Mehmet von Königstreu

In the third painted archway in William Kent’s painting as you climb the King’s Staircase at Kensington Palace, stands a man dressed in an Eastern European fur hat, and an East Asian-style high collared, and embroidered silk jacket. He is Ludwig Maximilian Mehmet von Königstreu (or Mehmet), an Ottoman man who served in the court of George I. 

Mehmet’s left arm encircles his wife, Marie Hedwig Mehmet von Königstreu of Hanover (in Northern Germany), who is elegantly dressed in contemporary 18th-century European fashion.

Immediately behind, to Marie’s right, stands a man in flowing robes that suggest a connection with the Ottoman empire (a precursor to modern-day Turkey). Unlike Mehmet, this man wears a turban and a beard, and his skin is painted darker. This is Mehmet’s compatriot, Ernst August Mustapha von Misistri.

Header image: Mehmet von Königstreu and his wife Marie painted on the King's Staircase at Kensington Palace. © Historic Royal Palaces

The people in the staircase 

Commissioned by George I and completed between 1725-27, William Kent’s painting on the King’s Staircase shows neither classical muses, nor gods and heroes. Instead, members of George I’s Court gaze down from a painted gallery to challenge the eyes of the ascending visitor: ‘Look at us!’, they seem to say: ‘Do you know who we are?’ Among them are men, women and children, of different classes and in various costumes, from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, across Britain, Europe and the world.

It is a challenge to the past and the future. To anyone attending Kensington Palace in George I’s time, the painting could have been seen almost as a deliberate and provocative confrontation — in which George I’s diverse and multicultural court stands in an English palace, facing down any question of imposture or a right to be there. To us, in the 21st century, the challenge is different — it is to identify the people in the painting and discover their stories. Where did they come from? How did they live? And why were they here?

Some of the people we are trying to identify came from far away, and their histories must be sought, sifted, and put back together from different places and sources, including the work of historians in other countries - sometimes in other languages. This is the case with the story of Mehmet, his wife Marie, and his compatriot Mustapha.

We only have fragments of their remarkable histories, pieced together from the archives. We also have other visual records — individual portraits painted from life by the fashionable and expensive court painter, Godfrey Kneller. These give us a tantalising outline of extraordinary lives entangled within a complex, interconnected and transnational history.

Mehmet's life

Mehmet was born in the city of ‘Goron’ or Koroni, in the Morea (now part of Peleponnesian Greece) which was then in the Ottoman empire. 

In the late 18th century, the Ottoman empire and Christian European powers were in conflict. In 1683, the Ottomans laid siege to Vienna but were defeated by the Hapsburgs and their allies. Their brief moment of weakness was seized on as an opportunity for expansion into Ottoman territories, and the Republic of Venice hired European armies, to conquer Morea.

The fortress of Goron was conquered by the Hanoverian army in around 1686, probably by an officer under the command of Georg Ludwig, the Prince-Elector of Hanover (and future George I of Britain). Mustapha was captured around the same time in Misistra, also in the Morea.

One of the local Pashas (rulers) governing around this time was called Mehmet, and our Mehmet may possibly have been his son. If this were true, it could help explain why Mehmet was able to rise to a higher position in George I’s service than Mustapha, and was even elevated to the Hanoverian nobility. 

As we will see, Mehmet had also accumulated a long record of service, which must have helped him rise through the ranks; Mehmet had been working for nearly 20 years at the Hanoverian court by the time Mustapha arrived there.

Arrival in Hanover

Mehmet was brought to Hanover soon after being taken captive in Goron and joined the Elector’s (the future George I) court, almost immediately. 

Mehmet was around the same age as George; the two men were near contemporaries. Mustapha, who was considerably younger, did not join George’s service until 1703. Both men were converts to Christianity, either by free choice or coercion, or perhaps as a pragmatic decision to be able to live, work and be assimilated within Hanoverian society. 

Both Mehmet and Mustapha married Hanoverian women, had children, and settled down in Hanover with their families. As a Christian convert, Mehmet took the forenames George Ludwig Maximilian in honour of Georg Ludwig, the Prince-Elector, the future George I. There seems to have been a recognised Ottoman community in Hanover at this time and both men were able to establish themselves within the court and in Hanoverian society.

Marriage to Marie Hedwig Wedekind

Mehmet’s marriage to Marie Hedwig Wedekind in 1706 signalled his further integration into the social and cultural fabric of Hanover. 

While the union brought a greater degree of economic security, and perhaps social advantages for Mehmet, the couple also seem to have been genuinely attached to each other. Mehmet expressed gratitude to Marie in his Will, ensuring that she would have full control over his estate after he died. In a time when women’s wealth was controlled by their fathers and husbands, Mehmet made sure Marie would have access to her family wealth even if she married again. 

The couple remained married until Mehmet’s death and had several children together.

Mehmet's career in the court of George I 

Beginning as a Valet (body servant) or Kammerdiener in 1699, Mehmet rose to become the Keeper of the King’s Closet and looked after the King’s private accounts. 

Mehmet arrived in England in 1714 with Marie and Mustapha, George (who was now George I) and a large retinue from the Hanoverian court. In 1716, at George I’s request. Mehmet was elevated to the nobility by the Holy Roman Emperor. He took the title von Königstreu, meaning ‘loyal to the King’, and was given a house in Schmid Strasse (Smith Street), Hanover. 

As part of his royal service, Mehmet disbursed money for personal items such as George’s expensive wigs, hats and clothes, and supplied money to the Master of the Horse when the court travelled. He also ensured George’s opera subscription was paid. 

To the disapproval and perhaps envy of the English members of George I's court, Mehmet also guarded access to the King in his private apartment, at the King's request. He acted as the King’s intermediary — as George preferred to speak French and German, and kept himself at a distance from his court.

Mehmet would have learnt German during his time in Hanover, and almost certainly would have needed to know French, which was commonly used by members of European royalty and their courts as a lingua franca (an adopted shared language) in this period. Mehmet also had a role in looking after George’s health, even checking his haemorrhoids, and reporting to the royal medical attendants.

In comparison perhaps with modern prisoners of war, or even with some other members of the royal household, Mehmet and Mustapha seem to have been well treated. But moving to the English court from Hanover brought difficulties, privation, and a decline in status.

Resentment and prejudice

The Hanoverians were deeply resented by the English court and the King was urged to send them back to Hanover. Most Hanoverians returned by 1716 — Marie amongst them. Mehmet and Mustapha stayed as part of a core group of servants and intimates that the King insisted remained with him in England. 

In addition, the physical intimacy with the King that Mehmet and Mustapha possessed as his closest body servants deepened the prejudice of the English Court against the men. Salacious rumours about the nature of their relationship with the King were spread by George’s political opponents at court. 

Unlike in Hanover, there was no Ottoman community in England. Mehmet and Mustapha were seen as doubly alien — foreigners from Hanover brought by the King, and Ottoman men whose culture was unjustly associated in England with ideas of despotism and sexual deviance. Both men were persistently referred to as ‘infidels’, despite having converted to Lutheran Christianity.

Mehmet and Marie’s arrival in England may have represented one of the first interracial married couples at the English Court, and they might have needed to face the pressures this brought. While people from the Ottoman empire were not alien in 18th-century Hanover, such unions were unusual in England. Added to this pressure, after Marie returned to Hanover the couple spent much of the last years of their marriage apart. 

There were practical challenges too. Living expenses were greater in England and there are signs that although Mehmet received a higher salary and allowances than Mustapha, both were paid less than other staff from Hanover.

Mehmet's death

Mehmet died on 1 November 1726 at Kensington Palace, after nearly 40 years in George’s service. He was buried in St Mary’s Parish in the Savoy, London, with most of the other Lutheran Christian members of George court. His funeral and the cost of two Lutheran preachers were paid for by the Treasury, perhaps in appreciation of his loyalty to the King. Marie died only three years after her husband, in 1729.

In Hanover, Mehmet remained important and well-regarded as a former member of the community. The von Königstreu name continued to command respect for many years, and Marie’s family evidently valued their connection with Mehmet. When Marie’s mother passed away, she was described as ‘Mrs. Wedekind, Mr. Mähmet’s mother in law’, rather than as the wife of a wealthy local merchant. 

Mustapha took Mehmet’s place in terms of his closeness to the King, and was by George’s bedside when he died just a year after Mehmet in 1727. Only then did Mustapha return to his wife and son in Hanover.

Fragments of extraordinary lives

On the King’s Staircase at Kensington Palace, Mehmet, Marie and Mustapha stake their claim to their rightful place within the history of the palace and of Britain, and challenge us to find out more about their extraordinary lives.