July 22, Birth of Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, Queen of Denmark and Norway. Part I.

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Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Dowager Princess of Wales, Elector of Hanover, Frederick-Louis, King Christian VII of Denmark and Norway, King George II of Great Britain, King George III of Great Britain, Prince of Wales, Princess Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, Princess Louise Anne of Great Britain

Caroline Matilda of Great Britain (July 22, 1751 – May 10, 1775) was Queen of Denmark and Norway from 1766 to 1772 by marriage to King Christian VII.

Caroline Matilda was born in on July 22, 1751 as the ninth and youngest child of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, daughter of Friedrich II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1676–1732) and Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst (1679–1740).

Princess Louise Anne (seated) and Princess Caroline Matilda of Great Britain

Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, was the eldest son and heir apparent of King George II of Great Britain, Elector of Hanover and Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach, the daughter of Johann Friedrich, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, and his second wife, Princess Eleonore Erdmuthe of Saxe-Eisenach. Her father was a member of the House of Hohenzollern and the ruler of one of the smallest German states. Frederick Louis was the father of King George III.

Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales father died suddenly on March 31, 1751 about three months before Caroline Matilda’ birth; thus she was a posthumous child. She was born at Leicester House, London, a large aristocratic townhouse in Westminster, where her parents had lived, since the King had banished his son from court in 1737.

At birth, she was given the style and title Her Royal Highness Princess Caroline Matilda, as daughter of the Prince of Wales, though by the time of her birth that title had passed to her brother George (who became King George III in 1760).

Caroline Matilda grew up in the large group of siblings, and during the remaining years of the reign of her grandfather, King George II, her mother, Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales, chose to live in seclusion with her children, devoting herself to their care, and bringing them up away from the English court.

Princess Caroline Matilda of Great Britain

As a consequence, Augusta 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.

Marriage

In 1764, four years into the reign of her brother as King George III of Great Britain and Ireland, Elector of Hanover; a marriage was suggested between the Danish House of Oldenburg and the British House of Hanover, specifically between Christian, Crown Prince of Denmark, and a British princess.

The Danish Crown Prince was the oldest surviving son of King Frederik V and his first wife Princess Louise of Great Britain sister to King George III and in consequence, the Danish Crown Prince and Caroline Matilda were first cousins.

The marriage was considered suitable because the British and Danish royal families were both Protestant and of the same rank, and thus had the same status as well as religion. Additionally, the deceased Queen Louise had been very popular in Denmark.

Princess Louise Anne of Great Britain

Initially, the marriage negotiations were intended for, Princess Louise Anne, eldest unmarried daughter of the former Prince of Wales; but after the Danish representative in London, Count von Bothmer, was informed of her weak constitution, her younger sister Caroline Matilda was chosen for the match instead. The official betrothal was announced on 10 January 1765.

On January 14, 1766, in the middle of preparations for the wedding, King Frederik V died and his 17-year-old son became King Christian VII of Denmark and Norway.

Christian VII, King of Denmark and Norway

On October 1 of that year in the royal chapel of St James’s Palace (or according to other sources, in Carlton House) the marriage was celebrated by proxy, the groom being represented by the bride’s brother Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany.

Two days later, Caroline Matilda departed from Harwich for Rotterdam, and three weeks later she crossed the River Elbe and arrived in Altona, in the then Danish Duchy of Holstein. There she left her British entourage and was welcomed by her appointed Danish courtiers.

Twelve days later, Caroline Matilda arrived in Roskilde, where she met her future husband for the first time. She held her official entry into the Danish capital on November 8 to great cheers from the population.

Already the same day a second wedding ceremony with the groom present took place in the Royal Chapel at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen. Marriage celebrations and balls lasted for another month. On May 1, 1767, Christian VII and Caroline Matilda were crowned King and Queen of Denmark and Norway in the chapel of Christiansborg Palace.

The young Queen at the Danish court was described as particularly temperamental, vivid and charming. She was thought too plump to be described as a beauty, but she was considered attractive: it was said of her that “her appearance allowed her to avoid criticism of women, but still captivate the male eye.”

However, her natural and unaffected personality was not popular at the strict Danish court, despite the fact that originally she was warmly received in Copenhagen. The weak-willed, self-centred, and mentally ill Christian VII was cold to his wife and not in a hurry to consummate the marriage.

The reason for this attitude towards his wife could be that the King was actually forced to marry by the court, who believed that marriage would lead to improvement in his mental problems; in addition, part of the court felt that Christian VII preferred the company of men to women.

Despite rumours of homosexuality, the King had a mistress with whom he began a relationship in Holstein in the summer of 1766, and often visited courtesans in Copenhagen, of which the most famous was Anna Katrina Bentgagen, nicknamed Støvlet-Cathrine.

September 15, 1666: Birth of Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle. Conclusion.

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George William of Brunswick-Celle, Johann Friedrich Struensee, King Christian VII of Denmark, King Friedrich-Wilhelm I of Prussia, King George I of Great Britain, King George II of Great Britain, Princess Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, Princess of Ahlden, Queen of Denmark and Norway, Queen of Prussia, Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Celle, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover

Divorce and Imprisonment

Königsmarck was eliminated, but that was not enough to restore the Electoral Prince’s honor. He demanded a legal separation from his wife, with her as the only responsible part. Sophia Dorothea is transferred to Lauenau Castle in late 1694 and placed there under house arrest during the divorce proceedings. On 28 December 1694 the dissolutionSeptember 15, 1666: Birth of Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle. Part I. of the marriage was officially pronounced with the Electoral Princess as the sole guilty party for “maliciously leaving her husband” (desertion). The fact that her husband, Georg Ludwig, had a long term mistress was not mentioned.

Sophia Dorothea was forbidden to remarry or seeing her children again; her name was removed from all official documents, she was no longer mentioned in the prayers and the title of Electoral Princess was stripped of her. After the verdict, she was sent to the remote Ahlden House, a stately home on the Lüneburg Heath, which served as a prison appropriate to her status. Although the sentence says nothing about continued imprisonment, she should never regain her freedom.

At the behest of her former husband and with the consent of her own father, Sophia Dorothea was imprisoned for life. He confiscated her assets brought into the marriage and gave her an annual maintenance. She initially received 8,000 thalers for herself and her court, later raised to 28,000 thalers (her father and former father-in-law had committed to this in equal parts). She was quartered in the north wing of the castle, a two-story half-timbered building. A guard of 40 men was deployed for Sophia Dorothea, five to ten of whom guarded the castle 24 hours. All her mail and visitis were strictly controlled; however, there was never any attempt at liberation or escape.

Initially, Sophia Dorothea was only allowed to walk unaccompanied inside the mansion courtyard, later also under guard in the outdoor facilities. After two years in prison, she was allowed to take supervised trips only within 2 kilometers outside the residence. Her stay in Ahlden was interrupted several times due to war events or renovation work on the residence. During these times she was housed in Celle Castle or in Essel. Her mother had unlimited visits. Her court included two ladies-in-waiting, several chambermaids and other household and kitchen staff. These had all been selected for their loyalty to Hanover.

Sophia Dorothea was allowed to call herself “Princess of Ahlden” after her new place of residence. In the first few years she was extremely apathetic and resigned to her fate, later she tried to obtain her release. When her former father-in-law died in 1698, she sent a humble letter of condolence to her former husband, assuring him that “she prayed for him every day and begged him on her knees to forgive her mistakes. She will be eternally grateful to him if he allows her to see her two children”. She also wrote to Electress Sophia in a letter of condolence that she wanted nothing more than “to kiss your Highness’ s hands before I die”. Their requests were in vain.

When Sophia Dorothea’s father was on his deathbed in 1705, he wanted to see his daughter one last time to reconcile with her, but his Prime Minister, Count Bernstorff, objected and claimed that a meeting would lead to diplomatic problems with Hanover; Georg Wilhelm no longer had the strength to assert himself against him.

After the devastating local fire of Ahlden in 1715, Sophia Dorothea contributed with considerable sums of money to the reconstruction.

Death and Burial

The death of her mother —the only one who until the end fight for her release— in 1722 leave Sophia Dorothea completely alone and surrounded only by enemies, with the lasting hope of seeing her children again. Her daughter Sophia Dorothea of Hanover the Queen of Prussia (husband of Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia) came to Hanover in 1725 to meet her father (who is now King of Great Britain since 1714); Sophia Dorothea, who dressed even more carefully than usual, waited every day at the window of her residence in vain for her visit, which never came.

In the end she only seems to have found pleasure in eating. Her defenses waned and became overweight due to the lack of exercise. Increasingly she suffered from febrile colds and indigestion. In early 1726 she suffered a stroke, and in August of that year she went to bed with severe colic, which she never left. She refused medical help and refused to eat.

Within a few weeks she grew emaciated. Sophia Dorothea died shortly before midnight on November 13, 1726 aged 60; her autopsy revealed a liver failure and gall bladder occlusion due to 60 gallstones. Her former husband placed an announcement in The London Gazette to the effect that the “Duchess of Ahlden” had died, but would not allow the wearing of mourning in London or Hanover. He was furious when he heard that his daughter’s court in Berlin wore black.

Sophia Dorothea’s funeral turned into a farce. Because the guards had no instructions in this case, her remains were placed in a lead coffin and deposited in the cellar. In January 1727 the order came from London to bury her without any ceremonies in the cemetery of Ahlden, which was impossible due to weeks of heavy rain. So the coffin came back into the cellar and was covered with sand. It wasn’t until May 1727 that Sophia Dorothea was secretly buried at night beside her parents in the Stadtkirche in Celle. Her former husband Georg Ludwig (now King George I of Great Britain), died four weeks later while visiting Hanover.

Inheritance

Sophia Dorothea’s parents must have secretly believed to the last that their daughter would one day be released from prison. In any case, in January 1705, shortly before her father’s death, he and his wife drew up a joint will, according to which their daughter receive the estates of Ahlden, Rethem and Walsrode, extensive estates in France and Celle, the great fortune of her father and the legendary jewelry collection of her mother. Her father appointed Count Heinrich Sigismund von Bar as the administrator of Sophia Dorothea’s fortune. He was twelve years older than the princess, a handsome, highly educated and sensitive gentleman, whom Sophia Dorothea showed deep affection for, which didn’t go unrequited. She named him as one of the main beneficiaries of her will, but unfortunately he died six years before her.

Trivia

Sophia Dorothea’s great-granddaughter Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, Queen consort of Denmark and Norway (1751–1775) shared her same fate. The youngest and posthumous daughter of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales, by Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Caroline Matilda was raised in a secluded family atmosphere away from the royal court. At the age of fifteen, she was married to her first cousin, King Christian VII of Denmark and Norway, who suffered from a mental illness and was cold to his wife throughout the marriage. She had two children: the future Frederik VI and Louise Augusta, whose biological father may have been the German physician Johann Friedrich Struensee.

After the Struensee affair in 1772, she was divorced from her husband, separated from her children and sent to Celle Castle, where she died three years later. In the crypt of the Stadtkirche St. Marien, both women are united in death.