Discussions about the Imperial Family and European Royalty > The Danish Royal Family

Queen Carolina Matilda, tragic destiny

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Yseult:
I know that we can find info about Carolina Matilda in several threads focused on danish queens, but her tragic life deserves a thread ;)

I wish to start posting a portrait of Carolina Matilda as a young british princess with her sister Louise Anne. I always liked so much this portrait...



Carolina Matilda never knew her father: she was born at Leicester House three months after the death of Frederick, prince of Wales. It seems that a burst abscess in the lung was the cause of death to this man, aged forty-four. He had been a womaniser and a spendthrift in his youth, but he settled down when he married the sixteen years old princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. They had a very succesful marriage, living with their children in the countryside at Clieven, since the relationship between Frederick and his parents (king George II and queen Caroline, born princess of Ansbach) was really a bitter one and the prince was banished from court.

Carolina Matilda had eight brothers & sisters: George, who beared the tittle of prince of Wales when the girl was born; Edward, duke of York; William, duke of Gloucester; Henry, duke of Cumberland; Frederick William; Augusta Charlotte; Elizabeth Caroline and Louise Anne.

During her marriage with Frederick, Augusta of Saxe went along with her husband´s wishes in the feud with her father-in-law and her mother-in-law. But, when she became a widow, her role as the mother of the heir of the throne (young George, later George III) was noteworthy. She felt under the influence of the third Earl of Bute, John Stuart, her son´s tutor. It was rumoured that Augusta and John Stuart were having an affair. It was almost certainly untrue: John was happily married to Mary Wortley-Montagu, who had borne him eight children, and he held religious beliefs against adultery. But scandalous pamphlets about the relationship between John and Augusta were published through the years, the two were savagely satirised on the press and the widow of Frederick suffered widespread hostility from the public.

These is a portrait of Augusta, the vilified mother of Carolina Matilde:



I suppose Carolina grew up knowing very well that her paternal grandparents hated her dead father and her vilified mother. It must have been like she were always walking under dark clouds. But Carolina felt secure in her native country and loved her family, so she broke in tears when at the age of fifteen, was forced to fled to Denmark because her older brother, George III, was anxious to marry her with their cousin Christian VII. Poor Carolina was not allowed to take english ladies-in-waiting with her, so she found herself alone in a new country and married to a mentally ill man. Christian made it publicly known that he could not love Carolina as it was unfasionable to love one´s wife. He continued his ardent pursuit of whores and also young men, as I have read. The fierous step-mother of Christian, dowager queen Julianne, disliked Carolina because the little thing might provide her husband with an heir. I think this was the first step in the ruin of Carolina...

Zanthia:
That's a lovely portrait of Caroline and her sister, I've never seen it before.

I once read that when Frederick's mother lay dying, she said that at least there was one good thing about dying; that she never was going to see that monster (Frederick) again.

As for her marriage, it's not quite true that the dowager queen did'nt liked her, and that Christian could'nt love her. Caroline had a harmonic relationship to both the dowager queens, Juliane Marie and Sophia Magdalena. It was when Struensee made his entrance, the relationship to Juliane began to cool down. When she first arrived, Christian broke the etiqutte, and jumped up in her carriage to kiss her and bid her welcome, and she liked him, allthough she found that he was somewhat childish and a little strange. But every growing sympathy between the two of them, was firmly crushed by Caroline's "chief" lady-in-waiting, Mrs. Von Plessen. She found romance and love disgusting, and taught the young queen to response every kiss and advance from the king with coldness. He should beg for her to sleep with him, and if he dared kiss her, she should pretend to be on the edge to faint. (Women of the nobility all behaved like this in this time. No wonder the brothels had a golden age in those years). Caroline took Mrs. Von Plessens advice, and this alienated her from the king. He tried a few times, but was always rejected or told that the queen was playing cards with her ladies, so the king really had to wait. Christian became cross, rather than the obidient slave of his wife, Mrs. Von Plessen wanted him to be, and he started to find more willing women.

Yseult:
Caroline Matilda was named after her paternal grand-mother, Caroline of Ansbach-Brandenburg, queen of Hannover and England by her marriage to George (the second). This is the woman:



Frederick, her eldest son, was born in 1707, but he grew up in Hannover and he was brought to England, with his parents, eho were not happy receiving the young man.  George, before to became George II, when he was just George prince of Wales, considered a scheme to excluding Frederick from the English throne, sending him to rule Hannover, so that his second son, William, could be his male heir. I don´t know if Frederick had notice of it, but, if he had, it must have been felt appalled. The truth is that Frederick was usually neglected and often despised by his parents, who were desperately afraid of their son gaining popularity at their expenses; and Frederick reacted to this looking for, and searching, friends in opposition circles, where he was used as a weapon against the monarchy or the government.

You´re right: Caroline of Ansbach said never nothing fair about her eldest son. It seems strange, but she never, never, had a motherly gesture to this son and she pronounced very bitter words about Frederick. In life, she is reputed to have said of Frederick things like this: My dear first born is the greatest ass, and the greatest liar, and the greatest canaille, and the greatest beast, in the whole world, and I most heartily wish he was out of fit. When Frederick tried to see his mother for the last time before she died, George II refused to allow his presence.

I imagine it was not easy for Augusta of Saxe, but she was entirely loyal to her husband (as our Leonora Christina to Corfitz, dear...). Augusta was a pretty thing, who gained a more signifiant role when she became a widow because her son was he was the Heir Apparent to the throne, so he received the title of Prince of Wales in addition to the title of Duke of Edimbourgh. Augusta mistrusted her father-in-law, so she kept George separated from old George.

A new portrait of Augusta I have found:



I don´t know how reacted little Carolina Matilda to this. She never knew her maternal grand-mother, because Caroline died before Frederick, and Frederick himself died three months before the birth of his youngest daughter. But I believe she must have suffered all the gossip about Augusta and John Stuart...

Zanthia:
Lucky I don't have parents like that! Poor Frederick.

This is a part of the english royal history I don't know so much about. But it's always nice to gain new knowledge ;)
Since George and Caroline did'nt liked their eldest son, how did they feel about his children?

Yseult:
My knowledge about the hannoverian dinasty is very limited, Zanthia, but I imagine that George II & Carolina had a poor relationship with their grandsons and granddaughters. I have read at the Wikipedia that when Augusta of Saxe was in labour for the firstborn children, her daughter Augusta Charlotte, on august 1737, Frederick forced his wife to move from Hampton Court to St James. The reason why he moved his wife while she was in labour was that he wanted to prevent his hated parents to be presents in the birth.

When Augusta gave birth to her second children, a boy named George, later George III, the father, Frederick insisted on having Thomas Pelham-Holles, duke of Newcastle-on-Tyne, as goodfather. A great struggle aroused in the royal family, because king George detested Newcastle and chose as goodfather his own brother, duke of York and Albany. This time, Frederick publicly vituperated his father and for this was temporarily put under house arrest. After this bitter quarrel, George II banished Frederick from St James and not allow him to be present at the public ceremonies. So, Frederick and Augusta, with their children, moved to the countryside.

I suppose that George II and Caroline were not fond of their grandsons and grandaughters because they rarely met the children...

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