June 28, 1757: Death of Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, Queen Consort in Prussia. Part III.

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Amelia of Great Britain, Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansback, Frederick Louis Prince of Wales, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm von Grumbkow, King George I of Great Britain, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, Wilhelmine of Prussia

Part III

Anglo-Prussian marriage alliance.

Sophia-Dorothea held a longtime ambition to arrange a double marriage of her eldest son, Crown Prince Friedrich, to Princess Amelia of Great Britain, and her eldest daughter Wilhelmine to Frederick-Louis, future Prince of Wales. This was a project that had first been raised during the children’s infancy and would result in a strong alliance between Prussia and Great Britain.

Her plan was opposed by the king’s favorites Friedrich Wilhelm von Grumbkow and Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, who wished to arrange a marriage between Wilhelmine and Anhalt’s nephew, Friedrich-Wilhelm, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt (the Prussian King’s first cousin). He was next in line to inherit the throne after the crown prince, whose health was delicate. If he succeeded, Prince of Anhalt and Grumbkow hoped to come into a position of power.

Sophia-Dorothea, Queen in Prussia

In 1723, the queen convinced the king to give his consent to the Prussian-British marriage alliance. In October of that year, they hosted a visit by King George I in Berlin, who inspected Wilhelmine and agreed to the double marriage alliance if it was approved by Parliament. One day, King Friedrich-Wilhelm went to visit King George I in Goehr. Sophia-Dorothea did not accompany him, because she gave birth unexpectedly just before they were to leave.

Sophia-Dorothea had been unaware of her pregnancy, leading to a rumor that she had tried to hide it. This caused Friedrich-Wilhelm to suspect her of adultery. Upon his return, he had to be prevented from beating her by her chief lady-in-waiting, Sophie de Kameke, who held his arm and told him “if he had only come there to kill his wife, he had better have kept away.”

The king questioned the physician Stahl, his regimental surgeon Holzendorf, and de Kameke about the queen’s suspected adultery, upon which de Kameke told him that “if he were not her king she would strangle him on the spot” for his accusation, which resulted in him making an apology to the queen and dismissing the affair.

Friedrich-Wilhelm I, King in Prussia

George I promised that the double marriage alliance would be formally agreed upon in connection with the Treaty of Hanover (1725). Sophia-Dorothea accompanied Friedrich-Wilhelm to meet George in Hanover to discuss the matter, and was left there to handle the negotiations when he returned to Berlin.

However, she failed to accomplish anything, as the matter was avoided by both George I and his ministers. When she returned to Berlin, Friedrich-Wilhelm was so discontent with her failure that he had the passage between their apartments walled up (it remained so for six weeks). Through his agent, Frederick-Louis, future Prince of Wales sent his agent La Motte to ask whether she would permit a secret visit by him to see his intended bride, Wilhelmine.

The queen agreed, but made the mistake of saying so to the British ambassador Dubourguai, which obliged him to inform George I. George recalled Frederick-Louis to England, and had La Motte arrested and imprisoned. All this damaged the queen and the prospect of the marriage alliance in the eyes of the king, causing a great row between them.

Princess Wilhelmine

From 1726 until 1735, Friedrich-Heinrich von Seckendorff was the Austrian ambassador in Berlin and the king’s favorite. He came to be the main opponent of the queen, due to his opposition to the British-Prussian marriage alliance. The animosity between the queen and Seckendorff was well known and commented on by the king:

My wife and the whole world are against him; the Prince of Anhalt and my Fritz hate him like the pest, but he is a brave fellow, and loves me

In 1729, negotiations for the British marriage alliance were disrupted by the activities of Friedrich-Wilhelm’s army recruiters. Friedrich-Wilhelm wanted tall soldiers for his army; his agents went all over Germany paying or even kidnapping such men. They snatched men from Hanover, whose ruler was also the King George II of Great Britain (George I passed away in 1727).

This caused diplomatic incidents, and Friedrich-Wilhelm stopped all negotiations. But the queen renewed them. When Grumbkow revealed her independent negotiations to the king, the king stated that he would marry Wilhelmine to either a prince of Schwedt or Weissenfels, and that Sophia-Dorothea could consent or be imprisoned for life.

Friedrich Wilhelm von Grumbkow

She was advised by Borck to suggest Prince Friedrich of Bayreuth as an alternative, which she did. Then she wrote to the Queen Caroline of Great Britain, claiming illness. The reply was unsatisfactory, and the king leanerd of her pretense.

King Friedrich-Wilhelm beat Wilhelmine in Sophia-Dorothea’s presence, and Sophia-Dorothea agreed to drop the British marriage, provided that Wilhelmine was married to Friedrich of Bayreuth, not the Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels. She fell genuinely ill shortly afterward, and successfully asked him to reconcile with their eldest son and daughter, and afterwards beat them only in private.

Matters changed when the British ambassador Hotham arrived and officially suggested marriage between Wilhelmine and the Prince of Wales, providing the king agreed to marriage between Crown Prince Friedrich and Amelia of Great Britain, and the dismissal of his favorite, the anti-British Grumbkow, whom they accused of treason against him.

Amelia of Great Britain

The king agreed to the terms, if proof of Grumbkow’s guilt was shown, and if his son was appointed governor of Hanover. Grumbkow allied with Seckendorff to prevent the marriage alliance and thus his own fall, while the latter informed the king that the British suggestion was a result of the queen’s intrigues to depose him in favor of his son and make Prussia a de facto British province through “the vain and haughty English daughter-in-law”, whose extravagance would ruin the state.

When ambassador Hotham returned with the proof of Grumbkow’s guilt, the king reportedly flew into a rage and beat the ambassador. The queen had the crown prince wrote to Hotham and unsuccessfully ask him to reconcile with the king; before departing Prussia, however, he left the evidence against Grumbkow with the queen.

HRH Prince Frederick Louis, The Prince of Wales (1707-1751) Part II

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Buckingham Palace, Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansback, Count Philip Christoph von Königsmarck, Duke of Edinburgh, Frederick Louis Prince of Wales, King George II of Great Britain, Kings and Queens of England, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, the Glorious Revolution of 1688, United Kingdom of Great Britain

Prior to taking my break I was in the middle of a biography of Prince Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales. He had just married Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. I am changing my tactic or style of writing for this blog. As I would feature a royal or a monarch on I realized that doing a biographical sketch of an individual became a daunting task. First of all I think my writing style was encyclopedic in that I spent an enormous amount of time and energy just focusing on facts and information which I began to realize the vast majority of my readers already know. Also, there is so much information on the lives of these people it was difficult to know what to include and what to leave out. So I want to take a different approach and try to offer something new for my readers.

I like to keep my postings short but interesting. I have found that many people are like me in that they often do not like wading through a lot of text on the internet. What I have decided to do for the Thursday and Friday postings where I focus on a royal and a monarch from the past and present is to talk about aspects of their lives that I find interesting. With that in mind I will conclude my feature on HRH Prince Frederick Louis, The Prince of Wales.

As I mentioned in the previous entry on poor Fred, his relationship with his parents continued a phenomenon in the House of Hanover where father and son did not get along. I think one of the reasons why this fascinates me is because I am really interested in family dynamics. How people interact with one another and why they act as they do is a fascinating topic. I have come to learn that just because a family may have wealth, power and privilege doesn’t mean they are without sever dysfunction. I always wanted to know why Frederick Louis seemed so hated by his parents? I still do not know. As I said last time I think politics did have a role to play. Political parties had developed in Britain after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. It wouldn’t be until the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) when the monarch began to dissociate themselves from partisan politics and became more neutral ( a very wise decision if I should say so). Therefore, at the time when Frederick Louis was heir to the throne the party which was “out of favor” with the monarch would be try to win influence with the heir to the throne. This would create intense rivalry between father and son.

However, in my opinion, this does not account for the intensity of the hatred his parents had for him. There much be other issues. I have read that while in Germany, and afterward in Britain, the Prince of Wales was a bit of a womanizing playboy. This was a common practice for many princes of the House of Hanover, most notably the future George IV (Fred’s grandson) and the future Edward VII (Fred’s great-great grandson). Yes, I know Edward VII was technically a Saxe-Coburg prince and not of the House of Hanover. Anyway, I do think that did play a role in why his parents hated him so much. The hypocrisy in all of this is that Fred’s father, King George II, had his share of mistresses and Fred’s grandfather, King George I, not only had his string of mistresses, he divorced his wife because she had a lover and there is much evidence that her lover’s death came via the orders of George I himself! It was reported that his wife’s lover, Swedish Count Philip Christoph von Königsmarck, was murdered by courtiers who then threw his body, weighted with stones, into the river Leine . It has also been documented that the assassins were paid the enormous sum of 150,000 thalers, which was about one hundred times the annual salary of the highest paid minister! Mafia Don, John Gotti, would be proud! I don’t think this moral high ground George II was taking really justified his hatred toward his son. I think the real basic reason for the hatred may be complex. I know of many families were there is intense dislike among its members. I have know parents who do not like their children. This goes against what we want to believe so our moral outrage is increased.

Another reason Fred is interesting is that he presents a “what if” scenario. I really enjoy contemplating these “what if” scenarios in history. Frederick died at Leicester House at the age of 44 in 1751 from a burst abscess in the lung and never became king. His father died 9 years later leaving the throne to Fred’s eldest son who became George III. If Frederick had become King of Great Britain what would his rule have been like? Would it had changed history? If he lived to his 60s or 70s he would have died somewhere around the 1770s or 1780s just in time for the American Revolution…I mean the War for American Independence. Would the war have even happened had Frederick been king? I know it is impossible to answer these questions but fun to speculate.

In many was the life of Frederick Louis is a sad tale. Even in his death he was lamented. I will close this look at Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales with the famous 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!”

HRH Prince Frederick Louis, The Prince of Wales (1707-1751)

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Act of of Settlement, Buckingham Palace, Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansback, Duke of Edinburgh, Frederick Louis Prince of Wales, King George II of Great Britain, Kings and Queens of England, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain

Poor Fred. It doesn’t seem like many liked him, especially his parents. I always wondered why. He was a man destined to be king but never lived long enough to come into his inheritance. Most remember him as the man hated by his parents and the father of King George III. So today I want to delve a little deeper into who he was.

Prince Frederick Louis, The Prince of Wales 

Friedrich-Ludwig was born on February 1, 1707 in Hanover to the future King George II of Great Britain, Elector of Hanover and his wife Princess Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach. At the time of his birth his grandfather, Georg-Ludwig, was the Elector of Hanover and his great-grandmother, the Dowager Electress Sophia of Hanover, was heir to the throne of Great Britain . Within seven years all that was to change rapidly as Queen Anne died in 1714, Frederick’s great-grandmother died a few weeks prior, and according to the provisions of the Act of Settlement of 1701, his grandfather ascended the British throne as King George I. His parents, who soon became the Prince and Princess of Wales, moved to Britain leaving young Frederick into the care of his grand-uncle Ernest Augustus, Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück. Frederick would not see his parents again for 12 years. Frederick arrived in Britain in 1728 the year after his parents became king and queen. By that time he was 21 and an adult who lived a fast life-style of drinking, gambling and consorting with women of questionable reputations. To Frederick his parents were strangers and their abandonment of him, coupled with his life-style, which I am sure they disapproved, left the relationship forever strained and broken.

I do not think that paints the entire picture. The Hanoverian dynasty is notorious for the the monarch and his or her heir not getting along. I think the reasons for that is complex. Sometimes it may have to do with the fact that the heir was living a life-style that was looked down upon by the parent. Frederick Louis, George IV and Edward VII come to mind (yes, Edward VII was not a Hanoverian, but his mother was!) The other reason has to do with politics and power. It wasn’t long before the arrival of King George I that political parties began to form. Often it was pretty well known which party the monarch favored. Therefore the opposition party always sought to win the favor of the heir to the throne. This often created a lot of tension and created much court intrigue and rivalry. There were times when the heir would even set up a rival court to that of their parents.

Frederick’s grandfather created his grandson Duke of Edinburgh, Marquess of the Isle of Ely, Earl of Eltham, Viscount of Launceston and Baron of Snaudon in 1726. In January of 1728 his parents, now King George II and Queen Caroline, asked that Frederick move to Britain and they created him Prince of Wales.

Marriage & Family

One of the things that Frederick’s parents thought would settle him down would be to get married. He had a few mistresses, one being Anne Vane with whom he had had a child. His flaunting of his mistress and their child greatly angered the king and queen.

One of the first available Princesses was Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia, the daughter of his brother-in-law/first cousin, King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia and Princess Sophia-Dorothea of Great Britain & Hanover. Frederick did approve of this possible union and encouraged his father encouraged the negotiations between George II and the king of Prussia even though he had never met Princess Wilhelmine. George II was not exactly enthusiastic about the match but continued with the negotiations because he felt a continual alliance with the up and coming Prussian state would be beneficial for Britain. However, as the negotiations dragged on Frederick decided to take matters into his own hand. Frederick sent his own personal envoy to the Prussian court to hurry the negotiations. When George II discovered what his son had done he immediately ordered Frederick to leave Hanover and to return to England. Soon after, the negotiations fell through when King Friedrich Wilhelm Frederick stipulated that he would only allow the marriage if Frederick was made Regent in Hanover. This was something George II would never agree to.

Although marrying royalty was the accepted practice in Britain it was not required. However, I ssupect that given the climate of the times it would have been severely frowned upon if a royal married  a member of the British nobility. This did not deter the powerful Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough from trying to arrange a union with with her grand daughter,  Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland and Lady Anne Churchill. The alliance would have come with an enormous dowry of £100,000. Although Frederick agreed to the match, he really needed the money, the marriage was vetoed by Prime Minister Robert Walpole and George II. Lady Diana instead married John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford.

Princess Augusta, The Princess of Wales

Soon after these attempts tom find a bride fell through, King George II took one of his many trips to Hanover, a place I think he liked more than England, and while he was there began an affair Amelia-Sophia von Walmoden. The king even wrote to his wife telling her details of the affair and how elated and enraptured he was with his new mistress. While in Hanover he found a suitable bride for his son. His selection was Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, daughter of Duke Friedrich II of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1676–1732) and Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst (1676–1740). The young 17 year old bride spoke no English was shortly sent to England to marry the 29 year old Prince of Wales. The wedding took place on 27 April 1736, at the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace, London.