ABSTRACT
On 30 August 1679, just six months after the Holy Roman Empire’s war against France had been settled, Sophia of Hanover visited the French court at Fontainebleau. At this time she was merely the wife of Prince-Bishop Ernest Augustus of Osnabrück. Travelling under the protection of an intentionally transparent incognito, ‘Madame d’Osnabruc’ received all the honours that she was due, and a few more as well. After all, she not only represented an important German princely house, but was also the aunt of Princess Palatine Elizabeth Charlotte, wife of the Duke of Orléans. 1 At court, she first met the Dauphin and Prince Conti, on both of whom she passed brief but scathing judgement in her memoirs. 2 The next day Sophia was received by the king himself, and this meeting at least was satisfactory for both sides. The king, Sophia reported, ‘went out of his way, in his conduct as well as in his conversation, to let me see that he was one of the most courteous princes in the world’. 3 Louis even found kind and respectful words for the members of the Guelph dynasty who had been at war with the French king only a few years earlier:
His Majesty … told me everything agreeable that one could say to please, even reminding me of the battle which the dukes had won against him. He also said that he had been well aware of who his enemies had been. I replied that since they had not been fortunate enough to have his goodwill, they had at least tried to gain his esteem. 4
