Caroline Matilda of Great Britain
Caroline Matilda of Hannover (English Caroline Matilda, German Karoline Mathilde ), daughter of the deceased before she was born Prince of the United Kingdom (. * 11 Julijul / July 22 1751greg in Leicester House, London, . † May 10, 1775 in Celle), was Queen of Denmark and Norway from 1766 to 1772. affair with your personal physician Johann Friedrich Struensee led to his execution and her divorce. She was banished to Celle, where she lived separately from their children until her untimely death.
Life
English Princess
Caroline Mathilde was born posthumously as the last of nine children of the Prince of Wales, Friedrich Ludwig of Hanover, nearly four months after the death of his father. Her mother was Augusta of Saxe- Gotha. Caroline Mathilde's oldest brother was Prince of Wales in 1751 and was followed in 1760 when King George III. of Great Britain and Ireland, his grandfather. Although her father died before she was born, and his title was passed to her brother George, it was not referred to as sister, but as a daughter of the Prince of Wales.
She grew up away from the farm in Kew, where her mother gardens docked and used. This passion shared her mother with the Prime Minister Lord Bute, to which she was said to have a relationship. From her youth, only two public appearances in 1761 are at the coronation of her brother the king, and in 1764 as a bridesmaid at the marriage of her eldest sister Augusta acquainted with the Brunswick Crown Prince Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, otherwise we know little about their youth. Generally only called " Matilda", while the full name appeared in official papers - - Caroline Mathilde was puritanical upbringing. She received a good education, according to contemporary reports spoke English, French, German, Danish, Italian, played harpsichord and enjoyed reading and much more. Since her mother was not wife of the heir to the throne, but only his widow already at birth, Mathilde was little interest for marriage ambitions.
Princess Caroline Mathilde, painting by Jean -Etienne Liotard, 1754
George III. in his coronation robes, 1761
Caroline Mathilde with her sister Louisa, 1767
Danish Queen
At the age of 13 ½ years, Caroline Mathilde was without her knowledge with the two- year-older Danish-Norwegian king Christian VII, her first cousin, engaged. This marriage had been engineered by the Danish Minister Johann Hartwig Ernst von Bernstorff, the aim was to strengthen the good relationship Denmark - Norway to the UK. Already Caroline Mathilde's mother died young Louise was an English princess. On 14 July 1766 marriage contract was signed after long negotiations with the Caroline Mathilde retired from the English royal family. Your dowry went completely into the possession of the Danish crown.
Bernstorff, who was aware of the incipient insanity of the young king, and hoped that the marriage would be its excesses halt urged a speedy marriage, although George III. his sister still considered too young. On October 1, 1766 was held in London, the wedding ceremony " by procurationem " instead. Then the young bride went away and was handed over to the Danish authorities in Altona. In this case, the entire court was replaced. Your maid was Louise von Plessen. The actual wedding took place on November 8, 1766 at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen. On May 1, 1767 Caroline Mathilde and Christian VII were crowned.
Christian hardly took notice of his young wife, but amused himself further in the numerous court festivities and with his sadomasochistic lover Anna Cathrine Benthagen. The young Queen tried to get to know their new home, but increasingly suffered the contempt of her husband and the strict court etiquette. In the traditional journey of a newly crowned king by his country in the summer of 1767 Christian VII did not take it with you. On January 28, 1768 she brought at the age of sixteen years, her first child, the Crown Prince and later King of Denmark and Norway Frederick VI .. Shortly thereafter, the king dismissed her Mistress Louise of Plessen because this him his to a friendlier treatment young woman had warned. In May of the same year Christian VII, on a long trip through Europe with stops in Altona, Paris and London, while Caroline Mathilde spent the summer with her newborn child at Frederiksborg. During this time she began to fit into life at court.
The king returned on January 12, 1769 in Copenhagen back, brought Johann Friedrich Struensee as personal physician to his court and appointed him later as Minister. He had met Struensee at the beginning of his journey in Altona. Struensee was apparently able to deal with the mental instability of the king, and the king developed a special confidence in him. His wish that his wife should get to know the new confidant, Caroline Mathilde met with suspicion because they did not appreciate Christian's other minions.
Struensee affair
Caroline Mathilde was unhappy in her marriage to Christian, who whose mental illness ausprägte little attention and more obvious. During a stay at Frederiksberg Palace in the summer of 1769 Struensee recommended to the royal couple for the promotion of health and the community to ride out together. The 19 -year-old Queen took great pleasure in the rides proposed by Struensee. That they sat around for better mobility 's sake in pants astride, caused a great stir and impetus, and soon became the subject of numerous screen that appears after the introduction of the Freedom of the Press leaflets. According to her maid Elisabeth von Eyben the love affair began to Struensee already during this trip.
During a smallpox epidemic in Copenhagen in 1770 Struensee inoculated also the Crown Prince Friedrich against smallpox. He won the final affection and confidence of the Queen. She fell in love Struensee and began in the spring of 1770 a love relationship with him that the king was apparently indifferent, perhaps even welcome at the latest. This resulted in a harmonious Ménage à trois. In the summer of 1771 also Struensee was present when the court of Frederiksberg on Gottorp Castle traveled to Castle Traventhal. On the entire trip Caroline Mathilde was after the later statements of their maids often sick, have not spent a night with the king, but all the more sought the society of the personal physician. On the return journey the Queen in Hamburg sold a part of her jewels to establish a new order, the Mathilde north. Among the twelve recipients of the conferred on the king's birthday on January 29, 1771 Order were next to the royal couple, the Queen Dowager Juliane von Braunschweig -Wolfenbüttel and her son Crown Prince Friedrich also Struensee, Enevold Brandt, Schack Carl von Rantzau Louise von Plessen, the had meanwhile settled in Celle, Caroline and mold man, the wife of the Treasurer Carl Heinrich of mold man.
On July 7, 1771 was Princess Louise Augusta on lock Hirschholm to the world, whose father was not the king, but Struensee with high probability. Christian VII recognized Louise Augusta all doubts at defiance. On the occasion of her baptism, he rose Struensee to the Count.
Rumors about the relationship between the Queen and Struensee multiplied and went up to the suspicion that the couple wanted to eliminate the king and his stepmother, to get married. In addition Struensee acted as Minister for the purposes of education and reduced the power of the nobility.
Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, Ireland and Hanover (1751-1775)
Son Frederick VI. , King of Denmark
Daughter Louise Auguste of Denmark (1771-1843)
Johann Friedrich Struensee (1737-1772)
Arrest and divorce
Interested nobles played the stepmother of the king, Juliane von Braunschweig -Wolfenbüttel, a document which reported on a plot with which the king was forced to abdicate. Struensee should have carefully prepared the coup, Christian VII was to be arrested on 28 January and was forced to abdicate. The official obsequious and uncritical reporting, Peter Suhm, Juliane Marie handed over the copy of the allegedly secret paper that should be of Struensee safe. With this suspicion Struensee was arrested after a staged in Copenhagen castle masquerade ball on January 17, 1772 by 4 clock in the morning, the Queen came in protective custody after Kronborg Castle.
All correspondence to the Queen was seized and examined for signs of a conspiracy. A special commission was appointed to investigate their behavior. Also about the jewelry sold was negotiated. On March 8, 1772 Caroline Mathilde was not yet 21 years old, her confession Struensee was presented and they themselves signed an already prepared confession, after they had given her hope that she might could thus save Struensee life. The then British ambassador Colonel Keith doubted until his death the authenticity of this signature - this has come at the most under threat and blackmail about.
On March 14, the divorce proceedings were opened, in which Caroline Mathilde, however, was not allowed to testify and whose sentence had been before. Even the king, who may not know anything from the divorce proceedings, it was not present. In the process of the guilt of the accused could not be proved; as counsel for the Queen Dr. Uldall (also Uhdall ) setting out in a brilliant speech for the defense, all the evidence presented were merely rumors, suspicions and gossip from second or third hand and malicious insinuations. It is noteworthy that Uldall had a close relationship with Juliane and was chosen by this. On April 6, the divorce was granted. Surprisingly, it was Louise Auguste, as their father always Struensee was recognized as a royal princess - although the Queen had already had a relationship with Struensee at this time. Louise Augusta later married Frederick Christian II, Duke of Schleswig -Holstein -Sonderburg- Augustenburg. Had it been up to Juliane, both children Mathilde had been declared illegitimate, to make her own son Frederick to the Danish king.
Struensee procedure started on 21 April 1772. He was accused in addition to the relationship with Caroline Mathilde treason, usurpation and enrichment. Already on 15 April ( six days before the start of the process ), he was found guilty, but the execution was carried out until a week later on 28 April 1772.
Caroline Mathilde should first be brought to Aalborg, but her brother demanded that Denmark should repay its entire dowry and they move into his territory, where they should be supplied at his own cost. On May 31, 1772 had to say goodbye to her daughter, who she had had until then and left Denmark. In Denmark it was completely hushed up. The donated by her orders were called for again and the gems reused. Even the liner named after her Dronning Caroline Mathilde the Danish- Norwegian Navy was renamed in Øresund.
Exile and the end of life
After their marriage had been dissolved by the King, Caroline Mathilde was separated from her children and the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg, the George III. ruled in personal union with Great Britain, banished. First, she was taken under the hunting lodge Goehrde, where she was visited by her sister Augusta, who was her godmother the same time, immediately after their arrival. During the summer, unused for nearly seventy years Celle Castle was renovated and newly furnished for them. The theater was completely redesigned. In October 1772 she moved to Celle, where she was received with great joy and festivities.
With Ernst of Mecklenburg, the governor of Celle, and his brother Charles, the in-laws of her brother, she joined soon a friendship. Every day she visited the city only in the company of her only maid Louise von Plessen, and sought contact with all types of people. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg was one of their visitors. She practiced in Celle, what they had learned in Copenhagen Struensee - her little courtyard was open to all walks of life wide open and their companies were enlivened by interesting personalities from the civil state. Besides her stay promoted the cultural life of the city. As can be seen from Leihzetteln the Royal Library in Hanover, she read in her exile lot, next to Gellert also works of French philosophers and historical and political treatises. Following the example of her mother, she put on gardens. The previously known for their beauty Caroline Mathilde took refuge in the food and took too strong.
The separation of the children, especially her daughter, made her hard to create, and so they invited more frequently children, with whom they played and for which they organized festivals. She lived in the hope that her former husband would dismissed due to his mental illness of the throne and they will be allowed to return to their children to Denmark. This hope was not fulfilled. Finally she took the four-year orphan Sophie von Bennigsen (1769-1850) in nursing. Sophie's father Levin August von Bennigsen left Celle after the death of his first wife in order to enter into Russian service. With the assistance of Sophia of Steinberg, the stepmother of the late 1773 Friederike Amalie Louise von Bennigsen, the little girl came in Caroline Mathilde care. It was, together with the six-year Amalia of Ompteda, the daughter of her Mistress, raised and softened the pain of the Queen over the loss of their children.
Just three years later died in Caroline Mathilde, not yet 24 years old, after six days' illness on May 10, 1775, surprisingly, probably due to scarlet fever. This spring, a scarlet fever epidemic raged in Celle and surroundings, and Caroline Mathilde had spent the day before the day on bed of her foster daughter, who was ill. But maybe they also suffered as her brother George III. porphyria. Her body was interred because of the risk of infection that same night in the royal crypt in St. Mary's Church in Celle beside the grave of her great-grandmother Sophie Dorothea. The ceremonial coffin, which George III. gave his sister in order, was not completed until 1789.
Although Caroline Mathilde had not left a will, Sophie von Bennigsen, whose maintenance they had paid out of their own pocket received from George III. an annual, lifetime pension of 400 Reichstalern and inherited jewelry and furniture from the estate of the Queen. 1786 she married the lung between District Karl von Lenthe ( 1746-1815 ). Karl and Adolf Carl Daniel von Auersperg were her grandchildren.
Afterlife
Caroline Mathilde shape soon became a legend. Already in 1773 there appeared a collection of fictitious letters, in which she protested her innocence and Struensee. After her untimely death more publications that sacrificed the image of one of the reason of state, innocent widespread suffering and their fate appeared transfigured romantic.
Caroline Mathilde's popularity in the electorate demonstrated by the fact that chivalry and Estates asked only a few weeks after her death to permission to build her a monument that had been commissioned from the sculptor Adam Friedrich Oeser commissioned and erected in 1784 in the French Garden Celle. Another memorial stone was Ernst von Mecklenburg up.
Their tragic love affair with Johann Friedrich Struensee is content of several novels ( see references ) and has been filmed several times. In the British film, The Dictator of 1935, she was played by Madeleine Carroll. In the German historical drama ruler without crown (1957 ), the French actress Odile Versois took over the role of the Danish Queen at the side of OW Fischer and Horst Buchholz. In April 2012 came the film The Queen and the personal physician, a Danish film history, in the German cinemas. The Drama is a literary adaptation of a novel by Bodil Steno - Leth. The Swedish actress Alicia Vikander stars as Caroline Mathilde.