The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Monday 14 June 2004

Happy Princesses of Wales - A Royal Oxymoron, Part II
Click here for Part I

Mention the term “Princess of Wales,” and most people think immediately of Diana and the tragedy and sadness of her life. But, as we began to discover last week in Part I of this series, the role harbors a long legacy of tragedy and sadness that goes all the way back to the first Princess of Wales, Joan of Kent, in 1361.  

In all, nine women have held the title of Princess of Wales, and many of their stories rival Diana’s. Among these, there was the first royal divorce, miserably contentious marriages, notoriously unfaithful husbands, highly repressed wives and mothers, unwilling pawns in the royal game, lively women broken by tragedy, and even a mother who hated her son and the wife of the most reviled English monarch of all time. Last week, we covered the first three Princesses of Wales, starting with Joan of Kent and ending with Katherine of Aragon, who died almost 150 years before her successor, Caroline of Ansbach, was even born. 

When Caroline married the son of the Elector of Hanover in 1705, she was an intelligent and relatively attractive minor German princess. Less than 10 years later, when her father-in-law became King George I, she took a major step up in royal life when she and her husband became the new Prince and Princess of Wales. Her new role carried even more importance than most Princesses of Wales because, as George I’s ex-wife was imprisoned in Germany, Caroline was the first lady of the land. Unfortunately, therein lay just one of her many problems.  

Beginning a tradition that would last all the way through the Georgian Age, George I and his son shared a deep mutual dislike for each other, were political opposites, and fought constantly. Relations between the two men were so bad that at one point that one of the king’s advisors suggested that the he get rid of the Prince of Wales for good by having him transported. Naturally, the spitefulness of the relationship spilled over to the Princess of Wales, who the king suspected of trying to steal his supporters on behalf of her husband. On another occasion, the king was misinformed that his son had challenged him to a duel and immediately put both the prince and princess under house arrest and took over the guardianship of their children. Needless to say, life was often difficult for Caroline under George I. 

To further compound matters, despite the fact that the marriage was not unhappy and the couple respected each other and generally had good relations, Caroline still had to deal with her husband’s constant infidelities. To her credit, she decided it was a losing battle and instead took the bull by the horns and began to personally select her husband’s mistresses, making especially sure that they were not as pretty as she. In this and almost everything else, Caroline proved herself to be consistently smarter and stronger than her husband. When he finally became king in 1727, it was widely believed that George II was guided in all things by his wife. A well-known verse during his reign read: 

“You may strut dapper George, but ‘twill all be in vain,

We all know ‘tis Queen Caroline, not you, that reign.” 

Unfortunately for Caroline, all was still not well. The curse of strained relations between father and son carried on between George II and his son and heir, Frederick, Prince of Wales. Separated from his parents when they left Hanover for London in 1714, he did not rejoin them until 1728 as a young man of 20. In this case, the prince actually didn’t get along with either of his parents and, once again, life was miserable. Matters got worse when Frederick married the next Princess of Wales, Augusta of Saxe-Gotha in 1736. Although Caroline had the upper hand in selecting her new daughter-in-law, Augusta soon came under the control of her husband and, together, the couple did more to alienate themselves from the king and queen than Frederick ever did on his own. 

At one point, Caroline called her son, “the greatest ass, and the greatest liar, and the greatest canaille (rabble), and the greatest beast, in the whole world, and I most heartily wish he was out of it.” Sadly, Caroline died at the height of the troubles with her son, leaving Augusta in a position similar to hers as Princess of Wales – first lady of the land under the reign of her antagonistic father-in-law. Once again, life was difficult for the Princess of Wales – a situation that became tenuous when her husband died unexpectedly in 1751. With seven living children and an eighth on the way, Augusta logically took the only reasonable path available to her – she made her apologies to the king and did her utmost to repair the breach.  

Her efforts were successful and she was granted full custody of her children and was even appointed Regent in the event that the king should die before his new heir reached his majority. Her life, however, was not a smooth and happy one. As Dowager Princess of Wales, she devoted herself to her children to the point of severe over protectiveness, eventually alienating herself from several of them. Having given birth to her ninth child four months after her husband’s death, she then had to watch as most of her children lived unhappy or controversial lives. And, despite her official reconciliation with the king, relations between them remained strained and she felt mistreated and maligned. Her death saw her treated little better when, during her funeral procession, insults were shouted at her coffin. 

Worse would be said of the next Princess of Wales. Much worse. Smelly, ugly, rude, indelicate, and adulterous are just a few of the “nicer” comments made about Caroline of Brunswick. Of course, life had not been made easy for Caroline when she arrived in England in 1795 to meet her betrothed – the future George IV – and was greeted by his mistress. Famously, when the Prince of Wales met his bride-to-be, he promptly left the room, said that he was not feeling well and ordered brandy. Not exactly an auspicious start to a marriage and, in fact, things went downhill from there. Inexplicably, the couple managed to conceive a child in what can only be described as an extremely drunken attempt by the prince to consummate the marriage.  

Barely a year after the marriage began, the Prince of Wales was determined that it would end, and so began 26 years of marital hell for both himself and Caroline. The couple was effectively separated after 1797 and Caroline was only allowed to see her daughter under supervised visits. Over the years, Caroline’s behavior, which had always been crude at best, was becoming increasingly outrageous, as well as embarrassing to the royal family. It was rumored that she had given birth to an illegitimate child and an official investigation was launched. Although she was found innocent of the charges, other unpleasant facts had arisen during the investigation and her reputation was forever sullied. Not that she did anything to make anyone think otherwise. Her outrageous behavior was carried with her on her travels to Europe, making her a laughingstock there as well as in Britain.  

Real tragedy struck Caroline in 1817 when her daughter by the Prince of Wales, Princess Charlotte, died after giving birth to a stillborn son. With nothing left for her in Britain, Caroline continued her travels in Europe while her husband desperately, but unsuccessfully, tried to secure a divorce. When he ascended to the throne in 1820 as George IV, he had absolutely no intention of having Caroline crowned next to him. But just as he made every effort to keep her away, Caroline made an equally diligent effort to be crowned with her husband. On July 21, 1821, she made it all the way to the doors of Westminster Abbey, where she was publicly barred admission. Rejected, ill and broken, she died just a few weeks later, an uncrowned queen. 

Much has been written about the next two Princesses of Wales and most of it has documented the trials and unhappiness of their lives. Theirs is a story of daughter-in-law succeeding mother-in-law as Princess of Wales, although almost no other similarities can be drawn between Alexandra of Denmark and Mary of Teck. While Alexandra was a renowned beauty who set the style for fashion and elegance at court, Mary wished only to please her husband’s conservative and outmoded sense of fashion. On the other hand, while Mary brought quiet reserve and regality to her role as Princess of Wales, Alexandra’s influence was much more ethereal. And while the two women did share a remarkable ability to remain publicly stoic and unruffled under the worst of circumstances, neither of them led what could be called terribly happy lives. 

Beautiful she may have been, Alexandra could not keep her Prince of Wales, Bertie, from being consistently unfaithful to her throughout their marriage. Prone to deafness, Alexandra’s hearing got progressively worse as she aged. When rheumatic fever followed the birth of her third child, she was left with a permanently problematic knee, which became known as the “Alexandra Limp”. To add tragedy to misfortune, her eldest son died suddenly in 1891. As for her daughter-in-law, Mary, she, too, saw a son die early in life, then looked on as her husband died, her eldest son renounced his rights to the throne for a woman she found utterly objectionable, and two more sons predeceased her.  

All told, each of these women led lives such that, had Diana known the full extent of them, she may not have been so fast to accept the role of the ninth Princess of Wales.

Until next week,

- Tori Van Orden