Sophie Charlotte was in her thirty-seventh year when she died, and at her death a great light went out. She would have been a remarkable woman under any conditions; she was doubly remarkable when we remember her time and her environment. In her large brain and generous sympathies, her love of art and letters, and her desire to raise the intellectual life of those around her the first Queen of Prussia strongly resembled one of her successors who has recently passed away—the late Empress Frederick. She resembled her also in that during her lifetime she was often misrepresented and misunderstood, and her great qualities of head and heart were not fully appreciated until after her death.
FOOTNOTES TO BOOK I, CHAPTER II:
[3] Leibniz to State Minister du Cros, Lützenburg, 25th October, 1704.
[4] The Electress Sophia to the Raugravine Louise, Lützenburg, 21st October, 1704.
[5] The Electress Sophia to the Raugravine Louise, Lützenburg, 27th October, 1704.
[6] The Electress Sophia to the Raugravine Louise, Lützenburg, 1st November, 1704.
[7] The Electress Sophia to Leibniz, Hanover, 22nd November, 1704.
[8] Princess Caroline of Ansbach to Leibniz, Ansbach, 28th December, 1704.
CHAPTER III.
THE WOOING OF THE PRINCESS. 1705.
The Queen of Prussia’s death was one of the great sorrows of Caroline’s life. She was at Ansbach when Sophie Charlotte died, slowly recovering from a low fever. The sad news from Hanover plunged her into the deepest grief, and seriously hindered her convalescence. Leibniz, who had also lost his best friend in the Queen, wrote to Caroline to express his grief and sympathy; he also took this opportunity to explain his views on the Divine scheme of things.