234. Stepney to Blathwayt, Dresden, August 21
31, 1694.

235. Yet Köcher knew that letters did exist, for he quotes himself the testimony of Leibniz: “They would never have thought her so guilty at Celle had not her letters been produced” (Hist. Zeitschrift, vol. xlviii., p. 233).

236. Cresset’s Despatch, August 14, 1694. The letter which Cresset mentions as being about to write to the Duke of Shrewsbury is not preserved in the State Paper Office, nor indeed are any letters of his at this time, save a few fragments probably overlooked, which have been quoted here. There is nothing bearing on the Princess or Königsmarck. As the English envoy’s correspondence is voluminous just before and just after the catastrophe, these letters have been doubtless suppressed purposely: it is a pity, as they would have thrown great light on this vexed question.

237. Some of these letters are probably those now at Berlin; others probably at Gmünden.

238. But Sophie Dorothea thought she would be allowed to see her children occasionally after the divorce. She had no idea that her retirement involved perpetual imprisonment.

239. “The Carnaval here is very provoking, but they cannot live without it; they are a sort of people that can rejoice even in their own disgraces.”—Cresset’s Despatch, Hanover, January 11, 1695.

240. “The unlucky Princess is still in this country and they talk of removing her suddenly into her father’s territory.”—Knatchbull’s (secretary to Cresset) Despatch, Hanover, February 22, 1695.

241. Lord Hervey’s Memoirs, vol. ii.

242. The next in blood, after the children of James II., was the Duchess of Savoy, daughter of Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans (a daughter of Charles I.), and then the family of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia (daughter of James I.); but all these, save the Electress Sophia, were Roman Catholics. It is interesting to note that the lineal descendant of Charles I., through the Duchess of Savoy, is Mary, Consort of Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, eldest son of the Prince Regent and heir-presumptive to the throne of Bavaria.

243. The letter dated September 20, 1702, is said to be in the State Paper Office, but I cannot find it, though mention is made by Cresset of a letter from the Duchess of Celle to Queen Anne, and he writes to the Foreign Minister at home for an answer.

244. Poley’s Despatch, Hanover, August 18, 1705.

245. Poley’s Despatch, Hanover, July 21, 1705.

246. Still preserved in the State Paper Office. “Called Mr. Poley’s account of the House of Brunswick, etc., upon his return from being Her Majesty’s envoy at Hanover, November 9, 1705.”

247. He created her Countess of Darlington, and in the patent of her peerage, which by the courtesy of Count Kielmansegg I have been permitted to see at Gülzow, the words “dilectam consanguineam nostram” appear.

248. It is probable that the Queen of Prussia knew also of her mother’s mistakes, for the letters which passed between Sophie and Königsmarck, now in the Berlin archives, are supposed to have been sent to Berlin from Hanover to prejudice the Queen against the prisoner of Ahlden.

249. Walpole’s Reminiscences.

250. Lord Hervey’s Memoirs.