为什么这个德国小城如此吸引英国王室

The quaint timbered houses of the German town of Celle recall the center of Britain’s most picturesque towns and villages. What is less obvious to the naked eye is that Celle is an ancestral home of Britain’s royal family, the House of Windsor.

德国小城策勒(Celle)古香古色的木房子让人想起英国中部最优美的城镇和村庄。肉眼不那么容易看出的是，策勒是英国王室温莎家族(House of Windsor)的故乡。

That connection has drawn unusual royal interest in this pretty place near Hanover. No other German town of its size — about 70,000 people — has seen anything like two visits from Queen Elizabeth II, as well as one in 1965 from her mother, known as the Queen Mum, and a walkabout by Prince Charles and Princess Diana, who visited in 1987.

这种联系让英国王室对汉诺威附近的这个美丽小城产生了不同寻常的兴趣。其他同样规模的德国小城（约有7万人）从未吸引伊丽莎白二世(Queen Elizabeth II)两次来访，她的妈妈王母太后(Queen Mum)也曾于1965年来访，此外，查尔斯王子(Prince Charles)和戴安娜王妃(Princess Diana)曾于1987年来到这里跟公众前面。

What ostensibly drew the modern royals to Celle (pronounced TSELL-uh) was partly the presence of British troops during the Cold War. But Queen Elizabeth II, who first came to Celle in 1984, returned last year, at age 89, in conjunction with her visit to the nearby former Nazi concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen, liberated in 1945 by the British.

将英国现代王室成员吸引到策勒的部分表面原因是冷战期间英国曾在这里驻军。不过，1984年首次访问这里的伊丽莎白二世去年在89岁高龄再次来到这里。她还访问了附近的贝尔根-贝尔森前纳粹集中营(Bergen-Belsen)——1945年英军解放了这里。

She was also following in the footsteps of her ancestors. What became the House of Windsor, or Welfen in German, originated in this area more than 300 years ago, when Queen Anne died childless.

她也在追随祖先的足迹。300多年前，温莎家族出现在这一地区，当时安妮女王(Queen Anne)驾崩无嗣。

Her closer Stuart relations in Britain were barred from the throne by law because they were Roman Catholic, so Britain turned to Germany for a new Protestant monarch: George I, the Elector of Hanover and Anne’s second cousin. Celle was the hometown of George’s wife, Sophia Dorothea.

她在英国的近亲斯图尔特家族(Stuart)因为信仰罗马天主教而不能依法继承王位，所以英国转向德国寻找一位新的新教君主：安妮的远房表兄弟、汉诺威选帝侯乔治一世(George I)。策勒是乔治妻子索菲娅•多罗特娅(Sophia Dorothea)的故乡。

Caught in a marital tangle far crueler than the 20th-century woes of Charles and Diana, Sophia Dorothea was never able to see England, where her son would one day ascend the throne as George II.

由于比20世纪的查尔斯和戴安娜的痛苦婚姻残酷得多的婚姻纠葛，索菲娅•多罗特娅从未去过英国——她的儿子将在那里登基，成为乔治二世。

Before George I became king there, he took a mistress. Sophia Dorothea, for her part, fell for a dashing Swedish count, Philipp von Konigsmarck. The two planned to elope, but their plan was betrayed; the Swedish count was killed, and Sophia Dorothea, at 28, was divorced by her philandering husband, found guilty of “malicious desertion,” deprived of her children and imprisoned in a castle in nearby Ahlden.

在乔治一世成为英国国王之前，他有个情妇。而索菲娅•多罗特娅也爱上了风度翩翩的瑞典伯爵菲利普•冯•克尼格斯马格(Philipp von Konigsmarck)。两人打算私奔，不过计划遭到泄露。瑞典伯爵被杀，28岁的索菲娅•多罗特娅被淫乱的丈夫休掉，并被判“蓄意背弃罪”，剥夺探视孩子的权利，软禁在附近的阿尔登城堡(Ahlden)。

She remained there, essentially in captivity, for more than 30 years, until her death on Nov. 13, 1726.

她在那里被软禁了30多年，直到1726年11月13 日去世。

Sophia Dorothea’s fate is being specially honored this year — 350 years after her birth — with a series of guided tours and special exhibits. A “birthday surprise” is promised for Sept. 10, when she was born.

今年，在索菲娅•多罗特娅去世350周年之际，人们为了纪念她的命运，组织了一系列有导游的游览项目和特别展览。在她的生日9月10日，还会有一个“生日惊喜”。