Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1871-12-20

minutes, and took place in the presence
of Mile. Won Knesebeck, the lady OF
honor, who afterward published a
memoir defending her mistress, who
naturally denied having sent the
letter.
On his return through the Knights
Hall Koningsmark was murdered by
party of the Electoral Guard, under
the order Of Madame Platen, who not
only witnessed the deed of blood, but
stamped with her high-heeled shoes
upon the face of the dying man and
crushed out his eyes. In her solitary
old age, when driven in disgrace from
court, the wretehed woman became
blind. Her punishment is recorded
in q popular German ballad, The
Countess and the Bishop" Overcome
with horror at the coWardly Rssas-
sination of her early friend, Sophia
Dorothea refused to live with her
husband, resolution which wounded
the inordinate vanity of George Louis
to the quick. Count Platen was ap-
pointed to interrogate Her Highness,
who, struck by the indelicacy Of the
selection, demanded If he imagined
he was questioning his own wife. On
receiving the sacrament IN the Court
church she publicly made solemn
protestation Of her fidelity to her
worthless husband, and asked Count
Platen if his wife could do the same.
At first divorce was contemplated.
The Duke William Of Zelle strongly
opposed. He cared little for the
happiness of his ill-used child, but
the prospect of seeing his grandson
upon the English throne was too
tempting to be resisted. He threat
ened an appeal to the Diet Of the
Empire. Sentence was at last pro-
nounced by the Judges. There was
no question of criminality raised, but
simply of ineompatibility of temper
and disobedience to her husbands
will. They were separated. George
Louis was to retain the fortune of his
ill-Used wife and the custody of her
person. The Castle of Anden was
assigned as her residence, and the
mockery of state was for time kept
up; but the victim remained for thirty
years literally prisoner. In the
Parliament of England, while they
recorded unhesitatingly the patents
of nobility conferred on the adopted
sisters-and there were many of them
of George the First-not single voice
was ever raised in favor of his captive
queen. On her deathbed Sophia
Dorothea solemnly protested her in.
nocenee, and-so the tradition runs
summoned her cruel husband to an
swer for his crimes at the bar OF God
within the year. He died before it
expired.
ARISTOCRACY INTENSIFIED.
The descent of the royal family Of
England has long been a source of
intense modification to the House of
Guelph. Queen Charlotte used to
twit her husband, George the Third,
by exclaiming in her broken English:
II tank mine Got der is no Madame
dOlbreuse in mine family" Her
Majesty Queen Victoria has not
proved herself above this weakness.
She refused to receive the Princess
Mary of Baden with the hOnOrs due
to her royal birth because she had
married the Duke of Hamilton, one
of her own subjects. The daughter OF
the late Duke of Richmond, wife of
Prince of Saxe-Weimar, is received
at court only as Countess OF Darne-
berg, title conferred upon her hus-
bands family. Very lately the Prince
of Wales, at a Court ball, refused the
royal entrance to his own sister and
the Marquis Of Lorn.
When King William the Fourth
died, and at the moment Of the access
sion of Queen Victoria, the crown Of
Hanover was separated from that of
Great Britain; a Hanoverian law
females from the throne.
The Queen succeeded as the only
child of the late Prince Edward, Duke
Of Kent, by his wife the Princess
Victoria Mary Louisa, fourth daughter
Of Anthony, late reigning Duke Of
Sake Coburg Saalfield, sister Of Leo
DOld the First, late King OF the
Belgians.
Her uncle Ernest Augustus, Duke |
If Cumberland, then the first Peer Of
left the British Court, to |
assume the throne of Hanover, on |
which he was succeeded by his son,
he late blind King-whOse royal seat !
md treasury, even his private fortune,
t was alleged, were absorbed in such /
N unceremonious manner by the |
Russians some few years since.