Sophia Von Kielmansegg, Countess of Darlington - Peerage

Peerage

When Melusine was created Duchess of Munster in 1716 and Duchess of Kendal in 1719, Sophia was said to have also campaigned for either an Irish or British peerage. This campaigning was taken for granted when in a newsletter of 14 November 1717, it was stated that she "came to town some weeks since on pretence to be with her husband...but as others say upon a difference with the Duchess of Munster." Her husband died a day later and his illness, not her rivalry with the Duchess, was more likely to be the reason for her return to London. Perhaps to counter the blow of the South Sea Bubble, she was created Countess of Leinster in the Peerage of Ireland in 1721 and Countess of Darlington and Baroness Brentford a year later in the Peerage of Great Britain, all life peerages. The letters patent for both titles had the king describe her as consanguineam nostram (English: of our common blood) and her coat of arms included the arms of Brunswick with a bar sinister to denote her as an illegitimate daughter of an elector of Hanover.

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