Tags
Adolphus of the United Kingdom, Augusta of Hesse-Cassel, Duke of Cambridge, Elector Wilhelm I of Hesse, George of Cambridge, Kew Palace, King George II of Great Britain, King George III of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, King George V of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Landgrave Friedrich II of Hesse-Cassel, Mary of Teck
Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel (July 25, 1797 – April 6, 1889) was the wife of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, the tenth-born child, and seventh son, of George III of the United Kingdom and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The longest-lived daughter-in-law of George III, she was the maternal grandmother of Mary of Teck, wife of George V of the United Kingdom.
Princess and Landgravine Augusta of Hesse-Cassel, third daughter of Prince Friedrich of Hesse-Cassel, and his wife, Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen, was born at Rumpenheim Castle Offenbach am Main, Hesse. Through her father, she was a great-granddaughter of King George II of Great Britain, her grandmother being George II’s daughter Mary.
Her father’s older brother was the Landgrave Wilhelm VIII of Hesse-Cassel. In 1803, her uncle’s title was raised to Elector of Hesse—whereby the entire Cassel branch of the Hesse dynasty gained an upward notch in hierarchy.
William I, Elector of Hesse (1743 – 1821) was the eldest surviving son of Friedrich II, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel and Princess Mary of Great Britain, the daughter of King George II of Great Britain and Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach.
Friedrich II’s marriage with the British princess was not a happy one, and Friedrich II abandoned the family in 1747 and converted to Catholicism in 1749. In 1755 he formally annulled his marriage.
Marriage
After the death of Princess Charlotte of Wales in 1817, Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge was set the task of finding a bride for his eldest unmarried brother, the Duke of Clarence (later William IV), in the hope of securing heirs to the throne—Charlotte had been the only legitimate grandchild of George III, despite the fact that the King had twelve surviving children.
After several false starts, the Duke of Clarence settled on Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. The way was cleared for the Duke of Cambridge to find a bride for himself.
On May 7, in Cassel, and then, again, on June 1, 1818 at Buckingham Palace, Princess Augusta married her second cousin, Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, when she was 20 and he 44. Upon their marriage, Augusta became Duchess of Cambridge. They had three children.
From 1818 until the accession of Queen Victoria, and the separation of the British and Hanoverian crowns in 1837, the Duchess of Cambridge lived in Hanover, where the Duke served as viceroy on behalf of his brothers, George IV and William IV.
In 1827 Augusta allowed that a new village, founded on May 3, 1827 and to be settled in the course of the cultivation and colonisation of the moorlands in the south of Bremervörde, would bear her name. On June 19 the administration of the Hanoveran High-Bailiwick of Stade informed the villagers that she had approved the chosen name Augustendorf for their municipality (since 1974 it is a component locality of Gnarrenburg). The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge returned to Great Britain, where they lived at Cambridge Cottage, Kew, and later at St. James’s Palace.
Prince Adolphus, the Duke of Cambridge died on July 8, 1850 at Cambridge House, Piccadilly, London, and was buried at St Anne’s Church, Kew. His remains were removed to St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle in 1930. His only son, Prince George, succeeded to his peerages.
Death
The Duchess of Cambridge survived her husband by thirty-nine years, dying on April 6, 1889, at the age of ninety-one, at their home at Cambridge Cottage on Kew Green. Queen Victoria wrote of her aunt’s death: “Very sad, though not for her. But she is the last of her generation, & I have no longer anyone above me.”
She was buried at St Anne’s Church, Kew, but her remains were transferred to St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle in 1930.