{"id":11180,"date":"2022-03-01T07:05:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-01T06:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=55279"},"modified":"2022-03-01T07:25:09","modified_gmt":"2022-03-01T06:25:09","slug":"caroline-of-ansbach-why-george-iis-remarkable-queen-was-the-first-iron-lady-of-british-politics","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/caroline-of-ansbach-why-george-iis-remarkable-queen-was-the-first-iron-lady-of-british-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Caroline of Ansbach: why George II\u2019s remarkable queen was the first iron lady of British politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By HistoryExtraAdmin\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 01 March 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Caroline of Ansbach\u2019s path to becoming queen of Great Britain began by refusing to become Holy Roman Empress. In the autumn of 1703, the young aristocrat received a breathless letter from a Habsburg courtier outlining in the vaguest terms \u201cextremely important matters concerning your Serene Highness\u2019s greatest happiness\u201d.<\/p>\n

The chief \u201cmatter\u201d was Caroline\u2019s marriage. Her proposed spouse was the current claimant to the contested throne of Spain, Archduke Charles of Austria. A single qualification was attached to her marriage: her conversion to Catholicism. After a lengthy struggle, Caroline, who was a steadfast Protestant, refused.<\/p>\n

In the words of the poet John Gay, writing after Archduke Charles unexpectedly succeeded his elder brother as Holy Roman Emperor, she \u201cscorn\u2019d an empire for religion\u2019s sake\u201d. Not quite true, but the decision was undoubtedly a difficult one.<\/p>\n

Listen | Norman Davies explores the reign of Caroline\u2019s husband, the long-maligned and overlooked monarch George II, in an episode of the HistoryExtra<\/em> podcast<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<hr\/><p>Caroline had been born 20 years earlier, on 1 March 1683, in the old Renaissance palace of Ansbach, a small town in modern-day Bavaria. It was an event of no significance. By an earlier marriage, her father, John Frederick, margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, already had three children. He had no need of a second daughter.<\/p>\n<p>From infancy, Caroline was accustomed to severed relationships, financial insecurity and the powerlessness that has been the lot of so many princesses. Her father died when she was just three years old. Her mother, Eleonore, by then Electress of Saxony, died 10 years later, in 1696.<\/p>\n<p>Eleonore\u2019s demise left her only daughter an orphan. Caroline was 13 years old, homeless and dowerless.\u00a0Marriage provided her escape. Yet in Caroline\u2019s case, this still represented success against all odds. As the portionless younger daughter of a lesser princeling, her prospects were limited.<\/p>\n<div class=\""row"\"> <div class=\""col-10\" offset-1=\"\"> <div class=\""embed"\"> <div class=\""template-article__pullquote\" mt-md=\"\" mb-md=\"\"> <blockquote class=\""pullquote\" heading-4=\"\"> <span class=\""pullquote__icon\" pullquote__icon--left=\"\" icon-pullquote=\"\" data-grunticon-embed=\"\"\/>That Caroline found herself a target of the future British king can be attributed to eminent sponsors, her Protestantism, a milky pink-and-white prettiness, and what appears to have been potent sexual charisma<span class=\""pullquote__icon\" pullquote__icon--right=\"\" icon-pullquote=\"\" data-grunticon-embed=\"\"\/> <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div> <p>That she found herself a target of the future British king can be attributed to eminent sponsors, her Protestantism, a milky pink-and-white prettiness wholly in line with contemporary ideals of beauty, and what appears to have been potent sexual charisma.<\/p>\n<p>In the aftermath of her mother\u2019s death, Caroline was invited to Berlin by her most prominent relation, Frederick III of Brandenburg, a man who, in his own words, possessed \u201call the attributes of kingliness and in greater measure than other kings\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>History remembers his wife, Sophia Charlotte, known as \u2018Figuelotte\u2019, for her fondness for philosophy. She became a key player in Caroline\u2019s life. She demonstrated to her impressionable charge one approach to consortship: while Frederick occupied himself with domestic and foreign politics, Figuelotte took the lead in cultural and intellectual life, a model Caroline herself would partly emulate.<\/p>\n<h3>Lust at first sight<\/h3>\n<p>It was Caroline\u2019s position as Frederick and Figuelotte\u2019s ward that brought her to the attention of Archduke Charles. Caroline\u2019s refusal to accept his hand in marriage attracted a degree of unsought prominence. In Hanover, the dowager electress Sophia, named in the 1701 Act of Succession as heiress to the British throne, determined that Caroline should marry her grandson George Augustus, future elector and subsequently <a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/georgian\/george-ii-facts-hanover-british-king-german-elector-rule-reputation\/"\">George II<\/a> of Britain.<\/p>\n<p>Sophia discussed her hopes with her children, Figuelotte and George Louis (the future George I), though whether she knew of the plan George Louis made with George Augustus to woo Caroline incognito is unclear. George Augustus visited Caroline in disguise.<\/p>\n<p>The result was love \u2013 or at least lust \u2013 at first sight. \u201cI found that all I had heard about your charms did not nearly equal what I saw,\u201d George Augustus wrote to Caroline with uncharacteristic romantic flourish. He would remain sexually in thrall to his voluptuous blonde wife, noted for her magnificent bosom, for nearly three decades.<\/p>\n<ul><li><strong>Read more | <a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/georgian\/7-weird-and-wonderful-georgian-beauty-treatments\/"\">7 weird and wonderful Georgian beauty treatments<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul><p>For her part, Caroline shared a degree of attraction to the strutting, eager prince who was intellectually so far her inferior. Her decision to accept George Augustus was not wholly pragmatic, though she understood from the outset the glittering prizes that awaited her as the wife of a British heir. She approached her marriage conscientiously, siding with her husband against his brusque and intractable father, cultivating the good opinion of the dowager electress and working at a careful programme of self-anglicisation.<\/p>\n<p>George Louis revelled in his role as Elector of Hanover; his desire for the British crown was qualified. But Caroline was ambitious and determined. She understood the opportunities offered to herself and George Augustus by the Hanoverian succession, as well as its limited support in Britain, and the opposition of Tories and <a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/georgian\/jacobites-rebellions-when-why-fail-bonnie-prince-charlie-stuarts\/"\">Jacobites<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout her marriage, Caroline worked assiduously at presenting herself and her husband as future British rulers. In scale her initiatives were large and small, private as well as public \u2013 from drinking tea to subscribing \u00a3100 to the publication of Alexander Pope\u2019s translation of <em>The Iliad<\/em>.<\/p>\n<div class=\""row"\"> <div class=\""col-10\" offset-1=\"\"> <div class=\""embed"\"> <div class=\""template-article__pullquote\" mt-md=\"\" mb-md=\"\"> <blockquote class=\""pullquote\" heading-4=\"\"> <span class=\""pullquote__icon\" pullquote__icon--left=\"\" icon-pullquote=\"\" data-grunticon-embed=\"\"\/>Over time she would become exasperated by the British, but publicly she never renounced the position of determined anglophilia<span class=\""pullquote__icon\" pullquote__icon--right=\"\" icon-pullquote=\"\" data-grunticon-embed=\"\"\/> <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div> <p>She learnt English, voraciously consumed political pamphlets, set out to charm visiting British politicians, courtiers, savants and militarists. Over time she would become exasperated by the British, but publicly she never renounced the position of determined anglophilia she embraced on her marriage in 1705.<\/p>\n<p>In 1714, weeks after Sophia\u2019s death, <a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/stuart\/queen-anne-facts-life-favourites-duchess-marlborough-union-england-scotland\/"\">Queen Anne<\/a> also died and George Louis inherited the triple crown of England, Ireland and Scotland. His arrival in London was shortly followed by that of his son, daughter-in-law and three infant granddaughters: at his insistence his seven-year-old grandson Frederick remained in Hanover to represent the dynasty.<\/p>\n<p>These linked events shaped much of Caroline\u2019s future. Sincerely she mourned her enforced parting from her only son, resenting George Louis\u2019 decision; equally sincerely she embraced her husband\u2019s enhanced destiny.<\/p>\n<h3>\u201cHer temper sweet\u201d<\/h3>\n<p>She relished her position as the first Princess of Wales since <a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/tudor\/catherine-aragon-facts-henry-viii-first-wife-mother-death-mary-buried\/"\">Catherine of Aragon<\/a> married Henry VIII\u2019s brother, <a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/tudor\/prince-arthur-catherine-katherine-aragon-king-henry-viii-marriage-death-brother\/"\">Arthur Tudor<\/a>, in 1501. Her birthday even coincided with the festival day of Wales\u2019s patron saint, <a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/medieval\/facts-st-davids-day-wales-traditions-facts-welsh-costumes-leek\/"\">St David<\/a>. \u201cHow lovely is her mien, her temper sweet,\u201d commented Thomas Jones, a member of the Most Honourable and Loyal Society of Antient Britons, a charity dedicated to assisting indigent Welsh in London. Caroline responded to the society\u2019s flattery by including Welsh maids of honour among her attendants.<\/p>\n<p>Caroline and George Augustus launched a charm offensive on George Louis\u2019 new subjects, Caroline exploiting to the full her appearance and a cultivated affability. Of those who encountered her, wrote <em>The Daily Courant<\/em>, \u201cthe whole conversation turn[ed] upon the charms, sweetness and good manner of this excellent princess\u201d. So, up to a point, it would continue.<\/p>\n<p>Caroline\u2019s relationship with George I was a strained one. In 1717, the king banished his daughter-in-law and her husband from court following a disagreement over the choice of godparents for a second son, Prince George William.<\/p>\n<ul><li><strong>Read more | <a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/tudor\/queens-survival-lessons-royal-women-resilience-compassion-patience\/"\">Queens know best: survival lessons from powerful historical women<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul><p>Despite such contretemps, in the absence of his ex-wife Sophia Dorothea of Celle (incarcerated in the castle of Ahlden for infidelity), the king entrusted much court entertaining to Caroline, who acted as hostess at his formal receptions, known as Drawing Rooms. An observer commended her \u201cwonderful art at entertaining and diverting people\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Caroline chose her household with care. The majority of her appointments were drawn from the Whig aristocracy that had supported the Hanoverian succession, including the Lord Chancellor\u2019s wife, Mary, Countess Cowper. With George Augustus she walked in St James\u2019s Park in the morning, escorted by Yeomen of the Guard and favoured courtiers.<\/p>\n<p>At a ball at Somerset House, John Gay reported, \u201cthe prince and princess\u2026 danc\u2019d our English country dances\u201d. And Caroline took care that her statement that she would \u201cas soon live on a dunghill as return to Hanover\u201d was widely circulated.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>It was not the whole truth. Caroline had lived her life in courts. She was adept at dissimulating her feelings. Politically she leaned towards absolutism and, like her husband and father-in-law, chafed at the proscriptions of British constitutionalism. Like them she attached exaggerated significance to rank and pedigree.<\/p>\n<ul><li><strong>Read more | <a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/stuart\/queen-anne-feuding-favourites-women-olivia-colman\/"\">Queen Anne\u2019s feuding favourites<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul><p>She consulted Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough on court etiquette, but ignored the duchess\u2019s suggestion that she herself be treated as a royal princess, insisting instead on displays of deference in line with those previously reserved for Mary II and Anne. Her pretensions earned her the duchess\u2019s lasting enmity and a pithy dismissal as \u201ca little German princess\u2026 that some people called Madam Ansbach\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Also in line with the later Stuart queens was the degree of influence to which Caroline aspired. On the surface it was an ambition neither her father-in-law nor her husband countenanced. Caroline played her hand with dexterity, never indicating to George Augustus the full scope of her ambition.<\/p>\n<p>In public and in private, she espoused a rhetoric of submission, so that the poet Stephen Duck, observing her, acclaimed her as the \u201cmost submissive wife; who never yet her consort disobey\u2019d\u201d. She concentrated her efforts on charming the period\u2019s leading men: poets Pope and Swift, the architect William Kent, an elderly <a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/stuart\/isaac-newton-facts-biography-why-famous-who-discovered-gravity-scientific-revolution\/"\">Isaac Newton<\/a>, Handel and, most fruitfully, the political leviathan of the age, <a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/georgian\/robert-walpole-first-prime-minister-britain-facts\/"\">Robert Walpole<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\""row"\"> <div class=\""col-10\" offset-1=\"\"> <div class=\""embed"\"> <div class=\""template-article__pullquote\" mt-md=\"\" mb-md=\"\"> <blockquote class=\""pullquote\" heading-4=\"\"> <span class=\""pullquote__icon\" pullquote__icon--left=\"\" icon-pullquote=\"\" data-grunticon-embed=\"\"\/>That George four times appointed Caroline his regent with wide-ranging powers is a measure of his confidence in his remarkable wife<span class=\""pullquote__icon\" pullquote__icon--right=\"\" icon-pullquote=\"\" data-grunticon-embed=\"\"\/> <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div> <p>The measure of Caroline\u2019s qualities is the extent to which she achieved at least a semblance of all that she craved. That George Augustus four times appointed Caroline his regent, with wide-ranging powers, during his absences in Hanover following his accession in 1727, is a measure of his confidence in his remarkable wife. Walpole, too, in earning Caroline\u2019s trust, recognised that he had got \u201cthe right sow by the ear\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Public opinion never doubted Caroline of Ansbach\u2019s influence. \u201cYou may strutt, dapper George, but \u2019twill all be in vain; We know \u2019tis Caroline, not you, that reign,\u201d taunted contemporary doggerel. Walpole\u2019s detractors labelled him \u201cthe queen\u2019s minister\u201d. Amid violent demonstrations provoked by Walpole\u2019s unpopular Excise Bill of 1733, an effigy of Caroline was burnt alongside that of Walpole on the streets of London.<\/p>\n<p>These views represent an exaggeration of the truth, but the intelligent, shrewd and worldly Caroline, who died in 1737 as a result of bungled surgery for an umbilical hernia, was unquestionably a force to reckon with in early Georgian Britain.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Matthew Dennison is a historian and author. His acclaimed biographies includes <em>T<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>he First Iron Lady: A Life of Caroline of Ansbach<\/em> (HarperCollins, 2017)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>This article first appeared in the <\/strong><\/em><a href=\""https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/magazine-issue\/december-2017\/"\"><em><strong>December 2017 issue of BBC History Magazine<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By HistoryExtraAdmin Published: Tuesday, 01 March 2022 at 12:00 am Caroline of Ansbach\u2019s path to becoming queen of Great Britain began by refusing to become Holy Roman Empress. 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In the autumn of 1703, the young aristocrat received a breathless letter from a Habsburg courtier outlining in the vaguest terms \u201cextremely important matters concerning your Serene…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/11180"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}