The King's Mistress: The True & Scandalous Story of the Woman Who Stole the Heart of George I (33 page)

Klara Elisabeth von Platen, the beautiful, manipulative mistress of George’s father, Ernst August.

Sophia Dorothea of Celle, George’s wife and first cousin. Her elaborate dress reflects her desire to lead court fashion. Her children, Georg August and young Sophia Dorothea, are standing beside her.

Count Philipp Christoph von Königsmarck, Sophia Dorothea’s lover. Thackeray said of him, ‘one cannot imagine a more handsome, wicked, worthless reprobate.’

Georg August, son of George and Sophia Dorothea. Capricious and volatile, he hated his father but was always charming to Melusine.

Caroline of Ansbach, wife of Georg August. Entwined in her hair are some of Sophia’s pearls – ‘the Hanover pearls’ – which George had brought with him to England.

Sir Robert Walpole by Charles Jervas. Loud, rude and brilliant, Walpole had complete command of the House of Commons. His political abilities made him indispensable to both Melusine and George.

Young Sophia Dorothea, George’s only legitimate daughter, who left Hanover in 1706 to marry her first cousin, Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Prussia. Neglected by both her parents, she became a dreadful mother to her own children.

Portrait of Trudchen, aged eighteen or nineteen, painted during a holiday to Hanover,
c.
1720.

Sir Joshua Reynold’s painting of Melusine’s grandson, Frederick William, Count of Schaumburg-Lippe.

An anonymous satirical print of 1721, produced in the wake of the South-Sea Bubble. Melusine is shown hiding behind a screen in a richly decorated room, handing over money to Robert Knight, treasurer of the South Sea Company. He stands, whip in hand, poised to escape into exile. The table is inscribed with the words, ‘Patience and Time and Money set everything to rights’.

Sophia’s wonderful summer home at Herrenhausen. Once a simple hunting lodge, it became one of the most beautiful, and most envied, palaces in Europe.

A Royal Hunting Party at Göhrde, a former hunting lodge and Melusine’s favourite Hanoverian home. It was the place where she and George were at their most relaxed.

The grey marble chimney piece in Melusine’s drawing room at Kensington Palace stands at nearly six feet high.