“I assure you that of all the letters which this season has brought me yours has been the most welcome. You do well to send me your good wishes for the throne of England, which are sorely needed just now, for in spite of all the favourable rumours you mention, affairs there seem to be going from bad to worse. For my part (and I am a woman and like to delude myself) I cling to the hope that, however bad things may be now, they will ultimately turn to the advantage of our House. I accept the comparison which you draw, though all too flattering, between me and Queen Elizabeth as a good omen. Like Elizabeth, the Electress’s rights are denied her by a jealous sister with a bad temper (Queen Anne), and she will never be sure of the English crown until her accession to the throne. God be praised that our Princess of Wales (the Electress Sophia) is better than ever, and by her good health confounds all the machinations of her enemies.” FOOTNOTES TO BOOK I, CHAPTER V: [25] Howe’s Despatch, Hanover, 5th February, 1707. The son now born was Frederick Louis, later Prince of Wales, the father of George III. [26] Howe’s Despatch, Hanover, 25th February, 1707. [27] Howe’s Despatch, Hanover, 11th March, 1707. [28] Howe’s Despatch, Hanover, 11th March, 1707. [29] Anne; born in 1709. She was afterwards Princess Royal of England, and married in 1733 the Prince of Orange. [30] _Vide_ Swift’s character of Mrs. Howard, _Suffolk Correspondence_. [31] Princess Amelia was born in 1710, Princess Caroline in 1713. They both died unmarried. CHAPTER VI. THE LAST YEAR AT HANOVER. 1714. The history of the last year of Queen Anne’s reign, with its plots and counter plots, strife of statesmen and bitter party feuds, has often been written, so far as England is concerned. But comparatively little is known of how this eventful year, so important in fortunes of the dynasty, passed at Hanover. Every one, both in England and Hanover, felt that a crisis was imminent, yet no one, on either side of the water, prepared for it. The Queen’s death was likely to be accelerated by her own mental struggles with regard to the succession to her crown, and by the fierce quarrels and jealousies that raged among her advisers. The rival ministers could scarce forbear coming to blows in her presence, the rival claimants to her throne were eager to snatch the sceptre from her failing hand almost before she was dead. James, flitting between Lorraine and St. Germains, was in active correspondence with his friends in England waiting for the psychological moment to take action. Over at Herrenhausen, the aged Electress watched with trembling eagerness every move at the English Court, straining her ears for the summons which never came. Though she knew it not, in these last months she and Anne were running a race for life.