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| King George II and Queen Caroline |
2. After Caroline’s father died of chicken pox at the age of 32, she and her brother, Margrave William Friedrich, moved to Dresden following the marriage of their mother with Johann Georg IV, Elector of Saxony. They remained in Schloss Pretzsch in Saxony until Princess Eleonore’s death in 1696. Thereafter, the orphaned children fell under the care of their elder half-brother, Margrave George Frederick II, who was not too keen on parenting a girl. The princess eventually moved in the home of Eleonore’s friend, Sophia Charlotte Hanover, and his husband, Friedrich, Elector of Brandenburg, in Lützenburg (now Charlottenburg).
3. Caroline’s new guardians eventually became the King and Queen of Prussia in 1701. The princess was exposed to a highly intellectual environment as Queen Sophia Charlotte was herself an intellectual who attracted numerous scholars, from mathematicians to philosophers. Caroline blossomed into an erudite beauty, with the Dowager Electress Sophia calling her "the most agreeable Princess in Germany".
4. The death of Queen Sophia Charlotte in 1705 devastated Princess Caroline, confessing in one of her letters, "The calamity has overwhelmed me with grief and sickness, and it is only the hope that I may soon follow her that consoles me."
5. After refusing to marry Archduke Charles of Austria as the Lutheran Caroline would not convert to Catholicism, she met Prince George Augustus of Hanover, nephew of Queen Sophia Charlotte. The gentleman traveled incognito to Ansbach upon the encouragement of his father, the Electorate of Hanover, who did not want him to enter into a loveless and childless marriage like he did, and after hearing of Caroline’s "incomparable beauty and mental attributes". The two eventually fell in love.
6. Princess Caroline married Prince George Augustus on August 22, 1705 at the palace chapel in Herrenhausen, Hanover, Germany. The union produced eight children.
7. Though Princess Caroline’s marriage with Prince George Augustus was considered successful, the latter kept numerous mistresses. These infidelities were never a secret to Caroline, thus in her desire to keep a closer eye on them, Caroline made her husband’s lovers as ladies-in-waiting.
8. Caroline—being the highest-ranking woman in Great Britain at the time following George I’s ascent to the throne in 1704 (George dissociated himself from his wife Sophia Dorothea of Celle before he became king)—and her husband made an effort to anglicize by studying England’s people, language, customs, and politics.
9. Following a dispute with King George I over the choice of godparents during the baptism of Prince George William, the then Prince and Princess of Wales were placed under house arrest at the St. James’s Palace before they were banished from the court and transferred to Leicester House, away from their children who remained under the care of the king.
10. Following the death of King George I in 1727, George Augustus and Caroline were crowned as king and queen on October 11 of the same year at Westminster Abbey.
11. Caroline was the first crowned consort since Anne of Denmark in 1603.
12. Queen Caroline was way more involved in the British political affairs than any other queen consorts dating as far back as the Middle Ages, initiating reforms on the English criminal law after finding out about prevalent abuses on the said matter. A lot of historians believe that Caroline was the secret behind the success of her husband, King George II.
13. Queen Caroline died of acute umbilical hernia on November 20, 1737 at St. James’s Palace. Her remains were buried in the Westminster Abbey, the last queen consort to be interred there.
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