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Caroline of Ansbach was born on 1st March 1683. Her parents were
John Frederick, the Margrave of the small German state of Ansbach,
and his wife Eleonore. Her father died when she was only three
years old, and Caroline and her younger brother had to accompany
their mother to Dresden, where she married the Elector of
Saxony. After Eleanore’s death in 1696, Caroline went to live,
first with her half-brother, the new Margrave of Ansbach, and then
with the future King Frederick I of Prussia and his wife, Sophia
Charlotte of Hanover.
By a happy coincidence, Sophia Charlotte was the sister of the
future King George I of England. George
had a stormy relationship with his own wife, and didn’t want
his son, George Augustus, to go through the same thing. So George
Augustus was given the freedom to choose a wife of his liking. He
settled upon Caroline when, after having heard good reports of
her from his aunt, he visited the court in Ansbach to see his
future bride. George Augustus immediately took a liking to
Caroline’s good character, and the couple were married in Hanover
in 1705. Their eldest son, Frederick Ludwig, was born a little less
than two years later.
Almost immediately after Frederick’s birth, Caroline came down
with smallpox. Her infant son was kept away from her to avoid
catching the disease, but George Augustus stayed by her side and
subseqeuntly developed smallpox himself. Thankfully, the pair
recovered soon enough, and Caroline went on to have seven more
children with her husband, all but one of whom survived till
adulthood.
For the first nine years of Caroline’s marriage, she enjoyed a
relatively quite life in Hanover with her four oldest children.
That all changed in 1714, when her father-in-law ascended the
throne of England as King George I. George Augustus was now the
Prince of Wales, and since the new King had divorced his wife,
Caroline, now as the Princess of Wales, was the highest-ranking
lady in the entire kingdom. She arrived on British shores in
October with her daughters – her seven year-old son Frederick had
been left behind to represent his grandfather in Hanover. In
England, both Caroline and George Augustus made an effort to learn
the English language and politics. King George, on the other hand,
favoured the German customs, which led to the creation of
a separate court run by the Prince of Wales.
King George and his son had shared a tense relationship ever since
the former imprisoned the latter’s mother in a castle, and the
formation of this rival court only made matters worse. Things came
to a head in 1717 at the baptism of George and Caroline’s son,
George William. Father and son got into an argument over who were
to be the baby’s godparents and, infuriated by his son’s behaviour,
King George had the Prince and Princess of Wales placed under house
arrest in St James’ Palace, while their children were placed under
his care. Just as he had done with his own wife, George forbade his
son and daughter-in-law from meeting their children.
Being separated from her children took a serious toll on Caroline’s
health. So desperate was she to see them that she paid her children
a secret visit, against the King’s orders. Seeing Caroline’s state,
George grudgingly allowed her to contact the young Prince and
Princesses. Unfortunately, while all this was taking place little
George William fell very ill, and died shortly afterwards. Both
Caroline and George Augustus blamed the King for his death – they
believed that the baby would have lived if he had been under his
mother’s care.
As the Princess of Wales, Caroline became close friends with the
politician Sir Robert Walpole. After George II became King, he
almost had Sir Robert removed from his position, and only
refrained from doing so on Caroline’s advice. In fact,
Caroline, who was both intelligent and curious, vastly outshone her
husband in most cultural and political aspects. So much so,
that when they were crowned King and Queen, a satirist
wrote about the royal couple: “You may strut, dapper George but
‘twill all be in vain; We know ‘tis Queen Caroline, not you,
that reign.”
In the spirit of enquiry, Caroline convinced the King to commune
the sentence of six prisoners, so that they could be a part of an
experiment. She made an attempt to inoculate these prisoners
against smallpox, and when they all survived, she tried it again –
this time on children. The results were favourable, and Caroline
soon had her own children inoculated against the disease. In her
own way, she was a pioneer in the field of medicine. Caroline also
spent her time curating portraits and miniatures, and collecting
jewellery. She had a vast library at St. James’ Palace, and filled
her court with artists, writers and other intellectuals.
When King George died in 1727, George II and Caroline were crowned
in Westminster Abbey. The next year, they were joined by the new
Prince of Wales, their son Frederick, who had come over from
Hanover to England. Since childhood, Frederick had lacked adequate
parental influence, and had developed a number of bad habits, such
as taking mistresses and gambling. Frederick resented his parents
for leaving him behind in Germany when they came to England, and
wanted more political power than his father was willing to give
him. Like the previous generation, the new King George and
Frederick entered a feud with each other – a feud that lasted until
Frederick’s death.
His constant gambling meant that Prince Frederick had racked up a
large debt. His father agreed to settle it, on the condition that
Frederick marry a bride chosen by the King. Frederick agreed, and
he married Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha in 1736. Then, a few
months before Caroline’s death, Prince Frederick did a truly
shocking thing. Augusta had fallen pregnant with their first child
soon after the wedding. The custom was for royal births to
be attended by the King and Queen and other senior members of
the family. But when Frederick found out that Augusta was in
labour, he smuggled her out of Hampton Court Palace and, despite
the fact that she was in great pain, forced her to travel by coach
to St James’ Palace, in order to avoid his parent’s presence at the
birth. When Caroline found out, she was shocked, and rushed to St
James’ Palace, only to find that Augusta had already given birth to
a baby girl.
Frederick’s breach of protocol and poor treatment of his wife
horrified Caroline, who later said about her eldest son: “That
wretch!-that villain!-I wish the ground would open this moment and
sink the monster to the lowest hole in hell!” His disrespect
further increased the indifferences between George II and his son,
and when the King visited his native Hanover for five months, he
chose to appoint Caroline as his regent rather than his son.
When Caroline gave birth to her last child in 1724, she had
developed a hernia, which went largely untreated. In 1737, her womb
ruptured, and it became necessary for doctors to perform surgery on
her. There was no anesthesia at the time, and she suffered through
intense pain, but to no avail. She finally died at the end of
November of the same year. On her death bed, Caroline urged George
to remarry, but the King was devoted to his wife, and refused,
saying that he would only ever take mistresses instead. After her
death, George said that he had known many women, but none of them
were fit to buckle Caroline’s shoe.
In her final moments, Queen Caroline sent a letter of forgiveness
to her son, the Prince of Wales, who did not attend his
mother’s funeral. Prince Frederick would never become
King, dying in 1751 and predeceasing his father. However, his son,
who was born after Caroline’s death, would succeed his
grandfather.
Queen Caroline was mourned throughout the country. True to his
word, George II never married again, and when he died, 23 years
later, he was buried next to her in a matching coffin, devoted till
the end.
Do return to read the next instalment in this series, which
deals with Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III and the
longest serving Queen consort in history.
Photo credit: the lost gallery via photopin
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