Princess Augusta of Great Britain

Augusta of Hanover, full name Augusta Friederike Luise of Hanover (*. Julijul 31 / 11 August 1737greg in London. † March 23, 1813 in London), was by birth Princess of Great Britain, by marriage Duchess of Brunswick- Lüneburg and 1780-1806 reigning princess of Brunswick- Wolfenbüttel.

After her marriage to the Brunswick Crown Prince Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand of Brunswick, she moved from London about to Braunschweig, but became the ducal court over distances. Her husband had built specially for them, the Richmond Castle, the Augusta used as the preferred residence from 1768.

After her husband died, and Brunswick was occupied by French troops, fled to England and spent her last years with her daughter, the Princess of Wales, Caroline, in London.

Family

Augusta was the eldest daughter of the Prince of Wales, Friedrich Ludwig of Hanover, and his wife Augusta of Saxe- Gotha -Altenburg in St. James's Palace in London with the world and was the first grandchild of the British royal couple George II and Caroline of Brandenburg -Ansbach. She was the first of eight children of the Prince of Wales and also the godmother of her youngest sister Caroline Mathilde. Because her father was grandfather in the prolonged dispute with Augusta, she had no opportunity to get to know their grandparents let alone family relationships to build them. Her parents shunned any contact to the farm in Windsor, while the royal couple had had announced that " any contact with his elders and his family was not wanted ."

On January 16, 1764 Augusta married in the Chapel Royal the hereditary prince of Brunswick- Wolfenbüttel, Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand of Brunswick. Although closed for purely dynastic interests marriage preserved the courtly forms, but was characterized by mutual disinterest of the two. Even through the two well-known mistresses of her husband, Maria Antonia of Branconi and Louise of Hertefeld to Augusta got carried to no response. Similarly, emotion was the relationship with her children. It was only during the last years of her life in London was a very harmonious relationship with her daughter Caroline.

Augusta's indifference to the events in their immediate environment was interpreted by many of their contemporaries as arrogance and sometimes even culminated in defamatory rumors.

Your marriage with Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand came from seven children:

• Augusta Caroline Friederike Luise (* 1764, † 1788) ∞ ​​1780 Frederick II, Duke of Württemberg
• George Karl August (* 1766, † 1806) ∞ 1790 Friederika Louise Wilhelmina of Orange
• Caroline Amalie ( * 1768, † 1821) ∞ 1795 George IV, King of Great Britain
• Georg Wilhelm Christian (* 1769, † 1811)
• August (* 1770, † 1822)
• Friedrich Wilhelm ( * 1771, † 1815), Duke of Brunswick- Lüneburg and Prince of Brunswick- Wolfenbüttel in 1802 ∞ Maria of Baden
• Amelie Karoline Dorothea Luise (* 1772, † 1773)

The first-born Karl Georg August was almost blind, as well as his two younger brothers, Georg Wilhelm Christian and August, but he was not as moronic, but only mentally retarded. Due to their physical and mental condition, but the first three sons to succeed their father came out of the question. Only the youngest, Frederick William, was in full possession of his mental faculties, although he had an unruly temperament, which could hardly be in their place. Augusta's daughters, however, did not show any physical malformations or psychological abnormalities.

Life

Augusta of Hanover grew up in his parents' White House at Kew, where he received together with her brother George III. a comprehensive and in-depth training. In addition to history and literature of foreign languages ​​such as French and Italian were on the timetable.

About a matrimonial alliance with the house of the Dukes of Brunswick- Lüneburg was thinking of Augusta's parents for a long time, but only from 1761 onwards serious negotiations were to advanced. As a marriage candidate was the hereditary prince of the Principality of Brunswick- Wolfenbüttel, Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, chosen. On the occasion of the marriage of the Firstborn of the Prince of Wales was equipped with a dowry of 30,000 pounds sterling and a yearly annuity of £ 8,000 per year; Money that could use the Principality of Brunswick good because his exchequer was empty.

After the wedding ceremony in the Chapel Royal at St. James 's Palace, the newlyweds traveled together to Brunswick and moved on February 21, 1764 its premises in the Castle. Augusta felt in the ducal residence, a simple in her eyes half-timbered building, but probably not, because she was used by her origins better.

When she was pregnant the first time, she traveled to England to bring their child in a familiar environment to the world. But even after the birth of her daughter in December 1764, which was christened as her mother in the name of Augusta, the Princess was at first in England. Her husband, meanwhile, traveled between London and Braunschweig back and forth and bought the meantime the South Brunswick to Zuckerberg to have built there a castle, which corresponded to Augusta's standards of comfort and design. For the construction of the building the architect Carl Christoph Wilhelm Fleischer was asked. The lock should be called in memory of Richmond upon Thames Richmond.

Augusta returned to her first son's birth back to Brunswick, but was always in the shadow of her mother- Philippine Charlotte of Prussia, the undisputed center of the Braunschweiger Hof was. As Castle Richmond was then completed in 1768, Augusta moved as quickly as possible there and escaped in this way the ducal court.

As well as being the third son of August 1770 as his two older brothers came up with physical abnormalities to the world, Augusta was blamed in public for the deformities of their male offspring. Through the talk at the court and the widespread rumors suffered their reputation in the population enormously - especially since she was once again inactive and no action is met, this talk oppose.

After the early death of her last child Amelie Augusta pulled completely back from court life. This changed again when her husband in 1773 succeeded his father. The dowager Philippine Charlotte left the ducal residence, and Augusta had to take frequent representative tasks on the side of her husband. Nevertheless, they as often as possible escaped the events at Braunschweiger Hof by retired at Castle Richmond or her youngest sister, Caroline Mathilde, whose godmother was also visited in Celle. There she wrote in 1773 unnoticed by her husband and his court her will.

After a serious head injury Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand on 14 October 1806 he incurred during the Battle of Jena and Auerstedt in the Fourth Coalition War, he died about a month later, in November of the same year. Augusta fled from French troops occupied the Duchy of Brunswick, to England. Her brother, King George III. , You had the Ranger's House, Blackheath to the residence, which was the home of her daughter Caroline Amalie in the neighborhood. Mother and daughter met in the aftermath often, and Augusta, named the estate at Brunswick House.

She died in March 1813 from the effects of influenza-like illness and was buried in the royal tomb of St. George 's Chapel Windsor Castle.