Sophia of Hanover by J.N. Duggan

Author:J.N. Duggan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Peter Owen Publishers
Published: 2010-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

FAMILY AFFAIRS

After the death of Karl Ludwig in 1680, Sophia became the unofficial guardian to his Raugrave children. That year, eight of the fourteen were still alive, ranging in ages from the twenty-two-year-old Karl Ludwig (Karllutz) to the five-year-old Karl Kasimir. In between were Karoline (twenty-one), Luise (nineteen), Ameliese (seventeen), Karl Eduard (twelve), Karl Moritz (ten) and Karl August (eight).

Amazingly for such a careful and controlling man, their father left no proper provision for them. He had hoped to establish a new Raugravate out of lands outside of the Palatinate, which would provide for their needs, but these plans came to nothing. His son the electoral prince Karl had promised to look after them, but he was not legally bound to do so and proved to be a niggardly and unreliable guardian. The truth is that at the end of his life Karl Ludwig realized he could not, in fact, provide for these much-loved children, and for once in his life had decided to trust in his motto, ‘Dominus providebit’ [The Lord will provide].

The Lord did indeed provide them with a guardian angel in the shape of Sophia, helped generously, it must be said, by Ernst August. Emissaries were sent from Hanover to Heidelberg to plead the cause of the Raugrave family and strike the best possible deal for them. They themselves were always welcome in Hanover, where Karllutz was given a regiment. It can be truly said that, from the time of her brother’s death until her own, Sophia’s heart and purse were always open to her nephews and nieces.

She corresponded regularly with the three girls. In 1683 Karoline married Count Meinhard von Schomberg – the grandson of that Colonel von Schomberg1 who, more than sixty years before, had tried to bring order to the Winter Queen’s chaotic household. It was a love match helped on by a dowry of 20,000 florins donated by the new Elector. Luise and Ameliese remained unmarried; Sophia longed to have them at Hanover with her as members of her court but problems of etiquette arose: the Hanoverian ladies refused to give them the precedence that Sophia thought proper for the daughters of an Elector, and so they stayed in Heidelberg, visiting Sophia from time to time.

The boys all met with early deaths. Karllutz died of dysentery while fighting for the Emperor, Karl Eduard and Karl August died in battle, Karl Kasimir was killed in a duel and Karl Moritz died at the age of thirty-one, of alcoholism, at Hanover. Violent and early deaths were a common fate for landless aristocrats in the seventeenth century no matter how blue their blood or ancient their lineage.

Sophia’s own family were growing up, and plans for their future were beginning to preoccupy her. Her greatest satisfaction on becoming Duchess of Hanover had been that her two eldest sons would now be provided for, with a duchy apiece, as long as Georg Wilhelm remained without a male heir and kept to his promises of 1658. Ernst August,

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