As Queen of Britain, Caroline of Ansbach’s job was to sit back and be supportive of her King, George II.
Well, that’s not what happened….
Smarter than her royal husband – smarter than pretty much everyone, actually, Caroline schemed and plotted against her enemies……especially the ones within her own family.
? Though she was born in 1683 as the daughter of a German noble clan, none of this privilege saved her from tragedy.
Her father perished from smallpox when she was three, and her mother died when she was 13.
Then destiny came knocking.
? Caroline ended up in the court of the King and Queen of Prussia, Queen Sophia of Prussia had been her mother’s friend.
Sophia quickly took the girl in as her ward, only to discover that Caroline had a rare intellect and curiosity, not to mention that she was also turning into a beautiful young woman.
? Caroline’s noble breeding, pleasing face, and sharp witty comebacks, made her, as her surrogate mother Queen Sophia put it, “the most agreeable Princess in Germany”.
In no time at all, the Queen of Prussia was plotting to marry Caroline off to the future Holy Roman Emperor.
But Caroline’s response stunned everyone.
Marrying the Holy Roman Emperor, meant changing religions, so Caroline—showing a stubborn side even then—said no.
Within months, she’d have an even bigger problem to deal with.
? In 1705, Caroline went through her third enormous ordeal in her young life.
Her beloved Queen Sophia died suddenly from pneumonia at only 36 years old.
The news threw Caroline into a depressive stupor.
But fate still had far more in store for Caroline.
? In June, Sophia’s nephew, Prince George Augustus of the House of Hanover, visited Caroline’s court.
But his appearance turned out to be deeply bizarre.
George came to visit in disguise, and his reasons had nothing to do with practical joking.
George thought it best to do some undercover spying on Caroline, as his potential bride.
George had heard rumors of Caroline’s “incomparable beauty and mental attributes.
The reality far outstripped even his imagination, he became besotted and “would not think of anyone else after her”.
? Caroline, sharp as ever, knew exactly who George was from the start.
Luckily for him, she also liked what she saw, and she agreed to a match with him.
And they did have one thing going for them….
They were virtually next in line for the English throne.
? Although their distant cousin Queen Anne currently ruled, she was sickly and without children.
Soon, the sceptre was due to go to George’s father and, eventually, to George himself.
It’s hard not to think that the cunning Caroline had her eye on the crown when she said yes to George.
? Before that summer ended, Caroline traveled to George’s home court of Hanover.
They were married in a simple ceremony…and that’s when the pressure started.
Her in-laws wanted a male heir right now.
So much so, that George’s father even forbade him from attending military campaigns, until he put a bun in Caroline’s oven—and as long as that bun came out as a boy!
? Defying the odds and even the conventions of their time, George and Caroline were deeply in love and had no problem doing their marital duty—which is why Caroline got pregnant almost instantly.
In a stroke of luck, she also gave birth to a boy, Frederick, in January of 1707.
? Soon after giving birth, Caroline fell deathly ill with smallpox, and then pneumonia.
She started fighting for her life.
While the palace kept her infant son away from her to prevent him catching anything, her husband’s response was heartbreaking.
Devoted to his wife, George stayed by her side to nurse her, even catching smallpox himself.
Thankfully, they both survived!
? Caroline’s husband may have loved her enough to brave smallpox for her, but he didn’t love her enough to be a one-woman man.
As many nobles did at the time, George kept several mistresses in addition to keeping up his bedroom habits with Caroline.
Caroline dutifully popped out three more children, all girls, in under a decade.
? Caroline of Ansbach was a smart cookie.
She knew just how to deal with her husband’s wandering eye.
Instead of fighting against it, she went along with it, even encouraging George to speak to her about his mistresses.
Not only that, she often employed these women as her ladies-in-waiting, all so she could keep a hawk-eye on their comings and goings.
? In 1714, Queen Anne of Great Britain died.
Caroline’s father-in-law became King George I of England, and Caroline and her husband became the new Prince and Princess of Wales.
Accordingly, Caroline traveled over to England, the only sea voyage she ever took – to pick up her titles in person and settle into royal life.
But she forgot one thing, back home.
? While Caroline and George were touring in England, they brought most of their daughters with them.
However, they left their seven-year-old Prince Frederick back home, being raised by his uncle.
Maybe this seemed like a good idea at the time, but it would be 14 long years before they ever saw him again.
? When Caroline went over to England and became Princess of Wales, a whole lot else about her life changed.
Because there was no Queen Consort – the King of England still had his ex-wife locked up somewhere in Germany – Caroline was actually now the highest-ranking woman in the realm.
Power like that, definitely went to her head!
? Caroline started stirring the pot within weeks.
While King George I was thoroughly German, Caroline and her husband wanted to anglicize themselves.
They quickly engaged themselves in British politics, culture, and friendships.
This wasn’t exactly a good thing.
? This might seem innocent and good-hearted for Caroline and George to engage with British culture, but they knew exactly what they were doing.
They looked completely new and modern next to the fusty old King, and their popularity soared…just like Caroline had probably intended all along.
After all, she was going to be the next Queen of England.
? Before long, they had established a fully-fledged rival court in opposition to the monarch, which King George was very unhappy about.
That old ‘House of Hanover dysfunction’ was popping up again, and tensions rose to a fever pitch.
? In the midst of these political machinations, Caroline fell pregnant again.
This time, it didn’t go her way at all.
After four healthy pregnancies, she now gave birth to a stillborn son.
Caroline was devastated, but she couldn’t have known it was going to go from uneasy – to nightmarish overnight.
? In 1717, a year after her stillbirth, Caroline gave birth to another healthy boy, Prince George William.
Ecstatic at her successful pregnancy, Caroline happily prepared for the boy’s baptism.
Yet here, she made a rare miscalculation.
She hadn’t taken into account that the royal court was a tinderbox as dry as a desert, and it was about to explode right in her face.
? On the day of baby George William’s baptism, King George I suddenly took issue with his son and daughter-in-law’s choice of godparents.
His revenge was unspeakably brutal.
Instead of talking the issue up with them, the King placed Caroline and her husband under house arrest at St. James’s Palace, then banished them from court entirely.
? King George I then forcibly separated Caroline and her husband from their children, including the newborn George.
The King insisted the babies stay with him, while the couple sat in exile.
It was a vicious punishment meant to show the upstart Prince and Princess of Wales, who actually wore the crown, and held the power in Britain.
This time, however, the King had gone too far.
? During this separation, Caroline went literally sick with worry over her children.
She drove herself into such a frenzy, that she even snuck into the King’s palace to visit them in secret.
Eventually, King George I couldn’t help but notice, and feel guilty for the stress he was causing.
He allowed her free access to her babies, except by then it was too little, too late.
? In February of 1718, Caroline’s worst nightmare came true.
Her youngest boy Prince George William fell ill and died when he was just a handful of months old.
The palace even had an autopsy to make sure the separation from his mother wasn’t what killed him – it turned out he had a polyp on his heart.
But whatever the cause of death, the boy’s passing didn’t help King George I’s popularity.
It certainly did nothing to repair his relationship with his son and Caroline.
? Caroline’s nerves were obviously frayed down to the core, by now.
The same year baby George passed, she miscarried another child.
The Princess of Wales buried her third child, and although she would go on to have three more healthy children – she never forgot the misery King George I caused her.
? In 1727, Caroline got news that likely overjoyed her.
King George I had been traveling when he suffered a stroke on the road.
Although he lingered for another day or so, the King of England—and thorn in Caroline’s side—passed on 11th June 1727.
At long last, she was now Queen Consort, and her husband was King George II of Great Britain!
? One of her first acts was to unite her family at last.
Caroline now had possession of the children King George I had kept from her, but she still had to call over her son Prince Frederick, from where he had been languishing back in Germany for a decade and a half.
Now a grown man, Frederick joined the family in England as the new Prince of Wales in 1728.
Only, this was no happy reunion.
When Caroline saw her son again, the troubles began.
? In the years since Caroline had seen her son, Prince Frederick had undergone a troubling transformation.
He was now a drinking, gambling rake who kept several mistresses—but that wasn’t the worst part.
Frederick also had quite the chip on his shoulder for his absentee parents and, in a case of karma for Caroline’s own activities as the Princess of Wales, he quickly surrounded himself with her political enemies.
? Throughout the years, Caroline’s political acumen had remained sharp as ever.
So when King George II was abroad, it was Caroline who acted as regent, not their black sheep son, Frederick.
The clever Caroline found a way to cement her influence, and insult her son at the same time.
? When King George II returned to England a few months later, a spate of bad luck nearly destroyed everything.
First, his ship ran into a storm, which sent rumors spinning around London that the King was dead.
When he finally made it back, it went from bad to worse, as he collapsed into his bed with a fever.
Caroline was sick with worry for her husband, but her son Frederick only saw it as a vicious opportunity.
? At this point, Caroline and George knew they had to do something about their foolish son.
Their solution, however, was a disastrous one.
Caroline married Frederick off to the 16-year-old Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, hoping married life would calm him down.
Well, it did not settle him down; it just gave him a new pawn to move around in his attempts to insult his parents any way he could.
? When Frederick’s new bride got pregnant, he found another way to get revenge on his mother and father.
As soon as he found out Augusta was in labour, he snuck her out of Hampton Court Palace in the middle of the night, to an out-of-the-way palace.
Here, she gave birth to a baby daughter, on a tablecloth, no less.
Frederick had risked the health of his wife and unborn child, just to ensure that the King and Queen could not be present at the birth of their grandchild.
? Caroline and King George II made sure their son paid dearly for his sins.
They banished him from their court, just as the old King had done to them, and parents and son were now officially estranged from each other.
? Caroline’s hatred for her son was deep, and she didn’t mince her words about it.
She reportedly once said,
“I wish the ground would open this moment and sink the monster to the lowest hole in hell”
? Way back in 1724, when Caroline gave birth to her final child, she suffered a serious umbilical hernia.
More than a decade later, it came back to haunt her in the worst way imaginable.
In the winter of 1737, Caroline was in utter agony and took to her bed.
Disgustingly enough, part of her intestine had come through that old hernia opening, and the situation was now threatening her life.
? King George II was still very much in love with his wife, and had the royal medics launch into a series of procedures he hoped would cure her.
But no amount of operations, purging, or bleeding worked, and Caroline’s agony only grew.
Eventually, Queen Caroline realized the end was near, so she enacted one of the final revenges of her life.
? Caroline’s son Frederick had been trying to see his dying mother one last time.
Her response was ice cold.
Under his wife’s direction, King George II forbid Frederick from seeing Caroline.
? Caroline’s last moments on Earth were tragically painful.
Her strangulated bowel burst on 17th November 1737.
She writhed in agony for four more days, before passing on the 20th November, at the age of 54.
Caroline’s fading moments on Earth, also contained her husband’s love.
The King reportedly sobbed at her bedside as she slipped away.
The King arranged for a pair of matching coffins with removable sides, so that when he followed her to the grave 23 years later, they could lie together again.
? For Caroline, there was however, a dying triumph.
When attendants buried her in Westminster Abbey, she made sure her son Frederick wasn’t invited to the funeral.
In the end, all of Caroline’s feuding with her son Prince Frederick came to naught.
Not only was she dust in the wind now, but Frederick never even lived long enough to be King of England.
In 1751, at the age of 44, he suffered a pulmonary embolism and died suddenly, leaving his son ~ Caroline’s grandson ~ to become George III instead.
? Caroline of Ansbach c. 1730.
Queen consort of Great Britain and Ireland,
Electress consort of Hanover.
Portrait by Michael Dahl.
