Lives of the Queens of England of the House of Hanover, volume 1 (of 2)Doran, Dr. (John)
History
Lives of the Queens of England of the House of Hanover, volume 1 (of 2)
Doran, Dr. (John)
Hanover, House of; Queens -- Great Britain -- Biography
Hanover itself is said to be without division or faction, and
all Hanoverians as being in a condition of ecstasy at the Solomon-like
rectitude and jurisdiction of his very Serene Highness. He describes
Madame Kielmansegge as a woman of sense and wit; and of ‘Mademoiselle
Schulemberg,’ he says that she is especially worthy of the rank she
enjoys, and that ‘in the opinion of others, as well as mine, she is a
lady of extraordinary merit!’ Of Sophia Dorothea, Toland makes no note
whatever.
There only remains to be added, that the legation left Hanover loaded
with presents. The earl received the portrait of the Electress, with
an Electoral crown in diamonds by way of mounting to the frame. George
Louis bestowed upon him a gold basin and ewer. Gold medals and
snuffboxes were showered among the other members. The chaplain, Dr.
Sandys, was especially honoured by rich gifts in medals and books. He
was the first who ever read the service of our Church in the presence
of the Electress. She joined in it with apparent fervour, and admired
it generally; but when a hint was conveyed to her that it might be
well were she to introduce it in place of the Calvinistic form used in
her chapel, as of the Lutheran in that of the Elector, she shook her
head, with a smile; said that there was no difference between the three
forms, in essentials, and that episcopacy was merely the established
form in England. She thought for the present she would ‘let well
alone.’ And it was done accordingly!
In the year 1705 the war was raging which France was carrying on for
the purpose of extending her limits and influence, and which England
and her allies had entered into in order to resist such aggression
and restore that terribly oscillating matter--the balance of European
power. The Duke of Marlborough had, at the prayer of the Dutch States,
left the banks of the Moselle, in order to help Holland, menaced
on the side of Liège by a strong French force. Our great duke left
General D’Aubach at Trèves to secure the magazines which the English
and Dutch had laid up there; but upon the approach of Marshal Villars,
D’Aubach destroyed the magazines and abandoned Trèves, of which the
French immediately took possession. This put an end to all the schemes
which had been laid for attacking France on the side of the Moselle,
where her frontiers were but weak, and carried her confederates back
to Flanders, where, as the old-fashioned chronicler, Salmon, remarks,
‘they yearly threw away thousands of brave fellows against stone
walls.’ Thereupon, Hanover became menaced. On this, Horace Walpole has
something in point:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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