Sophia, Princess Palatine and Electress of Hanover

i) Letter book, entitled "Plusieurs Lettres de Smid [sic] Et Autres", comprising copies of several hundred letters written from 1654 to 1702, not in chronological order, mostly to Sophia, others to her husband Ernst August, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg, by a wide range of European royals and nobility including Queen Henrietta Maria, Prince Rupert, and Louis XIV, discussing court life, military matters, philosophy, politics, literature, and personal affairs, in French, 387 pages, plus blanks, folio, early 18th century, contemporary calf, spine gilt, worn, spotting

ii) Commonplace book containing entries in prose and verse, including satires, accounts of royal feasts, carnivals, weddings, ceremonials and entertainments (e.g. "hannover au Carnaval 1702 | Trimalcion Moderne" and "La Trouppe de la Reine de Prusse"), speeches (e.g. "Le compliment que fit le Cardinal Primat au Roy de Pologne"), royal audiences ("Recuit des premieres Audinces de Mr. De Spanheim à Versailles le Mardi 8/18 Fevr. 1698"), funeral orations, notes on religious toleration, the English succession following the Bill of Rights, British history, as well as lists of books ("Catalogue des livres nouveaux de l'année 1701 chez Pierre Marteau à Cologne"), extracts from Edward Herbert's Religio Laici ("Ecrits de My lord Herbert traduit de l'Anglois en François Par le Sr. Chevreau"), copy letters, and an "Etymologie of Germain and English Words", in at least four distinct hands, French, Italian, German and English, 426 pages, plus blanks, folio, early 18th century (final entry dated 1735), contemporary calf, spine gilt, binding worn and splitting at upper joint, spotting

Louisa Catherine (née Howe), Marchioness of Sligo, 1767-1817 (book-labels)

TWO MANUSCRIPT VOLUMES FROM THE COURT OF SOPHIA, ELECTRESS OF HANOVER. Sophia (1630-1714) was the youngest daughter of Frederick, Elector Palatine, and Elizabeth, daughter of King James I, who married Ernst August of Brunswick (d.1698). Following the death in 1700 of Queen Anne's son, the Duke of Gloucester, Sophia was named as heir to the British throne (all closer Stuart relatives being debarred by their Catholicism). She was cultured, multi-lingual, and tolerant - she was, for example, a friend and patron to G.W. Leibniz. Her court at Herrenhausen immediately became a destination of choice for ambitious British politicians, whilst the Hanoverians scrambled to learn English. However Sophia died - in her exquisite palace gardens - just two months before Queen Anne, and the British crown passed to her son, George I. Although the exact origin of these two volumes is unclear, they were undoubtedly compiled by a high-ranking Hanoverian courtier. It is possible they were compiled by or for Sophia von Kielmansegg (1675-1725), a Hanoverian courtier and illegitimate son of Elector Ernst August, as both volumes bear the later bookplate of her great-granddaughter.