"Has the victim of 322-year-old royal intrigue been found?" Topic

"A scandalous and deadly mystery may soon be solved thanks to the sciency magic of DNA. The setting: Leine Castle in Niedersachsen, Germany, the residence of the Electors of Hanover and future Hanoverian kings. The players: Sophia Dorothea, the wife of the future King George I of Great Britain, her churlish husband, then Prince George Ludwig of Hanover, Sophia Dorothea's lover, Count Philip Christoph von Königsmarck, her father-in-law Ernest Augustus, the Elector of Hanover, and the Countess von Platen, the Elector's mistress and a schemer of Evil Queen in Snow White dimensions.

Sophia Dorothea had been forced to marry George Ludwig through the machinations of Sophia of Hanover, George's mother and granddaughter of King James I of England, who sabotaged her other engagements and persuaded her mother, Countess Eleanor of Wilhelmsburg, of the advantage of the match. Her future mother-in-law's motivation was purely pecuniary. Sophia Dorothea came with a rich income of 100,000 thaler a year (one thaler was worth 25 grams of silver, 10 times more than the English pound), and while George had zero personal charms (in Hanover he was known as "pignose" and his own mother considered him stupid and brutish) he had the powerful Electorate of Hanover coming his way and was also in line for the British crown.

So in 1682, the 16-year-old Sophia Dorothea married her first cousin Prince George Ludwig of Hanover, the future King George I of Great Britain. From day one the marriage was turbulent. They fought all the time, in private and public, and George slighted her at ceremonial occasions. Despite their active contempt for each other, they managed to reproduce twice: the future George II was born in 1683, Sophia Dorothea, the future Queen of Prussia, was born in 1687…."
More here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Hmmm. I don't have my life of de Saxe handy, but didn't they turn up a body with the Konigsmark seal ring maybe five or ten years ago? George may well have had this fellow killed and concealed the body, but probably not in multiple times and places.

I figure sleeping with the wife of someone with his own courts and armies is like charging guns with held canister. Yes, you might get away with it--but you've really got no legitimate gripe when you don't. You can and should love many people in the course of a lifetime. You don't have to have sex with all of them.

I enjoyed the film "Saraband for Dead Lovers". An intelligent historical film (& available on dvd).
Maurice de Saxe was Konigsmark's nephew but I don't recall reading anything about the Count in my ancient copy (1928 version)! However, I thought quicklime also dissolved bones, (edit – just discovered it doesn't, as it acts as a preservative)!