During the renovation, human remains were found in the German castle of Lane. Historians believe that they belong to Count Königsmark - the mysteriously disappeared lover of the Princess of Alden.
Lane Castle, located in Hanover, holds many secrets, and recently scientists have come close to solving one of them. During the renovation work, a human skeleton was found here, which most likely belonged to the Hanoverian officer Philip Christoph von Königsmark. The last thing that is known about this young man is his night visit to the Cour Princess Sophia-Dorothea of Brunswick-Zell on July 2, 1694. After that, no one else saw the 29-year-old officer.
Sophia-Dorothea (1666−1726) was the only daughter and heiress of Duke Georg of Braunschweig-Zell. At the age of 16, she was married to a cousin, Prince George Ludwig of Hanover, who later became King of Great Britain George I. This marriage was not happy, and after the birth of two children (the future English King George II and the future Queen of Prussia), the couple took on their own lives. Georg returned to his old mistress, and the princess found solace in communication with Count Philip von Königsmark, whom she had known since childhood.
From friendship, their relationship grew into love: this is confirmed by hundreds of letters, which are now stored in the archives of the Swedish University of Lund. The spouse of Sofia-Dorothea became aware of the connection, and, according to historians, he organized the murder of his wife's lover. The body of Philip was not found, but one of the participants in the crime on his deathbed confessed to what he had done.
The physical elimination of Count Königsmark was not enough for Georg; he divorced his wife and in 1694 sent her to Alden Castle in Lower Saxony. There Sophia-Dorothea was kept under strict supervision until her death in 1726.
Scientists are sure that the skeleton found in Lane Castle puts the last point in this story: most likely, it belongs to the missing count. By now, as stated in a press release from the university, DNA samples have been isolated from the bones, which can be compared with the DNA of the living relatives of Philip von Koenigsmark.
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Anastasia Barinova