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

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Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel., Frederick Louis Prince of Wales, Frederick the Great, Friedrich II of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, King George II of Great Britain, Philippine-Charlotte of Prussia, Prince Friedrich of Bayreuth, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, Wilhelmine of Prussia

Part IV

Sophia-Dorothea spent many days talking to her eldest son, Crown Prince Friedrich, in the library, and was informed of his plans to escape from his father’s custody. In August 1730, during a tour he made with his father through the provinces, Crown Prince Friedrich made an unsuccessful attempt to escape from Prussia, and was brought back a prisoner. The king informed the queen of the event through Sophie de Kamecke before their arrival.

Sophia-Dorothea, Queen Consort in Prussia

There were compromising letters by the queen and princess Wilhelmine in Friedrich’s portefeuille, which was forwarded to them by a friend after the arrest of Friedrich’s accomplice Katte. They burned the letters and replaced them with fabricated and uncompromising ones. However, “as there were near fifteen hundred of the originals, although we worked very hard, not more than six hundred or seven hundred could be completed in the time”.

The portefeuille was also filled with ornamental articles. When the portefeuille was later opened, Friedrich did not recognize its content. Grumbkow immediately suspected what had transpired and stated: “These cursed women have outwitted us!”

When the king returned, he told the queen that her son was dead. She replied: “What! Have you murdered your son?” When given the reply: “He was not my son, he was only a miserable deserter,” she became hysterical and screamed repeatedly: “Mon Dieu, mon fils! mon Dieu, mon fils!” The king then started to beat Wilhelmine and would possibly have killed her. Her siblings and ladies-in-waiting intervened.

Friedrich’s accomplice Katte arrived as a prisoner, so the king beat him instead. When Friedrich was imprisoned at the fortress in Küstrin, Grumbkow acted as mediator between Friedrich and his parents, managing to reconcile them.
The imprisonment was followed by continuous conflict between the king and the queen about the marriage of princess Wilhelmine. While the king pressed for a marriage to the Margrave of Schwedt or the Prince of Weissenfels, the queen exchanged secret messages with her daughter and urged her not to accept any other groom than the Prince of Wales.

Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia

This conflict caused the king to threaten to beat the queen and have Mademoiselle Sonsfeld publicly whipped. Finally, Wilhelmine was formally offered the choice between the Margrave of Schwedt, the Duke of Weissenfels, or the Prince of Bayreuth. She chose to marry the latter (as she had not seen him but had seen and disliked the other two), on condition that her father free her brother.

Her decision was made against the will of her mother, who threatened to disown her for what she considered to be her daughter’s lack of courage, and ordered her not to speak to her future groom when he arrived. The king was furious at the cold demeanor of the queen during the following visit of the Prince of Bayreuth.

After the betrothal of Wilhelmine and the Prince of Bayreuth, a message arrived in which George II of Great Britain consented to Wilhelmine marrying the Prince of Wales without her brother marrying his daughter Amelia. This message convinced the queen that a Prussian-British marriage alliance was possible. She therefore made a point of harassing the Prince of Bayreuth to stop the wedding. On the day of the wedding (November 20, 1731), Sophia-Dorothea tried to delay the ceremony by disarranging her daughter’s hair every time it had been dressed, saying she was not satisfied with the effect, in the hope that a British courier might arrive in time to stop the ceremony.

King Friedrich-Wilhelm I in Prussia

When Crown Prince Friedrich was liberated after his sister’s wedding, Sophia-Dorothea resumed negotiations with Great Britain to marry him to Princess Amelia, and her next daughter, Philippine-Charlotte, to Frederick-Louis, Prince of Wales, which would complete her life project of a Prussian-British marriage alliance.

These plans was crushed in 1733, when King Friedrich-Wilhelm instead announced a marriage alliance with Brunswick by marrying Friedrich to Elisabeth-Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern and Philippine-Charlotte to Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

But Sophia-Dorothea continued to pursue a Prussian-British marriage alliance, accomplishing a “reconciliation between the houses of England and Prussia negotiated by the Queen”, this time by the marriage of the Prince of Wales to her third daughter Louisa-Ulrika.

This plan was crushed upon the marriage of the Prince of Wales in 1736 to Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Louisa-Ulrika went on to become the Queen of Sweden when she married King Adolf-Fredrik of Sweden on July 17, 1744.

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.

June 4, 1738: Birth of King George III of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

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Act of Settlement 1701, Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg- Strelitz, Electress Sophia of Hanover, Frederick II of Prussia, Frederick Louis Prince of Wales, Frederick the Great, George I of Great Britain, King George II of Great Britain, King George III of the United Kingdom, King George IV of the United Kingdom, King of Great Britain, King of Hanover, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Sophia of the Rhine (Electress Sophia)

George III (George William Frederick; June 4, 1738 – January 29, 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from his accession on October 25, 1760 until the union of the two countries on January 1, 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death in 1820. He was concurrently Duke and Prince-Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg (“Hanover”) in the Holy Roman Empire before becoming King of Hanover on October 12, 1814. He was a monarch of the House of Hanover, but unlike his two predecessors, he was born in Great Britain, spoke English as his first language, and never visited Hanover.

George III, King of the United King of Great Britain and Ireland. King of Hanover

Family

George was born 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. One month later, he was publicly baptised at Norfolk House, again by Secker. His godparents were King Friedrich I of Sweden (for whom Lord Baltimore stood proxy), his uncle Friedrich III, Duke of Saxe-Gotha (for whom Lord Carnarvon stood proxy), and his great-aunt Sophia-Dorothea, Queen in Prussia (for whom Lady Charlotte Edwin stood proxy).

George II, King of Great Britain and Ireland.

George III was the grandson of King George II, and the eldest son of Frederick-Louis, Prince of Wales, and Augusta of Saxe-Gotha.

George III’s father was Frederick-Louis, Prince of Wales, (1707-1751), was heir apparent to the British throne from 1727 until his death from a lung injury at the age of 44. He was the eldest but estranged son of King George II and Caroline of Ansbach.

Under the Act of Settlement passed by the English Parliament in 1701, Frederick-Louis was fourth in the line of succession to the British throne at birth, after his great-grandmother (Electress Sophia of Hanover) paternal grandfather (George I) and father (George II). He moved to Great Britain following the accession of his father, and was created Prince of Wales. He predeceased his father, however, and upon the latter’s death on October 25, 1760, the throne passed to Prince Frederick’s eldest son, George III.

Frederick-Louis, Prince of Wales (Father)

George III’s mother, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg was born in Gotha to Friedrich II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1676–1732) and Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst (1679–1740). Her paternal grandparents were Friedrich I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and Magdalena-Sibylla of Saxe-Weissenfels, a daughter of August, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, and his wife Anna-Maria of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Magdalena-Sibylla’snpaternal grandparents were Johann-Georg I, Elector of Saxony, and Magdalene Sibylle of Prussia.

Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (Mother)

Friedrich I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, was the eldest surviving son of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and his cousin Elisabeth-Sophie of Saxe-Altenburg.

Princess Augusta did not speak French or English, and it was suggested that she be given lessons before the wedding, but her mother did not consider it necessary as the British royal family were from Germany (Holy Roman Empire). She arrived in Britain, speaking virtually no English, for a wedding ceremony with Frederick-Louis, Prince of Wales, which took place almost immediately, on May 8,1736, at the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace, London.

Although he was the first British King of the House of Hanover born in England with English his native language, the ancestry of George III was thoroughly German.

Marriage

In 1759, George was smitten with Lady Sarah Lennox, sister of Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond, but Lord Bute advised against the match and George abandoned his thoughts of marriage. “I am born for the happiness or misery of a great nation,” he wrote, “and consequently must often act contrary to my passions.” The prominent Lennox Family of Richmond were illegitimate descendants of King Charles II of England.

Lady Sarah Lennox

In 1753 attempts were made by King George II to marry his grandson George, Prince of Wales to Princess Sophie-Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, eldest daughter of Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, and his wife, Philippine-Charlotte of Prussia, sister of Friedrich II the Great of Prussia.

This was an attempt to improve relations with Prussia, as Sophie-Caroline was a niece of Friedrich II of Prussia and George II needed Prussian troops to help offset the alliance between France and Austria that had occurred as a result of the Diplomatic Revolution. Prince George’s mother, Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales, thwarted George II’s plans, however, which increased tensions within the British royal family. Sophie-Caroline married Friedrich, Margrave of Bayreuth, instead.

Princess Sophie-Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

Though this match was not to be, Sophie-Caroline’s brother Charles II, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, married George’s sister Princess Augusta in 1764, and George III’s son George IV married their daughter Caroline of Brunswick, thus continuing the close ties between the two houses.

The following year, at the age of 22, George succeeded to the throne when his grandfather, George II, died suddenly on 25 October 25, 1760, two weeks before his 77th birthday. The search for a suitable wife intensified. On September 8, 1761 in the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace, the King married Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, whom he met on their wedding day.

Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was the youngest daughter of Duke Charles-Ludwig-Friedrich of Mecklenburg (1708–1752; known as “Prince of Mirow”) and of his wife Princess Elisabeth-Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen (1713–1761). Mecklenburg-Strelitz was a small north-German duchy in the Holy Roman Empire.

Young George III

A fortnight after the wedding on September22, both were crowned at Westminster Abbey. George remarkably never took a mistress (in contrast with his grandfather and his sons), and the couple enjoyed a genuinely happy marriage until his mental illness struck.

They had 15 children—nine sons and six daughters. In 1762, George purchased Buckingham House (on the site now occupied by Buckingham Palace) for use as a family retreat. His other residences were Kew Palace and Windsor Castle. St James’s Palace was retained for official use. He did not travel extensively and spent his entire life in southern England. In the 1790s, the King and his family took holidays at Weymouth, Dorset, which he thus popularised as one of the first seaside resorts in England.

George III’s life and reign, at 59 years, which was longer than those of any of his predecessors at the time, were marked by a series of military conflicts involving his kingdoms, much of the rest of Europe, and places farther afield in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years’ War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India. However, many of Britain’s American colonies were soon lost in the American War of Independence. Further wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France from 1793 concluded in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

George III, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King of Hanover

In the later part of his life, George had recurrent, and eventually permanent, mental illness. Although it has since been suggested that he had bipolar disorder or the blood disease porphyria, the cause of his illness remains unknown. After a final relapse in 1810, a regency was established. His eldest son, George, Prince of Wales, ruled as Prince Regent until his father’s death, when he succeeded as George IV. Historical analysis of George III’s life has gone through a “kaleidoscope of changing views” that have depended heavily on the prejudices of his biographers and the sources available to them.

Changing Titles.

The nation went through many changes through his reign and his titles reflected these changes.

In Great Britain, George III used the official style “George the Third, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and so forth”. In 1801, when Great Britain united with Ireland, he dropped the title of King of France, which had been used for every English monarch since Edward III’s claim to the French throne in the medieval period. His style became “George the Third, by the Grace of God, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the Faith.”

In Germany, he was “Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg, Arch-Treasurer and Prince-Elector of Hanover of the Holy Roman Empire” (Herzog von Braunschweig und Lüneburg, Erzschatzmeister und Kurfürst des Heiligen Römischen Reiches) until the end of the empire in 1806. He then continued as Duke until the Congress of Vienna declared him “King of Hanover” in 1814.

The Name Louis and the British Monarchy: IV

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Frederick Louis Prince of Wales, Frederick William I of Prussia, Hanover, House of Hanover, King George II of Great Britain, Kingdom of Prussia, Kings and Queens of Great Britain, Louis, Prince Louis of Cambridge, Prince of Wales, Queen Caroline

The next prince on my list in this examination of the name of Louis and its association with the British Royal Family is HRH Frederick-Louis, Prince of Wales, KG (February 1, 1707 – March 31, 1751). He was heir apparent to the British throne from 1727 until his death from a lung injury at the age of 44 in 1751. He was the eldest son King George II and Caroline of Ansbach, and the father of King George III.

HRH Prince Frederick-Louis, Prince of Wales and Duke of Edinburgh


Under the Act of Settlement passed by the English Parliament in 1701, Frederick-Louis was born fourth in the line of succession to the British throne, after his great-grandmother (Electress Sophia of Hanover), paternal grandfather (King George I) and father (George II). All of these relatives were alive at the time of his birth. Prince Frederick-Louis was born in Hanover, Holy Roman Empire (Germany), as Duke Friedrich-Ludwig of Brunswick-Lüneburg, His paternal great-grandmother, Sophia of Hanover, a granddaughter of James I-VI, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, was cousin and heir presumptive to Queen Anne of Great Britain. When Sophia died before Anne at age 83 in June 1714, this elevated elevated Elector George-Louis to heir-presumptive.

Queen Anne died on August 1, of that same year, and Sophia’s son became King George I. This made Frederick-Louis’s father the new Prince of Wales and first-in-line to the British throne and Frederick-Louis himself became second-in-line.


In 1726 Frederick-Louis’ grandfather, George I, created him Duke of Edinburgh, Marquess of the Isle of Ely, Earl of Eltham in the county of Kent, Viscount of Launceston in the county of Cornwall, and Baron of Snaudon in the county of Carnarvon. The latter two titles have been interpreted differently since – the ofs are omitted and Snaudon rendered as Snowdon.

Frederick-Louis spent much of his early life in Hanover even after his grandfather and father moved to England. Frederick-Louis arrived in England in 1728 as a grown man, the year after his father had become King George II. By then, George II and Caroline had had several younger children, and Frederick-Louis, created Prince of Wales January 8th 1729, was a high-spirited youth fond of drinking, gambling and women. The long separation damaged the parent-child relationship, and they would never be close.

With Frederick-Louis now in England it was time for him to settle down and start to raise a family. 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. George II was not keen on the proposal but continued talks for diplomatic reasons. Frustrated by the delay, Frederick-Louis sent an envoy of his own to the Prussian court. When King George II discovered the plan, he immediately arranged for Frederick-Louis to leave Hanover for England. The marriage negotiations ultimately collapsed when Friedrich-Wilhelm I demanded that Frederick-Louis be made Regent in Hanover which meant he’d have the power and authority as Elector of Hanover, just not the tittle. George II would have none of that!

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 Churchill, 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, Prime Minister of the day, and by King George II himself. Lady Diana instead married John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford.

Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg HRH The Princess of Wales

After a marriage with Lady Diana Spencer did not come to fruition, king George II was visiting Hanover when Queen Caroline suggested that Frederick-Louis visit Saxe-Gotha to view the princesses there. The princess that caught his eye was Princess Augusta. Princess Augusta was born in Gotha to Friedrich II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1676–1732) and Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst (1676–1740). Her paternal grandfather was Friedrich I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, eldest surviving son of Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg.

When Frederick-Louis informed his mother that he considered Augusta suitable, the marriage was swiftly decided upon. Frederick-Louis simply stated that he accepted any bride his father would decide for him. His motive in seeking an early marriage was not because he’d fallen in love with Princess Augusta, his motive was to obtain an additional allowance from Parliament in order to be financially independent of his father, whom he detested.

The Prince and Princess of Wales and family

Princess Augusta did not speak French or English, and the British Court suggested that she be given language lessons before the wedding. Since British royal family was originally from Germany and since Frederick-Louis also spoke German, Princess Augusta‘s mother did not consider it necessary for her daughter to learn English. Therefore she arrived in Britain speaking virtually no English, for a wedding ceremony which took place almost immediately, on 8 May 1736, at the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace, London.

The union was 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.

The royal couple had 9 children (5 sons and 4 daughters) with Prince George being the eldest, born 1738. Frederick-Louis died at Leicester House at the age of 44 in 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 April 13, 1751.

Prince George inherited his father’s title of Duke of Edinburgh. George II showed more interested in his grandson and three weeks after the death of the Prince of Wales the King created George Prince of Wales, a title that is not automatically inherited.

Britain would not have a King Frederick-Louis and this was the closest they would come to a King with the name Louis.

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)

Tags

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.

King George III: Tyrant or Misunderstood?

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American Revolution, Buckingham Palace, Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg- Strelitz, England, France, Frederick Louis Prince of Wales, George III, House of Lords, HRH The Prince of Wales, Independence Day, Johann Sebastian Bach, Kings and Queens of England, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Porphyria, Princess Elizabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen, Science Museum, tyrant, United Kingdom of Great Britain, War for American Independence, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

I am strange combination. I am an American with a certain level of pride in my country and at the same time I am a monarchist. Today as our nation celebrates its Independence Day, that day when the US declared its separation from Great Britain, I would like to give a more well round picture of the King who ruled over us at that time. When I was in school learning about the American Revolution (or shall I call it the War for American Independence?) I learned that George III was a tyrant and a very large reason why the desire for independence came about in the first place. As I grew older and became interested in the British monarchy George III was one of the kings I wanted to learn more about. In this very short write up about the king I want to paint a more realistic picture of a good constitutional monarch and

HRH Prince George William Frederick was born June 4, 1738 the eldest son of HRH Prince Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales and HSH Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. belonged to the German Hanoverian dynasty which came to the throne in 1714 as a result of the 1701 Act of Settlement which passed over the Catholic descendants of the House of Stuart and granted the claim to the throne to the closest Protestant descendants, the Electress Sophia of Hanover, George’s great-great grandmother. His father, Prince Frederick Louis, the Prince of Wales died in 1751 when George was 13 and 9 years later his grandfather, George II, died in 1760 making George king at the young age of 22.

Although George III exercised more political powers than today’s queen, he was still a constitutional monarch subjective to Parliament and the Prime Minister. This leaves the historian to discern what policies that affected the American colonies came directly from the king or where the policies of the government? I think that may be an untiable knot. History has become more kind to George as he is not seen as the tyrant which revolutionary propaganda would leave you to believe. One thing that is true about George is that he did not want to lose the American colonies and for that I can have empathy for him. In the context of the times in which he lived colonial expansion was what they major powers of Europe were engaged in. From that perspective I do not think any 18th century monarchy would have been happy to lose one of their important colonies or willingly let them go.

When George came to the throne in 1760 he was the first member of the House of Hanover to speak English as his primary language. He never stepped foot in Hanover the small electorate of the Holy Roman Empire which his two predecessors loved dearly. He married soon after his accession and took for himself the 17 year old Princess Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg- Strelitz, the daughter of Duke Karl Ludwig of Mecklenburg- Strelitz and Princess Elizabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen. It was a good match and the two were relatively happy and they had 15 children, 13 of whom lived to adulthood. At heart he was a basic family man who had a keen interest in agriculture earning him the nickname “Farmer George.”

George and Charlotte were both passionate about music and were admirers of George Frideric Handel and in 1764 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, then 8 years old, spent time in England and at the court of George III where he played for the king and queen and also played for Johann Christian Bach, son of the great Johann Sebastian Bach, who was then music-master to the Queen. George III was also a patron of the sciences and his private collection of mathematical and scientific instruments was donated to the Science Museum in London where they are on display. As king he funded the construction and maintenance of a forty-foot telescope for William Herschel. William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781 and originally name it Georgium Sidus after the king.

George also suffered from Porphyria a neurological disease that had a terrible impact on his mental health. By the last decade of his life he was blind and deranged and his eldest son, the Prince of Wales, was officially installed as regent. George III died on January 20, 1820 after a reign of 59 years and is Britain’s longest ruling king. His rule saw a continuing struggle between Crown and Parliament and his mental decline paved the way for the lessening of his power and the rise of the monarchy as a symbol for the nation.