lead to diplomatic problems
00:42:14.200george william no longer had the strength to assert himself and died without seeing her again
00:42:18.580in 1714 her ex-husband george lewis became george the first king of great britain who was not a good
00:42:26.680or very interesting king of great britain in the sense of he stayed in germany and never learned
00:42:30.840how to speak english sd is remembered for a significant act of charity during her imprisonment
00:42:36.580so after a devastating local fire in alden in 1715 she contributed considerable sums of money
00:42:42.880towards the town's reconstruction her mother eleanor died in 1722 leaving sd alone because
00:42:50.060remember that's the only visitor she was ever allowed to have surrounded only by enemies
00:42:54.340her daughter also called sophia dorothea and who later became the queen of prussia
00:43:01.300traveled to hanover in 1725 to see her father george the first aka george lewis sd dressed
00:43:08.480even more carefully than usual waiting in vain every day at the window hoping that her daughter
00:43:12.540would come by and visit but she did not in the end and what could be more relatable sd seems to
00:43:20.160have found comfort in eating so she grew overweight due to lack of exercise and was frequently
00:43:27.220plagued by colds and indigestion in early 1726 she suffered a stroke in august of that year she
00:43:33.960went to bed with colic and never rose again refusing all food and treatment and here we have
00:43:40.020like a arbella scenario slash catherine gray scenario of just like losing the will to live
00:43:45.920within a few weeks she grew emaciated sd died shortly before minate on november 13th 1726 age
00:43:53.06060 she had spent the final 32 years of her life imprisoned not able to see her children on her
00:44:00.500deathbed she wrote a letter to her ex-husband george lewis denouncing him for his incessant
00:44:04.820cruelty and cursing him from beyond the grave hell yes her autopsy revealed a liver failure
00:44:11.600and gallbladder occlusion her former husband aka king george the first placed an announcement in
00:44:19.780the London Gazette, saying that the Duchess of Alden had died, but he forbade mourning.
00:44:25.540He was furious when he heard that his daughter's court in Berlin wore black. Her funeral turned
00:44:31.120into a farce. Because the guards in Alden Castle had no instructions, they placed her remains in
00:44:36.160a lead coffin and deposited them in the cellar. In January, the order came from London to bury
00:44:41.720her without any ceremonies in the cemetery of Alden, which was impossible due to weeks of heavy
00:44:45.900rain so the coffin was brought back to the cellar and covered in sand it wasn't until may 1727 so
00:44:52.320it's january so that may that sd was buried secretly and at night beside her parents in
00:44:58.360the stadkirch in cella her ex-husband king george i died four weeks later while visiting hanover and
00:45:05.880i hope he that was the result of her curse i like to think it was sd's parents seem to have believed
00:45:13.300that their daughter would one day be released from prison so shortly before her father died
00:45:20.180he and his wife Eleanor drew up a joint will according to which their daughter would receive
00:45:24.600the estates of Alden, Retham, and Walth Road, extensive estates in France and Sella, the great
00:45:30.200fortune of her father, and the legendary jewelry collection of her mother. Her father appointed
00:45:34.940Count Heinrich Sigismund von Barr as administrator of Estes Fortune. Twelve years older than the
00:45:40.540princess and a handsome highly educated and sensitive gentleman count von bar and sd shared
00:45:45.700old ties of affection sd named him one of the main beneficiaries of her will but also but he died six
00:45:52.520years before her so he didn't inherit from her sd had inherited her mother's property
00:45:57.980uh let's see von eleanor's death and left it in her will to her children but george lewis destroyed0.93
00:46:04.500that will this asshole and appropriated the property for himself sd was remembered fondly0.96
00:46:11.040by her children who didn't see her for the final 32 years of her life the lady-in-waiting who had0.99
00:46:17.160helped her with her escape eleanor von dem kniesback who was also a close component to sd
00:46:22.580was imprisoned after for her role in the attempted escape after two years of solitary confinement
00:46:29.760she managed to escape and was able to flee to wolfenbutel under the protection of duke anthony
00:46:35.160ulrich again the one who like had supported sd's parents's love and was just like helpful in various
00:46:42.160ways eleanor this eleanor the confidant left a unique document in the room of the tower where
00:46:48.060she was confined all the walls and doors were written down to the last corner with charcoal
00:46:52.380and chalk the texts sacred poems in the style of contemporary church hymns were accusations
00:46:57.640against her enemies at court and memoir-like prose pieces all these were recorded for the
00:47:02.720hanover archive files until her death eleanor denied the adulterous relationship between sd and
00:47:09.200count philip the french adventurer marquis on mon de l'assay later claimed in his memoirs that he
00:47:15.660received no fewer than 13 love letters from sd but never showed any documents to anyone
00:47:20.380so sd sophia dorothea of cella was considered the uncrowned queen of great britain and her
00:47:29.780tragic fate fascinated the imaginations of her contemporaries and those later on in 1804 friedrich
00:47:35.840von schiller planned a tragedy dedicated to her called the princess of cella but he never completed
00:47:41.020it sd's great-granddaughter caroline matilda of great britain queen consort of denmark and norway0.59
00:47:46.460shared her same fate after the struency affair in 1772 caroline matilda was divorced from her
00:47:53.360husband separated from her children and sent to cella castle where she died three years later
00:47:57.960in the crypts of the stadkirch saint marion both women are united in death sd's affair and its
00:48:05.120tragic outcome is the basis of a 1948 british film sarah band for dead lovers where she was
00:48:10.540portrayed by joan greenwood and that is the saga of sd aka sophia dorothea of cella which is
00:48:22.320truly the muse for this for this season again it ends with a 30 32 year imprisonment which is
00:48:31.500tragic although i do appreciate the fact that she cursed her husband and
00:48:37.600he died shortly after her he was oh what a monster george the first remind me to do a
00:48:45.160mini episode about him so it's time to score sophia dorothy of cella re-scandaliciousness
00:48:52.060now as per several other women this season i think there was not a whole bunch of0.98
00:48:57.140scandalousness but that what there was was pretty intense what was it she wrote like 320
00:49:02.920funny sexy passionate lovers to her secret lover the Swedish Count Philip and then even just the
00:49:09.680the scandalousness of like her husband was having affairs and babies and she caught them then he0.99
00:49:13.300strangled her like it's all just like messy like real housewives of Sella level I'm gonna give her0.99
00:49:20.320a nine for scandalousness because it truly was her scheminess I feel like the scheminess to get1.00
00:49:28.340away with this affair for so long is impressive um she had the scheme to run away but she was
00:49:34.560thwarted i feel like countess elizabeth would get a 10 for scheminess sophia dorothea and then it's
00:49:41.400like did she try to escape like maybe but i don't know it seems like she didn't i'm just gonna give
00:49:47.580her six for scheminess significance this is interesting because she is in fact the mother
00:49:57.880of george ii of england and then that was a whole hanoverian dynasty that wound up with queen
00:50:05.240victoria and stuff so and the fact that her treatment made her son hate her husband and
00:50:11.640that affected how he was king and stuff i'm going to give her a six for significance because i feel0.91
00:50:17.980like as much as her gross husband wanted to erase her existence from everything like she was
00:50:26.080actually quite significant in those ways and then also the significance of she helped after
00:50:31.760there's a fire she did that great um act of charity as well sexism bonus i feel like she
00:50:36.820gets like more than a 10 for sexism bonus like if everyone who get has ever gotten the sexism bonus0.98
00:50:41.200like the fact that they both had affairs but then she was found the guilty party for leaving him
00:50:46.920after he tried to like strangle her to death and then the fact that she couldn't remarry but he0.99
00:50:52.660could and she's kept in a tower and he just went off to be the king is just like that's some fucked0.99
00:50:57.980up shit so what does this add up to that's a 31 which so in terms of this season so queen margot0.94
00:51:09.880is the all-time highest score ever with a 37.5 but this is the second highest0.98
00:51:16.340of the season so queen margot 37.5 sd sophia dorothy of cella 31 margaret douglas 28 arbella
00:51:28.580stewart 28 margaret pole 27 isabel portugal 27 margaret of anjou 26 this is wild i mean you
00:51:36.780realize that my scoring is wildly inconsistent like margaret of anjou is only 26 i forgot how
00:51:42.520that happened anyway i am happy that sd is this high because i find her story so interesting and
00:51:50.660so heartbreaking and so romantic and also the unsolved mysteries of it all like it's got
00:51:56.200it's got a little bit of everything and that's where as soon as i read it and thank you to the
00:52:00.160person on instagram who suggested it who i couldn't find the messages but please tell me who
00:52:04.240you are so i can thank you properly who suggested because i'd never ever ever ever ever heard of her
00:52:09.380And I didn't realize that there's this whole fascinating story going on.
00:52:13.940And again, you can get all the juicy gossip in the biography by Catherine Curzon, The Imprisoned Princess, The Scandalous Life of Sophia Dorothea of Sela.
00:52:22.780This book like literally just came out like it was published in 2021, I believe.