Sophia von Kielmansegg, Countess of Darlington

Sophia Charlotte von Kielmansegg, Countess of Darlington and Countess of Leinster (1675–1725) was a German-born courtier. A half-sister of George I of Great Britain, to whom she was close, she moved to England in 1714 shortly after the Hanoverian succession, where she became an influential figure of his court.[1]

Sophia Charlotte von Kielmansegg, Countess of Darlington

Background

She was the daughter of Clara Elisabeth von Platen, married to Franz Ernst, Baron von Platen, a court official, but mistress of Ernest Augustus, Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg, married to Sophia of the Palatine who was in the line of succession of the kingdoms of England and Scotland. At the court of Ernest Augustus, her status was as an illegitimate daughter of the Elector, who was father of George Lewis, Elector of Hanover from 1698 and the future British king.[1]

In England

At the London court of George I, Sophia von Kielmansegg vied with Melusine von der Schulenburg, Duchess of Kendal, George's mistress. Her title Countess of Darlington in the Peerage of Great Britain, with the subsidiary title of Baroness of Brentford, was given by the king in 1722, following a title of Countess of Leinster in the Peerage of Ireland in 1721. Her access to the king meant her favour was sought with many gifts, particularly around the South Sea Bubble. She died at home in London on 20 April 1725.[1]

Description

Gaining the nickname "the Elephant and Castle” after her arrival in England in 1714, she is said to have been a very large woman.[2]

Horace Walpole says of her:[2]

I remember, as a boy, being terrified at her enormous figure. The fierce black eyes, large and rolling, beneath two lofty arched eyebrows, two acres of cheeks spread with crimson, an ocean of neck that overflowed and was not distinguished from the lower part of her body, and no part restrained by stays

— Horace Walpole

Notes
  1. Kilburn, Matthew. "Kielmansegg, Sophia Charlotte von, suo jure countess of Darlington and suo jure countess of Leinster". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/76310. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. Cokayne, George E. (George Edward) (1910). The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant. 7. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. London : The St. Catherine press, ltd. p. 111.

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