Note 78 — III THE DUCHESS SOPHIA (HANOVER, OSNABRÜCK, AND HANOVER, 1658-1688)

It was a proud experience of the Duchess of Orleans (in 1717) to find that Louis XIV had observed her dislike of mésalliances, and more than one racy reference to a horrible occurrence of the kind might be cited from her letters. The Celle marriage she could never have forgiven, if only for her aunt’s sake. Yet mésalliances were not altogether unknown in the House of Brunswick (see above as to ‘Madame Rudolfine’)—perhaps for the very reason that it was formerly one of those ancient German princely Houses (i.e. Houses which had a seat and vote in the Diet before 1582) which sought to maintain the principle of Ebenbürtigkeit. It is only in the branch of the House which attained to a royal throne that a wise policy (embodied in the Act of 1772) substituted for a rigid rule a provision which has sufficiently protected the dignity of the royal family and the interests of the Empire. It may be added that, according to Lord Dover, the mésalliance with Eleonora d’Olbreuze prevents the British royal family from taking rank as what is called chapitrale in Germany. (See Horace Walpole’s Letters, ed. Cunningham, Vol. ii. p. 251, note.) Concerning the Ebenbürtigkeit principle as recognised in the House of Hohenzollern, and the rights of the head of the House with regard to the marriages of its members, see an article by E. Berner in Historische Zeitschrift, 1884, 4, Die Hausverfassung der Hohenzollern (a review of H. Schulze, Die Hausgesetze der reg. Deutschen Fürstenhäuser).