Sophia Dorothea of Hanover
1687 – 1757 · Generation XXIX · Queen consort in Prussia · House of Hanover
Sophia Dorothea of Hanover (1687–1757). Queen consort in Prussia. Married Frederick William I of Prussia in 1706. The only daughter of the future George I, she was brought up in Hanover under her grandmother Electress Sophia after her mother’s divorce and confinement. She married her first cousin, the Prussian crown prince, in 1706 — a poor match between a woman who loved art, fashion and entertainment and a frugal, rough-mannered soldier. Her abiding project was a double marriage uniting her children with the British royal house, pursued for years against the king’s favourites and never achieved. She sided with her son Frederick against his harsh father, receiving him and his sister Wilhelmine in secret, and after his failed flight in 1730 she and Wilhelmine burned their compromising letters and substituted harmless ones. She took refuge whenever she could at Monbijou Palace in Berlin, and when her son became Frederick the Great in 1740 he treated her with marked devotion.
Place in the family
- Sophia Dorothea of Hanover was a great-great-great-aunt of Queen Victoria.
- Sophia Dorothea of Hanover was the younger of 2 children of King George I and Sophia Dorothea of Celle recorded in this archive.
One of 35 people of House of Hanover (from 1700) in this archive. Called from Germany by the Act of Settlement; the Georges, then Victoria.
Line of descent: Owen Tudor → Edmund Tudor → King Henry VII → Margaret Tudor → King James V of Scotland → Mary Queen of Scots → King James I → Elizabeth Stuart → Sophia of Hanover → King George I → Sophia Dorothea of Hanover.
Parents
- King George I (1660 – 1727)
- Sophia Dorothea of Celle (1666 – 1726)
Siblings
- King George II (1683 – 1760)
Partners
- Married Frederick William I of Prussia (1688 – 1740) in 1706
Life
- 1687 — Born
- 1706 — Married Frederick William I of Prussia
- 1757 — Died