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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in history class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm fair Down and I'm delinea chalk reboarding and we

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Speaker 1: know that a lot of you guys love royal stories.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't seem to matter who, whether it's Queen Zunga

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Speaker 1: or Elizabeth the First, it doesn't seem to matter where

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Speaker 1: the story is taking place China, France, England. As long

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Speaker 1: as there's a title involved, people are our game, it seems.

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Speaker 1: So we thought that a little summer series on some

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Speaker 1: two timing princesses might be perfect, kind of a nice

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Speaker 1: counterpart to all of the gangsters and pirates and circus

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Speaker 1: stars that we've been talking about lately, as well as

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Speaker 1: some of the sports subjects that we're going to be

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Speaker 1: featuring for the Olympics. But today's story is particularly fairy tale,

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Speaker 1: like a particularly fairytale like royal story, um though kind

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Speaker 1: of more the vein of the Brothers Grim than Disney.

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Speaker 1: Something that's fitting though, because it does take place in Germany,

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Speaker 1: and just a little taste of what you'll find. There's

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Speaker 1: an unlikely inheritance, there's a missing count and possible exhimation here,

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Speaker 1: and there's even a princess held prisoner in a castle.

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Speaker 1: So today we're going to kick off this little series

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Speaker 1: by discussing Sophia Dorothea of Sella, the Electress of Hanover,

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Speaker 1: the uncrowned Queen of Great Britain, and the prisoner of Alden.

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Speaker 1: So appropriately enough, in this tale, events began long before

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Speaker 1: Sophia Dorothea's birth, back when her father, George William, passed

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Speaker 1: on his inheritance to his younger brother Ernest August. So

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Speaker 1: the story here, George William didn't want to marry his

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Speaker 1: intended bride, Princess Sophia of the Palatinate, and in exchange

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Speaker 1: for getting out of that unwanted match, George William basically said,

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Speaker 1: all right, well I'll rat I'd rather rule the smaller

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Speaker 1: Duchy of Selah and promised never to marry so no

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Speaker 1: legitimate heirs will get in the way. Caused trouble down

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Speaker 1: the line in Hanover, and the arrangement, even though it

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Speaker 1: sounds kind of unconventional, it really did work out fine

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Speaker 1: for a time. The younger brother, Ernest August went ahead

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Speaker 1: married Princess Sophia, became the Duke of Hanover and started

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Speaker 1: a family, while his older brother, who had given up

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Speaker 1: his inheritance, traveled around Europe, didn't get married. He kept

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Speaker 1: a prostitutes and didn't really pose any sort of threat,

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Speaker 1: like a comeback threat. But things changed a little bit

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Speaker 1: in sixteen sixty five. Yeah, he fell in love, and

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Speaker 1: he fell in love with a Huguenot lady named Eleanor

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Speaker 1: dole Bruise, and so prostitutes weren't going to do it

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Speaker 1: for him anymore. He wanted to get married, and so

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Speaker 1: at first they only had a Morganatic marriage, which meant

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Speaker 1: that they were married in God's eyes, but not in

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Speaker 1: the state size. And a year later they had a

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Speaker 1: daughter together named Sophia Dorothea. George William and Eleanor then

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Speaker 1: started agitating for a more official marriage so that their

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Speaker 1: water could inherit and be considered legitimate. So finally, after

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Speaker 1: ten years, Duke and Duchess Ernst and Sophia agreed to this.

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Speaker 1: They were like, okay, why not we have our own

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Speaker 1: male heirs. Well, the Duke of Sella and Eleanor only

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Speaker 1: have this one daughter, so exactly not too much of

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Speaker 1: a threat. And the new arrangement made little Sophia Dorothea

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Speaker 1: legitimate and also fabulously wealthy. Yeah, she was quite the

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Speaker 1: wealthy heiress. So her parents began shopping around for potential

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Speaker 1: grooms for their daughter, like the future king of Denmark.

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Speaker 1: I mean, they were aiming pretty high. Auntie Sophia didn't

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Speaker 1: really think that match was very likely though. According to

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Speaker 1: Eleanor Herman in Sex with the Queen, she's supposedly said, quote,

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Speaker 1: fancy a king sound for that bit of a bastard.

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Speaker 1: Not a very nice thing to say about your niece,

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Speaker 1: but words to remember too for later in this episode.

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Speaker 1: A more likely possibility though, for little Sophia Dorothea was

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Speaker 1: the Duke of Wolfbot, who was a local rye all

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Speaker 1: of Ernst August, so it seems like a likely match

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Speaker 1: and a good groom for her. So by this time,

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Speaker 1: Sophia Dorothea was fifteen and it looked like the wolf

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Speaker 1: and Bottel engagement was really going to happen. So Duke

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Speaker 1: Ernst and Duchess Sophia, however, decided that it would be

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Speaker 1: foolish to let so much wealth just slip away because

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Speaker 1: they had these old family issues, so they decided why

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Speaker 1: not have her marry their own son, George Lewis and

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Speaker 1: unite the duchies of Hanover and Sela. So, according to

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Speaker 1: the Women in World History Encyclopedia, a lot of historians

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Speaker 1: write about this match like it was just doomed from

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Speaker 1: the start. Well, it may not really have been that

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Speaker 1: much words than a lot of dynastic marriages of the era.

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Speaker 1: That said, though we wanted to get that out there.

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Speaker 1: That's the couple didn't really seem ideal for each other.

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Speaker 1: Sophia Dorothea was considered especially beautiful. She had dark hair,

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Speaker 1: fair skin. She had a very spirited personality. She hadn't

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Speaker 1: been educated in many serious subjects, but she was intelligent.

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Speaker 1: She spoke several languages, She loved to read, She would dan,

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Speaker 1: she played harpsichord. She was a talented embroiderer. Her cousin,

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Speaker 1: George Lewis, on the other hand, um wasn't the most

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Speaker 1: handsome guy. He was kind of short, yet popping blue eyes.

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Speaker 1: He did grow up eventually to become a talented general.

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Speaker 1: He did enjoy music, that was one thing they had

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Speaker 1: in common. He was a patron of handel, but he

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Speaker 1: wasn't considered courtly or particularly intelligent either, so not a

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Speaker 1: good match. For Sophia Dorothea's spirited personality, and just to

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Speaker 1: give you an idea of what other people thought of

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Speaker 1: Sophia Dorothea's cousin as well. Even his mom thought that

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Speaker 1: he was kind of thick. So, I mean, if you

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Speaker 1: can't get your mom's endorse, doesn't, that's pretty bad. But

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Speaker 1: she actually wrote to her niece about the upcoming marriage.

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Speaker 1: One hundred thousand dollars a year is a goodly sum

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Speaker 1: to pocket, without speaking of a pretty wife who will

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Speaker 1: find a match. And my son, George lewis the most pigheaded,

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Speaker 1: stubborn boy who ever lived, and who has round his

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Speaker 1: brain such a thick crust that I defy any man

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Speaker 1: or woman to ever discover what is in them. He

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Speaker 1: does not care much for the match itself, but one

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Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars a year have tempted him as they

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Speaker 1: would have tempted anybody else. Really, again, if your mom

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Speaker 1: says that you have a thick crust around your brain,

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's what can you do? But at least

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Speaker 1: he gets the value of money right. He does understand

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Speaker 1: that money is important for a young princeling. But like

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Speaker 1: Sophia Dorothea, George Lewis, who at this point was twenty two,

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Speaker 1: had also really been shopped around Europe as an eligible

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Speaker 1: bachelor by his parents for the past few years. His

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Speaker 1: most ambitious prospect had been his kinswoman, Princess Anne, who

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Speaker 1: was the future Queen of Great Britain. You should remember

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Speaker 1: her name for later, But according to Richard Cavendish and

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Speaker 1: History of to Day, she met him and just immediately

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Speaker 1: wrote him off. Was not interested. Uh. Sophia Dorothea, though

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Speaker 1: she had to settle I suppose, and she and George

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Speaker 1: Lewis were married November twenty one, six eight two, and again,

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Speaker 1: according to herman, soon after the marriage, a fortune teller

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Speaker 1: warned George Lewis that if he was responsible for his

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Speaker 1: new wife's death in any way, he would die within

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Speaker 1: a year. So I don't know what kind of business

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Speaker 1: that fortune teller was after, but creepy down our fortunes side,

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Speaker 1: the couple did seem to get along well enough, at

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Speaker 1: least initially. They produced a son within the year, also

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Speaker 1: named George, and a daughter a few years after that,

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Speaker 1: also named Sophia Dorothea. Fortunately we don't have to talk

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Speaker 1: about them too much. We already have Sophia and Sophia Dorothea.

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Speaker 1: We don't need another one in the equation. But um,

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Speaker 1: they didn't exactly get along well, I mean, they tolerated

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Speaker 1: each other, it seems, and Duchess Sophia apparently really hated

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Speaker 1: her daughter in law. But again, nothing too out of

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Speaker 1: the ordinary for a royal couple. I mean, I think

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Speaker 1: some of the earlier episodes we've done Royalty really illustrates

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Speaker 1: this is the norm. Mom. Yeah, I was about to say,

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Speaker 1: we've definitely run into this kind of thing before. But

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Speaker 1: trouble did come along when Duke Ernst august longtime mistress,

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Speaker 1: the Countess Claire Elizabeth Platton, decided that Sophia Dorothea was

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Speaker 1: becoming way too popular at court. She personally selected a

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Speaker 1: mistress for George Lewis who could be her puppet so

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Speaker 1: that she would have more control over both Duke Ernest

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Speaker 1: and his heir. And for this job she picked Melissina

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Speaker 1: von Schulenberg, who was pretty but unusually thin for the time.

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Speaker 1: Plus she was much taller than George Lewis, so they

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Speaker 1: made quite the pair. But they did take up together.

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Speaker 1: So now Melissina is Countess plottin spy and he's neglecting

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Speaker 1: his wife and ignoring his parents requests to be more

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Speaker 1: discreet about his new relationship. Sophia Dorothea didn't exactly back down, though,

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Speaker 1: she just started making fun of the two of them

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Speaker 1: in public, especially the height difference spiritual personality. Yeah soon, though,

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Speaker 1: Sophia Dorothea really had a better kind of distraction than

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Speaker 1: making fun of her husband and his mistress, because in

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Speaker 1: March of six eighty eight, she met a twenty six

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Speaker 1: year old Swedish count named Philip Christof von koenigs Mark

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Speaker 1: who was fighting in the Army of Hanover. And they'd

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Speaker 1: actually met before when they were just kids, because his

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Speaker 1: father had brought him to Sella for training. They'd run

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Speaker 1: into each other there. But by this point koenigs Mark

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Speaker 1: was a polished courtly man, popular in the court where

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Speaker 1: Ernst August made him a kernel of the Guard. So

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Speaker 1: he was on the up and up, and he and

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Speaker 1: Sophia Dorothea became friends. He was somebody for her to

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Speaker 1: talk to about the kind of things that she liked.

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Speaker 1: But weirdly, he also took up with the Countess Plotton

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Speaker 1: in a more intimate sort of relationship, and perhaps to

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Speaker 1: get out of that kind of awkward situation. He signed

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Speaker 1: up for a military X edition far away from Hanover

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Speaker 1: in Greece, but that expedition proved to be pretty disastrous,

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Speaker 1: and Philip, one of the few survivors, came rushing back

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Speaker 1: to Hanover in sixteen ninety. And at this point he

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Speaker 1: is no longer interested in the Countess plot in he's

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Speaker 1: smitten with Sophia Dorothea, so he's kind of changed his

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Speaker 1: tune a little bit, and they started exchanging letters. Since

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Speaker 1: many of these early notes still survive, the point when

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Speaker 1: their relationship became romantic is usually pinned around April, and

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Speaker 1: here's just a sample passage from one of their notes.

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Speaker 1: Quote farewell, my beloved brunette, I embrace your knees. Or

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Speaker 1: again from Philip, quote what I wouldn't give to hear

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Speaker 1: midnight strike? Be sure to have smelling salts ready, lest

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Speaker 1: my excess of joy caused me to fate. I really

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Speaker 1: like that one. Um. So, these new lovers tried to

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Speaker 1: keep things super secret, but they just weren't very great

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Speaker 1: at um concealing what they were going through. So they

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Speaker 1: used co for all of their letters. But their code

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Speaker 1: was not too hard to figure out. It was all

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Speaker 1: number or named basse. So, for instance, Sophia Dorothea was

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Speaker 1: two oh one, Philip was one twenty. They called George

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Speaker 1: Lewis the Reformer, which just makes me think of a

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Speaker 1: Pilates machine. And um, they called Countess plottin fat one.

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Speaker 1: So clearly he was not He was not so into

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Speaker 1: his old lover anymore. But so Fia Dorothea's lady in

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Speaker 1: waiting would handle a lot of the logistics, the rendezvous logistics,

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Speaker 1: sneaking Philip into her ladies rooms. But sometimes they'd also

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Speaker 1: meet up in the palace gardens and they'd whistle this

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Speaker 1: little tune to recognize each other. They're called the Spanish follies.

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Speaker 1: And then together they would hoof it over to Philip's house,

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Speaker 1: which he purposely lived, really nearby Sophia Dorothea. Um. And

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Speaker 1: it was a good cover too, because Sophia Dorothea could

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Speaker 1: pretend she was just visiting Philip's sister there, Aurora, you know,

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Speaker 1: not doing anything else. So this affair could have gone

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Speaker 1: on for a while, It could have been tolerated, even

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Speaker 1: if they were just a little bit more discreet, and

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Speaker 1: the family situation had stayed exactly what it was there

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Speaker 1: were kids already legitimate errors who were in the picture,

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Speaker 1: so there was something at stake. But in a couple

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Speaker 1: of things happened. Hannover's profile increased tenfold because the Duke

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Speaker 1: Ernst became an elector, which was a prestigious position in

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Speaker 1: the Holy Roman Empire, and Ernst August, who had hoped

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Speaker 1: and worked for this honor for many years, didn't want

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Speaker 1: his daughter in law scandal reigning on his parade, so

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Speaker 1: he sent Aurora out of the country, knowing that she

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Speaker 1: helped pass letters between Philip and Sophia Dorothea, and he

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Speaker 1: ordered Philip off on military expeditions, and then he definitely

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Speaker 1: started intercepting letters between the two. So it was to communicate,

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Speaker 1: and if they were going to continue on together at

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Speaker 1: this point, they were really gonna have to make a

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Speaker 1: major leap. So, according to the Women in World History Encyclopedia,

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Speaker 1: Sophia Dorothea and Philip desperately wanted to run away together

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Speaker 1: and hoped that once they did that it would be

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Speaker 1: easy enough for her to divorce George Lewis and then

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Speaker 1: maybe remarry and lived together far away from Hannover. A

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Speaker 1: real fairy tale kind of situation. The only problem, though,

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Speaker 1: was they needed money. It was not a fairy tale,

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Speaker 1: so Fia Dorothea didn't have any money, any property in

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Speaker 1: her own name. She even wrote to Philip at one point,

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Speaker 1: yesterday I read my marriage contract. It hurt me so

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Speaker 1: much that I had tears in my eyes because she

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Speaker 1: realized she didn't have anything left. And um, he you

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Speaker 1: know he's account So you might be wondering, well, couldn't

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Speaker 1: he sponsor this little getaway, But he had a lot

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Speaker 1: of gambling debts, so they were just sort of frozen

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Speaker 1: where they were, and um vanished. Philip got pretty dramatic,

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Speaker 1: not being able to be near Sophia Dorothea anymore. You

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Speaker 1: might have already guessed that from his smelling salts note.

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Speaker 1: But he wrote to her staying quote, I have a

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Speaker 1: consolation here close to me, not a pretty girl, but

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Speaker 1: a bear which I feed. If you should fail me,

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Speaker 1: I will bear my chest and let him tear my

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Speaker 1: heart out no pressure. And also just to mention this,

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Speaker 1: sometimes he would sign things in his own blood, so

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Speaker 1: he was taking it hard. At one point he even

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Speaker 1: deserted his post to come see her. His commanding officer

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Speaker 1: let him off the hook, let him off pretty easy,

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Speaker 1: but warned him that he's being spied on. They basically

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Speaker 1: ignored the increasing warnings from from his commanding officer, from

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Speaker 1: everyone from friends. Philip wrote Sophia Dorothea quote, we are

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Speaker 1: treading on dangerous ground. But when people love as we love,

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Speaker 1: they do not consider trifles. And if one holds the

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Speaker 1: loved one, what matters the cost. Where I to see

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Speaker 1: the scaffold before my eyes, I would not swerve. So

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Speaker 1: in this last ditch move for money and protectors as

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Speaker 1: a way to escape together, the couple decided to bring

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Speaker 1: politics into their romance and into their plans. That turned

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Speaker 1: out to be a very fatal air um. Philip, who

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Speaker 1: was obviously feeling pretty ostracized in Hanover, decided to switch

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Speaker 1: his military allegiance to the rival Duchy of Saxony, where

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Speaker 1: conveniently his friend was also duke, and he also made

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Speaker 1: plans with the Duke of wolf and Butel for Puffalo

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Speaker 1: refuge there. So this was the guy, if you remember

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Speaker 1: who Sophia was supposed to marry his son, or could

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Speaker 1: have married his son. So he had some um. He

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Speaker 1: had some friends outside of Hanover who he was starting

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Speaker 1: to think of relying on. So carrying on this indiscreet

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Speaker 1: affair after there were legitimate children in the picture. As

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Speaker 1: we mentioned, that was one thing, but making plans to

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Speaker 1: actually leave the country it meant that Sophia Dorothea could

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Speaker 1: be kind of a tool to use against Hanover with

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Speaker 1: her giant dowry as the hostage, and that just wasn't

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Speaker 1: going to have unacceptable right In the last days of

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Speaker 1: June six nine four, Philip arrived in Hanover to run

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Speaker 1: away with the princess, and no one ever saw him

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Speaker 1: alive again. So here's where our story gets a little

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Speaker 1: bit mysterious. According to some sources like Cavendish, Ernst August

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Speaker 1: simply ordered Philip's assassination, which was carried out on July one,

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Speaker 1: and possibly because of the switched allegiance from Hanover to Saxony,

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Speaker 1: that might have been the reason behind political kind of reason.

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Speaker 1: But according to Herman, though, things could have even been

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Speaker 1: a little more complicated than that, though and not quite

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Speaker 1: as politically motivated either. So Philip was apparently recognized when

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Speaker 1: he entered Hanover, but was allowed to proceed along with

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Speaker 1: his date with Sophia Dorothea, and the two presumably met

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Speaker 1: up made plans to flee the following night. But Countess Plotton,

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Speaker 1: who certainly is playing the evil stepmother sort of role

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Speaker 1: in this in this whole story, was in the know.

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Speaker 1: She knew that Philip was in the city because of

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Speaker 1: her spy network, and she alerted Ernst August and got

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Speaker 1: permission to have Philip arrested while he was there in

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Speaker 1: the castle. But as Philip left Sophia Dorothea's rooms, he

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Speaker 1: met the guards who had been ordered to arrest him,

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Speaker 1: and somehow or another, whether on Countess Platton's orders or

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Speaker 1: just accidentally, things got out of hand. He wound up

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Speaker 1: dead in the hall, Sophia Dorothea just not too far

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Speaker 1: away and none the wiser. So at this point Ernst

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Speaker 1: August is horrified, fearing some kind of diplomatic incident if

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Speaker 1: this count turns up dead under his roof, and he

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Speaker 1: has the body hidden under the Great Hall floor and

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Speaker 1: buried in quicklime. So there's a kind of interesting follow

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Speaker 1: up note to this. Decades after the death, workman supposedly

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Speaker 1: found a skeleton in quicklime with Philip's ring. Unfortunately, though

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Speaker 1: no modern research can be done on this since the

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Speaker 1: palace was destroyed in World War Two, which is yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, don't you wish she knew more about this?

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Speaker 1: But meanwhile, after this u murder or assassination or whatever

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Speaker 1: whatever it might have been, so Fio Dorothea was arrested

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Speaker 1: along with her lady's maid and she didn't even learn

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Speaker 1: about Philip's death for several weeks, which is just particularly

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Speaker 1: sad and um, so Fio Dorothea really could have held

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Speaker 1: her ground to she didn't admit to adultery, although she

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Speaker 1: did agree to a divorce and was ultimately sent to

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Speaker 1: the Castle of Alden, which I know, it sounds like

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Speaker 1: a prisoner in a castle minds of rape Punzel or something,

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Speaker 1: but um, this place was really more like a large

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Speaker 1: brick house. You can find pictures of it online. It's

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Speaker 1: a rambling sort of place. It doesn't look particularly luxurious,

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Speaker 1: but it's also not like a creepy tower or anything. So,

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Speaker 1: after refusing one last offer by Ernest August to deny

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Speaker 1: the whole thing and separate instead of divorce and just

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Speaker 1: hush up this whole huge family scandal that she caused,

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Speaker 1: she and George Lewis were in fact divorced on December

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Speaker 1: six teen. So Sophia Dorothea lost her title and lost

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Speaker 1: contact with her kids. Her father wouldn't support her or

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Speaker 1: visit her, but he did allow her a large allowance.

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Speaker 1: For the first year, she wasn't allowed out of the

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Speaker 1: house at all, and the following years though she was

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Speaker 1: allowed to take short carriage rides, but only under armed guard.

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Speaker 1: Her mother could visit her, and she would patronize charities.

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Speaker 1: She even rebuilt a local town at one point when

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Speaker 1: it was burned down, and she thought after a time

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Speaker 1: that she'd be released on good behavior, so she really

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Speaker 1: tried to keep up that good behavior. At one point

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Speaker 1: she even waited patiently during a fire to be given

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Speaker 1: the order to evacuate. She wasn't going to leave until

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Speaker 1: she got permission to go um and for a few

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Speaker 1: years two people around Europe really talked about her a lot,

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Speaker 1: and they also talked about Count Philip a lot to

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Speaker 1: wonder what happened to that that guy who was so

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Speaker 1: courtly in such a good soldier. Embassies inquired after him.

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Speaker 1: Louis the fourteenth with curious and a Rora, really put

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Speaker 1: a lot of pressure on Hanover. She had become the

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Speaker 1: mistress of the Elector of Saxony, and so with the

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Speaker 1: help of her beau Um. She really tried to find

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Speaker 1: out what on earth happened to her brother? Where did

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Speaker 1: he go? Was he murdered? Finally, though, after a few years,

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Speaker 1: the story just died down. It was old news by

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Speaker 1: this point, and it really might have stayed kind of

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Speaker 1: a forgotten scandal of Hanover had George Lewis not been

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Speaker 1: added to the British line of succession. So just to

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Speaker 1: give you a little explanation here, because you're probably wondering

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Speaker 1: what's up with that. In six George Lewis succeeded his

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Speaker 1: father as a lecturer of Hanover, but by seventeen o

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Speaker 1: one he seemed poised to inherit something even bigger from

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Speaker 1: his mother, Duchess Sophia. King William, the current British monarch,

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Speaker 1: didn't have any children by his then deceased wife Mary,

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Speaker 1: and the next in line who was married sister Princess Anne,

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Speaker 1: the same one who turned down George Lewis earlier in

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Speaker 1: the podcast, and we asked each remember her name. She

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Speaker 1: had had many pregnancies, but no kids that survived beyond childhood.

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Speaker 1: When her longest surviving son died, the line of succession

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Speaker 1: was suddenly quite bleak, so entered Duchess Sophia, even though

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Speaker 1: there were plenty of potential errors Further up the line,

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Speaker 1: more closely related to Anne, Sophia was the nearest Protestant Air,

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Speaker 1: which was something determined decisively in the Act of Settlement

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Speaker 1: in seventeen o one. So Duchess Sophia definitely hoped that

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Speaker 1: she would survive her distant cousin Anne to become queen,

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Speaker 1: but she ended up dying just a few weeks before

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Speaker 1: her in seventeen fourteen, so that of course made Sophia's son,

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Speaker 1: George Lewis the next in line. He ended up becoming

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Speaker 1: George the First of Great Britain August one, seventeen fourteen.

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Speaker 1: He hasn't seemed like the coolest guy in most of

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Speaker 1: this podcast so far, but he was really unpopular in

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Speaker 1: his new country. He couldn't speak English, he had to

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Speaker 1: conduct all of his state business with his ministers in

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Speaker 1: their common language, French. And he wasn't courtly either, something

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Speaker 1: we had mentioned earlier. He didn't really impress people, and

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Speaker 1: of course lots of folks were wondering, where on earth

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Speaker 1: is this guy's wife. Why don't we have a queen? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: once they realized that she wasn't dead or crazy that

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Speaker 1: she was imprisoned in Alden Sophia's that imprisonment, Sophia Dorothea's

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Speaker 1: imprisonment started to look very bad and George's mistress on

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Speaker 1: top of everything, George's mistress, Meltina was also disliked, as

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Speaker 1: was his other main confidence, Sophia Charlotte von kielman Zega,

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Speaker 1: who was Countess Plotton's daughter. So, I mean the thing

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Speaker 1: here was maybe was she Georgia's friend? No one really

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Speaker 1: knew who she was. Was she George's friend? Was she

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Speaker 1: his mistress? But she's also maybe his half sister because

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Speaker 1: relationship with her father his father? Yeah, so I feel

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Speaker 1: a lot of different things out her, like definitely his

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Speaker 1: mistress or no, they were just friends. He relied on her,

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Speaker 1: he would have known she was his half sister. Um.

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Speaker 1: Kind of just something to put out there. So back home,

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Speaker 1: anti Hannah Verians also rallied behind the imprisoned princess, but

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Speaker 1: not in any sort of productive way. I mean they

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Speaker 1: didn't get her out of her imprisonment or anything. After

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Speaker 1: spending more than thirty years in her castle, Sophia Dorothea

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Speaker 1: died on November thirteenth, seventy six at age sixty. So

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Speaker 1: you would think after all of these years, Um Georgia

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Speaker 1: first would just be ready to wrap things up tidily,

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Speaker 1: But he did not handle the news very gracefully. He

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Speaker 1: ordered his ex wife's things to be burned, he forbade

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Speaker 1: the court of Hanover to mourn for her, and he

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Speaker 1: didn't even deal with funeral arrangements until Melicina pressured him into, Okay,

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Speaker 1: you gotta do something about this, because UM, it should

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00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:56,840
Speaker 1: be said to Melasina was pretty superstitious. She often spoke

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Speaker 1: with birds. She believed she could receive signs and omen

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Speaker 1: from them, and Um thought she was getting some Avian

409
00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:07,560
Speaker 1: pressure from a spirit of Sophia Dorothea to get her

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Speaker 1: body taken care of. Finally, though, in the May following

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Speaker 1: Sophia Dorothea's death, George decided to visit Hanover, you know,

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Speaker 1: his his home. While traveling by carriage to Austina Brook

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Speaker 1: in the middle of the night, they stopped for a

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Speaker 1: minute and somebody handed him a letter. When he read

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Speaker 1: the letter at dawn, he realized it was a deathbed

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Speaker 1: rant from Sophia Dorothea and immediately felt ill. Not too

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Speaker 1: long after that, he suffered a stroke and he ended

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Speaker 1: up dying June eleven, sevent You know, could just be

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Speaker 1: a stroke and some other kind of news he received,

420
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Speaker 1: but we could have to think about the curse fortune

421
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Speaker 1: teller's predictions. Just a few months later, within a year

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Speaker 1: of his wife's death. So creepy. Yeah. His son, now

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Speaker 1: George the second, succeeded him, and just like a lot

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Speaker 1: of the story, accounts on his reaction differ depending on

425
00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:10,200
Speaker 1: where you look. According to the Women in World History Encyclopedia,

426
00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:13,600
Speaker 1: George the Second basically carried on his father's policy of

427
00:25:13,680 --> 00:25:17,880
Speaker 1: ignoring his mother's name entirely, but according to Herman, he

428
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:21,320
Speaker 1: immediately brought out two portraits of her for his own chambers.

429
00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:24,320
Speaker 1: He also, and this seems likely either way you look

430
00:25:24,359 --> 00:25:29,000
Speaker 1: at it, wanted to review the Hanoverian court records, including

431
00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:32,160
Speaker 1: those last six months of Philip's letters, to find out

432
00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:36,800
Speaker 1: what happened between his parents, what happened with his mother's imprisonment,

433
00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:39,679
Speaker 1: what really went down, and unfortunately, whether it was to

434
00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:43,600
Speaker 1: protect his mother's memory or to protect his family from

435
00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:47,840
Speaker 1: future embarrassment, so covering both of those, uh, those emotions

436
00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:50,840
Speaker 1: he could have had, he decided to burn the records.

437
00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:54,880
Speaker 1: There's some documentation left though, and um, you know we've

438
00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:58,160
Speaker 1: been quoting from some of these letters. Aurora had most

439
00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:03,080
Speaker 1: of the correspondence. It's now stored at a Swedish university. Um,

440
00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:06,680
Speaker 1: just everything except those last six months pretty much. Some

441
00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:09,680
Speaker 1: more notes somehow turned up with Frederick the Great too,

442
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:14,199
Speaker 1: who was Sophia Dorothea's grandson through her daughter. So not

443
00:26:14,359 --> 00:26:17,760
Speaker 1: exactly sure how that happened. UM. Some of these letters

444
00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:22,560
Speaker 1: have been suggested as frauds. Other's not. Just this whole

445
00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:26,040
Speaker 1: story has a lot of murkiness behind it, but that's

446
00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:27,880
Speaker 1: always sort of fun too. But that makes it sort

447
00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:31,080
Speaker 1: of interesting too, because then there are just more possibilities

448
00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:33,639
Speaker 1: out there for us to explore. And it adds that

449
00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:36,080
Speaker 1: little element of mystery to it. It does it makes

450
00:26:36,119 --> 00:26:40,520
Speaker 1: it seem even more like a story, like a fairy tale. Um,

451
00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:43,520
Speaker 1: all of these elements and these would be could be

452
00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:46,879
Speaker 1: sort of ending. So UM, I really enjoyed learning some

453
00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:50,760
Speaker 1: about Sophia Dorothea, and UM, I think it's probably a

454
00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:53,440
Speaker 1: good time though, to go ahead and talk about the

455
00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:59,840
Speaker 1: listener mail. So I thought this podcast would be a

456
00:26:59,840 --> 00:27:04,040
Speaker 1: good one to include a letter we received from listener Adam,

457
00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:08,399
Speaker 1: because he also talks about how history and stories can

458
00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:11,080
Speaker 1: seem one and the same. Sometime. He wrote in to

459
00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:13,679
Speaker 1: say I can honestly say that history has been an

460
00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:15,800
Speaker 1: interest of mine my whole life, but I never liked

461
00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:18,719
Speaker 1: learning it in school. You probably already know, but in

462
00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:22,719
Speaker 1: Spanish the word for history and story are the same historia.

463
00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:25,680
Speaker 1: I think that's what makes your podcast so interesting. He

464
00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:28,359
Speaker 1: turned each podcast into a story, and who doesn't like

465
00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:31,760
Speaker 1: hearing stories. For the last ten months, I've been traveling

466
00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:34,680
Speaker 1: through Latin America and what I called the Happy Nomad Tour.

467
00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:38,320
Speaker 1: After being miserable quote living the dream of living working

468
00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:40,639
Speaker 1: in worry free Denmark for a wind power company, I

469
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:44,240
Speaker 1: finally started asking myself what my passions are, what my

470
00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:46,480
Speaker 1: dreams are, and what I want out of life. I

471
00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:50,280
Speaker 1: call this process the happiness Plunge. My goal is a traveler,

472
00:27:50,320 --> 00:27:52,520
Speaker 1: is to leave each place better than how I found it,

473
00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:55,119
Speaker 1: which I do by volunteering everywhere I go. I've had

474
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:58,240
Speaker 1: volunteering experiences such as feeding the elderly at a nursing

475
00:27:58,240 --> 00:28:03,159
Speaker 1: home in Mexico, installing solar panels in rural Honduras, attracting

476
00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:07,040
Speaker 1: book donations for a rural library project in Peru, playing

477
00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:10,639
Speaker 1: with kids at orphanages in Costa Rica and Ecuador, and

478
00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:14,080
Speaker 1: marketing and organization that turns donated use bikes into bike

479
00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:17,240
Speaker 1: machines in Guatemala. There's a lot of an offer. As

480
00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:19,679
Speaker 1: an engineer and an m b A, I listened to

481
00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:21,880
Speaker 1: quite a few How Stuff Works podcasts on my ten

482
00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:24,119
Speaker 1: to twenty hour bus rides and wanted to, in a

483
00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:26,560
Speaker 1: very small way, thank you for all you've given me.

484
00:28:26,920 --> 00:28:29,439
Speaker 1: Peru was my last stop in Latin America, and I

485
00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:32,359
Speaker 1: thought these Alpaca World chios were a great way to

486
00:28:32,359 --> 00:28:34,680
Speaker 1: say thanks, and a nice break from the postcards he

487
00:28:34,800 --> 00:28:38,640
Speaker 1: normally received. Note from us, we do love receiving position. Uh.

488
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:40,840
Speaker 1: He went on to say, I know it doesn't get

489
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:43,240
Speaker 1: too cold in Atlanta, but still I want to protect

490
00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:47,160
Speaker 1: those knowledge filled noggin so he sent us, like he said,

491
00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:51,560
Speaker 1: these awesome hats and um oh, a common misconception. It

492
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:54,120
Speaker 1: does get pretty cold in Atlanta, just not for very long.

493
00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:57,360
Speaker 1: So far is not fun around here. No, it gets

494
00:28:57,480 --> 00:29:01,360
Speaker 1: it gets quite chilly, but I love we we definitely

495
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:03,600
Speaker 1: need good hats to keep us warm in the winter.

496
00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:05,880
Speaker 1: And I just thought this was such a great note

497
00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:09,200
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of podcasters recently got some

498
00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:11,800
Speaker 1: of these chios, and it's fun to see them on

499
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:14,800
Speaker 1: on everybody's desks and maybe on their heads come around

500
00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:17,600
Speaker 1: fall or winter. Yeah, I have to say we were

501
00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:20,280
Speaker 1: rather jealous and we saw Jonathan and Chris. I think

502
00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:22,960
Speaker 1: we're the first to receive them, and we were eyeing

503
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:25,840
Speaker 1: them enviously, but then we got Then we got our own,

504
00:29:25,880 --> 00:29:28,720
Speaker 1: and I think ours are the best. Yeah, they're They're beautiful.

505
00:29:28,720 --> 00:29:31,320
Speaker 1: They're like purple and blue. Will post pictures of them

506
00:29:31,320 --> 00:29:33,840
Speaker 1: when it's cold enough to wear them. Um. So I

507
00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:36,480
Speaker 1: also thought Adam's story reminded me a lot of the

508
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:40,400
Speaker 1: sort of Evla Chullaby listener mail that we did recently.

509
00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:43,120
Speaker 1: All these stories about people who are just deciding to

510
00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:45,880
Speaker 1: go for it and travel to these cool places and

511
00:29:46,320 --> 00:29:48,640
Speaker 1: give back while they were doing it. And the motivation

512
00:29:48,680 --> 00:29:50,800
Speaker 1: behind us travel or what he's doing while he's traveling

513
00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:55,000
Speaker 1: volunteering is very admirable. And we just volunteered the other day.

514
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:59,120
Speaker 1: We have a day every year that our company volunteers

515
00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:01,760
Speaker 1: were impact to day, and every time we do it,

516
00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:04,040
Speaker 1: I think I need to do this more. Yeah, I

517
00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:06,480
Speaker 1: think the exact same thing we read an animal shelter.

518
00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:08,520
Speaker 1: We did post a picture of that of us with

519
00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:12,560
Speaker 1: an adorable puppy. Um. So yeah, thank you so much

520
00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:16,360
Speaker 1: Adam for writing in and sharing what you're doing, and

521
00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:19,680
Speaker 1: also talking a little bit about how you connect history

522
00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:22,760
Speaker 1: to stories. I think that's something we definitely try to do,

523
00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:27,160
Speaker 1: even when it is not so obvious as Sophia Dorothea's story.

524
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:29,560
Speaker 1: And so if you'd like to share story with us,

525
00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:33,080
Speaker 1: or maybe you have been on some travels or adventures

526
00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:34,560
Speaker 1: that you want to share with us too, you can

527
00:30:34,600 --> 00:30:37,720
Speaker 1: write us at History podcast and Discovery dot com. You

528
00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:40,000
Speaker 1: can also find us on Facebook and we're on Twitter

529
00:30:40,040 --> 00:30:41,920
Speaker 1: at this history And if you want to learn a

530
00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:45,800
Speaker 1: little bit more about other famous historical couples, unfortunately these

531
00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:48,080
Speaker 1: guys didn't make the list. We do have an image

532
00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:51,480
Speaker 1: gallery called Famous Historical Couples and you can find that

533
00:30:51,520 --> 00:31:00,840
Speaker 1: on our homepage at www dot how stuff works dot com.

534
00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:03,280
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics. Is

535
00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:19,360
Speaker 1: it how stuff works dot com. M