Sophia Dorothea of Celle would have been Queen of Great Britain if she had not divorced the future King George I of Great Britain, but it was not to be.
Born from an initially morganatic marriage, she married her first cousin, then Electoral Prince of Hanover, the son of Sophia of Hanover, in order to unite their lines and more importantly their riches. It was an unhappy match from the start with her famously declaring, “I will not marry the pig snout!” But marry they did, and they also managed to produce two children – the future King George II and Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, later Queen in Prussia. Both then took lovers, which spiralled quickly out of control, leading to a divorce and Sophia Dorothea’s imprisonment at Ahlden for the rest of her life.
The Imprisoned Princess by Catherine Curzon delves into her life and even the drama leading up to her birth in a very engaging way. The book well-researched with a ton of references but it still reads like a dream, and you will not want to put it down. Even if you know how it ends, you keep hoping for a different outcome for Sophia Dorothea. I think she would have made a fabulous Queen and it’s quite tragic that she never got see her children again.
The Imprisoned Princess by Catherine Curzon is available now in the UK and the US.
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