July 9, 2012 • 31 mins
Sophia Dorothea of Celle married her cousin, George I of Great Britain. Sophia had an affair with a Swedish count, and her in-laws decided to stop the couple from running away together. The ensuing events became known as the Königsmarck Affair.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff you missed in history class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm fair Down and I'm delinea chalk reboarding and we
know that a lot of you guys love royal stories.
It doesn't seem to matter who, whether it's Queen Zunga
(00:23):
or Elizabeth the First, it doesn't seem to matter where
the story is taking place China, France, England. As long
as there's a title involved, people are our game, it seems.
So we thought that a little summer series on some
two timing princesses might be perfect, kind of a nice
counterpart to all of the gangsters and pirates and circus
(00:44):
stars that we've been talking about lately, as well as
some of the sports subjects that we're going to be
featuring for the Olympics. But today's story is particularly fairy tale,
like a particularly fairytale like royal story, um though kind
of more the vein of the Brothers Grim than Disney.
Something that's fitting though, because it does take place in Germany,
(01:06):
and just a little taste of what you'll find. There's
an unlikely inheritance, there's a missing count and possible exhimation here,
and there's even a princess held prisoner in a castle.
So today we're going to kick off this little series
by discussing Sophia Dorothea of Sella, the Electress of Hanover,
the uncrowned Queen of Great Britain, and the prisoner of Alden.
(01:29):
So appropriately enough, in this tale, events began long before
Sophia Dorothea's birth, back when her father, George William, passed
on his inheritance to his younger brother Ernest August. So
the story here, George William didn't want to marry his
intended bride, Princess Sophia of the Palatinate, and in exchange
for getting out of that unwanted match, George William basically said,
(01:53):
all right, well I'll rat I'd rather rule the smaller
Duchy of Selah and promised never to marry so no
legitimate heirs will get in the way. Caused trouble down
the line in Hanover, and the arrangement, even though it
sounds kind of unconventional, it really did work out fine
for a time. The younger brother, Ernest August went ahead
married Princess Sophia, became the Duke of Hanover and started
(02:16):
a family, while his older brother, who had given up
his inheritance, traveled around Europe, didn't get married. He kept
a prostitutes and didn't really pose any sort of threat,
like a comeback threat. But things changed a little bit
in sixteen sixty five. Yeah, he fell in love, and
he fell in love with a Huguenot lady named Eleanor
(02:37):
dole Bruise, and so prostitutes weren't going to do it
for him anymore. He wanted to get married, and so
at first they only had a Morganatic marriage, which meant
that they were married in God's eyes, but not in
the state size. And a year later they had a
daughter together named Sophia Dorothea. George William and Eleanor then
started agitating for a more official marriage so that their
(03:00):
water could inherit and be considered legitimate. So finally, after
ten years, Duke and Duchess Ernst and Sophia agreed to this.
They were like, okay, why not we have our own
male heirs. Well, the Duke of Sella and Eleanor only
have this one daughter, so exactly not too much of
a threat. And the new arrangement made little Sophia Dorothea
(03:21):
legitimate and also fabulously wealthy. Yeah, she was quite the
wealthy heiress. So her parents began shopping around for potential
grooms for their daughter, like the future king of Denmark.
I mean, they were aiming pretty high. Auntie Sophia didn't
really think that match was very likely though. According to
Eleanor Herman in Sex with the Queen, she's supposedly said, quote,
(03:44):
fancy a king sound for that bit of a bastard.
Not a very nice thing to say about your niece,
but words to remember too for later in this episode.
A more likely possibility though, for little Sophia Dorothea was
the Duke of Wolfbot, who was a local rye all
of Ernst August, so it seems like a likely match
and a good groom for her. So by this time,
(04:07):
Sophia Dorothea was fifteen and it looked like the wolf
and Bottel engagement was really going to happen. So Duke
Ernst and Duchess Sophia, however, decided that it would be
foolish to let so much wealth just slip away because
they had these old family issues, so they decided why
not have her marry their own son, George Lewis and
(04:27):
unite the duchies of Hanover and Sela. So, according to
the Women in World History Encyclopedia, a lot of historians
write about this match like it was just doomed from
the start. Well, it may not really have been that
much words than a lot of dynastic marriages of the era.
That said, though we wanted to get that out there.
That's the couple didn't really seem ideal for each other.
(04:49):
Sophia Dorothea was considered especially beautiful. She had dark hair,
fair skin. She had a very spirited personality. She hadn't
been educated in many serious subjects, but she was intelligent.
She spoke several languages, She loved to read, She would dan,
she played harpsichord. She was a talented embroiderer. Her cousin,
(05:09):
George Lewis, on the other hand, um wasn't the most
handsome guy. He was kind of short, yet popping blue eyes.
He did grow up eventually to become a talented general.
He did enjoy music, that was one thing they had
in common. He was a patron of handel, but he
wasn't considered courtly or particularly intelligent either, so not a
(05:29):
good match. For Sophia Dorothea's spirited personality, and just to
give you an idea of what other people thought of
Sophia Dorothea's cousin as well. Even his mom thought that
he was kind of thick. So, I mean, if you
can't get your mom's endorse, doesn't, that's pretty bad. But
she actually wrote to her niece about the upcoming marriage.
(05:50):
One hundred thousand dollars a year is a goodly sum
to pocket, without speaking of a pretty wife who will
find a match. And my son, George lewis the most pigheaded,
stubborn boy who ever lived, and who has round his
brain such a thick crust that I defy any man
or woman to ever discover what is in them. He
does not care much for the match itself, but one
(06:11):
hundred thousand dollars a year have tempted him as they
would have tempted anybody else. Really, again, if your mom
says that you have a thick crust around your brain,
I mean, that's what can you do? But at least
he gets the value of money right. He does understand
that money is important for a young princeling. But like
Sophia Dorothea, George Lewis, who at this point was twenty two,
(06:33):
had also really been shopped around Europe as an eligible
bachelor by his parents for the past few years. His
most ambitious prospect had been his kinswoman, Princess Anne, who
was the future Queen of Great Britain. You should remember
her name for later, But according to Richard Cavendish and
History of to Day, she met him and just immediately
(06:54):
wrote him off. Was not interested. Uh. Sophia Dorothea, though
she had to settle I suppose, and she and George
Lewis were married November twenty one, six eight two, and again,
according to herman, soon after the marriage, a fortune teller
warned George Lewis that if he was responsible for his
new wife's death in any way, he would die within
(07:17):
a year. So I don't know what kind of business
that fortune teller was after, but creepy down our fortunes side,
the couple did seem to get along well enough, at
least initially. They produced a son within the year, also
named George, and a daughter a few years after that,
also named Sophia Dorothea. Fortunately we don't have to talk
(07:39):
about them too much. We already have Sophia and Sophia Dorothea.
We don't need another one in the equation. But um,
they didn't exactly get along well, I mean, they tolerated
each other, it seems, and Duchess Sophia apparently really hated
her daughter in law. But again, nothing too out of
the ordinary for a royal couple. I mean, I think
some of the earlier episodes we've done Royalty really illustrates
(08:01):
this is the norm. Mom. Yeah, I was about to say,
we've definitely run into this kind of thing before. But
trouble did come along when Duke Ernst august longtime mistress,
the Countess Claire Elizabeth Platton, decided that Sophia Dorothea was
becoming way too popular at court. She personally selected a
mistress for George Lewis who could be her puppet so
(08:22):
that she would have more control over both Duke Ernest
and his heir. And for this job she picked Melissina
von Schulenberg, who was pretty but unusually thin for the time.
Plus she was much taller than George Lewis, so they
made quite the pair. But they did take up together.
So now Melissina is Countess plottin spy and he's neglecting
(08:46):
his wife and ignoring his parents requests to be more
discreet about his new relationship. Sophia Dorothea didn't exactly back down, though,
she just started making fun of the two of them
in public, especially the height difference spiritual personality. Yeah soon, though,
Sophia Dorothea really had a better kind of distraction than
making fun of her husband and his mistress, because in
(09:09):
March of six eighty eight, she met a twenty six
year old Swedish count named Philip Christof von koenigs Mark
who was fighting in the Army of Hanover. And they'd
actually met before when they were just kids, because his
father had brought him to Sella for training. They'd run
into each other there. But by this point koenigs Mark
(09:32):
was a polished courtly man, popular in the court where
Ernst August made him a kernel of the Guard. So
he was on the up and up, and he and
Sophia Dorothea became friends. He was somebody for her to
talk to about the kind of things that she liked.
But weirdly, he also took up with the Countess Plotton
in a more intimate sort of relationship, and perhaps to
(09:55):
get out of that kind of awkward situation. He signed
up for a military X edition far away from Hanover
in Greece, but that expedition proved to be pretty disastrous,
and Philip, one of the few survivors, came rushing back
to Hanover in sixteen ninety. And at this point he
is no longer interested in the Countess plot in he's
(10:16):
smitten with Sophia Dorothea, so he's kind of changed his
tune a little bit, and they started exchanging letters. Since
many of these early notes still survive, the point when
their relationship became romantic is usually pinned around April, and
here's just a sample passage from one of their notes.
Quote farewell, my beloved brunette, I embrace your knees. Or
(10:38):
again from Philip, quote what I wouldn't give to hear
midnight strike? Be sure to have smelling salts ready, lest
my excess of joy caused me to fate. I really
like that one. Um. So, these new lovers tried to
keep things super secret, but they just weren't very great
at um concealing what they were going through. So they
(10:59):
used co for all of their letters. But their code
was not too hard to figure out. It was all
number or named basse. So, for instance, Sophia Dorothea was
two oh one, Philip was one twenty. They called George
Lewis the Reformer, which just makes me think of a
Pilates machine. And um, they called Countess plottin fat one.
So clearly he was not He was not so into
(11:21):
his old lover anymore. But so Fia Dorothea's lady in
waiting would handle a lot of the logistics, the rendezvous logistics,
sneaking Philip into her ladies rooms. But sometimes they'd also
meet up in the palace gardens and they'd whistle this
little tune to recognize each other. They're called the Spanish follies.
And then together they would hoof it over to Philip's house,
(11:44):
which he purposely lived, really nearby Sophia Dorothea. Um. And
it was a good cover too, because Sophia Dorothea could
pretend she was just visiting Philip's sister there, Aurora, you know,
not doing anything else. So this affair could have gone
on for a while, It could have been tolerated, even
if they were just a little bit more discreet, and
the family situation had stayed exactly what it was there
(12:06):
were kids already legitimate errors who were in the picture,
so there was something at stake. But in a couple
of things happened. Hannover's profile increased tenfold because the Duke
Ernst became an elector, which was a prestigious position in
the Holy Roman Empire, and Ernst August, who had hoped
and worked for this honor for many years, didn't want
(12:28):
his daughter in law scandal reigning on his parade, so
he sent Aurora out of the country, knowing that she
helped pass letters between Philip and Sophia Dorothea, and he
ordered Philip off on military expeditions, and then he definitely
started intercepting letters between the two. So it was to communicate,
(12:50):
and if they were going to continue on together at
this point, they were really gonna have to make a
major leap. So, according to the Women in World History Encyclopedia,
Sophia Dorothea and Philip desperately wanted to run away together
and hoped that once they did that it would be
easy enough for her to divorce George Lewis and then
maybe remarry and lived together far away from Hannover. A
(13:14):
real fairy tale kind of situation. The only problem, though,
was they needed money. It was not a fairy tale,
so Fia Dorothea didn't have any money, any property in
her own name. She even wrote to Philip at one point,
yesterday I read my marriage contract. It hurt me so
much that I had tears in my eyes because she
realized she didn't have anything left. And um, he you
(13:37):
know he's account So you might be wondering, well, couldn't
he sponsor this little getaway, But he had a lot
of gambling debts, so they were just sort of frozen
where they were, and um vanished. Philip got pretty dramatic,
not being able to be near Sophia Dorothea anymore. You
might have already guessed that from his smelling salts note.
But he wrote to her staying quote, I have a
(13:58):
consolation here close to me, not a pretty girl, but
a bear which I feed. If you should fail me,
I will bear my chest and let him tear my
heart out no pressure. And also just to mention this,
sometimes he would sign things in his own blood, so
he was taking it hard. At one point he even
deserted his post to come see her. His commanding officer
(14:19):
let him off the hook, let him off pretty easy,
but warned him that he's being spied on. They basically
ignored the increasing warnings from from his commanding officer, from
everyone from friends. Philip wrote Sophia Dorothea quote, we are
treading on dangerous ground. But when people love as we love,
they do not consider trifles. And if one holds the
(14:39):
loved one, what matters the cost. Where I to see
the scaffold before my eyes, I would not swerve. So
in this last ditch move for money and protectors as
a way to escape together, the couple decided to bring
politics into their romance and into their plans. That turned
out to be a very fatal air um. Philip, who
(15:00):
was obviously feeling pretty ostracized in Hanover, decided to switch
his military allegiance to the rival Duchy of Saxony, where
conveniently his friend was also duke, and he also made
plans with the Duke of wolf and Butel for Puffalo
refuge there. So this was the guy, if you remember
who Sophia was supposed to marry his son, or could
(15:23):
have married his son. So he had some um. He
had some friends outside of Hanover who he was starting
to think of relying on. So carrying on this indiscreet
affair after there were legitimate children in the picture. As
we mentioned, that was one thing, but making plans to
actually leave the country it meant that Sophia Dorothea could
(15:45):
be kind of a tool to use against Hanover with
her giant dowry as the hostage, and that just wasn't
going to have unacceptable right In the last days of
June six nine four, Philip arrived in Hanover to run
away with the princess, and no one ever saw him
alive again. So here's where our story gets a little
(16:06):
bit mysterious. According to some sources like Cavendish, Ernst August
simply ordered Philip's assassination, which was carried out on July one,
and possibly because of the switched allegiance from Hanover to Saxony,
that might have been the reason behind political kind of reason.
But according to Herman, though, things could have even been
a little more complicated than that, though and not quite
(16:28):
as politically motivated either. So Philip was apparently recognized when
he entered Hanover, but was allowed to proceed along with
his date with Sophia Dorothea, and the two presumably met
up made plans to flee the following night. But Countess Plotton,
who certainly is playing the evil stepmother sort of role
(16:48):
in this in this whole story, was in the know.
She knew that Philip was in the city because of
her spy network, and she alerted Ernst August and got
permission to have Philip arrested while he was there in
the castle. But as Philip left Sophia Dorothea's rooms, he
met the guards who had been ordered to arrest him,
(17:10):
and somehow or another, whether on Countess Platton's orders or
just accidentally, things got out of hand. He wound up
dead in the hall, Sophia Dorothea just not too far
away and none the wiser. So at this point Ernst
August is horrified, fearing some kind of diplomatic incident if
this count turns up dead under his roof, and he
(17:32):
has the body hidden under the Great Hall floor and
buried in quicklime. So there's a kind of interesting follow
up note to this. Decades after the death, workman supposedly
found a skeleton in quicklime with Philip's ring. Unfortunately, though
no modern research can be done on this since the
palace was destroyed in World War Two, which is yeah,
(17:55):
I mean, don't you wish she knew more about this?
But meanwhile, after this u murder or assassination or whatever
whatever it might have been, so Fio Dorothea was arrested
along with her lady's maid and she didn't even learn
about Philip's death for several weeks, which is just particularly
sad and um, so Fio Dorothea really could have held
(18:18):
her ground to she didn't admit to adultery, although she
did agree to a divorce and was ultimately sent to
the Castle of Alden, which I know, it sounds like
a prisoner in a castle minds of rape Punzel or something,
but um, this place was really more like a large
brick house. You can find pictures of it online. It's
a rambling sort of place. It doesn't look particularly luxurious,
(18:42):
but it's also not like a creepy tower or anything. So,
after refusing one last offer by Ernest August to deny
the whole thing and separate instead of divorce and just
hush up this whole huge family scandal that she caused,
she and George Lewis were in fact divorced on December
six teen. So Sophia Dorothea lost her title and lost
(19:04):
contact with her kids. Her father wouldn't support her or
visit her, but he did allow her a large allowance.
For the first year, she wasn't allowed out of the
house at all, and the following years though she was
allowed to take short carriage rides, but only under armed guard.
Her mother could visit her, and she would patronize charities.
She even rebuilt a local town at one point when
(19:26):
it was burned down, and she thought after a time
that she'd be released on good behavior, so she really
tried to keep up that good behavior. At one point
she even waited patiently during a fire to be given
the order to evacuate. She wasn't going to leave until
she got permission to go um and for a few
years two people around Europe really talked about her a lot,
(19:48):
and they also talked about Count Philip a lot to
wonder what happened to that that guy who was so
courtly in such a good soldier. Embassies inquired after him.
Louis the fourteenth with curious and a Rora, really put
a lot of pressure on Hanover. She had become the
mistress of the Elector of Saxony, and so with the
help of her beau Um. She really tried to find
(20:10):
out what on earth happened to her brother? Where did
he go? Was he murdered? Finally, though, after a few years,
the story just died down. It was old news by
this point, and it really might have stayed kind of
a forgotten scandal of Hanover had George Lewis not been
added to the British line of succession. So just to
(20:31):
give you a little explanation here, because you're probably wondering
what's up with that. In six George Lewis succeeded his
father as a lecturer of Hanover, but by seventeen o
one he seemed poised to inherit something even bigger from
his mother, Duchess Sophia. King William, the current British monarch,
didn't have any children by his then deceased wife Mary,
(20:52):
and the next in line who was married sister Princess Anne,
the same one who turned down George Lewis earlier in
the podcast, and we asked each remember her name. She
had had many pregnancies, but no kids that survived beyond childhood.
When her longest surviving son died, the line of succession
was suddenly quite bleak, so entered Duchess Sophia, even though
(21:14):
there were plenty of potential errors Further up the line,
more closely related to Anne, Sophia was the nearest Protestant Air,
which was something determined decisively in the Act of Settlement
in seventeen o one. So Duchess Sophia definitely hoped that
she would survive her distant cousin Anne to become queen,
(21:36):
but she ended up dying just a few weeks before
her in seventeen fourteen, so that of course made Sophia's son,
George Lewis the next in line. He ended up becoming
George the First of Great Britain August one, seventeen fourteen.
He hasn't seemed like the coolest guy in most of
(21:56):
this podcast so far, but he was really unpopular in
his new country. He couldn't speak English, he had to
conduct all of his state business with his ministers in
their common language, French. And he wasn't courtly either, something
we had mentioned earlier. He didn't really impress people, and
of course lots of folks were wondering, where on earth
(22:16):
is this guy's wife. Why don't we have a queen? Yeah,
once they realized that she wasn't dead or crazy that
she was imprisoned in Alden Sophia's that imprisonment, Sophia Dorothea's
imprisonment started to look very bad and George's mistress on
top of everything, George's mistress, Meltina was also disliked, as
(22:37):
was his other main confidence, Sophia Charlotte von kielman Zega,
who was Countess Plotton's daughter. So, I mean the thing
here was maybe was she Georgia's friend? No one really
knew who she was. Was she George's friend? Was she
his mistress? But she's also maybe his half sister because
relationship with her father his father? Yeah, so I feel
(22:59):
a lot of different things out her, like definitely his
mistress or no, they were just friends. He relied on her,
he would have known she was his half sister. Um.
Kind of just something to put out there. So back home,
anti Hannah Verians also rallied behind the imprisoned princess, but
not in any sort of productive way. I mean they
(23:19):
didn't get her out of her imprisonment or anything. After
spending more than thirty years in her castle, Sophia Dorothea
died on November thirteenth, seventy six at age sixty. So
you would think after all of these years, Um Georgia
first would just be ready to wrap things up tidily,
But he did not handle the news very gracefully. He
(23:39):
ordered his ex wife's things to be burned, he forbade
the court of Hanover to mourn for her, and he
didn't even deal with funeral arrangements until Melicina pressured him into, Okay,
you gotta do something about this, because UM, it should
be said to Melasina was pretty superstitious. She often spoke
with birds. She believed she could receive signs and omen
(24:00):
from them, and Um thought she was getting some Avian
pressure from a spirit of Sophia Dorothea to get her
body taken care of. Finally, though, in the May following
Sophia Dorothea's death, George decided to visit Hanover, you know,
his his home. While traveling by carriage to Austina Brook
in the middle of the night, they stopped for a
(24:22):
minute and somebody handed him a letter. When he read
the letter at dawn, he realized it was a deathbed
rant from Sophia Dorothea and immediately felt ill. Not too
long after that, he suffered a stroke and he ended
up dying June eleven, sevent You know, could just be
(24:42):
a stroke and some other kind of news he received,
but we could have to think about the curse fortune
teller's predictions. Just a few months later, within a year
of his wife's death. So creepy. Yeah. His son, now
George the second, succeeded him, and just like a lot
(25:03):
of the story, accounts on his reaction differ depending on
where you look. According to the Women in World History Encyclopedia,
George the Second basically carried on his father's policy of
ignoring his mother's name entirely, but according to Herman, he
immediately brought out two portraits of her for his own chambers.
He also, and this seems likely either way you look
(25:24):
at it, wanted to review the Hanoverian court records, including
those last six months of Philip's letters, to find out
what happened between his parents, what happened with his mother's imprisonment,
what really went down, and unfortunately, whether it was to
protect his mother's memory or to protect his family from
future embarrassment, so covering both of those, uh, those emotions
(25:47):
he could have had, he decided to burn the records.
There's some documentation left though, and um, you know we've
been quoting from some of these letters. Aurora had most
of the correspondence. It's now stored at a Swedish university. Um,
just everything except those last six months pretty much. Some
more notes somehow turned up with Frederick the Great too,
(26:09):
who was Sophia Dorothea's grandson through her daughter. So not
exactly sure how that happened. UM. Some of these letters
have been suggested as frauds. Other's not. Just this whole
story has a lot of murkiness behind it, but that's
always sort of fun too. But that makes it sort
of interesting too, because then there are just more possibilities
(26:31):
out there for us to explore. And it adds that
little element of mystery to it. It does it makes
it seem even more like a story, like a fairy tale. Um,
all of these elements and these would be could be
sort of ending. So UM, I really enjoyed learning some
about Sophia Dorothea, and UM, I think it's probably a
good time though, to go ahead and talk about the
(26:53):
listener mail. So I thought this podcast would be a
good one to include a letter we received from listener Adam,
because he also talks about how history and stories can
seem one and the same. Sometime. He wrote in to
say I can honestly say that history has been an
(27:13):
interest of mine my whole life, but I never liked
learning it in school. You probably already know, but in
Spanish the word for history and story are the same historia.
I think that's what makes your podcast so interesting. He
turned each podcast into a story, and who doesn't like
hearing stories. For the last ten months, I've been traveling
through Latin America and what I called the Happy Nomad Tour.
(27:35):
After being miserable quote living the dream of living working
in worry free Denmark for a wind power company, I
finally started asking myself what my passions are, what my
dreams are, and what I want out of life. I
call this process the happiness Plunge. My goal is a traveler,
is to leave each place better than how I found it,
which I do by volunteering everywhere I go. I've had
(27:55):
volunteering experiences such as feeding the elderly at a nursing
home in Mexico, installing solar panels in rural Honduras, attracting
book donations for a rural library project in Peru, playing
with kids at orphanages in Costa Rica and Ecuador, and
marketing and organization that turns donated use bikes into bike
machines in Guatemala. There's a lot of an offer. As
(28:17):
an engineer and an m b A, I listened to
quite a few How Stuff Works podcasts on my ten
to twenty hour bus rides and wanted to, in a
very small way, thank you for all you've given me.
Peru was my last stop in Latin America, and I
thought these Alpaca World chios were a great way to
say thanks, and a nice break from the postcards he
normally received. Note from us, we do love receiving position. Uh.
(28:38):
He went on to say, I know it doesn't get
too cold in Atlanta, but still I want to protect
those knowledge filled noggin so he sent us, like he said,
these awesome hats and um oh, a common misconception. It
does get pretty cold in Atlanta, just not for very long.
So far is not fun around here. No, it gets
it gets quite chilly, but I love we we definitely
(29:01):
need good hats to keep us warm in the winter.
And I just thought this was such a great note
a lot of a lot of podcasters recently got some
of these chios, and it's fun to see them on
on everybody's desks and maybe on their heads come around
fall or winter. Yeah, I have to say we were
rather jealous and we saw Jonathan and Chris. I think
we're the first to receive them, and we were eyeing
(29:23):
them enviously, but then we got Then we got our own,
and I think ours are the best. Yeah, they're They're beautiful.
They're like purple and blue. Will post pictures of them
when it's cold enough to wear them. Um. So I
also thought Adam's story reminded me a lot of the
sort of Evla Chullaby listener mail that we did recently.
All these stories about people who are just deciding to
(29:43):
go for it and travel to these cool places and
give back while they were doing it. And the motivation
behind us travel or what he's doing while he's traveling
volunteering is very admirable. And we just volunteered the other day.
We have a day every year that our company volunteers
were impact to day, and every time we do it,
I think I need to do this more. Yeah, I
(30:04):
think the exact same thing we read an animal shelter.
We did post a picture of that of us with
an adorable puppy. Um. So yeah, thank you so much
Adam for writing in and sharing what you're doing, and
also talking a little bit about how you connect history
to stories. I think that's something we definitely try to do,
even when it is not so obvious as Sophia Dorothea's story.
(30:27):
And so if you'd like to share story with us,
or maybe you have been on some travels or adventures
that you want to share with us too, you can
write us at History podcast and Discovery dot com. You
can also find us on Facebook and we're on Twitter
at this history And if you want to learn a
little bit more about other famous historical couples, unfortunately these
guys didn't make the list. We do have an image
(30:48):
gallery called Famous Historical Couples and you can find that
on our homepage at www dot how stuff works dot com.
For more on this and thousands of other topics. Is
it how stuff works dot com. M
Welcome to Stuff you missed in history class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm fair Down and I'm delinea chalk reboarding and we
know that a lot of you guys love royal stories.
It doesn't seem to matter who, whether it's Queen Zunga
(00:23):
or Elizabeth the First, it doesn't seem to matter where
the story is taking place China, France, England. As long
as there's a title involved, people are our game, it seems.
So we thought that a little summer series on some
two timing princesses might be perfect, kind of a nice
counterpart to all of the gangsters and pirates and circus
(00:44):
stars that we've been talking about lately, as well as
some of the sports subjects that we're going to be
featuring for the Olympics. But today's story is particularly fairy tale,
like a particularly fairytale like royal story, um though kind
of more the vein of the Brothers Grim than Disney.
Something that's fitting though, because it does take place in Germany,
(01:06):
and just a little taste of what you'll find. There's
an unlikely inheritance, there's a missing count and possible exhimation here,
and there's even a princess held prisoner in a castle.
So today we're going to kick off this little series
by discussing Sophia Dorothea of Sella, the Electress of Hanover,
the uncrowned Queen of Great Britain, and the prisoner of Alden.
(01:29):
So appropriately enough, in this tale, events began long before
Sophia Dorothea's birth, back when her father, George William, passed
on his inheritance to his younger brother Ernest August. So
the story here, George William didn't want to marry his
intended bride, Princess Sophia of the Palatinate, and in exchange
for getting out of that unwanted match, George William basically said,
(01:53):
all right, well I'll rat I'd rather rule the smaller
Duchy of Selah and promised never to marry so no
legitimate heirs will get in the way. Caused trouble down
the line in Hanover, and the arrangement, even though it
sounds kind of unconventional, it really did work out fine
for a time. The younger brother, Ernest August went ahead
married Princess Sophia, became the Duke of Hanover and started
(02:16):
a family, while his older brother, who had given up
his inheritance, traveled around Europe, didn't get married. He kept
a prostitutes and didn't really pose any sort of threat,
like a comeback threat. But things changed a little bit
in sixteen sixty five. Yeah, he fell in love, and
he fell in love with a Huguenot lady named Eleanor
(02:37):
dole Bruise, and so prostitutes weren't going to do it
for him anymore. He wanted to get married, and so
at first they only had a Morganatic marriage, which meant
that they were married in God's eyes, but not in
the state size. And a year later they had a
daughter together named Sophia Dorothea. George William and Eleanor then
started agitating for a more official marriage so that their
(03:00):
water could inherit and be considered legitimate. So finally, after
ten years, Duke and Duchess Ernst and Sophia agreed to this.
They were like, okay, why not we have our own
male heirs. Well, the Duke of Sella and Eleanor only
have this one daughter, so exactly not too much of
a threat. And the new arrangement made little Sophia Dorothea
(03:21):
legitimate and also fabulously wealthy. Yeah, she was quite the
wealthy heiress. So her parents began shopping around for potential
grooms for their daughter, like the future king of Denmark.
I mean, they were aiming pretty high. Auntie Sophia didn't
really think that match was very likely though. According to
Eleanor Herman in Sex with the Queen, she's supposedly said, quote,
(03:44):
fancy a king sound for that bit of a bastard.
Not a very nice thing to say about your niece,
but words to remember too for later in this episode.
A more likely possibility though, for little Sophia Dorothea was
the Duke of Wolfbot, who was a local rye all
of Ernst August, so it seems like a likely match
and a good groom for her. So by this time,
(04:07):
Sophia Dorothea was fifteen and it looked like the wolf
and Bottel engagement was really going to happen. So Duke
Ernst and Duchess Sophia, however, decided that it would be
foolish to let so much wealth just slip away because
they had these old family issues, so they decided why
not have her marry their own son, George Lewis and
(04:27):
unite the duchies of Hanover and Sela. So, according to
the Women in World History Encyclopedia, a lot of historians
write about this match like it was just doomed from
the start. Well, it may not really have been that
much words than a lot of dynastic marriages of the era.
That said, though we wanted to get that out there.
That's the couple didn't really seem ideal for each other.
(04:49):
Sophia Dorothea was considered especially beautiful. She had dark hair,
fair skin. She had a very spirited personality. She hadn't
been educated in many serious subjects, but she was intelligent.
She spoke several languages, She loved to read, She would dan,
she played harpsichord. She was a talented embroiderer. Her cousin,
(05:09):
George Lewis, on the other hand, um wasn't the most
handsome guy. He was kind of short, yet popping blue eyes.
He did grow up eventually to become a talented general.
He did enjoy music, that was one thing they had
in common. He was a patron of handel, but he
wasn't considered courtly or particularly intelligent either, so not a
(05:29):
good match. For Sophia Dorothea's spirited personality, and just to
give you an idea of what other people thought of
Sophia Dorothea's cousin as well. Even his mom thought that
he was kind of thick. So, I mean, if you
can't get your mom's endorse, doesn't, that's pretty bad. But
she actually wrote to her niece about the upcoming marriage.
(05:50):
One hundred thousand dollars a year is a goodly sum
to pocket, without speaking of a pretty wife who will
find a match. And my son, George lewis the most pigheaded,
stubborn boy who ever lived, and who has round his
brain such a thick crust that I defy any man
or woman to ever discover what is in them. He
does not care much for the match itself, but one
(06:11):
hundred thousand dollars a year have tempted him as they
would have tempted anybody else. Really, again, if your mom
says that you have a thick crust around your brain,
I mean, that's what can you do? But at least
he gets the value of money right. He does understand
that money is important for a young princeling. But like
Sophia Dorothea, George Lewis, who at this point was twenty two,
(06:33):
had also really been shopped around Europe as an eligible
bachelor by his parents for the past few years. His
most ambitious prospect had been his kinswoman, Princess Anne, who
was the future Queen of Great Britain. You should remember
her name for later, But according to Richard Cavendish and
History of to Day, she met him and just immediately
(06:54):
wrote him off. Was not interested. Uh. Sophia Dorothea, though
she had to settle I suppose, and she and George
Lewis were married November twenty one, six eight two, and again,
according to herman, soon after the marriage, a fortune teller
warned George Lewis that if he was responsible for his
new wife's death in any way, he would die within
(07:17):
a year. So I don't know what kind of business
that fortune teller was after, but creepy down our fortunes side,
the couple did seem to get along well enough, at
least initially. They produced a son within the year, also
named George, and a daughter a few years after that,
also named Sophia Dorothea. Fortunately we don't have to talk
(07:39):
about them too much. We already have Sophia and Sophia Dorothea.
We don't need another one in the equation. But um,
they didn't exactly get along well, I mean, they tolerated
each other, it seems, and Duchess Sophia apparently really hated
her daughter in law. But again, nothing too out of
the ordinary for a royal couple. I mean, I think
some of the earlier episodes we've done Royalty really illustrates
(08:01):
this is the norm. Mom. Yeah, I was about to say,
we've definitely run into this kind of thing before. But
trouble did come along when Duke Ernst august longtime mistress,
the Countess Claire Elizabeth Platton, decided that Sophia Dorothea was
becoming way too popular at court. She personally selected a
mistress for George Lewis who could be her puppet so
(08:22):
that she would have more control over both Duke Ernest
and his heir. And for this job she picked Melissina
von Schulenberg, who was pretty but unusually thin for the time.
Plus she was much taller than George Lewis, so they
made quite the pair. But they did take up together.
So now Melissina is Countess plottin spy and he's neglecting
(08:46):
his wife and ignoring his parents requests to be more
discreet about his new relationship. Sophia Dorothea didn't exactly back down, though,
she just started making fun of the two of them
in public, especially the height difference spiritual personality. Yeah soon, though,
Sophia Dorothea really had a better kind of distraction than
making fun of her husband and his mistress, because in
(09:09):
March of six eighty eight, she met a twenty six
year old Swedish count named Philip Christof von koenigs Mark
who was fighting in the Army of Hanover. And they'd
actually met before when they were just kids, because his
father had brought him to Sella for training. They'd run
into each other there. But by this point koenigs Mark
(09:32):
was a polished courtly man, popular in the court where
Ernst August made him a kernel of the Guard. So
he was on the up and up, and he and
Sophia Dorothea became friends. He was somebody for her to
talk to about the kind of things that she liked.
But weirdly, he also took up with the Countess Plotton
in a more intimate sort of relationship, and perhaps to
(09:55):
get out of that kind of awkward situation. He signed
up for a military X edition far away from Hanover
in Greece, but that expedition proved to be pretty disastrous,
and Philip, one of the few survivors, came rushing back
to Hanover in sixteen ninety. And at this point he
is no longer interested in the Countess plot in he's
(10:16):
smitten with Sophia Dorothea, so he's kind of changed his
tune a little bit, and they started exchanging letters. Since
many of these early notes still survive, the point when
their relationship became romantic is usually pinned around April, and
here's just a sample passage from one of their notes.
Quote farewell, my beloved brunette, I embrace your knees. Or
(10:38):
again from Philip, quote what I wouldn't give to hear
midnight strike? Be sure to have smelling salts ready, lest
my excess of joy caused me to fate. I really
like that one. Um. So, these new lovers tried to
keep things super secret, but they just weren't very great
at um concealing what they were going through. So they
(10:59):
used co for all of their letters. But their code
was not too hard to figure out. It was all
number or named basse. So, for instance, Sophia Dorothea was
two oh one, Philip was one twenty. They called George
Lewis the Reformer, which just makes me think of a
Pilates machine. And um, they called Countess plottin fat one.
So clearly he was not He was not so into
(11:21):
his old lover anymore. But so Fia Dorothea's lady in
waiting would handle a lot of the logistics, the rendezvous logistics,
sneaking Philip into her ladies rooms. But sometimes they'd also
meet up in the palace gardens and they'd whistle this
little tune to recognize each other. They're called the Spanish follies.
And then together they would hoof it over to Philip's house,
(11:44):
which he purposely lived, really nearby Sophia Dorothea. Um. And
it was a good cover too, because Sophia Dorothea could
pretend she was just visiting Philip's sister there, Aurora, you know,
not doing anything else. So this affair could have gone
on for a while, It could have been tolerated, even
if they were just a little bit more discreet, and
the family situation had stayed exactly what it was there
(12:06):
were kids already legitimate errors who were in the picture,
so there was something at stake. But in a couple
of things happened. Hannover's profile increased tenfold because the Duke
Ernst became an elector, which was a prestigious position in
the Holy Roman Empire, and Ernst August, who had hoped
and worked for this honor for many years, didn't want
(12:28):
his daughter in law scandal reigning on his parade, so
he sent Aurora out of the country, knowing that she
helped pass letters between Philip and Sophia Dorothea, and he
ordered Philip off on military expeditions, and then he definitely
started intercepting letters between the two. So it was to communicate,
(12:50):
and if they were going to continue on together at
this point, they were really gonna have to make a
major leap. So, according to the Women in World History Encyclopedia,
Sophia Dorothea and Philip desperately wanted to run away together
and hoped that once they did that it would be
easy enough for her to divorce George Lewis and then
maybe remarry and lived together far away from Hannover. A
(13:14):
real fairy tale kind of situation. The only problem, though,
was they needed money. It was not a fairy tale,
so Fia Dorothea didn't have any money, any property in
her own name. She even wrote to Philip at one point,
yesterday I read my marriage contract. It hurt me so
much that I had tears in my eyes because she
realized she didn't have anything left. And um, he you
(13:37):
know he's account So you might be wondering, well, couldn't
he sponsor this little getaway, But he had a lot
of gambling debts, so they were just sort of frozen
where they were, and um vanished. Philip got pretty dramatic,
not being able to be near Sophia Dorothea anymore. You
might have already guessed that from his smelling salts note.
But he wrote to her staying quote, I have a
(13:58):
consolation here close to me, not a pretty girl, but
a bear which I feed. If you should fail me,
I will bear my chest and let him tear my
heart out no pressure. And also just to mention this,
sometimes he would sign things in his own blood, so
he was taking it hard. At one point he even
deserted his post to come see her. His commanding officer
(14:19):
let him off the hook, let him off pretty easy,
but warned him that he's being spied on. They basically
ignored the increasing warnings from from his commanding officer, from
everyone from friends. Philip wrote Sophia Dorothea quote, we are
treading on dangerous ground. But when people love as we love,
they do not consider trifles. And if one holds the
(14:39):
loved one, what matters the cost. Where I to see
the scaffold before my eyes, I would not swerve. So
in this last ditch move for money and protectors as
a way to escape together, the couple decided to bring
politics into their romance and into their plans. That turned
out to be a very fatal air um. Philip, who
(15:00):
was obviously feeling pretty ostracized in Hanover, decided to switch
his military allegiance to the rival Duchy of Saxony, where
conveniently his friend was also duke, and he also made
plans with the Duke of wolf and Butel for Puffalo
refuge there. So this was the guy, if you remember
who Sophia was supposed to marry his son, or could
(15:23):
have married his son. So he had some um. He
had some friends outside of Hanover who he was starting
to think of relying on. So carrying on this indiscreet
affair after there were legitimate children in the picture. As
we mentioned, that was one thing, but making plans to
actually leave the country it meant that Sophia Dorothea could
(15:45):
be kind of a tool to use against Hanover with
her giant dowry as the hostage, and that just wasn't
going to have unacceptable right In the last days of
June six nine four, Philip arrived in Hanover to run
away with the princess, and no one ever saw him
alive again. So here's where our story gets a little
(16:06):
bit mysterious. According to some sources like Cavendish, Ernst August
simply ordered Philip's assassination, which was carried out on July one,
and possibly because of the switched allegiance from Hanover to Saxony,
that might have been the reason behind political kind of reason.
But according to Herman, though, things could have even been
a little more complicated than that, though and not quite
(16:28):
as politically motivated either. So Philip was apparently recognized when
he entered Hanover, but was allowed to proceed along with
his date with Sophia Dorothea, and the two presumably met
up made plans to flee the following night. But Countess Plotton,
who certainly is playing the evil stepmother sort of role
(16:48):
in this in this whole story, was in the know.
She knew that Philip was in the city because of
her spy network, and she alerted Ernst August and got
permission to have Philip arrested while he was there in
the castle. But as Philip left Sophia Dorothea's rooms, he
met the guards who had been ordered to arrest him,
(17:10):
and somehow or another, whether on Countess Platton's orders or
just accidentally, things got out of hand. He wound up
dead in the hall, Sophia Dorothea just not too far
away and none the wiser. So at this point Ernst
August is horrified, fearing some kind of diplomatic incident if
this count turns up dead under his roof, and he
(17:32):
has the body hidden under the Great Hall floor and
buried in quicklime. So there's a kind of interesting follow
up note to this. Decades after the death, workman supposedly
found a skeleton in quicklime with Philip's ring. Unfortunately, though
no modern research can be done on this since the
palace was destroyed in World War Two, which is yeah,
(17:55):
I mean, don't you wish she knew more about this?
But meanwhile, after this u murder or assassination or whatever
whatever it might have been, so Fio Dorothea was arrested
along with her lady's maid and she didn't even learn
about Philip's death for several weeks, which is just particularly
sad and um, so Fio Dorothea really could have held
(18:18):
her ground to she didn't admit to adultery, although she
did agree to a divorce and was ultimately sent to
the Castle of Alden, which I know, it sounds like
a prisoner in a castle minds of rape Punzel or something,
but um, this place was really more like a large
brick house. You can find pictures of it online. It's
a rambling sort of place. It doesn't look particularly luxurious,
(18:42):
but it's also not like a creepy tower or anything. So,
after refusing one last offer by Ernest August to deny
the whole thing and separate instead of divorce and just
hush up this whole huge family scandal that she caused,
she and George Lewis were in fact divorced on December
six teen. So Sophia Dorothea lost her title and lost
(19:04):
contact with her kids. Her father wouldn't support her or
visit her, but he did allow her a large allowance.
For the first year, she wasn't allowed out of the
house at all, and the following years though she was
allowed to take short carriage rides, but only under armed guard.
Her mother could visit her, and she would patronize charities.
She even rebuilt a local town at one point when
(19:26):
it was burned down, and she thought after a time
that she'd be released on good behavior, so she really
tried to keep up that good behavior. At one point
she even waited patiently during a fire to be given
the order to evacuate. She wasn't going to leave until
she got permission to go um and for a few
years two people around Europe really talked about her a lot,
(19:48):
and they also talked about Count Philip a lot to
wonder what happened to that that guy who was so
courtly in such a good soldier. Embassies inquired after him.
Louis the fourteenth with curious and a Rora, really put
a lot of pressure on Hanover. She had become the
mistress of the Elector of Saxony, and so with the
help of her beau Um. She really tried to find
(20:10):
out what on earth happened to her brother? Where did
he go? Was he murdered? Finally, though, after a few years,
the story just died down. It was old news by
this point, and it really might have stayed kind of
a forgotten scandal of Hanover had George Lewis not been
added to the British line of succession. So just to
(20:31):
give you a little explanation here, because you're probably wondering
what's up with that. In six George Lewis succeeded his
father as a lecturer of Hanover, but by seventeen o
one he seemed poised to inherit something even bigger from
his mother, Duchess Sophia. King William, the current British monarch,
didn't have any children by his then deceased wife Mary,
(20:52):
and the next in line who was married sister Princess Anne,
the same one who turned down George Lewis earlier in
the podcast, and we asked each remember her name. She
had had many pregnancies, but no kids that survived beyond childhood.
When her longest surviving son died, the line of succession
was suddenly quite bleak, so entered Duchess Sophia, even though
(21:14):
there were plenty of potential errors Further up the line,
more closely related to Anne, Sophia was the nearest Protestant Air,
which was something determined decisively in the Act of Settlement
in seventeen o one. So Duchess Sophia definitely hoped that
she would survive her distant cousin Anne to become queen,
(21:36):
but she ended up dying just a few weeks before
her in seventeen fourteen, so that of course made Sophia's son,
George Lewis the next in line. He ended up becoming
George the First of Great Britain August one, seventeen fourteen.
He hasn't seemed like the coolest guy in most of
(21:56):
this podcast so far, but he was really unpopular in
his new country. He couldn't speak English, he had to
conduct all of his state business with his ministers in
their common language, French. And he wasn't courtly either, something
we had mentioned earlier. He didn't really impress people, and
of course lots of folks were wondering, where on earth
(22:16):
is this guy's wife. Why don't we have a queen? Yeah,
once they realized that she wasn't dead or crazy that
she was imprisoned in Alden Sophia's that imprisonment, Sophia Dorothea's
imprisonment started to look very bad and George's mistress on
top of everything, George's mistress, Meltina was also disliked, as
(22:37):
was his other main confidence, Sophia Charlotte von kielman Zega,
who was Countess Plotton's daughter. So, I mean the thing
here was maybe was she Georgia's friend? No one really
knew who she was. Was she George's friend? Was she
his mistress? But she's also maybe his half sister because
relationship with her father his father? Yeah, so I feel
(22:59):
a lot of different things out her, like definitely his
mistress or no, they were just friends. He relied on her,
he would have known she was his half sister. Um.
Kind of just something to put out there. So back home,
anti Hannah Verians also rallied behind the imprisoned princess, but
not in any sort of productive way. I mean they
(23:19):
didn't get her out of her imprisonment or anything. After
spending more than thirty years in her castle, Sophia Dorothea
died on November thirteenth, seventy six at age sixty. So
you would think after all of these years, Um Georgia
first would just be ready to wrap things up tidily,
But he did not handle the news very gracefully. He
(23:39):
ordered his ex wife's things to be burned, he forbade
the court of Hanover to mourn for her, and he
didn't even deal with funeral arrangements until Melicina pressured him into, Okay,
you gotta do something about this, because UM, it should
be said to Melasina was pretty superstitious. She often spoke
with birds. She believed she could receive signs and omen
(24:00):
from them, and Um thought she was getting some Avian
pressure from a spirit of Sophia Dorothea to get her
body taken care of. Finally, though, in the May following
Sophia Dorothea's death, George decided to visit Hanover, you know,
his his home. While traveling by carriage to Austina Brook
in the middle of the night, they stopped for a
(24:22):
minute and somebody handed him a letter. When he read
the letter at dawn, he realized it was a deathbed
rant from Sophia Dorothea and immediately felt ill. Not too
long after that, he suffered a stroke and he ended
up dying June eleven, sevent You know, could just be
(24:42):
a stroke and some other kind of news he received,
but we could have to think about the curse fortune
teller's predictions. Just a few months later, within a year
of his wife's death. So creepy. Yeah. His son, now
George the second, succeeded him, and just like a lot
(25:03):
of the story, accounts on his reaction differ depending on
where you look. According to the Women in World History Encyclopedia,
George the Second basically carried on his father's policy of
ignoring his mother's name entirely, but according to Herman, he
immediately brought out two portraits of her for his own chambers.
He also, and this seems likely either way you look
(25:24):
at it, wanted to review the Hanoverian court records, including
those last six months of Philip's letters, to find out
what happened between his parents, what happened with his mother's imprisonment,
what really went down, and unfortunately, whether it was to
protect his mother's memory or to protect his family from
future embarrassment, so covering both of those, uh, those emotions
(25:47):
he could have had, he decided to burn the records.
There's some documentation left though, and um, you know we've
been quoting from some of these letters. Aurora had most
of the correspondence. It's now stored at a Swedish university. Um,
just everything except those last six months pretty much. Some
more notes somehow turned up with Frederick the Great too,
(26:09):
who was Sophia Dorothea's grandson through her daughter. So not
exactly sure how that happened. UM. Some of these letters
have been suggested as frauds. Other's not. Just this whole
story has a lot of murkiness behind it, but that's
always sort of fun too. But that makes it sort
of interesting too, because then there are just more possibilities
(26:31):
out there for us to explore. And it adds that
little element of mystery to it. It does it makes
it seem even more like a story, like a fairy tale. Um,
all of these elements and these would be could be
sort of ending. So UM, I really enjoyed learning some
about Sophia Dorothea, and UM, I think it's probably a
good time though, to go ahead and talk about the
(26:53):
listener mail. So I thought this podcast would be a
good one to include a letter we received from listener Adam,
because he also talks about how history and stories can
seem one and the same. Sometime. He wrote in to
say I can honestly say that history has been an
(27:13):
interest of mine my whole life, but I never liked
learning it in school. You probably already know, but in
Spanish the word for history and story are the same historia.
I think that's what makes your podcast so interesting. He
turned each podcast into a story, and who doesn't like
hearing stories. For the last ten months, I've been traveling
through Latin America and what I called the Happy Nomad Tour.
(27:35):
After being miserable quote living the dream of living working
in worry free Denmark for a wind power company, I
finally started asking myself what my passions are, what my
dreams are, and what I want out of life. I
call this process the happiness Plunge. My goal is a traveler,
is to leave each place better than how I found it,
which I do by volunteering everywhere I go. I've had
(27:55):
volunteering experiences such as feeding the elderly at a nursing
home in Mexico, installing solar panels in rural Honduras, attracting
book donations for a rural library project in Peru, playing
with kids at orphanages in Costa Rica and Ecuador, and
marketing and organization that turns donated use bikes into bike
machines in Guatemala. There's a lot of an offer. As
(28:17):
an engineer and an m b A, I listened to
quite a few How Stuff Works podcasts on my ten
to twenty hour bus rides and wanted to, in a
very small way, thank you for all you've given me.
Peru was my last stop in Latin America, and I
thought these Alpaca World chios were a great way to
say thanks, and a nice break from the postcards he
normally received. Note from us, we do love receiving position. Uh.
(28:38):
He went on to say, I know it doesn't get
too cold in Atlanta, but still I want to protect
those knowledge filled noggin so he sent us, like he said,
these awesome hats and um oh, a common misconception. It
does get pretty cold in Atlanta, just not for very long.
So far is not fun around here. No, it gets
it gets quite chilly, but I love we we definitely
(29:01):
need good hats to keep us warm in the winter.
And I just thought this was such a great note
a lot of a lot of podcasters recently got some
of these chios, and it's fun to see them on
on everybody's desks and maybe on their heads come around
fall or winter. Yeah, I have to say we were
rather jealous and we saw Jonathan and Chris. I think
we're the first to receive them, and we were eyeing
(29:23):
them enviously, but then we got Then we got our own,
and I think ours are the best. Yeah, they're They're beautiful.
They're like purple and blue. Will post pictures of them
when it's cold enough to wear them. Um. So I
also thought Adam's story reminded me a lot of the
sort of Evla Chullaby listener mail that we did recently.
All these stories about people who are just deciding to
(29:43):
go for it and travel to these cool places and
give back while they were doing it. And the motivation
behind us travel or what he's doing while he's traveling
volunteering is very admirable. And we just volunteered the other day.
We have a day every year that our company volunteers
were impact to day, and every time we do it,
I think I need to do this more. Yeah, I
(30:04):
think the exact same thing we read an animal shelter.
We did post a picture of that of us with
an adorable puppy. Um. So yeah, thank you so much
Adam for writing in and sharing what you're doing, and
also talking a little bit about how you connect history
to stories. I think that's something we definitely try to do,
even when it is not so obvious as Sophia Dorothea's story.
(30:27):
And so if you'd like to share story with us,
or maybe you have been on some travels or adventures
that you want to share with us too, you can
write us at History podcast and Discovery dot com. You
can also find us on Facebook and we're on Twitter
at this history And if you want to learn a
little bit more about other famous historical couples, unfortunately these
guys didn't make the list. We do have an image
(30:48):
gallery called Famous Historical Couples and you can find that
on our homepage at www dot how stuff works dot com.
For more on this and thousands of other topics. Is
it how stuff works dot com. M
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