The Louisa ation that the laws of England were the birthright of the people thereof, and by a solemn confirmation of all existing laws. The Princess Sophia, to whom and to whose family so splendid a prospect was thus opened, was nearly the youngest of the thirteen children of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia. In 1700 Elizabeth's only surviving child beside Sophia Princess was Louisa Hollandina, the first of Elizabeth's Hollandina, children born in Holland, and god-daughter of their High Mightiness the States of Holland. Louisa never married, turned Roman Catholic in 1659, to her mother's bitter grief, and went into France, where she became Abbess of Maubiuson, and died in 1709, at the age of Charles eighty-six. Of Elizabeth's dead children, two scendants. only, her graceless heir Charles Lewis and Lewis's de Edward's. Sophia and her another son, Edward, had left issue. Charles Lewis's daughter, and eventual heiress, Charlotte, had also become a Roman Catholic, and the second wife of Philip, Duke of Orleans, younger brother of Louis XIV., and is an ancestress of the present Orleans family. Edward had also become a Roman Catholic, and retired to France. Protestant There were several descendants of him, all Roman Catholics. Thus Sophia and her family were the only Protestant descendants of the Protestant Sophia Queen of Bohemia. Sophia was born on the family the only descendants of Eliza beth of Bohemia. born, 1630, October 13. 13th of October 1630. She married, in Septem ber 1658, Ernest Auguste, who was youngest son Married of George, Duke of Brunswick, and afterwards Ernest of became Duke and Elector of Hanover. Brunswick, 1658, September. born 1660, 21. The eldest son of Ernest and Sophia, George Their Lewis, afterwards George I. of England, was eldest son, George born on the 28th of May 1660, the day before Lewis that on which Charles II. entered London after (George I.) his restoration. George Lewis had married on the May 28. 21st of November 1682, Sophia Dorothea, only of George Marriage child of his uncle, George William, Duke of Zelle, Lewis and Sophia of and had now two children, George Augustus, Zelle, 1682, afterwards George II., born on the 30th of Octo- November ber 1693, and Sophia Dorothea, born on the Their 16th of March 1685. The electress Sophia had, George besides these descendants, four children living, Aug (George three sons, and a daughter, Sophia Charlotte, II.), born who was then married to Frederic, first King of Prussia, and had a son Frederic William, after- Sophia wards second King of Prussia. It was therefore born, 1685, probable that if the succession should devolve on March 16. the family of Sophia there would be no lack of children of heirs. Sophia was also much regarded in Eng- Sophia. of children. Augustus 1693, October 30. Dorothea, Other Electress acceptance land on account as well of her own virtues and Sophia's popularity accomplishments as of the popular memory in England. her mother, the "Queen of Hearts." She ac- Dignified cepted with much dignity the splendid position of her new which had been assigned to her by the new position. Act of Settlement. She never disguised her conviction that her unfortunate cousin, Prince of the three Acts. James Edward, was as truly the son of James II. and Mary of Modena as George Lewis was her own. But she held, that as Parliament had declared the reign of a Roman Catholic inconsistent with the welfare and safety of England, the crown was properly settled on her as the next Protestant heir after William and Anne, and any issue of Comparison either of them. The Act of Succession, passed in the first year of William and Mary's reign, had prejudiced only James II., Prince James Edward, and any other child James might thereafter have, and the descendants of James's children. But the present settlement passed over, besides the descendants of the Queen of Bohemia's two sons Henrietta Charles Lewis and Edward, those of Henrietta, youngest daughter of Charles I. Henrietta married, on the 31st of March 1661, her first cousin, Philip, Duke then of Anjou and afterwards of Orleans, and the younger brother of Louis XIV. She was Philip's first wife. His second was, as we have already seen, Charlotte, daughter of the Count Palatine, Charles Lewis. Henrietta Dies 1670, died at St. Cloud, on the 22nd of June 1670, foully and cruelly poisoned by her husband's Her chil- minions, though without his privity. She had three children; of these, two died without issue. Philip and Philip Charles, Duke of Valois, born in 1664, Maria died died in 1666, and Maria Aloisia, born in 1662, Stuart. Marries Philip, Duke of Orleans, 1661, March 31. June 22. dren. without issue. and married in 1679 to the miserable Charles II of Spain, died in 1689. Henrietta's youngest. August 27. Victor the new settle Died 1728, August 26. child, Anna Maria, was born on the 27th of August Anna Maria 1669, and married, on the 9th of April 1694, born 1669, Victor Amadens, then Duke of Savoy, afterwards Married King first of Sicily and then of Sardinia. The Duchess of Savoy entered an unavailing protest Savoy1694, April 9. against the new settlement. She lived to see it Protested take effect, dying on the 26th of August 1728. against Her descendants, amongst whom may be reckoned ment. the Count de Chambord, became, on the extinction in 1807 of the posterity of James II., the only Her descendescendants of Charles I., and amongst them is heiress of to be found the heir of William the Conqueror. The heirship passed, on the death in 1824 of the Conqueror. King of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel, to Marie Beatrice, the eldest of his daughters, who had married in 1812 Francis IV., Duke of Modena, and it is now vested in Marie Theresa of Este, wife of Prince Louis of Bavaria, and only child of Edward, younger brother of Francis V., last Duke of Modena. dant William William. Not long after the passing of this last Act of Approaching deaths Succession, it became evident that the earthly neats careers of, both the rivals, James and William, and were drawing to a close, and the question which would be the survivor was truly momentous. If James should outlive William, would Anne mount her father's throne? If she did, she would incur the same obloquy which had attended upon Death of her sister Mary. But William was destined to survive James for a space of time, short indeed, but most important to the parliamentary succession. The exiled king died in September 1701. During James's last illness his cousin Louis had September. promised, with a generosity imprudent alike for himself and James's family, to acknowledge Prince James Edward as James's successor. Louis now 1701, Louis's of James successor. redeemed his promise, and James Edward, who recognition was then about thirteen years old, was proclaimed Edward as King of England, Scotland and Ireland, before James's the palace of St. Germains. When the tidings Effect of it arrived in England, the bulk of the people was in England. transported with indignation. The proclamation was a gross violation of the spirit, if not of the letter, of the treaty of Ryswick. But the English nation cared less for this than for the French James Ed 14 William III., c. 3. king's attempt to impose a king upon England. Parliament Parliament replied to Louis' proclamation of attaints James Edward by a statute enacting that, “the ward, 13 & pretended Prince of Wales" should stand and be convicted and attainted of high treason, and suffer pains of death, and incur all forfeiture as a traitor convicted and attainted of high treason. Remark on The attainder of a boy of thirteen years must shock the first thoughts of all persons of good feeling, and will doubtless continue to the end to shock that large class of persons who consider history from a sentimental point of view only. it. |