October 22…Royal History

Tags

Birthdays, Kaiser Wilhelm II, King George II of Great Britain, King John V of Portugal, Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein

Today is my birthday!! So let’s see what royal related things happened on this day!!

1383 – The 1383–85 Crisis in Portugal: King Fernando dies without a male heir to the Portuguese throne, sparking a period of civil war and disorder.

1727 – George II and Caroline of Ansbach were crowned King and Queen of Great Britain.

1978 – Papal inauguration of Pope John Paul II.

Births:

1071 – William IX, Duke of Aquitaine (d. 1126)
1689 – John V of Portugal (d. 1750) (pictured below)
1701 – Maria Amalia of Austria (d. 1756)
1858 – Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein (d. 1921) Last German Empress, wife of Kaiser Wilhelm II of German, King of Prussia. (Pictured above)

Deaths:

741 – Charles Martel, King of the Franks (b. 688)
1383 – Ferdinand I of Portugal (b. 1345)
1751 – Willem IV, Prince of Orange (b. 1711)
1761 – Ludwig-Georg, Margrave of Baden-Baden (b. 1702)
2002 – Geraldine, Queen of Albania (b. 1915)

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.