CAROLINE, QUEEN OF GEORGE II. Born in 1683. Educated at the court of Berlin.-Her personal attractions. Refuses the hand of the Archduke Charles.→ Her marriage to George the Second.-Seized soon afterwards with the small-pox.-George the First's dislike of the Princess.-Dignity and decorum of the Princess as Queen.— Her patronage of men of wit and learning. Her levees.The Queen patronizes Butler, Savage, and Stephen Duck.— Philosophical disputation between Clarke and Leibnitz, referred to the Queen as arbitress.-Her fondness for divinity. -Promotes the Arian doctrines. Her patronage of Dr. Clarke.-Offers him the see of Canterbury, which he declines. Curious interview on the subject between Clarke and Walpole.-The Queen's dislike of fashionable masquerades. Her uniform support of Sir R. Walpole.-The Queen dines frequently with Sir R. Walpole, at Chelsea.- Strict etiquette on these occasions.-Causes of Walpole's great influence over the Queen's mind.-The Queen's adroit management of the King, and commanding influence over him. -Anecdote of the King and Queen.—The King's affection for his wife. Her toleration of his mistresses.-Evenness of the Queen's temper.-Her conduct on the Porteous riot.Generosity of the Queen.-Her unostentatious charities.Her fondness for ornamental gardening. Her scheme of converting St. James's Park into a private garden to the palace.-Letter from the Duke of Newcastle to Walpole, respecting the Queen's health.-The Queen conceals the nature of her disorder from the physicians.-Fatal conse quences of her concealment.-The Queen's courage and resignation during her last illness.-Her death. Her refusal to see her son on her death-bed.-Speaker Onslow's portrait of the Queen.-General estimate of her character. CAROLINE WILHELMINA, daughter of John Frederic, Margrave of Anspach, by the Princess of Saxe-Eysenach, was born in 1683, the same year as her future husband. Her father dying when she was very young, and her mother contracting a second marriage with John George, Elector of Saxony, she was sent to be educated at the court of Berlin, under the care of her aunt, the accomplished and fascinating Sophia Charlotte, sister of King George the First. From the example and precepts of this amiable woman, she not only derived that dignity of demeanour and propriety of conduct which afterwards distinguished her as a queen, but also imbibed a taste for philosophical investigation and metaphysical inquiry, which formed as striking, though less pleasing, features in her character. Caroline, at this period of her life, is said to have been extremely handsome.* In person she was above the common stature; her hand and arın are described as models of perfect symmetry; her carriage was dignified; her countenance wore an expression of majesty or mildness, as the oc * Lady Mary Wortley Montague merely says: "She was esteemed a German beauty;" but Speaker Onslow, in noticing her early career, observes: " She was then very handsome, as I have heard from many who saw her at that time."-Burnet's History of his Own Time, vol. v. p. 322, note. casion suited; her eyes were penetrating and expressive, and her voice soft and musical. The fame of these accomplishments procured her a splendid offer of marriage from the Archduke Charles, son of the Emperor Leopold the First, and afterwards himself Emperor. The offer was rejected by her on account of her religious scruples, which forbade her to accept the hand of a Roman Catholic prince. So uncommon an instance of forbearance, in one so young, subsequently obtained for her an abundance of panegyrics from her English subjects. Bubb Doddington exclaims, in an elegy on her death: Her charms superior shone To every gay temptation of a throne. And Dr. Joseph Smith, Provost of Queen's College, Oxford, observes: Above all empire in her early youth, True piety she prized, and sacred truth. Addison, also, in one of the numbers of the "Freeholder,"* pays her a proper, but rather ponderous compliment, on her "exalted virtue" and "Christian magnanimity ;" and Gay exclaims, in his "Epistle to a Lady": The pomp of titles easy faith might shake; And an immortal crown decreed in heaven. In 1705, in her twenty-third year, Caroline be * No. 21. came the wife of George the Second, then Electoral Prince of Hanover. Shortly after this event she had the misfortune to be attacked by the small-pox, which impaired, if it did not altogether destroy, her beauty: the poets, however, with their usual complaisance, continued, notwithstanding the ravages of time and the smallpox, to celebrate her with as much warmth as if she were still in the hey-day of youth and the zenith of her beauty. Tickell says, in his poem of "Kensington Gardens," Here England's daughter, darling of the land, Gleams through the shades. She, towering o'er the rest, Form'd to gain hearts that Brunswick's cause denied, Gay also celebrated her as "the lovely parent of a lovely race," and in one of his epistles exclaims: The soul, transpiercing through the shining frame, Benevolence her conversation guides, Smiles on her cheek, and in her eye resides. As softens English to Italian sound. Yet in those sounds such sentiments appear, As charm the judgment while they soothe the ear. Calms all her hours, and brightens all her charms. On the accession of George the First to the throne, the Princess accompanied the royal family to England. For many years, however, after this event she seems to have been regarded but as an inconsiderable personage, whose good opinion or good offices it was equally unimportant to obtain. This was partly owing to the misunderstanding that existed between the King and her husband, which excluded her, except on state occasions, from the society of St. James's, and confined her to the limited circle of her own little court at Leicester House, and partly to the celebrity of her husband's amours, which naturally induced the world to conclude, that where a husband publicly maintains a mistress the wife could retain but slight influence over either his actions or his heart. George the First, however, who had better means of information, was well aware of the influence which the Princess secretly possessed over his son's mind, and partly, perhaps, from this circumstance, grew to dislike her almost as heartily as he did her husband. These facts, which are now sufficiently notorious, were little more than whispered at the period. Count Broglio writes to the King of France, on the 20th of July, 1724; "For some years past the King has not spoken a word to the Prince, nor the Prince to him. The Princess of Wales, sometimes in public, attacks the King in conversation; he answers her; but some, who are well apprized that his Majesty likes her no better than the Prince, have assured me that he only speaks to her on these occasions for the sake of decorum." * * Coxe's Life of Walpole, vol. ii. p. 302. Orig. Correspond ence. |