March 31, 1751: Death of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales. Conclusion

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Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Frederick-Louis, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, King George II of Great Britain, Prince of Wales, royal wedding, Wilhelmine of Prussia

Domestic life

Negotiations between George II and his brother-in-law Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia on a proposed marriage between the Prince of Wales and Friedrich Wilhelm I’s daughter Wilhelmine were welcomed by Frederick Louis even though the couple had never met.

The full plan was originally, Frederick Louis was intended to marry Princess Wilhelmine, the eldest daughter of the King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia. A marriage alliance between Great Britain and Prussia had been an ambition for many years.

However, when George II suggested that his eldest son would marry the eldest daughter of the King of Prussia, while his second daughter, Princess Amelia, instead would marry the eldest son of the Prussian king, Crown Prince Friedrich, the King of Prussia demanded that his eldest son should likewise marry the eldest daughter, Anne, Princess Royal, of the King of Great Britain.

George II was not keen on these proposals but continued talks for diplomatic reasons. Frustrated by the delay, Frederick Louis sent an envoy of his own to the Prussian court. When the King discovered the plan, he immediately arranged for Frederick Louis to leave Hanover for England. The marriage negotiations foundered when Friedrich Wilhelm demanded that Frederick Louis be made Regent in Hanover.

Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia forced his son, Crown Prince Friedrich (later known as King Friedrich II the Great) to marry Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Bevern

On March 25, 1734 in the Chapel Royal at St. James’s Palace, Princess Anne the Princess Royal married Willem IV, Prince of Orange. She then ceased to use her British title in favour of the new one she gained by marriage.

Frederick Louis also almost married Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland and Lady Anne Churchill. Lady Diana was the favourite grandchild of the powerful Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. The duchess sought a royal alliance by marrying Lady Diana to the Prince of Wales with a massive dowry of £100,000. The prince, who was in great debt, agreed to the proposal, but the plan was vetoed by Robert Walpole and the king. Lady Diana soon married John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford.

Although in his youth he was undoubtedly a spendthrift and womaniser, Frederick Louis settled down following his marriage to the sixteen-year-old Augusta of Saxe-Gotha on April 17, 1736.

Princess Augusta was born in Gotha to Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1676–1732) and Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst (1679–1740). Her paternal grandfather was Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, eldest surviving son of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.

The wedding was held at the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace, presided over by Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London and Dean of the Chapel Royal. Handel provided the new anthem ‘Sing unto God’ for the service and the wedding was also marked in London by two rival operas, Handel’s Atalanta and Porpora’s La festa d’Imeneo.

In June 1737, Frederick Louis informed his parents that Augusta was pregnant, and due to give birth in October. In fact, Augusta’s due date was earlier and a peculiar episode followed in July in which the Prince, on discovering that his wife had gone into labour, sneaked her out of Hampton Court Palace in the middle of the night, to ensure that the King and Queen could not be present at the birth.

George and Caroline were horrified. Traditionally, royal births were witnessed by members of the family and senior courtiers to guard against supposititious children, and Augusta had been forced by her husband to ride in a rattling carriage while heavily pregnant and in pain.

With a party including two of her daughters and Lord Hervey, the Queen raced over to St James’s Palace, where Frederick had taken Augusta. Caroline was relieved to discover that Augusta had given birth to a “poor, ugly little she-mouse” rather than a “large, fat, healthy boy” which made a supposititious child unlikely since the baby was so pitiful. The circumstances of the birth deepened the estrangement between mother and son.

Frederick Louis’ hier, the future King George III was born on June 4, 1738 in London at Norfolk House in St James’s Square. As he was born two months prematurely and thought unlikely to survive, he was baptised the same day by Thomas Secker, who was both Rector of St James’s and Bishop of Oxford.

Frederick Louis and Augusta eventually had 9 children in total, 4 daughters and 5 sons.

Frederick was banished from the King’s court, and a rival court grew up at Frederick Louis’s new residence, Leicester House. His mother fell fatally ill at the end of the year, but the King refused Frederick Louis permission to see her

His political ambitions unfulfilled, Frederick Louis died at Leicester House at the age of 44 on March 31, 1751

In the past this has been attributed to a burst lung abscess caused by a blow from a cricket or a real tennis ball, but it is now thought to have been from a pulmonary embolism. He was buried at Westminster Abbey on 13 April 1751. He is the most recent Prince of Wales not to have acceded to the British throne.

The Prince of Wales’s epigram (quoted by William Makepeace Thackeray, “Four Georges”):

“Here lies poor Fred who was alive and is dead,
Had it been his father I had much rather,
Had it been his sister nobody would have missed her,
Had it been his brother, still better than another,
Had it been the whole generation, so much better for the nation,
But since it is Fred who was alive and is dead,
There is no more to be said!”

The Life of Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Dowager Princess of Wales. Conclusion

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Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Carlton House, Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, King Christian VII of Denmark and Norway, King George III of Great Britain, Lord Bute, Louise von Plessen, Princess of Wales

Augusta had an acknowledged political influence upon her son when he first came to the thronein 1760. The King “strove to follow the counsels she gave”, and in which he trusted. Reportedly, she was in turn influenced by Lord Bute, who was appointed prime minister with her support in 1762. His appointment caused a serious crisis and exposed both Augusta and Bute to such public hostility that Bute had to resign from his post the following year.

Thackeray described the public sentiments and the circulating rumours: “Bute was hated with a rage there have been few examples in English history. He was the butt for everybody’s abuse; for Wilkes, for Churchill’s slashing satire, for the hooting of the mob who roasted his booth, his emblem, in a thousand bonfires; that hated him because he was a favourite and a Scotsman, calling him Mortimer, Lothario, and I known not what names, and accusing his royal mistress of all kinds of names – the grave, lean, demure, elderly woman, who, I dare say, was quite as good as her neighbours.

Chatham lent the aide of his great malice to influence the popular sentiment against her. He assailed, in the House of Lords, ‘The secret influence, more mighty than the throne itself, which betrayed and dogged every administration’. The most furious pamphlets echoed the cry ‘Impeach the King’s mother’, was scribbled over every wall at the Court end of the town”.

When the King had a first, temporary, bout of mental illness in 1765, Augusta and Lord Bute kept Queen Charlotte unaware of the situation. The Regency Bill of 1765 stated that if the King should become permanently unable to rule, Charlotte was to become Regent. Augusta was suggested as regent, but there was fierce opposition to her appointment, as there were concerns of the influence of Lord Bute in her potential regency, and fears that should she become regent, Bute would de facto rule as “King”.

Augusta reportedly resented the marriages of her younger sons, which took place without her consent.

In 1769, Christian VII of Denmark, the spouse of her daughter Caroline Matilda, visited Great Britain. During his visit, Augusta, upon the initiative of Caroline Matilda, asked him publicly during a dinner to reinstate Louise von Plessen, a favourite of Caroline Matilda whom Christian had fired, to her position.

King Christian answered that he had made a sacred vow never to do so, but that if Caroline Matilda preferred von Plessen’s company over his, so be it. In the end, Louise von Plessen was not reinstated, and Augusta apparently asked Caroline Matilda not to press the matter and to show more affection to Christian.

In 1770, rumors about Caroline Matilda, the Queen of Denmark, began to circulate. In particular these concerned the mental state of her spouse as well as the fall of prime minister Bernstorff, in which Caroline Matilda was rumoured to have participated.

When Augusta visited her eldest daughter in Brunswick that year, she also took the opportunity to see Caroline Matilda, who received her in breeches, which at that time was regarded as scandalous. Upon Augusta’s lamentations, her daughter answered: “Pray, madam, allow me to govern my own kingdom as I please!”

Augusta died of cancer of the throat at age 52 at Carlton House.

The life of Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Princess of Wales

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Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz., Dowager Princess of Wales, George II of Great Britain, George III of Great Britain, Princess of Wales, William of Cumberland

When Augusta’s first pregnancy was announced, Queen Caroline stated that she would be sure to witness the birth, to be assured that the pregnancy was indeed genuine. She reportedly wished the succession to pass to her second son, Prince William, Duke of Cumberland.

The birth of their first daughter, Princess Augusta, on July 31, 1737, took place at St James’s after Princess Augusta was forced by Frederick Louis to travel from Hampton Court Palace while in labour, in order to prevent his hated parents from being present at the birth. The delivery was traumatic: St James palace was not ready to receive them, no bed was prepared, no sheets could be found, and Augusta was forced to give birth on a tablecloth. Queen Caroline once said of her daughter-in-law and the inconveniences she had inflicted on her: “Poor creature, were she to spit in my face, I should only pity her for being under such a fool’s direction, and wipe it off.”

The circumstances of the birth of Princess Augusta led to a dispute between the Prince and Princess of Wales and the King and Queen, who were not reconciled until public opinion during the Jacobite rebellion on 1745 pressured them to. After the reconciliation, the couple became less isolated from high society, allowing courtiers to appear at both courts without giving offence. Augusta made a good impression in society life, where she was described as pretty, elegant, and a gracious hostess. On some occasions, the children of Augusta were made to give amateur theater performances for their guests, notably on January 4, 1749, when George, Augusta, Elizabeth, Edward and some of their playmates acted in the tragedy of Cato.

Princess Dowager

On March 31, 1751, Frederick Louis unexpectedly died, making Augusta a widow. Dr. Doran described her at the death of her spouse: “She had, throughout her married life exhibited much mental superiority, with great kindness of disposition, and that under circumstances of great difficulty, and sometimes of a character to inflict vexation on the calmest nature.

She was then the mother of eight children, expecting shortly to be the mother of a ninth, and she was brought reluctantly to knowledge that their father was no more. It was six in the morning before her attendants could persuade her to retire to bed; but she arose again at eight, and then, with less thought for her grief than her anxiety for the honor of him whose death was the cause of it, she proceeded to the Prince’s room, and burned all of his private papers. By this the world lost some rare supplementary chapters to the Cronique Scandaleuse!”

King George II reportedly did not show much feeling upon the death of his son and the funeral was simple. On receiving the king’s condolences, Augusta replied that she placed herself and her children upon his mercy and protection, and he was evidently touched by her widowhood and minor children, and was willing to show them consideration.

Following Frederick Louis’ death, her role as mother of the heir-apparent to the throne became a more prominent one, and she was named prospective regent by the king and the parliament, should the king die during the minority of Augusta’s eldest son, the Prince of Wales.

This caused a controversy and opposition from Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, who had expected to be given that role instead.

During the remaining years of the reign of George II, Augusta chose to live in seclusion with her children, devoting herself to their care. The few occasions when she did appear in public, the king gave her the same ceremonial role and honours previously given to the queen, and she was honored the same way by the public as well as the court.

However, Augusta suffered a loss of popularity as a widow. She was to be criticised for her manner of raising her children, as she isolated them from the outside world into a secluded family environment, seldom meeting people outside the family.

Shortly after being widowed, she began to be influenced by John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, her son’s tutor, and rumours spread that they were having an affair. This was due to her being adamant that Bute was visiting her, and not her son, during his back door visits to tutor the prince. Both were pilloried in the press.

As her eldest son came of age, the king attempted to arrange a marriage. His favoured choice was Princess Sophie Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, but Augusta refused, favouring a member of her own family, the House of Saxe-Gotha. Sophie Caoline married Friedrich, Margrave of Bayreuth, instead.

On October 25, 1760, her son succeeded his grandfather as George III. The year after his succession, he married Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Charlotte was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles Ludwig Friedrich of Mecklenburg, Prince of Mirow (1708–1752) and of his wife Princess Elisabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen (1713–1761).

Augusta’s relationship with her daughter-in-law was not a good one. Augusta reportedly made it difficult for Charlotte to establish social contacts by referring to court etiquette. Furthermore, she initially appointed a large part of Charlotte’s court staff, several of whom were suspected of reporting to Augusta about Charlotte’s behaviour. When Charlotte turned to her German companions for friends, she was criticised by Augusta for keeping favourites, notably her close confidant Juliane von Schwellenberg.