Birth of a Future (Neglected) Queen on 8 November, 1715

It was on this day 303 years ago that Elizabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern was born. Her parents were Ferdinand Albert II, the reigning Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern, and his wife, Duchess Antoinette. Among her numerous siblings was another future queen, Juliana, who would grow up to marry Frederick V of Denmark.

Elizabeth Christine’s own queenship came about because one of her paternal aunts, also Elizabeth Christine, was the wife of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. It was through Austrian influence that the younger Elizabeth Christine was selected as a bride for the then Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia. What the young woman probably didn’t know was that Frederick, desperate to get out from under his father’s roof, only wanted to marry as a way of getting his own household. The young couple were duly wedded in June of 1733, but lived separately for a time since Frederick’s regiment was stationed in Ruppin, some distance from Berlin. In 1736, husband and wife moved into the newly built palace at Rheinsberg near Ruppin, where they remained until Frederick’s accession in 1740. Elizabeth Christine later remembered these years as the happiest of her life, but there were no children. Frederick displayed little interest in women before he came to the throne, and none at all afterwards.

As soon as Frederick became king, he moved back to Berlin. After the completion of Sans Souci, his little palace in Potsdam, he spent most of the year there when he wasn’t at war. Elizabeth Christine was assigned the palace of Schönhausen as a summer residence. He never visited it, nor did he ever invite his wife to Sans Souci. Frederick also avoided court life in Berlin. After his mother’s death in 1757, Elizabeth Christine upheld ceremonial court life in Berlin on her own. It became Frederick’s custom to dine with his wife once a year. Often he didn’t speak to her during these dinners. Legend has it that one year he astonished everyone by going up to her and inquiring after her health.

Though he neglected her, Frederick saw to it that Elizabeth Christine was duly honoured as Queen of Prussia. Her good works — she gave away more than half her income in charity — won her popularity with the people, and she was popular with the other members of the royal family. Elizabeth Christine survived her husband by 11 years, dying in 1797.

It was on this day 327 years ago, on 25 October 1692, that a future queen of Spain was born.

The baby girl was Isabel Farnese, the only surviving child of Odoardo Farnese, himself the eldest son of the reigning Duke of Parma, Ranuccio II. Her mother was Dorothea Sophie, Princess Palatine. When Odoardo died, predeceasing his father, Dorothea Sophie married his younger brother, Francesco, who was the new heir to the throne. In other words, baby Isabel’s uncle was also her stepfather. When Ranuccio II died in 1694, Isabel’s uncle/stepfather and mother became the new Duke and Duchess of Parma. Since they had no children, and the youngest brother of the family, Antonio, also had only a daughter, it became accepted that Isabel would eventually inherit the duchy. To that end, she was carefully educated.

Unsurprisingly, she had many suitors. After the early death of Felipe V of Spain’s wife in 1714, Isabel was proposed as his new bride. The power behind the Spanish throne, the Princess des Ursins, backed Isabel because of reports that the young princess was easily led. Nothing could have been further from the truth. On her arrival in Spain, Isabel immediately sacked des Ursins and had her deported to France. Felipe V fell in love with Isabel at their first meeting and was soon completely dominated by her. In essence, it was Isabel who ruled Spain until Felipe’s death in 1746.

Frustratingly for Isabel, Felipe’s first wife had left 2 sons, both of whom came before her own sons in the line of succession. In compensation, Isabel fought to have her eldest son, Carlos, made Duke of Parma after the death of Duke Antonio and his only (unmarried and childless) daughter. In fact, Carlos did considerably better. After a good showing in the War of the Polish Succession (1733-1736), which was really about Italy, Carlos bagged the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily. Isabel finally managed to secure her ancestral inheritance when she manoeuvred her younger son, another Felipe, onto the throne of Parma in 1748.

Isabel lived long enough to see her childless stepson, Ferdinand VI, die in 1759, thus making Carlos of Naples and Sicily King of Spain as Carlos III. He duly abdicated his Italian thrones to his son in order to take up his new Spanish one. Isabel served as regent while waiting for him to arrive.

Isabel died, presumably satisfied by the achievement of her life’s ambitions, in 1766.

It was on this day 329 years ago, 22 October 1689, that the future John V, King of Portugal and the Algarves, was born in Lisbon.

John was the eldest surviving son of Peter II and Maria Sofia of Neuburg; their first-born son had died in the cradle. Maria Sofia died when John was only 10, plunging him into an extended period of melancholy. He revived only when his paternal aunt, Catherine of Braganza, the widow of Charles II, returned to Portugal from England and took charge of his upbringing. He experienced great grief again when Catherine died in 1705.

John V succeeded his father in 1706, aged only 17. It was his good fortune to come to the throne just as the great river of recently discovered Brazilian gold began to flow across the Atlantic into the royal coffers. John spent it lavishly, mostly on the church. Voltaire said of him that when he wanted to build, he built a convent, and when he wanted a mistress, he took a nun. The great philosophe did not exaggerate. John built the giant convent-palace of Mafra outside of Lisbon, and he fathered 3 illegitimate children by 3 different nuns. His great preoccupation was to increase Portugal’s standing as a Catholic power. To that end, he lobbied long, hard, and successfully, for Lisbon’s archbishopric to be raised to a patriarchate, and also for his own title to be changed, by papal decree, to “His Most Faithful Majesty, the King of Portugal and the Algarves.”

To his great credit, John V also built the Lisbon aqueduct, the largest one built since Roman times. It has assured Lisbon’s water supply ever since.

Among John V’s legitimate children by his wife, Maria Anna of Austria, sister of the emperors Joseph I and Charles VI, were the future kings Joseph I and Peter III, as well as Barbara, queen consort of Spain.

It was on this day 313 years ago, 17 October 1705, that the remarkable courtesan, salon hostess, and letter writer Ninon de l’Enclos died in Paris.

Born in 1620 to an impecunious lutenist and his wife, Ninon decided early on never to marry and to live as independently as she could — not an easy task for a woman in 17th-century Paris. From her teens to her forties, she conducted a highly successful career as a courtesan, racking up an impressive number of titled lovers and at least one illegitimate child. In the late 1660s, she retired to a mansion in the Rue des Tournelles, where she hosted a salon for the rest of her life. It seems that her great beauty never quite left her; that, combined with her charm and legendary wit, had men falling in love with her to the very end of her life.

As a writer, she is best known for her letters. In one of them, she asserted that “when one is truly in love, one shrinks from marriage as from an abyss.”

Ninon de l’Enclos also had a great eye for talent. After meeting the 11-year-old François Arouet (the future Voltaire) shortly before her death, she left him 2,000 livres with which to buy books.

Have you read her letters?

It was on this day 307 years ago, 15 October 1711, that Elisabeth-Thérèse of Lorraine was born. Her parents were Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, and Elisabeth-Charlotte d’Orléans. Francis Stephen, the future Holy Roman Emperor, was her older brother. She grew up to become the 3rd wife of King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia, whose first 2 wives both died young. They were married on 1 April 1737. The bride was aged 25, which in those days was considered rather late for a first marriage. Sadly, Elisabeth-Thérèse, like her predecessors, also died young. She was carried off by puerperal fever shortly after giving birth to her only surviving child, Prince Benedetto (1741-1808), Duke of Chablais. His only marriage was childless, so Elisabeth-Thérèse has no living descendants.

For those keeping tracking of dynastic connections, Elisabeth-Thérèse was a paternal aunt of Marie-Antoinette. She was also a grand daughter of Philippe I d’Orléans, AKA “Monsieur,” the only brother of Louis XIV.

It was on this day 288 years ago, 12 October 1730, that Frederick IV, King of Denmark and Norway, died in Odense. He was one of history’s most notable bigamists.

Born in 1671 to Christian V and his consort Charlotte Amalie of Hessen-Kassel, Frederick succeeded to the throne on his father’s death in 1699. Two-thirds of his reign was dominated by the Great Northern War (1700-1721), in which he took Russia’s side against Sweden, hoping to win back the formerly Danish territories in southern Sweden. That was not to be, but he did reassert Danish rule over the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.

Frederick IV was an energetic king. He traveled more than was usual for a crowned head in those days, visiting Italy twice. On his second visit, he spent nine weeks during the winter of 1708-1709 in Venice, where he was entertained lavishly.

He took 3 wives. In itself, that would not be unusual, but he married the second and third while he was still married to the first. The first wife, Queen Louise of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, disobliged him by living until 1721. The day after her death, he remarried his third wife, whom he had married bigamously after the death of the second wife, whom he also bigamously married. This third wife, Anne Sophia von Reventlow, now the King’s legal spouse, was declared Queen. The courts of Europe were shocked at this elevation of a commoner to such an exalted status.

It was of course the first wife’s son who succeeded Frederick as Christian VI. Anne Sophie survived Frederick, dying exiled on a country estate in 1743.

It was on this day 289 years ago, 11 October 1727, that George II and his consort Caroline of Ansbach were crowned King and Queen of Great Britain and Ireland.

The new king’s predecessor, his father George I, had died on 11 June while on a visit to Hanover, of which he was the hereditary Prince-Elector. According to legend, the younger George exclaimed, in his thickly accented English, “Dat is vun big lie!” when he was told of his accession. George II decided not to go to Germany for his father’s funeral proceedings, a decision that played well in English public opinion. In reality, George II was as fond of Hanover as his father; after all, both were born and raised there. Over the years, the second Hanoverian king of Great Britain would spend significant amounts of time in his German domains.

George and Caroline were crowned in Westminster Abbey, as per custom. They commissioned George Frederick Handel to write four anthems for the occasion. One of them was the mighty ‘Zadok the Priest,’ which has been played at the climax of every coronation since.

Caroline died in 1737, and George reigned until his death in 1760.

Part 5.4 is the final part of Chapter 5.

A Childhood at Versailles consists of the first 5 chapters of the memoirs of Mme de Boigne (1781-1866), née Adèle d’Osmond, who was a French salon hostess and writer.  She was born in the Château de Versailles and lived at the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette until her family fled to England during the Revolution.  Later in her long life, she married a rich soldier of fortune 30 years her senior, hosted a brilliant salon in Paris, and became an intimate of the last French queen, Marie-Amélie, consort of King Louis Philippe (r. 1830-1848).  Childless herself, Mme de Boigne addressed her memoirs to her grandnephew.  The memoirs were not published until 1907, under the title Récits d’une tante, or An Aunt’s Tales.  They’ve never been published in English, as far as I know, so I’ve decided to translate the first 5 chapters, the ones that take place mainly at Versailles, and post them here on this blog for interested readers to enjoy for free.

The chapters are quite lengthy, so I’ve broken each one into several parts. In Part 5.4, the author relates her family’s crossing of the Alps in mid-winter on their way to England, where they would remain for many years.

A Childhood at Versailles, Chapter 5, Part 4 (Part 5.4)

I have already spoken several times of my father’s valet, Bermont. When our departure for England was decided, my father wanted to find a place for him in Naples with General Acton.  It would have suited him marvellously, but he absolutely refused to hear of it.  Several years earlier he had married a woman who had been successively my nursemaid and then my brother’s when I was handed over to an Englishwoman.  He had had children with her who were still in France.  He told my father that he did not want to be separated from us.  

“But, my poor Bermont, I cannot keep a valet.”

“That is true, Monsieur le marquis, but you need a muleteer.  You are going to buy some mules for the journey, and someone will be needed to look after them and drive them.  Well, that someone will be me.”

Part 5.3 is the third of four parts of Chapter 5.

A Childhood at Versailles consists of the first 5 chapters of the memoirs of Mme de Boigne (1781-1866), née Adèle d’Osmond, who was a French salon hostess and writer.  She was born in the Château de Versailles and lived at the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette until her family fled to England during the Revolution.  Later in her long life, she married a rich soldier of fortune 30 years her senior, hosted a brilliant salon in Paris, and became an intimate of the last French queen, Marie-Amélie, consort of King Louis Philippe (r. 1830-1848).  Childless herself, Mme de Boigne addressed her memoirs to her grandnephew.  The memoirs were not published until 1907, under the title Récits d’une tante, or An Aunt’s Tales.  They’ve never been published in English, as far as I know, so I’ve decided to translate the first 5 chapters, the ones that take place mainly at Versailles, and post them here on this blog for interested readers to enjoy for free.

The chapters are quite lengthy, so I’ve broken each one into several parts. In Part 5.3, the author recounts the extraordinary early career of the celebrated Emma, Lady Hamilton, who in the 1790s was in high favour at the Court of Naples. Young Adèle sometimes assisted Lady Hamilton in her famous ‘attitudes,’an experience she vividly describes here.

A Childhood at Versailles, Chapter 5, Part 3 (Part 5.3)

The Queen tried to keep my mother in Naples.  She even offered her a little house, but we still had faith in our own resources then.  The Queen, in any case, had a reputation for capriciousness, and Lady Hamlton’s period of favour was beginning.  This Lady Hamilton had such notoriety that I believe I must speak of her.  

M Greville, coming into his kitchen one day, saw at the corner of the chimney a young woman with only one foot shod, for she was darning the thick black stocking that was to cover the other one.  Lifting her eyes, she revealed a celestial beauty.   He discovered that she was the sister of his groom.  He had no great difficulty getting her to climb the staircase and establishing her in his drawing room.  He lived with her for some time, and taught her to read and write a little.  

The affairs of this very disorderly young man having been set alight, he found himself obliged to leave London suddenly.  At that time, his uncle, Sir William Hamilton, the English minister to Naples, happened to be on leave.  The young man told him that his greatest grief was the necessity of abandoning a most beautiful young creature that he had in his house, who would find herself on the street.  Sir William promised him to take care of her.  

In fact, he went to fetch her at the very moment that the bailiffs were expelling her from Mr. Greville’s, and soon he was head over heels in love with her.  He took her to Italy.  I do not know what role she played in his life, but he ended up marrying her after a few years.  

Part 5.2 is the second of four parts of Chapter 5.

A Childhood at Versailles consists of the first 5 chapters of the memoirs of Mme de Boigne (1781-1866), née Adèle d’Osmond, who was a French salon hostess and writer.  She was born in the Château de Versailles and lived at the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette until her family fled to England during the Revolution.  Later in her long life, she married a rich soldier of fortune 30 years her senior, hosted a brilliant salon in Paris, and became an intimate of the last French queen, Marie-Amélie, consort of King Louis Philippe (r. 1830-1848).  Childless herself, Mme de Boigne addressed her memoirs to her grandnephew.  The memoirs were not published until 1907, under the title Récits d’une tante, or An Aunt’s Tales.  They’ve never been published in English, as far as I know, so I’ve decided to translate the first 5 chapters, the ones that take place mainly at Versailles, and post them here on this blog for interested readers to enjoy for free.

The chapters are quite lengthy, so I’ve broken each one into several parts. In Part 5.2, the author tells of the Court of Naples, where they stayed for the better part of a year after leaving Rome. The Queen of Naples was Marie Antoinette’s sister, Maria Carolina…

A Childhood at Versailles, Chapter 5, Part 2 (5.2)

We stayed for ten months in Naples.  My mother was very well received and much spoiled by the Queen,²⁵ who made her tell of the Court of France and all the beginnings of the Revolution, so interesting for her as a queen and as a sister.

I was admitted into the society of the princesses her daughters, and it is there that began my liaison, if I dare use that expression, with the Princess Amélie, since become Queen of the French.  We spoke French and English, we read together, and I went to spend days with her at Portici and at Caserta.  She distinguished me among all her other little companions.  I was on less good terms with her sisters, even though we were together almost as often.