Raising Royalty by Carolyn Harris

Author:Carolyn Harris
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2017-03-13T04:00:00+00:00

THIRTEEN

George II (1683–1760) and Caroline of Ansbach (1683–1737)

On the evening of July 30, 1737, Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Princess of Wales, went into labour with her first child at Hampton Court Palace, a royal residence since the reign of Henry VIII.

The arrival of a grandchild for King George II of Great Britain in the direct line of succession was an event of such public significance that it required official witnesses. George II and Queen Caroline expected to watch the birth alongside senior members of the government and clergy. Frederick, Prince of Wales, however, was rarely on speaking terms with his parents, and did not want them to be present for the birth of his child. Instead of summoning the king and queen and the other expected witnesses when Augusta’s labour pains began, Frederick summoned a carriage to take him and his wife to St. James’s Palace in London. When George and Caroline learned of their son and daughter-in-law’s hasty departure, they were concerned for both the health of Augusta and her baby and the stability of the succession if a future king was born without multiple official witnesses to confirm the child’s legitimacy.

Less than fifty years had passed since James II and his queen, Mary of Modena, had been accused of smuggling a baby into the royal bedchamber in a warming pan to replace a stillborn child and ensure a Roman Catholic succession. By 1737, the so-called warming pan baby, James Francis Edward Stuart, nicknamed “The Old Pretender,” was a middle-aged man actively seeking the support of the French government for an invasion of England. His seventeen-year-old son, Charles Edward Stuart, better known as “Bonnie Prince Charlie” or “The Young Pretender,” was in the process of gaining military experience in the War of the Polish Succession (1733–38). Charles would remain an active threat to George II’s sovereignty until he was defeated at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Since there was an alternate line of succession just across the English Channel with two generations of male heirs, George II was determined to ensure that his own grandchild’s right to succeed to the British throne was unquestioned. George and Caroline set out for London in pursuit of their son and daughter-in-law.

Frederick and Augusta arrived at St. James’s Palace in London just in time for the birth of their child. The palace staff had not expected the sudden arrival of the Prince and Princess of Wales. There were no clean sheets for the beds, so Augusta gave birth on tablecloths spread over a mattress. Frederick’s parents did not arrive in time for the birth. For once, a reigning monarch and his consort were relieved that their first grandchild was a sickly looking baby girl who was unlikely to succeed to the throne. A girl would never be suspected of being a warming pan baby. Caroline described the baby, named Augusta after her mother, as “a poor, little, ugly, she-mouse.”[1] Lord Hervey, who had been a close of friend of Frederick until they

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