KING GEORGE I and HIS TWO MISTRESSES : THE ELEPHANT and THE CASTLE! OR WAS THAT THE MAYPOLE and HIS HALF SISTER ?

KING GEORGE THE FIRST OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND (1660-1727) was a "Hanoverian King."  Hanoverian as from Hanover Germany. * (When the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge recently named their first newborn George, they took some flack.  Apparently none of the King George's were that well regarded, but the Duke and Duchess Cambridge said they just liked the name.)

When England's Queen Anne, who bore 17 children, died without any children alive to take her throne, England went looking for a relative who would promote the Protestant succession.  George I came from Germany to England to be crowned King of England and Scotland in 1714.  He had been married to his first cousin Sophia, Princess of Celle, and it was not a happy marriage.  She had a fling, her lover was disappeared, and she remained imprisoned in a castle until she died in 1726!  Maybe the fact that George had two mistresses pushed her into an affair of her own?

Instead of his wife playing Queen, one of George's mistresses did.

George I arrived in England from Germany barely able to speak English and he never enjoyed popularity among the people.  He had been invited by the Whigs (a political party) and he pretty much let them do as they wished, as long as they kept him informed. His two mistresses that he brought with him kept company with him until he died.

The two women were subject to nicknames, not just because they were also not well liked, as they were considered greedy and dull and weird, but because the two of them had drastically different looks.

Reading around the subject, you should know that the portly one, nicknamed The Elephant (surely behind her back!), Charlotte Sophia von Kielmansegg, was actually George's illegitimate half sister, sharing Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover as a father.  There are those who say that theirs was never a sexual relationship and there are those who say the British court did so know!

  MELUSINE 

(By today's standards she is certainly not a skinny woman!)

More assuredly a mistress to the King George I, was  Ehrengard Melusine von der Schulenburg,  who got called the “The Maypole” because she was so tall and thin and thought to be ugly.  She was also called "The Castle," as in "the King is in the Castle."  She served as an unofficial Queen.  She is said to have kept the King amused with her hobby of cutting out paper into images of their friends - and enemies.  Guess you had to be there.

Since the two lovers could not marry, they had three children together who were illegitimate, but these children, daughters, all got titles.  They were Anna Luise Sophie von der Schulenburg Countess of Dölitz,  born in 1692, Melusina von der Schulenburg Countess of Walsingham, born 1693, and Margaret Gertrude von der Schulenburg, Countess of Oeynhausen, born 1701.

After George's death Melusine kept a pet raven which she believed was his soul, reincarnated.  (There's a lot of lore about birds and souls in central and eastern Europe.)

All which goes to show you, that you need not be beautiful, in shape, have a sparkling personality, or much else going on, and you can still be a mistress!  You just have to meet the "right one!"

*(As you may know the present husband of Princess Caroline (Monaco), Ernst August, is of the Hanoverian line and if history were different could be on the throne of England). If you're interested in reading about THE MISTRESSES OF THE PRINCES OF MONACO go to the January 2015 posts in the MISTRESS MANIFESTO archive!)

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