MEMOIRS OF HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE LATE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE-AUGUSTA. CHAP. I. History of the House of Brunswick, to the time of their connexion with the Stuart Family; with a brief Account of that Family, brought down to the Death of Queen Anne. THE origin of the illustrious House of Brunswick, the Lunenburgh branch of which has now filled the British throne for more than a century with such unrivalled glory, is entirely lost in remote antiquity. The German genealogists suppose it to have descended through females from the Saxon family, so renowned in the early periods of our History, and up to which most of the royal families of Europe proudly trace their pedigrees; but they certainly have advanced little, except its probability, in behalf of that supposition. Most authors, however, concur in deriving the House of Brunswick from Albert Azo II. of Este; but from what ancestors he himself came, they have not been able to decide: some contending that he descended from Charlemagne; others, from Hugh king of Italy; and some again, deriving his origin from Hugh Henry the Lion, the sixth duke of Bavaria, though a minor at that time, took part in the above war under the guardianship of his uncle Guelph; and at length became the most powerful prince in the Empire. His possessions were bounded by the German ocean on the north, the Elbe on the east, on the south by Italy, and on the west by the Rhine. This excited the jealousy of the Emperor Frederick I. surnamed Barbarossa; who stripped him of all his dominions, after putting him to the ban of the empire, because he refused to appear, on being summoned to the diet, upon the pretext of his having oppressed his subjects, and committed many outrages against his neighbours. After some time, however, he excited the compassion of the Emperor, and prevailed upon him to promise that the territories of Brunswick and Lunenburgh should be protected, on behalf of his children. He had two wives; the first was Clementia of Zeninghen, the second Matilda, or Maude, daughter of the English King, Henry II. and after obtaining the above assurance from the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, he retired to England; where he was hospitably entertained by his father-in-law; and where his wife Matilda bore him a fourth son, Henry Otho, who succeeded his father, and is often called the first Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburgh. This Prince, being vigorously supported by the English king Richard Cœur de Lion, and by Pope Innocent III. was elected Emperor, in opposition to Frederick II. son of Frederick Barbarossa; while Philip duke of Suabia, elected King of the Romans, who was a third competitor, found a powerful patron in the King of France; and remained undisputed master of the empire, after many desperate conflicts: which obliged Henry Otho to seek refuge in England. Philip, however, was soon after basely assassinated; of which Otho was no sooner apprized, than he hastened to Halberstadt, where his election was renewed by the princes of Saxony, Misnia, and Thuringia; after which he conciliated the adverse faction, by his marriage with Beatrice, the daughter of Philip, the murdered Regent. This prince was a native of England, being born at Winchester in 1184: he became one of the hostages for his great friend and protector, Richard I. of England, during the cruel imprisonment of that prince by Leopold Duke of Austria; but was at last solemnly deposed, at the Pope's instigation, and compelled to seek a retreat in Brunswick; where he died, after a short and unfortunate reign. In William, his grandson, the son of Henry the Lion, and Matilda, eldest daughter of Henry II. of England, was united the Saxon and Norman blood. His son, Otho the Young, is generally called the first Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburgh, though some say that his father, and others his grandfather, was the first that bore that title; nor is it possible to decide which opinion is correct, though the probability seems to be, that Henry, called Otho IV. afterwards Emperor, was the first Duke of Brunswick-Lunenburgh, and resigned that title to his brother upon his own elevation to the empire. On the death of Henry Count Palatine, in 1227, William, having died in 1213, his nieces, Agnes and Hermengarde, daughters of Henry, having sold Brunswick to the Emperor Frederick III.; Otho the Young seized that duchy, and entered into an alliance with the Danish king Waldemar II. against the Emperor, but was defeated, and taken prisoner. He then submitted to the Emperor, his former enemy, whom he assisted so vigorously against the Pope, that, being moved with the generosity of his conduct, Frederick consented to acknowledge him Duke of Brunswick; on account of which, it appears probable, he has often been supposed to have been the first duke of |