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Prince Augustus Ferdinand. v. t. e. Princess Sophia Dorothea of Prussia ( German: Sophia Dorothea Marie von Preußen; 25 January 1719 – 13 November 1765) was the ninth child and fifth daughter of Frederick William I of Prussia and Sophia Dorothea of Hanover. By marriage, she was a Margravine of Brandenburg-Schwedt .
Sophia Dorothea of Celle. Sophia Dorothea of Hanover (26 March [ O.S. 16 March] 1687 [1] [2] – 28 June 1757) was Queen in Prussia and Electress of Brandenburg during the reign of her husband, King Frederick William I, from 1713 to 1740. She was the mother of Frederick the Great (King Frederick II of Prussia). At the time of Sophia's birth ...
- Princess of Prussia and Germany
- Crown Princess of Greece
- Queen of The Hellenes: 1st Tenure
- First Exile
- Queen of The Hellenes: 2nd Tenure
- Dowager Queen
Birth in a difficult context
Princess Sophie was born in the Neues Palais in Potsdam, Prussia, on 14 June 1870 as the daughter of Frederick William, Crown Prince of Prussia, and Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom. The Crown Prince was the son of King William I of Prussia, and the Princess Royal was the eldest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Frederick William and Victoria were already the parents of a large family and as the penultimate child, Sophie was eleven years younger than her eldest brother,...
Anglophile education
Sophie was known as "Sossy" during her childhood (the name was thought to have been picked because it rhymed with "Mossy", the nickname of her younger sister Margaret). The children of the Crown Princely couple became grouped into two by age: William, Charlotte, and Henry who were favored by their paternal grandparents, while Viktoria, Sophie and Margaret were largely ignored by them.Sophie's two other brothers, Sigismund and Waldemar, died at a young age (Sigismund died before she was born,...
Meeting and engagement to Constantine
In 1884, Constantine, Crown Prince of Greece, turned sixteen and his majority was declared by the government. He then received the title of Duke of Sparta. Soon after, Constantine completed his military training in Germany, where he spent two full years in the company of a tutor, Dr. Lüders. He served in the Prussian Guard, took lessons of riding in Hanover and studied political science at the Universities of Heidelberg and Leipzig. After a long stay in England celebrating her grandmother's G...
Auspicious marriage to the Greeks
On 27 October 1889, Sophie married Constantine in Athens in two religious ceremonies, one public and Orthodox and another private and Protestant.[d] They were third cousins in descent from Paul I of Russia, and second cousins once removed through Frederick William III of Prussia. Sophie's witnesses were her brother Henry and her cousins Princes Albert Victor and George of Wales; for Constantine's side, the witnesses were his brothers Princes George and Nicholas and his cousin the Tsarevich of...
Installation in Athens
In Athens, Constantine and Sophia settled in a small villa of French style located on Kifisias Avenue, while waiting for the Greek state to build a new home for them, the Crown Prince's Palace,[f] located near the Royal Palace. The couple also ordered the building of another house on the royal estate of Tatoi because King George I refused to allow work to be undertaken in the main palace. In Athens, Constantine and Sophia lived a relatively simple life[g]far removed from the protocol of other...
Conversion to Orthodoxy
After the birth of her eldest son, Sophia decided to embrace the faith of her subjects and convert to the Orthodox faith.[h] Having requested and received the blessing of the Empress Dowager and Queen Victoria, the Crown Princess informed her in-laws of her intention and asked Queen Olga for instruction in Orthodoxy. The Greek royal family was delighted by the news, because the announcement of the conversion would be popular among the Greeks but King George insisted that Germanus II, Metropol...
Assassination of George I and Second Balkan War
The First Balkan War ended in 1913 with the defeat of the Ottoman Empireby the Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian and Montenegrin coalition. The Kingdom of Greece was greatly expanded after the conflict but disagreements soon arose between the allied powers: Greece and Bulgaria competed for possession of Thessaloniki and its surrounding region. To affirm the sovereignty of the Greeks over the main city of Macedonia, George I moved to the city soon after its conquest by the Crown Prince, on 8 December...
Private life
After their accession to the throne, Constantine and Sophia continued to lead the simple lifestyle that they had enjoyed during their time as heirs. They spent their free time practising botany, which was their common passion, and transformed the gardens of the New Royal Palace[o] on the English model. The couple was very close to other members of the royal family, especially Prince Nicholas. Every Tuesday, the King and Queen dined with him and his wife Elena, and on Thursdays, they returned...
Outbreak of World War I
At the outbreak of World War I on 4 August 1914 Sophia was in England at Eastbournewith several of her children while her husband and their daughter Helen were the only representatives of the dynasty still present in Athens. However, given the gravity of events, the Queen quickly returned to Greece, where she was soon joined by the rest of the royal family. While the greater European states entered into the conflict one by one, Greece officially proclaimed its neutrality. Being grandchildren...
Dethronement and family separation
With the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the deposition of Nicholas II, Constantine and Sophia lost the last of their supporters in the Triple Entente. Thus, on 10 June 1917 Charles Jonnart, the Allied High Commissioner, asked the Greek Government for the abdication of the King and his replacement by another prince. The Diadochos George was also considered a pro-German. Under the threat of an invasion of 10,000 troops in Piraeus, Constantine I relinquished power in favor of his second son, Pri...
Life in Switzerland
After crossing the Ionian Sea and Italy, Sophia and her family settled in Switzerland, mainly between the cities of St. Moritz, Zürich and Lucerne. In exile, the rulers were soon followed by almost all the members of the royal family who left Greece on the return of Venizelos as head of the government and as Greece entered the war at the side of the Triple Entente. In addition, the financial position of the royal family was precarious and Constantine I, haunted by a deep sense of failure, soo...
Death of Alexander I
On 2 October 1920, King Alexander I was bitten by a pet monkey as he walked on the royal estate of Tatoi. His wounds quickly became infected and he suffered from a high fever and sepsis. On 19 October, he became delirious and called out for his mother to come to his bedside. However, the Greek government refused to allow Sophia to return to Greece; they feared that the loyalists would benefit from the presence of the Queen in Athens to organize action against them. Sophia begged the governmen...
Return to Greece
The return of Constantine I and Sophia to Athens on 19 December 1920, was accompanied by large demonstrations of joy. Everywhere in the streets, portraits of Venizelos were pulled and replaced by those of the royal family. A huge crowd surrounded the royal couple in the streets of the capital and, after returning to the Royal Palace, they had to appear repeatedly on the balcony to greet the people who cheered them. However, the presence of the sovereigns in Greece did not bring the expected p...
Great Disaster
After initial success, the situation of the Greek army was increasingly precarious in Anatolia. Constantine I decided to travel there in May 1921 to support the morale; however he wasn't the dynamic Commander-in-chief that led his country to victory in the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913. Seriously diminished by illness, he had to return to Greece in September, which was perceived as a real military desertion by some.As for Sophia, she could do more than support her husband and reassume her nursing...
Abdication of Constantine I
In response to the military defeat by the Turks, a part of the Greek army, commanded by General Nikolaos Plastiras, revolted on 11 September 1922 (on the Julian calendar, 24 September on the Gregorian calendar in use in the rest of the world). They demanded the abdication of Constantine I and the dissolution of the Hellenic Parliament. Having consulted his friend, General Ioannis Metaxas, the King abdicated three days later on 27 September in favor of his eldest son, who succeeded him on the...
Second exile and concerns for Greece
To ensure their security and stabilize the throne of their son, Constantine I and Sophia once again chose to take the path of exile. On 30 October 1922 the deposed royal couple, Princesses Irene and Katherine and Prince Nicholaswith his family, went again to the port of Oropos to leave their country but, contrary to what happened in 1917, few followers awaited them this time before their departure into exile. On board the Greek steamboat SS Patris, the royal family arrived in Sicily and moved...
Death of Constantine I and deposition of George II
Increasingly depressed by the events that had shaken Greece and sick with arteriosclerosis, Constantine I developed a deep depression. He then remained sometimes hours without speaking, staring into space. Faced with this situation, Sophia's anxiety (already bigger by the fate of George II and other members of the royal family who remained in Greece), only increased. The Queen and her husband therefore made the decision to leave Sicily and settled in Florence. However, Constantine I died of a...
Last years
Sophia, now Dowager Queen, left Southern Italy with her daughters Irene and Katherine and moved to Tuscany, in the Villa Bobolina[t] of Fiesole. From 1924 to 1927, the three women were joined by Princesses Aspasia and Alexandra, much to Sophia's delight, because she was very attached to her granddaughter. In 1930, Princess Helen also came to live with her mother after her disastrous marriage with King Carol II of Romania ended in divorce. During summer vacations, the Dowager Queen had the opp...
Apr 9, 2024 · Sophia Dorothea (born Sept. 13, 1666—died Nov. 23, 1726, Schloss Ahlden, Lower Saxony) was the wife of George Louis, elector of Hanover (George I of Great Britain), who accused her of infidelity and imprisoned her for 32 years. The only child of George William, duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle, by a Huguenot lady named Eleanore d’Olbreuze ...
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Queen Sophia Dorothea of Hanover Facts. 1. She Was Born Into Drama. On March 16, 1687, Sophia Dorothea opened her eyes for the first time. Little did she know that her family was the elite of the elite. Her father eventually became King George I of Great Britain, and her brother was waiting in the wings for the throne.
Sophia of Prussia (Sophie Dorothea Ulrike Alice; 14 June 1870 – 13 January 1932) was Queen of Greece from 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922 as the wife of King Constantine I. Issue . George II of Greece (July 20, 1890 –April 1, 1947) married Princess Elisabeth of Romania but had no issue.
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Dec 3, 2019 · Sophia was a granddaughter of King James I and VI through Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen. Around this time, plans for Sophia Dorothea’s marriage were being discussed. She was to marry her cousin Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia. Sophia Dorothea remained blissfully unaware of the future that was being plotted for her for now.
