You may have noticed if you would normally read my blogs early in the morning in Eastern Time that I have been a bit late this week getting my blogs out. The reason is because I have had a short term English class that I am teaching that is in the mornings on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays of this month. It has made my available time to devote to the blog a bit tough. Combined with the fact that there is a lot of reading required to put the themes of these blogs together, I have been terribly late. Come May, though, all things should be back to normal, but in the meantime, just keep checking back to see if it has been updated. It should definitely be available each day by lunch time Eastern Time, though. Thanks for your patience.
Yesterday, I alluded to the House of Hanover in my blog as another German link to Scotland. Although at the time that this royal line came into power (1714), Scotland was no longer an independent country, it was indeed being governed as part of Great Britain by this family. In 1635, George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, a region in Lower Saxony that had the cities of Braunschweig (Brunswick) and Lüneburg within its territory, became what is considered the first person in the line of the House of Hanover. The name came from the city of Hanover that was the residence of the Duke when the territory of Brunswick-Lüneburg was divided.
But he was not the first link to Great Britain and Ireland. That would fall to his son's wife, Sophia. (Fair warning, to help point out the relationships in the families of royalty, this next part might be a bit boring to read, but I think it is important to see the links.) Sophia was the daughter of Princes Elizabeth Stuart of Scotland, granddaughter of James VI, King of Scotland, (also known as King James I of England and Ireland), and niece to King Charles I. She was also the mother of King George I (of the Hanover House). Had she lived long enough, she would have been the queen, but she died just a few weeks before Queen Anne died.
Elizabeth married Frederick V of Palatinate (Germany) and became through him the Queen of Bohemia, briefly. (Kids, what was Elizabeth's nickname?) They lived for a time in Heidelberg before eventually having to move to Holland. Sophia was born to them in exile in Holland. Due to King Charles of England's heavy handed ways and abuse of power, he was executed and for a time, his line was removed from power. Incidentally, Charleston in SC, where we will live again when we come back, was named for Charles I. Although England did not accept Charles I's son, Charles II, as their new king, Scotland did. As for England, after a long rule by the head of the parliament who was Oliver Cromwell and then Cromwell's son, Charles II became a king again, this time over England and Ireland.
Charles II didn't have any legitimate children of his own, so at his death his brother James II became king. James made both Scotland and England angry with his decisions, so he was removed from power. His daughter, Mary II was instated as the new queen. Her husband, William demanded to also be recognized as king, thus giving us William and Mary (and the college for which they gave the money to start in the new world) - only the second jointly ruled monarchy in the United Kingdom. Their children did not survive, which left the throne to Princess Anne, Mary's sister. Anne, whose children did not outlive her, only lived for 12 more years after coming to the throne.
With no remaining heirs, the line of Stuart ended with a vote by the Parliament of England who named George I, of the Hanover line and Anne's 2nd cousin, to the throne upon Anne's death in 1714. Even though there were over 50 other family members that had a closer tie to the throne, their being Catholic made them ineligible. Whew - that was a lot. One last bit on George that I found interesting. Even though he was the King of Great Britain, when he first came to rule, he did not speak English, and the people complained that he was too German.
Ok - so where am I going with this. Well, we needed to see why the House of Hanover came to rule. Now, I won't bore you with the details of the next hundred years or so, but suffice it to say, Hanovers stayed in power until the most famous Hanover, Queen Victoria, came into power. And here I will give you a rest and pick it back up tomorrow.
The word of the day is family: die Familie (fa mee lee eh).
The question for the day is "Who was Queen Victoria, and how is she linked to both Scotland and Germany?"
Auf Wiedersehen,
Frau Spitzer
