Tasty bits of real history in LORD FOURNIER'S SHAMELESS PRINCESS, PART 1. Who could a crown princess marry?

    

My vision of Elizabeth, 
Crown Princess von Rittenburg
Debuts: 3/27/25

Our heroine, Elizabeth—or Liesel, as she prefers to be called by her friends—is a crown princess of a very well positioned principality in the Holy Roman Empire. The heroine of LORD FOURNIER’S SHAMELESS PRINCESSS, Liesel is not only lovely and well educated, but hails from a rich city-state. Exactly like so many young ladies in German states at this time, she is afraid. She can flee the French into Russia, Prussia, or Vienna. But by the time Bonaparte abducts the Duke d’Enghien, that man has shown he cannot quell the advances of the French.

Liesel’s home, the city-state of Rittenburg, I made up. But it is based on the real princely house of Thurn und Taxis. In 1615, they became the Imperial Postmasters of the Holy Roman Empire and while setting postal rates for most of Europe, became fabulously rich. (They continued in this role until 1867. Look them up! The family still have their titles and live in their magnificent castle.)

Liesel’s intended fate to marry into the British royal family is not far from reality. Our Lisel has enough prestige, power and money and influence that the British Georgians want her in their family. She is not the only German royal desired by the British royal family. 

George III and Queen Charlotte had 15 children. Of them, ten married and eight of them married royalty from the Germanic principalities. Often relatives married very close relatives. The list is long: 

Prussia

Brunswick

Saxe-Meiningen

Wurttemberg

Saxe-Cobourg-Saalfeld

Hesse-Homburg

Hesse-Kassel

Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Most of these German territories abutted the German state of Hanover. Many were wealthy territories, like Baden and Württemberg. Others were small with little income but many royal progeny from which the Hanoverian rulers of Britain could choose potential spouses. Indeed, they were so numerous and often interbred—even before Victoria married her cousin Albert—that they suffered from all kinds of health ailments. But what these marriages with Germanic princes and princesses offered Britain was a sense of stability in a period when the post-Napoleonic Europeans wished for it most avidly. 

Read LORD FOURNIER'S SHAMELESS PRINCESS for a slow burn romance you'll adore!

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