Angela
Elite member
- Messages
- 21,823
- Reaction score
- 12,329
- Points
- 113
- Ethnic group
- Italian
One of the benefits of dna testing is that ancient murder mysteries can be solved to some degree.
See:
http://www.archaeology.org/news/4947-161017-dna-murder-mystery
"LUND, SWITZERLAND—Motherboard reports that human bones discovered at Leine Castle in Niedersachsen, Germany, are thought to belong to Philip Christoph Königsmarck, a Swedish count who disappeared in 1694 after visiting his mistress, Princess Sophia Dorothea of Celle. She was unhappily married to Georg Ludwig, prince elector of Hanover, who later became King George I of England. More than 300 love letters, some of which were written in cipher, between Königsmarck and the princess have been preserved at Lund University. The two had planned to run away together, but their affair was revealed and Königsmarck disappeared. Many suspected that Ludwig had the count murdered, but Königsmarck’s body was never found. (Ludwig exiled Sophia Dorothea to Castle Ahlden, where she died, 32 years later.) A team of researchers from the University of Göttingen will try to match DNA samples from the bones with samples from Königsmarck’s living relatives. "
The adulterous couple:
Georg Ludwig:
Words are rather superfluous in this case. However, they're fun.
This is how such marriages were made, and his own mother's assessment of him:
"The desire for the marriage was almost purely financial, as Duchess Sophia wrote to her niece Elizabeth Charlotte, "One hundred thousand thalers a year is a goodly sum to pocket, without speaking of a pretty wife, who will find a match in my son George Louis, the most pigheaded, stubborn boy who ever lived, who has round his brains such a thick crust that I defy any man or woman ever to discover what is in them. He does not care much for the match itself, but one hundred thousand thalers a year have tempted him as they would have tempted anybody else."
Poor Sophia...this is how she reacted to the match with her first cousin:
"When told of the change in plans and her new future husband, Sophia Dorothea shouted that "I will not marry the pig snout!" (a name by which he was known in Hanover), and threw against the wall a miniature of George Louis brought for her by Duchess Sophia.[citation needed] Forced by her father, she fainted into her mother's arms on her first meeting with her future mother-in-law. She fainted again when presented to George Louis."
"But George Louis acquired a mistress, Melusine von der Schulenburg, and started pointedly neglecting his wife. His parents asked him to be more circumspect with his mistress, fearful that a disruption in the marriage would disrupt the payment of the 100,000 thalers, but he responded by going out of his way to treat his wife brutally."
After he began to suspect an affair with the Swedish count, whom she had known since she was 16, he physically assaulted her and tried to strangle her. Poor thing, she wound up spending the last 30 years of her life in a virtual prison. Such was the world then: what was good for the goose was not good for the gander.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_Dorothea_of_Celle
See:
http://www.archaeology.org/news/4947-161017-dna-murder-mystery
"LUND, SWITZERLAND—Motherboard reports that human bones discovered at Leine Castle in Niedersachsen, Germany, are thought to belong to Philip Christoph Königsmarck, a Swedish count who disappeared in 1694 after visiting his mistress, Princess Sophia Dorothea of Celle. She was unhappily married to Georg Ludwig, prince elector of Hanover, who later became King George I of England. More than 300 love letters, some of which were written in cipher, between Königsmarck and the princess have been preserved at Lund University. The two had planned to run away together, but their affair was revealed and Königsmarck disappeared. Many suspected that Ludwig had the count murdered, but Königsmarck’s body was never found. (Ludwig exiled Sophia Dorothea to Castle Ahlden, where she died, 32 years later.) A team of researchers from the University of Göttingen will try to match DNA samples from the bones with samples from Königsmarck’s living relatives. "
The adulterous couple:
Georg Ludwig:
Words are rather superfluous in this case. However, they're fun.
This is how such marriages were made, and his own mother's assessment of him:
"The desire for the marriage was almost purely financial, as Duchess Sophia wrote to her niece Elizabeth Charlotte, "One hundred thousand thalers a year is a goodly sum to pocket, without speaking of a pretty wife, who will find a match in my son George Louis, the most pigheaded, stubborn boy who ever lived, who has round his brains such a thick crust that I defy any man or woman ever to discover what is in them. He does not care much for the match itself, but one hundred thousand thalers a year have tempted him as they would have tempted anybody else."
Poor Sophia...this is how she reacted to the match with her first cousin:
"When told of the change in plans and her new future husband, Sophia Dorothea shouted that "I will not marry the pig snout!" (a name by which he was known in Hanover), and threw against the wall a miniature of George Louis brought for her by Duchess Sophia.[citation needed] Forced by her father, she fainted into her mother's arms on her first meeting with her future mother-in-law. She fainted again when presented to George Louis."
"But George Louis acquired a mistress, Melusine von der Schulenburg, and started pointedly neglecting his wife. His parents asked him to be more circumspect with his mistress, fearful that a disruption in the marriage would disrupt the payment of the 100,000 thalers, but he responded by going out of his way to treat his wife brutally."
After he began to suspect an affair with the Swedish count, whom she had known since she was 16, he physically assaulted her and tried to strangle her. Poor thing, she wound up spending the last 30 years of her life in a virtual prison. Such was the world then: what was good for the goose was not good for the gander.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_Dorothea_of_Celle
