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From a Medal in Brass.

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No. V. of Curiosities found in the Ruins of Herculaneum.

Narrative of the Sufferings of Christina, Princess of Zell. 213

Mr. URBAN,

IT will, I believe, be impossible to read with attention the following narrative, written many years ago in the German language, without observing the remarkable analogy between the sufferings of the Princess of Zell, consort to George the First, and those of the Princess of England, his great grand-daughter, consort to the present King of Denmark. How far the declaration of Moses concerning the iniquity of fathers may be discernible in this affair, I shall not pretend to point out; the bare recital of facts is all I have to offer, and every reader is left to his own comment.

The Duke of Zell (brother to Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover, the father of George the First) married a lady of mean birth, but remarkable for beauty and excellent endowments*.

This marriage, so humiliating to the haughty house of Hanover, occasioned an almost irreparable breach between the Duke and his brother, who was still more incensed, when, by the favour of the Emperor Leopold, the lady was invested with the ducal dignity, and acknowledged in quality of a Princess of the Empire; without which her children could not have suceeded to the sovereignty of Zell, and the dukedom of course must have devolved (if no second marriage had intervened) to the Elector.

If the Duchess of Zell was before attached to her illustrious consort by love, gratitude now cemented the union; it seemed the mutual endeavour of the ducal pair to make each other happy. Their subjects, charmed with an example of conjugal felicity seldom to be met with in courts, were incessant in their prayers for an hereditary prince, who might inherit the virtues of his parents, and prove an equal blessing to their posterity; but their desires did not suit with the unsearchable decrees of Providence, and the only fruit of this happy marriage was one daughter, who became celebrated for her gifts and graces, but more for her misfortunes.

To this young lady, when in the full bloom of her youth and beauty,

* She was of a genteel French family of the reformed religion, that had taken refuge in Germany from the persecutions carrying on against the Protestants in France. 

GENT. MAG. May, 1773.

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adorned with an education suitable to her birth high birth, several of the neighboring princes became suitors; but of all the competitors for her father's consent the young Prince of Wolfenbuttel had the fairest prospect of being the happy man. His proposals were not received favourably by the Duke and Duchess, but his person was highly pleasing to the Princess; and scarce any-thing remained to be adjusted but the time and manner of celebrating the nuptials.

The Elector of Hanover, alarmed at an union so unfavourable to his views, was determined, if possible, to interrupt its course. The progress, however, which the Prince of Wolfenbuttel had already made, the coolness that had long subsided between the two families, and the aversion whihc the Electress Sophia had testified to a nearer connection with the Duchess of Zell, were difficulties that appeared insurmountable. The Electress had, moreover, raised her thoughts to an alliance with the royal house of England, from which she herself had the honour to be descended; and with this view the Prince her son actually made a visit to Great Britain, where it was said he paid his addresses to Lady Anne, afterwards wedded to the Prince of Denmark, which, however, were rejected.

The disappointment which the young Elector met with in this attempt, it is probable, contributed not a little to abate the pride of the Electress, and to render her more tractable to the Elector's project of marrying the heir of Hanover to the heiress of Zell, and thereby uniting the two dominions under one sovereign. 

Before the journey to England had take place, the motion for all alliance with Zell had been treated by the Electress with an air of ridicule; but all on a sudden her humour changed, and, instead of opposing, she determined to have the sole merit of bringing it about. In fact, no one was better qualified for such an undertaking; she was alike proud, and full of condescension; equally eloquent, and mistress of the arts of courts; and though she had even treated the Duchess of Zell with haughtiness bordering upon contempt, she had nevertheless, the address to qualify her dislike in such a manner, that the Duke, instead of resenting it, seemed rather to look upon the distinguishing respect shewn to himself as a 
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Please note the difference between the form of f and s in this typeface. The long S lacks the crossbar. The modern s shape is used at the end of a word. ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-11 13:16:45