Caroline of Brunswick
1768 – 1821 · Generation XXXII · Queen consort
Caroline of Brunswick (1768–1821). Queen consort. Married George IV in 1795; they separated in 1796. One of their children is recorded in this archive. First cousin and estranged wife of George IV; turned away from his coronation weeks before her death. Her engagement to George, whom she had never met, suited a prince deep in debt and a Britain seeking allies against revolutionary France. The couple recoiled from each other at first sight, and their daughter Charlotte was born nine months after the wedding. Living apart at Blackheath, Caroline faced the “Delicate Investigation” of 1806 into claims that a boy she had adopted was her own son; the commissioners found “no foundation,” yet her visits to Charlotte were curtailed. In 1814 she left for the Continent, where her servant Bartolomeo Pergami became her constant companion. When George became king in 1820 she came back to claim her place, and a wave of popular and radical sympathy helped defeat his Pains and Penalties Bill. She died at Hammersmith in 1821; her cortège provoked deadly clashes in London on its way to burial in Brunswick, as she had wished.
Place in the family
- Caroline of Brunswick was a first cousin once removed of Queen Victoria.
Line of descent: Owen Tudor → Edmund Tudor → King Henry VII → Margaret Tudor → King James V of Scotland → Mary Queen of Scots → King James I → Elizabeth Stuart → Sophia of Hanover → King George I → King George II → Frederick Prince of Wales → Augusta of Great Britain → Caroline of Brunswick.
Parents
- Charles William Ferdinand of Brunswick (1735 – 1806)
- Augusta of Great Britain (1737 – 1813)
Partners
- Married King George IV (1762 – 1830) in 1795; they separated in 1796 — one child together
Children
- Charlotte Augusta of Wales (1796 – 1817)
Life
- 1768 — Born
- 1795 — Married George IV
- 1796 — Separated from George IV
- 1821 — Died