Author Topic: George I & his wife Sophia-Dorothea of Zelle  (Read 24053 times)

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Offline Превед

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Re: George I & his wife Sophia-Dorothea of Zelle
« Reply #30 on: May 03, 2014, 08:04:34 AM »
The Elector-King is today on his way from Warmsen in the old Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg to Castle Ippenburg in the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück (ruled by Charles of Lorraine in 1714, George I's brother Ernst August succeeding him in 1715). Ippenburg Castle is an old estate of the Barons Von dem Bussche, which Prince Claus of the Netherlands' mother Gösta von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen belonged to.
http://www.ndr.de/regional/niedersachsen/hannover/kroenungsreise231.html

It really is surrealistically like a real royal visit, with the real-life (Protestant) Abbot of Loccum Monastery receiving the "Elector-King" in full regalia and a service being held, crowds waving Union Jacks etc. (See picture series.)

Soon the Lower Saxons will be singing this tune with the words Wir wollen unseren alten König Georg wiederhaben. :-)

« Last Edit: May 03, 2014, 08:19:25 AM by Превед »
Берёзы севера мне милы,—
Их грустный, опущённый вид,
Как речь безмолвная могилы,
Горячку сердца холодит.

(Афанасий Фет: «Ивы и берёзы», 1843 / 1856)

Offline Kalafrana

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Re: George I & his wife Sophia-Dorothea of Zelle
« Reply #31 on: May 06, 2014, 11:02:46 AM »
As far as I'm aware there is nothing whatever planned in Britain to mark the Hanoverian accession. Glad to hear that they're celebrating in Hanover.

Ann

Offline Превед

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Re: George I & his wife Sophia-Dorothea of Zelle
« Reply #32 on: May 06, 2014, 05:29:53 PM »
As far as I'm aware there is nothing whatever planned in Britain to mark the Hanoverian accession. Glad to hear that they're celebrating in Hanover.

Perhaps you can see the Scottish referendum as a sort of celebration if they vote to keep the union? :-)

BTW it's fascinating that George I was the first monarch since the Carolingians with subjects speaking languages of all the major European language families:
Germanic (English, Scots, Low and High German)
Celtic (Gaelic, Welsh and Cornish)
Romance (French on the Channel Isles)
Slavic (Polabian in the Hanoverian Wendland)
« Last Edit: May 06, 2014, 05:34:26 PM by Превед »
Берёзы севера мне милы,—
Их грустный, опущённый вид,
Как речь безмолвная могилы,
Горячку сердца холодит.

(Афанасий Фет: «Ивы и берёзы», 1843 / 1856)

Offline Kalafrana

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Re: George I & his wife Sophia-Dorothea of Zelle
« Reply #33 on: May 07, 2014, 03:46:54 AM »
That's a thought.

Meanwhile, I should have mentioned that BBC Radio 3 is marking the event, with music of the period, interspersed with talk - I caught something on George and Sophia Dorothea in the car on Saturday.

For non-British posters, Radio 3 dedicates itself to classical music and serious talk, mostly about classical music.

Ann

Offline Kimberly

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Re: George I & his wife Sophia-Dorothea of Zelle
« Reply #34 on: May 07, 2014, 04:06:04 AM »
Also, Dr Lucy Worsley is fronting a series about the Georgian/Hanoverian Kings on BBC 4..it is rather good.
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Offline CountessKate

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Re: George I & his wife Sophia-Dorothea of Zelle
« Reply #35 on: May 07, 2014, 05:14:33 AM »
For me, one of the great problems is that none of the first three Georges were very interesting personalities (while the fourth Geoge had an interesting personality, but is not pleasant to examine in too much depth).  Interesting things happened to them, and they lived in interesting times, but I note even Lucy Worsley has struggled to do more than show what happened around George I, as opposed to focus on George himself, and has failed to convince me at any rate that the various advances of the period such as greater freedom of the press etc. occurred because of George I's benevolent hands-off governmental approach, rather than an enormous lack of interest in what happened in Britain.  I think it quite right that Hanover celebrates, because that was where George's heart genuinely was, but the very muted approach of Britain to the Hanoverian succession is understandable in that this line was essentially the scraping of the bottom of the barrel to find a committed protestant candidate to stand against the horrors of popery, with many in front of him who had a better genealogical claim than he.  I'll be interested to see what Lucy W's take on George II is - of course now she can look closely at Queen Caroline, much the more interesting of the two, and of course there's a lot to say about Georges III and IV.  But I would certainly find it difficult to hang out the bunting for the Georges as a tribe, or to really pinpoint what would have occurred differently if they had not reigned and had a Stuart been on the throne, since the only way for the latter to survive as a dynasty would have been to increasingly give in to parliamentary rule and to commit to protestantism.  So what - really - did they bring to Britain which was so wonderful that we should celebrate?  (I hope this is not going to bring forth a "What have the Romans ever done for us?" response, i.e.  "better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order....[and] peace" or something of that nature).

Offline Превед

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Re: George I & his wife Sophia-Dorothea of Zelle
« Reply #36 on: May 07, 2014, 01:46:47 PM »
But I would certainly find it difficult to hang out the bunting for the Georges as a tribe, or to really pinpoint what would have occurred differently if they had not reigned and had a Stuart been on the throne, since the only way for the latter to survive as a dynasty would have been to increasingly give in to parliamentary rule and to commit to protestantism.

And if they didn't give in and got increasingly out of sync with their people and political reality you might have had a repetition of the Civil War and the Glorious Revolution, but on a much deeper scale, with social unrest because of the early Industrial Revolution playing into it and making it much more like France in 1789 or Russia in 1917. The further you move towards modernity, the more fatal consequences will political instability have. With the dull Hanoverian succession in place, Britain achieved remarkable political stability before modernity really hit hard, whereas other countries had to tackle both issues at the same time, with devastating results.
« Last Edit: May 07, 2014, 01:49:46 PM by Превед »
Берёзы севера мне милы,—
Их грустный, опущённый вид,
Как речь безмолвная могилы,
Горячку сердца холодит.

(Афанасий Фет: «Ивы и берёзы», 1843 / 1856)

Offline Превед

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Re: George I & his wife Sophia-Dorothea of Zelle
« Reply #37 on: May 09, 2014, 04:02:42 PM »
On the 8th of May the Elector-King started in Bad Bentheim (with its castle on a hill, famous from Jacob van Ruysdael's paintings) crossed the German-Dutch border (back then then border between the County of Bentheim and the Republic of the Seven United Provinces) and arrived at Kasteel Twickel, where he was received by Count Wassenaer Obdam. (Who also entertained George I on his last journey back to Hanover in 1727, when he died in Osnabrück, allegedly because of having overindulging in watermelons at Count Wassenaer's sumptuous banquet!)

See http://www.ndr.de/regional/niedersachsen/hannover/kroenungsreise179.html

Today the castle is inhabited by Count Roderick of Castell-Rüdenhausen, heir of the Barons van Heeckeren van Wassenaer.


« Last Edit: May 09, 2014, 04:05:43 PM by Превед »
Берёзы севера мне милы,—
Их грустный, опущённый вид,
Как речь безмолвная могилы,
Горячку сердца холодит.

(Афанасий Фет: «Ивы и берёзы», 1843 / 1856)

Offline Janet Ashton

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Re: George I & his wife Sophia-Dorothea of Zelle
« Reply #38 on: May 25, 2014, 01:20:33 PM »
That's a thought.

Meanwhile, I should have mentioned that BBC Radio 3 is marking the event, with music of the period, interspersed with talk - I caught something on George and Sophia Dorothea in the car on Saturday.

For non-British posters, Radio 3 dedicates itself to classical music and serious talk, mostly about classical music.

Ann

And there was this: - http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/georgiansrevealed/

which is now finished, but which was specifically linked to the 200th anniversary of the Georgians arriving.
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many; they are few.

Offline Превед

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Re: George I & his wife Sophia-Dorothea of Zelle
« Reply #39 on: May 29, 2014, 04:03:20 PM »
BTW it's fascinating that George I was the first monarch since the Carolingians with subjects speaking languages of all the major European language families:
Germanic (English, Scots, Low and High German)
Celtic (Gaelic, Welsh and Cornish)
Romance (French on the Channel Isles)
Slavic (Polabian in the Hanoverian Wendland)

Fun that Queen Victoria herself might have heard about this herself, considering that she explored the still Gaelic-speaking Highlands with Gaelic-speaking John Brown while her governess Baroness Lehzen might have told her about her own father, the pastor and English teacher Johann or Joachim Friedrich Lehzen (1735 - 1800), who hailed from Jeetzel (now part of Lüchow) in the Hanoverian Wendland and either knew some Polabian himself or heard it growing up.
« Last Edit: May 29, 2014, 04:10:53 PM by Превед »
Берёзы севера мне милы,—
Их грустный, опущённый вид,
Как речь безмолвная могилы,
Горячку сердца холодит.

(Афанасий Фет: «Ивы и берёзы», 1843 / 1856)

Offline Превед

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Re: George I & his wife Sophia-Dorothea of Zelle
« Reply #40 on: October 09, 2014, 08:53:09 AM »
while her governess Baroness Lehzen might have told her about her own father, the pastor and English teacher Johann or Joachim Friedrich Lehzen (1735 - 1800), who hailed from Jeetzel (now part of Lüchow) in the Hanoverian Wendland and either knew some Polabian himself or heard it growing up.

Lehzen is probably a Wendic / Slavic place name (compare Lehsen and Leezen in Mecklenburg and Holstein), derived from lesny, wooded.
Берёзы севера мне милы,—
Их грустный, опущённый вид,
Как речь безмолвная могилы,
Горячку сердца холодит.

(Афанасий Фет: «Ивы и берёзы», 1843 / 1856)