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THE ROYAL FAMILY.

THE ROYAL FAMILY.

GEORGE THE FIRST, AND HIS CONSORT
SOPHIA DOROTHEA.

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
electoral chapel, were all embroidered
with her own hands. She was the firm
friend and protector of Leibnitz and
other learned men of her day. She
spoke five languages, including English,
so well, that by her accent it was doubt-
ful which of them was her native tongue.
Her wit was sprightly, her judgment
solid and penetrating, and her piety
The succession of her
exemplary.
family to the throne of this country
her death has been attributed to the
had long been her darling object; and
chagrin she felt at her son's intended
visit to England being strongly depre-
cated by Queen Anne. In the evening
of the 8th of June, 1714, she was caught
in a violent shower of rain, while in
her orangery; and hastening to get
under cover, her attendant reminded
her that she was walking too fast,
as she had been indisposed for a day or
two: "I believe I am," she replied,
and immediately dropped down and
expired. This event took place when
the electress was in the eighty-fourth
year of her age.

Her son, George Lewis, was born at
Hanover, on the 28th of May, 1660.
Judging from the great accomplishments
that his education would have been
of his mother, the reader might expect
careful and complete; but the contrary
His father, Ernestus,
was the fact.
though a man of some talent, feeling
no admiration for scholastic acquire-
ments, probably connived at his inat-
tention to study, which must have been
gross indeed, as he never even acquired
the language of the people, over whom,
by the provisions of the act for securing

VOL. 1.

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