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Biography of Sophia Dorothea of Celle 1666-1726

On 15th September 1666 Sophia Dorothea of Celle was born illegitimately to [her father] George Wilhelm Hanover Duke Brunswick-Lüneburg and [her mother] Eleonore Esmier D'Olbreuse Duchess Brunswick-Lüneburg.

On 2nd April 1676 [her father] George Wilhelm Hanover Duke Brunswick-Lüneburg and [her mother] Eleonore Esmier D'Olbreuse Duchess Brunswick-Lüneburg were married. She by marriage Duchess Brunswick Lüneburg. He the son of [her grandfather] George Hanover Duke Brunswick-Lüneburg and [her grandmother] Anne Eleonore Hesse Darmstadt Duchess Brunswick-Lüneburg.

On 21st November 1682 George Louis of Hanover and Sophia Dorothea of Celle were married. The marriage had been arranged by their respective fathers Ernest Augustus Hanover Elector Brunswick-Lüneburg and George Wilhelm Hanover Duke Brunswick-Lüneburg, and his mother Electress Sophia Palatinate Simmern. She the illegitmate daughter of George Wilhelm Hanover Duke Brunswick-Lüneburg and Eleonore Esmier D'Olbreuse Duchess Brunswick-Lüneburg. He the son of Ernest Augustus Hanover Elector Brunswick-Lüneburg and Electress Sophia Palatinate Simmern.

On 30th October 1683 [her son] King George II of Great Britain and Ireland was born to King George I and Sophia Dorothea of Celle at Herrenhausen Palace, Hanover, Lower Saxony. He married 22nd August 1705 Caroline Hohenzollern Queen Consort England and had issue.

1686. Henri Gascar. Portrait of Sophia Dorothea of Celle.

On 26th March 1687 [her daughter] Sophia Dorothea Hanover Queen Consort Prussia was born to King George I and Sophia Dorothea of Celle. She married 28th November 1706 Frederick William "Soldier King" I King Prussia, son of Frederick I King Prussia and Sophia Charlotte Hanover Queen Consort Prussia, and had issue.

Around 1690 Sophia Dorothea of Celle was reunited with the Swedish Count Philip Christoph von Königsmarck, whom she had known in her childhood when he was a page at the court of Celle. Sometime later they began an affair.

Around 1690. Jacques Vaillant. Portrait of Sophia Dorothea of Celle with her two children [her son] George and [her daughter] Sophia.

On 11th July 1694 the Swedish Count Philip Christoph von Königsmarck, with whom Sophia Dorothea of Celle was having an affair, and with whom she had met that day, disappeared without a trace. No trace of Königsmarck was ever found.

On 28th December 1694 the marriage of the future King George I and Sophia Dorothea of Celle was dissolved. Sophia Dorothea was named as the guilty party for "maliciously leaving her husband". She was forbidden to remarry or to see her children again; her name was removed from official documents, she was stripped of her title of Electoral Princess. She was imprisoned for life.

In 1696 Sophia Dorothea of Celle was imprisoned for the remaining 30 years of her life, denied access to her children, forbidden to remarry at Ahlden House, Celle, Lower Saxony.

On 22nd August 1705 [her son] King George II of Great Britain and Ireland and [her daughter-in-law] Caroline Hohenzollern Queen Consort England were married. He the son of King George I and Sophia Dorothea of Celle.

On 28th August 1705 [her father] George Wilhelm Hanover Duke Brunswick-Lüneburg died.

On 13th November 1726 Sophia Dorothea of Celle died shortly before midnight. An autopsy revealed liver failure and gall bladder occlusion due to 60 gallstones. Her former husband King George I died seven months later.