Kings MS 171

'HISTOIRE de Fredegonde, Princesse de Cherusque', having for an alternative title (f. 1) ' Histoire de la Princesse d'Hanover [Sophia Dorothea], Epouse de George I, Roi de la Grande Bretagne; les malheurs de cette infortunée Princesse, ses intelligences avec le Comte de Kunigsmark assassiné à ce sujet: avec une clef alphabetique pour l'intelligence de cette Histoire'. Fictitious names are given to all the persons and places as well in the narrative itself as in the 'Histoire des Revolutions de la maison de Nardstune' [i.e. Stuart] given on ff. 48-72 b. A similar, but not identical, work, having the real names, was printed at London in 1732, and a German translation, with the fictitious names, and otherwise resembling the present MS. more closely, was published at Berlin in 1825. The writer supports the innocence of the Princess and Count Königsmark, and graphically depicts the state of the Electoral Court at Hanover. A sepia drawing of the Princess spurning a crown (cf Wilkins, Love of an Uncrowned Queen, ii, P. 564) is prefixed at f 3, and an engraved portrait (by A. Birrell, after Sylvester Harding, 1802) has been inserted at f. 2. Paper; ff. 122. Quarto. 10 ³/₈, in. x8^l/₄: in. Circ. A,D. 1730. Calf binding, with cipher of George III.