Mary's wit and passion, James the First's love of metaphysical and theological disputations, were reproduced in her; and she possessed, too, in no small degree, the beauty, dignity, and personal charm characteristic of the race, which even the infusion of sluggish German blood could not mar. Her grandmother's romantic temperament was balanced by her mother's shrewd common-sense. Sophie Charlotte was carefully educated with a view to her making a great match some day; she was an accomplished musician and a good linguist, speaking French, English, and Italian as fluently as her native tongue, and French more so. She read much and widely in the literature of these languages, a very unusual thing among German princesses of that age. From her earliest youth her mother impressed upon her that she was to play a leading part upon the world's stage. Our first glimpse of her is when she was only five years old, taking part in a pastoral play at Osnabrück, and reciting the following lines, which Leibnitz afterwards recalled as prophetic:

Vous qui me courtisez sur la verte fougère,

Peut-être ailleurs me ferez-vous la cour;
A présent je suis bergère,

Je puis être reine un jour.

The princess's early religious education was hardly on a level with her secular one, for the Electress Sophia, in accordance with her policy of making all things subservient to her daughter's future advancement, decided to bring her up with an open mind in matters of religion, so that she might be eligible to marry the most promising prince who presented himself, whether he were Catholic or Protestant. As a courtly biographer put it: 'She (Sophie Charlotte) refrained from any open confession of faith until her marriage, for reasons of prudence and of state, because only then would she be able to judge which religion would be best suited to her condition of life.' There was once an idea of marrying her to the Dauphin, eldest son of Louis the Fourteenth, and the French envoy sounded the Electress Sophia on the subject of her daughter's faith. She answered, 'She is of no religion as yet.' Despite this theological complaisance the match fell through, and so did another projected with the Elector Maximilian Emanuel of Bavaria, who was also a Catholic.

Sophie Charlotte's religion was finally settled on the Protestant side, for when the Electoral Prince of Brandenburg, son of the Great Elector, came forward as a suitor, Sophia eagerly accepted him for her daughter, despite the fact that he was a widower, twelve years older than Sophie Charlotte, deformed, and of anything but an amiable reputation. These drawbacks were as trifles compared to the fact that he was heir to the most powerful electorate of North Germany. The wedding took place with great pomp at Hanover in

September 1684, and the bride and bridegroom made their state entry into Berlin two months afterwards. A few years later Sophie Charlotte gave birth to a son, Frederick William, who was destined to become the second King of Prussia, and the father of Frederick the Great. Four years later the Great Elector died, and with her husband's accession she became the reigning Electress of Brandenburg.

The salient points of Sophie Charlotte's character now began to make themselves apparent. The Court of Berlin, modelled on that of Versailles, was a brilliant one, and every public function was carried out with elaborate ceremonial; for the Elector Frederick, like the Grand Monarque, held that a splendid and stately court was the outward and visible sign of a prince's power and greatness. Sophie Charlotte, on the contrary, disliked the pomp and pageantry inseparable from sovereignty, and, though she was careful to discharge the duties of her position, she did so in a spirit of magnificent indifference. The Elector had a positive passion for display, which he seized every opportunity of gratifying, and would spend hours debating over the minutia of court etiquette. This was weariness of the soul to Sophie Charlotte. Leibnitz talked to me to-day of the infinitely little,' she wrote once to her friend and confidant, Fräulein von Pöllnitz. Mon Dieu! as if I did not know enough about that!' The young Electress had arrived at a great position, but her heart was empty; she felt towards her husband nothing but a half-contemptuous toleration, which scarcely concealed a passive dislike. The Elector, on his part, was proud of his beautiful and talented young wife, though he was rather afraid of her. It would have been easy for Sophie Charlotte, had she been so minded, to have gained great influence over her consort, who was in every way her inferior, and to have ruled through him. But though her intellect was masculine in its calibre, unlike her mother, she had no love of domination, and cared not to meddle with affairs of state, or to concern herself with the intrigues of politics and of courts. These things were to her but vanity, and she preferred rather to live a life of intellectual contemplation and philosophic calm. The scientific discoveries of Newton were more to her than kingdoms, and the latest theory of Leibnitz greater than all the grandeur of the Court.

Sophie Charlotte's nature was essentially refined; she had a great love of art and of all things beautiful, and in this the Elector was able to sympathise, though he did not follow her in her literary and philosophic bent. He built for her a palace at Lützenburg, later called, after her, Charlottenburg, and brought to it every resource of nature and art. The gardens were laid out after the plan of Versailles by Le Nôtre, with terraces, statues, and fountains; the orangery was the finest in Europe, and the hothouses were filled with the rarest flowers. Magnificent pictures, beautiful carpets, rare furniture

of inlaid ebony and ivory, porcelain and crystal, were stored in this lordly pleasure-house, which spoke the last word in luxury and art.

At Lützenburg Sophie Charlotte lived a life apart, and was able to give full rein to her inclinations. At Lützenburg learning and wit, and not wealth and rank, gave the entrée. Here, surrounded by a special circle of her intimate friends, Sophie Charlotte gave her talents full play and enjoyed the free intercourse of ideas. At Lützenburg she held receptions on certain evenings in the week, and on these occasions all trammels of court etiquette were laid aside, and everything was conducted without ostentation. To these receptions came not only some of the most beautiful and witty ladies of the court, but also learned men from every country of Europe, professors, philosophers, theologians, both Catholic and Protestant, eminent representatives of literature, science, and art, besides a number of French refugees and others who did not appear at court in the ordinary way. Since the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes Berlin had become a centre for Huguenots, many of them of intellectual eminence and noble birth, who were now banished from their native land. They were made especially welcome at Lützenburg, where everything was French rather than German. At Sophie Charlotte's réunions French only was spoken, and so elegant were the appointments, so refined and courteous the manners, so perfect was the taste, and so brilliant the conversation, that one of the most celebrated of the Huguenot nobility declared that he felt himself once again in France, and asked whether the Electress could really speak German.

To Lützenburg came the eloquent Huguenot preacher and theologian, Beausobre, whom the Electress appointed a chaplain, and paid his salary out of her own purse. At other times came Vota, a celebrated Jesuit priest and Roman Catholic controversialist; Toland, the English free-thinker; Papendorf, the historian; Handel, the musician, when he was a mere boy; and last, and among the greatest, the famous Leibnitz, philosopher, mathematician, historian, and man of affairs, who found in Sophie Charlotte, as in her mother, a generous patroness and trusted friend. Hither came often, too, on many a visit, the Electress Sophia from Hanover, the 'merry débonnaire princess of Germany,' who, like her daughter, delighted in theological polemics and philosophical disquisitions. Liberal principles in religion and politics were the vogue at Lützenburg. Charlotte's early religious training, or rather her lack of it, was very noticeable in the trend of thought she gave to her réunions. She submitted everything to the tribunal of reason; she would take nothing for granted. Her eager, active spirit was always seeking to know the truth, even the why of the why,' as Leibnitz grumbled Her mother, the Electress Sophia, 'sat very loose in her religious opinions,' to quote Dean Lockier. She would seem to have

once.

6

Sophie

been a rationalist with a strong dash of Calvinism. Sophie Charlotte went a step further; she was nothing of a Calvinist, but leant rather to the theories of Descartes. 'My mother is a clever woman, but a bad Christian,' her son said once; and this was true if he meant a dogmatic Christian, though Leibnitz had a theory for reconciling Christianity with reason which especially commended itself to Sophie Charlotte. Whatever her religion, she took a keen interest in theological controversies, and when any clever Jesuit came her way she would delight in nothing so much as to make him expound his views, and then command one of her Protestant or Huguenot chaplains to endeavour to answer him. In this way she set the learned Jesuit Vota disputing with the Protestant Brensenius, and the orthodox Huguenot, Beausobre, with the free-thinking sceptic, Toland. Nor were these debates confined to theological questions only; scientific, philosophic, historic, and social questions, everything in short, came within the debatable ground. On one occasion we hear of a long and animated argument on the question as to whether marriage was ordained for the procreation of children! The Electress presided over all these intellectual tournaments, throwing in a suggestion here or raising a doubt there. She was always able to draw the best out of everyone, and, thanks to her tact and amiability, the disputes on these thorny questions were invariably conducted without unpleasantness.

Sophie Charlotte eagerly sought the society of the greatest men of the time, from Peter Bayle to Peter the Great, without reference to their rank, nationality, or position. She met Peter the Great in 1697, when he was journeying through North Germany on his way to Holland, travelling incognito, but with a numerous suite. The fame of the great Tsar, the paradoxes and eccentricities of his character, his marvellous abilities, his barbarism, and his love of splendour, had spread throughout Europe. The Elector of Brandenburg travelled with his court to Königsberg to meet the great potentate, but reasons of etiquette compelled him to leave his consort behind. Sophie Charlotte was much disappointed, and commissioned one of the Ministers to send her a full and particular account of the Tsar. I regret much that he and his suite are not coming to Berlin,' she writes, 'for, much as I dislike uncleanliness, my curiosity on this occasion triumphs over my dislike.' The accounts which reached her from Königsberg only served to heighten her curiosity, which was at last gratified when she was on a visit at Hanover. She writes to the Minister, von Fuchs :

At last I can cry quits with you, for I have seen the great Tsar. After much difficulty he made an appointment to see me at Kappenbrüggen, but he did not bargain for the whole family coming too, and we had to argue with him for an hour before he would consent to appear at all. At last he agreed that the Duke of Celle, my mother, my brothers, and I should meet him at supper in the hall,

and he arranged that he would enter by a private door, so as to avoid being seen, for he had espied a crowd on entering the village. My mother welcomed him with many greetings, but he was so shy at first that he hid his face with his hands and made Lefort answer for him, pretending that he could speak no French. After a while we managed to tame him a little, and he sat down to table between my mother and myself. We talked to him in turns, and sometimes both at once, so eager were we to hear what he had to say. Sometimes he spoke himself and sometimes through an interpreter; he always talked very much to the point on any and every subject which arose. My mother's cheery, lively disposition prompted her to ply him with innumerable questions, all of which he answered freely. I only wonder he was not tired of talking, for I believe conversation is not much in vogue in his own country. As to his grimacing, I thought it would be worse than it really was, though sometimes it was quite beyond his control. I noticed, too, that he did not know how to eat his food properly, though his manner was easy and free from restraint, and in a short time he made himself quite at home. He had at first been shy of meeting our ladies and gentlemen in attendance; presently he allowed them to come in, and after stationing his favourite servant, whom he calls his 'right arm,' at the door to prevent their going out again, he sent for big glasses and offered wine to all, handing the glass to each one himself as a mark of honour. I ordered my Italian musicians to sing to him, and he praised them, especially Ferdinando, whom he also rewarded with a glass of wine. To please him we remained four hours at table, and drank his health à la Muscovite, that is, all together and standing. As I wanted to see the Tsar dance, I begged him to send for his musicians, and they came in after supper, but he would not dance until he had first seen us do so, so we led off as he wished. He would not, and could not, dance until he had gloves, and though his suite sought for them high and low, none were forthcoming. The Muscovite dance was very pretty, and the Tsar was very much pleased with the evening.

The Electress Sophia also wrote an account of this meeting to her niece, the Duchesse d'Orléans :

The Tsar is a very tall man, with a handsome face and a noble bearing. His manner is most vivacious, and he is quick at repartee, but, with his great natural gifts, it is a pity his tastes are not a little less barbarous. He was very cheerful and conversational, and we became great friends. My daughter and he exchanged snuffboxes; the Tsar's was embellished with his monogram, and my daughter treasures it. I asked him if he liked hunting; he said his father had liked it immensely, but for himself he had a passion for navigation and fireworks. He said he worked at shipbuilding himself, and showed us his hands with pride, and made us feel the blisters formed on them by hard labour. After supper was over the Tsar sent for his fiddlers, and we danced some Russian dances, which I liked much better than the polonaise. It was daylight before we broke up. The Tsar is quite an extraordinary man; it is impossible to form an opinion of him until one has seen him, and then it is impossible to describe him. He has a kind heart, and gave utterance to many lofty sentiments. I must also tell you that he did not become the least intoxicated in our presence, but no sooner had we gone than his suite fully made up for lost time. He is most sensible to the charms of female beauty, but, to be just, I saw no attempts at gallantry. In his country it is the custom of women to paint themselves red and white, which is no doubt the reason why the Muscovites admire Countess Platen so much. In dancing they thought the bones of our stays were our own bones, and the Tsar said: "The German ladies have infernally hard bones.'

Leibnitz wrote about this time: 'As the Electress of Brandenburg is now entirely in her husband's confidence, we must weigh this state of