Eleonore was a member of the minor Huguenot nobility, and a poor one. She worked as a lady-in-waiting for a French noblewoman who resided in Holland, and it was there that she met George William, Duke of Celle. They fell in love, but there were problems. Her low birth meant that they could only be married morganatically, and, worse, he’d already promised never to marry in a binding family compact. Eleonore became his mistress in exchange for a generous financial settlement. They settled down in Celle, where their court was run on informal and Francophile lines. To their sorrow, all of their children but Sophia Dorothea died in infancy; they spoiled her rotten as a result. Eleonore wanted a good husband for her, preferably a French nobleman, and she egged George William on to make her dream come true. He took advantage of the political situation to win concessions from his family and the Emperor. He married Eleonore and had Sophia Dorothea legitimated. He also gave her a large dowry.
Eleonore didn’t like the lifestyle that prevailed at most German courts, so Sophia Dorothea was taught little about the traditions, formal etiquette, precedence, etc., that were in use at courts like Hanover. Eleonore didn’t teach her about duty, dignity and discipline, but encouraged her to enjoy and assert herself. Sophia Dorothea grew into a lovely young woman who liked to flirt and to exchange love letters with the help. Her romantic peccadilloes were discovered, her parents stepped up their plans for her marriage, and her cousin George of Hanover was selected as her husband. Eleonore was against this match, but George William insisted. The couple had nothing in common and the marriage was an unhappy one. George cheated on Sophia Dorothea, she flirted with other men, ugly scenes took place, and they became estranged. She had an affair with Philip von Konigsmark, a gambler and wastrel. Eleonore begged her to end it, but she refused, for Konigsmark had asked her to run away with him. The idea of leaving the stuffy Hanoverian court behind for an untrammeled life with her lover was irresistible to Sophia Dorothea, even though such a flight would mean abandoning her two children and embarrassing her entire family. The lovers didn’t know it, but their plans were no secret. Konigsmark was murdered and Sophia Dorothea was imprisoned in the fortress of Ahlden in Celle. A divorce was granted, and it was decided that Sophia Dorothea would spend the rest of her life at Ahlden in a sort of living death.
Eleonore begged George William to allow Sophia Dorothea back into their lives and to give her some measure of freedom, and grew estranged from him when he refused. After George William's death, George of Hanover proved just as unrelenting a gaoler. Eleonore spent the rest of her life fighting for her daughter’s freedom but found little sympathy from anyone and no success.
The Electress Sophia despised Eleonore largely because she was a troublemaker. Over the years, Eleonore did her best to estrange George William from Ernest Augustus, Sophia’s husband. The brothers had been best friends but, thanks to Eleonore, their relationship deteriorated, which hurt them both. Further, Eleonore held German manners and customs, even the food, in contempt and sometimes made nasty remarks about same. This hurt and offended Sophia, who did not appreciate being sneered at by her brother-in-law's mistress. Sophia was also less than amused by Eleonore's efforts to aggrandize herself through faux genealogies and so forth.
Sophia was against the marriage of George and Sophia Dorothea because she knew that Eleonore’s family was third-rate, that Sophia Dorothea had been born out of wedlock, and that Sophia Dorothea had been badly brought up and had no idea how to go on at a formal court. To her credit, Sophia tried to befriend and mentor Sophia Dorothea after her marriage, but she refused to listen to her advice. She deplored Sophia Dorothea's affair and tried to persuade her to end it, but once more she refused to listen. The final service she did for Sophia Dorothea, and it was no small one, was to raise her children and to love them as if they were her own.
Eleonore did not understand that Sophia was powerless to have Sophia Dorothea released from Ahlden. Over time, she seems to have convinced herself that Sophia was to blame for her daughter's horrible fate, but this was not the case. George William, George and Ernest Augustus agreed to the lifelong imprisonment, and Sophia was not part of the discussion. Once those three had made up their minds, that was it as far as Sophia was concerned. She was far too wise to fight for what was clearly a lost cause. All she could do was teach the younger Sophia Dorothea what she needed to know to avoid a similiar fate.
