HANOVERIAN SCHOOL, LATE 17TH CENTURY

The sitter was a daughter of Frederick V, Elector Palatine, and Elizabeth of Bohemia (see lot 110). In 1658, she married Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover, by whom she had seven children. Sophia was a cousin of William III and after the death of Queen Mary II in 1699, and Princess (later Queen) Anne's struggle to produce healthy children, Sophia was included in the British line of succession, formalised in the Act of Succession (1701). Sophia died a few weeks before Queen Anne, meaning that her eldest son succeeded to the British throne, as King George I, in 1714 (see lots 118 and 121).