THE ROYAL FAMILY. GEORGE THE FIRST, AND HIS CONSORT THE ancestors of the illustrious House of Brunswick may be traced, by the genealogist, up to the year of our Lord 390: they were connected, at an early period, with the royal family of England, by the marriage of Henry, surnamed the Lion, to Matilda, daughter of Henry the Second, from whom George the First was lineally descended. His grandfather, George, was one of the seven sons of William, Duke of Brunswick Luneburg; who, on the demise of their father, in order to support the dignity of their family, resolved that only one of them should form a matrimonial connexion; the issue of which, it was determined, should eventually succeed to all the honours and possessions of their house. The brothers decided by lot which of them should marry; and the chance fell upon the sixth brother, George. He was accordingly united to Anna Eleanora, daughter of the Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt; and his son, Ernestus Augustus, in 1680, became sole heir to his father and uncles; the latter having kept the fraternal compact so faithfully, that Achmet the First said, it would be worth making a journey for the purpose of beholding them. Ernestus Augustus, the first Duke of Hanover, was married, in 1658, to Sophia, daughter of Frederick, King of Bohemia, by Matilda, the daughter of James the First, King of England. This princess (Sophia) was a woman of uncommon beauty and masculine intellect. At seventy-three, according to a cotemporary writer, she possessed all the comeliness and vigour of youth, had not a wrinkle in her face, and read without spectacles. The chairs of the presence chamber, and the ornaments of the Her son, George Lewis, was born at VOL. 1. |