Frederick, Prince of Wales

by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2014

Frederick, Prince of Wales; Credit – Wikipedia

Frederick, Prince of Wales was one of the seven Princes of Wales who never became King.  Six Princes of Wales, including Frederick, predeceased their fathers:

When Frederick was born in Hanover, Electorate of Hanover, now in Lower Saxony, Germany on February 1, 1709, Queen Anne, the last Stuart monarch, sat upon the British throne, but there was a succession crisis.  Despite having 18 pregnancies, Queen Anne did not have a Protestant heir as decreed by the 1689 Bill of Rights.  Queen Mary II, the wife, first cousin, and co-ruler of King William III, and the elder sister of the future Queen Anne’s sister, had died childless in 1694. In 1701, Parliament enacted the Act of Settlement to prevent a succession crisis and a Catholic restoration.  If neither King William III nor the future Queen Anne failed to provide an heir, the crown would go to the senior Protestant heir, Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and her Protestant descendants.  Over fifty Catholics with better claims to the British throne than Sophia, Electress of Hanover were excluded from the line of succession.  Sophia was the daughter of Elizabeth Stuart who was the daughter of King James I of England.  Sophia was Frederick’s great-grandmother, so at the time of his birth, His Serene Highness Prince Friedrich Ludwig of Hanover was fourth in line to the British throne after his great-grandmother, grandfather, and father.

Sophia, Electress of Hanover died on June 8, 1714, less than two months before the death of Queen Anne on August 1, 1714.  Upon Queen Anne’s death, Frederick’s grandfather George, ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) in the Holy Roman Empire, became King George I of Great Britain.  George’s son, the future King George II of Great Britain, was created Prince of Wales and along with his wife Caroline of Ansbach, now the Princess of Wales, went to live in Great Britain.  They left seven-year-old Frederick, now second in the line of succession to the British throne, in Hanover in the care of his great-uncle Ernst August, Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück, and they did not see their son again for 14 years.  Certainly, this long separation during childhood was a factor in the negative relationship Frederick had with his parents as an adult.

Frederick had seven siblings, six of whom survived childhood:

In 1727, Frederick’s grandfather King George I died and Frederick’s father acceded to the throne as King George II.  The following year, Frederick, who automatically became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay at his father’s accession, was summoned to London.  There was more evidence of the feud between Frederick and his parents.  He was the heir to the throne but was not even met by any officials when he first arrived in London and had to take a hackney carriage to St. James’ Palace. In addition, King George II was reluctant to create Frederick Prince of Wales but finally did so in January 1729 at the urging of the government. During his first years in England, with not given much to do by his father, Frederick occupied himself with drinking, gambling, and womanizing.  Frederick had several mistresses before he settled down in marriage.

Marriage possibilities to Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia (Frederick’s first cousin) and Lady Diana Spencer (see Unofficial Royalty: The Other Lady Diana Spencers), daughter of Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland, and Lady Anne Churchill, were vetoed by King George II. Finally, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg was chosen as Frederick’s bride.  Sixteen-year-old Augusta arrived in England, barely speaking any English, to marry the 29-year old Frederick.  Frederick and Augusta married at the Chapel Royal in St. James’ Palace in London, England on May 8, 1736.

The couple had nine children:

Family of Frederick, Prince of Wales painted in 1751 after the prince’s death; Photo Credit – Wikipedia
Front row: Henry, William, Frederick; Back row: Edward, George, Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales holding Caroline Matilda, Elizabeth, Louisa

Frederick made a point of opposing his parents in nearly everything.  He annoyed them when he and Augusta appeared in public together because the couple was popular with the public. When Augusta went into labor with her first child at Hampton Court Palace where the King and Queen were in residence, Frederick insisted that Augusta endure a bumpy carriage ride back to St. James’ Palace in London just to prevent his hated parents from being present at the birth.  This event created an even larger rift between Frederick and his parents.

Frederick was a great patron of the arts, most notably music and painting.  He loved taking part in amateur theatricals with his children.  He also enjoyed sports and was seriously involved in cricket, both as a patron and a player. Frederick looked forward to succeeding to the throne and becoming “a patriot king.”  He delighted in opposing the government and lent his support to the opposition.  After the Jacobite rising in 1745, Frederick opposed the severe treatment of the Jacobites that his father and brother supported.

Frederick became ill in March 1751 after he caught “a chill” while gardening at his home.  He became feverish and was bled and blistered, the medical treatment of the time. After a brief recovery, Frederick suffered a relapse and was again bled. After eating a light supper on the evening of March 31, 1751, at Leicester House in London, Frederick suffered a coughing fit and died suddenly at the age of 44.  An autopsy found the cause of death to be a burst abscess in the lung.  It was popularly believed that his death was caused by a blow from a cricket ball in his chest, but there is no proof of that. King George II was playing cards with his mistress when he was told of Frederick’s death.  He continued playing cards and later said, “I have lost my eldest son, but I am glad,” so the feud between father and son did not even end with death.  Frederick was buried in the royal vault in the Henry VII Chapel in Westminster Abbey.

A famous epigram was written upon Frederick’s death:

Here lies poor Fred who was alive and is dead,
Had it been his father I had much rather,
Had it been his sister nobody would have missed her,
Had it been his brother, still better than another,
Had it been the whole generation, so much better for the nation,
But since it is Fred who was alive and is dead,
There is no more to be said!

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