The Queen Who Became A Physician's Mistress - Caroline Matilda of Great Britain

Caroline Matilda was not a princess born into a vibrant and glittering Court life surrounded by social G but rather a princess born into a secluded and stifled way of life to a grieving mother her beginning was a foreshadow for how her loneliness would continue into adulthood and bring about her own downfall she was born on the 22nd of July 1751 at Lester house in London Caroline Matilda was the daughter of Frederick Prince of Wales himself the eldest son of George II and Frederick's wife princess Augusta sax gotha as their ninth and youngest child unfortunately around 4 months before her birth Frederick had died suddenly at the age of 44 possibly from a pulmonary embolism added to this he had become a Str ranged from his father the king mostly over opposing his father's government finally being banished from court in 1737 this made things somewhat strained between Augusta and George II at first but as she was only 32 now a mother of nine children and mother to the hea parent she was shown sympathy and given the same honors as the queen at the few social events she appeared in public but that in itself became a problem Augusta rarely appeared in public and she also chose to not allow her children to appear in public instead she kept them secluded in the family environment at home not bringing them to court and allowing few people outside the family to actually meet them austa would be criticized for this from all corners of the population but for Caroline Matilda it it was a happy childhood and she grew close to her siblings especially her older brother George the future George III and her sister Louisa Anne most of the time they lived at leester house but in the holidays they would go to Q Palace near the banks of the river temps she was given a very basic education but was described as intelligent Caroline Matilda preferred outside Pursuits and riding and was musically gifted learning to play the harps Accord at a young age and having a beautiful singing voice and despite her patchy education Caroline Matilda enjoyed reading and was able to speak at least three other languages alongside English Italian French and German on the 25th of October 1760 the family was changed overnight as George II died suddenly at the age of 76 7 augustus's eldest son now became George III of Great Britain and he moved to Windsor Castle by 1764 when Caroline Matilda was 13 plans started to be made for her marriage and her brother recognized the potential for a political Alliance talks began between the Swedish House of oldenberg and the British hanovarian specifically for a match for Christian the Crown Prince of Denmark and a British princess the marriage was considered to be pretty good on all counts the families were close as Christian was a first cousin to George III and his siblings both families were Protestant and they were the same Rank by the 10th of January 1765 all was agreed and George III with the approval of parliament made the announcement that once their respective ages would allow Carol carine Matilda would marry Christian Christian's mother Queen Louise was a daughter of George II and so the marriage was seen as a renewal of connection between the two countries at this point Caroline Matilda didn't even actually know she was now engaged however Christian was not as happy a person as Caroline Matilda when he was only three his mother Louise died and his new stepmother Queen Juliana Marie showed no interest in him especially once her own biological son came along over the years his alcoholic father Frederick V of Denmark also paid little attention to his son and this must have been devastating for the young boy described as shy and sensitive although also charming and intelligent something that would not become clear until his later years was that Christian suffered from mental health problems today thought to be possibly schizophrenia however how much of this was down to his upbringing and how much was genetic is Up For Debate halfway through the wedding negotiations King Frederick died leaving his son Christian to become king of Denmark and Norway on the 14th of January 1766 just a few week shy of his 17th birthday a proxy wedding was celebrated on the first of October that year and Caroline Matilda was now officially going to be a queen although as would become clear in due course she was given very little in the way of preparation for this role her upbringing had sheltered her from the politics and social posturing of court and left her with little taste for either anyway still aged just 15 she left England on the 3rd of October from hartch in Essex for Rotterdam and 3 weeks later crossed the river elb in the Danish duche of Holstein now part of modernday Germany here she left behind her British Entourage and was passed over into Danish hands 12 Days Later Caroline Matilda arrived in Ros skild and this was where she first met Christian little is written of the meeting which suggests it at least went as expected and the two didn't openly dislike one another at the time on the 8th of November she made her official entry into the Danish Capital Copenhagen to rapturous Cheers from the people later that day an official wedding ceremony took place between Caroline Matilda and Christian in the Royal Chapel at christiansborg Palace the Royal residence the wedding celebrations and balls would continue for another month but already the cracks began to show in early December M Caroline Matilda wrote a letter to her brother George saying that after a mere week Christian did not want to be troubled with her there could be many reasons behind this the young king did not seem to be in a hurry to consumate the marriage and some at court thought this was due to Christian feeling forced into the marriage and others suspected he might have been gay it's also highly likely that their young age simply played a part in this whatever the reason the relationship between Caroline Matilda and Christian was difficult from the start the Danish court and people were somewhat more welcoming of the young princess people thought she was too plump to be considered a real Beauty but that she was still attractive and that her looks allowed her to avoid criticism of women but still Captivate the male eye her personality was was less formal than might have been expected and many found her somewhat temperamental but Caroline Matilda was also described as Vivid and Charming while the common folk of Denmark loved her warm and down-to-earth character it was looked down upon at the strict Danish court on the 1st of May 1767 Christian iith and Caroline Matilda had their joint coronation also held at christiansborg Palace and were crowned king and queen of Denmark and Norway Caroline Matilda found it difficult to fit in she sent home letters lamenting of her inability to find her place blaming it on the lack of preparation given to her at home in Britain she was also put out by not being allowed to travel with her new husband on a trip to Holstein in the spring and it was on this trip that Christian also began a relationship with a mistress the first of many the relationship between Caroline Matilda and Christian was so bad that Christian's tutor from his teen years now his advisor Elie Salomon franois revi had to fake Love Letters From The King to his new wife in order to hint at something romantic between them Christian's mental stability also started to falter further leading to bouts of paranoia self-mutilation and hallucinations Revy finally succeeded in convincing the king he had to consumate his marriage for the sake of the succession and it happened sometime in mid 1767 but by the end of the year Christian was now openly having an affair with a prostitute named Katrina Ben Haan also known as stoet Katrina and the two were known for their noisy nightly Soldier jnes through the capital Katrina was also a dangerous security risk for the country as she held such sway over Christian and was likely responsible for the dismissal in the same year of orev but it wasn't all bad for Caroline Matilda and she did have some friends at Court Frederick V's mother Sophie Magdalene the grandmother of the young king kept her own court and from this would be drawn some trusted ladies for Caroline Matilda's own household one of these would be Louise Von plon the Queen's senior lady in waiting and the two women became close and trusted friends Louise disliked many of Christian's immoral close friends and advisers such as Conrad Hulk and she also gave Caroline Matilda somewhat bad advice for her marriage bed she suggested that if Christian showed any inkling towards wanting to go to bed with his new Queen Caroline Matilda should play hard to get and this would make Christian want her more this might have worked had the king actually liked his new wife and was simply shy but it in fact only made him more unwilling but on the 28th of January 1768 Caroline Matilda finally gave birth to the Future Heir Prince Frederick this ensured the security of the Danish throne and Christian turned his attention back to the brothels of Copenhagen after his son's birth as for Caroline Matilda despite her disinterest in politics she became more important at court as the mother of the era parent the Scandal caused by Katrina was enough that in January 1768 she was banished from the realm and taken to prison in Hamburg Caroline Matilda might have felt slightly more secure in her position at this event until Hulk succeeded in having Louise dismissed leaving the queen virtually friendless at court she refused the suggested replacement of an sopi Von Benton whom she suspected had been part of the plot to remove Louise and would likely spy on her for Hulk it wasn't until later in 1768 that the baroness Margaretta vond delua agreed to take the position and despite being Hulk's sister got on well with Caroline Matilda in May 1768 Christian left court to go on an 8mon visit around Britain and France this allowed him to have a change of scene which appeared to help reduce his Mania Caroline Matilda was able to live a quieter life in Copenhagen taking care of her young son however people were scandalized by her taking actual walks around the capital with her son as Noble and Royal women at that time were expected only to travel by Carriage nevertheless she split her time between the courts of the queen dowagers Sophie Magdalene and Juliana Marie and built up a good reputation for modesty and a good temper but this was soon about to change while the King was absent Caroline Matilda made some new friends namely the female courtiers Christina Sophie vong Gaya Anna Sophie buo and Amal Sophie Holstein they were known for their love affairs and love of partying so unsurprisingly they encouraged the 17-year-old Queen to become more sociable dance more and most scandalously of all to flirt Christian finally returned to Copenhagen on the 12th of January 1769 bringing a new face with him a physician he had met up with in Altona at the beginning of his trip named Johan Frederick strony during his trip away Christian's Mental Health had once again deteriorated but remarkably strony seemed able to handle the king's ill health the king's advisers were very relieved by this and Christian himself came to deeply trust his new doctor although at this point strony had no political Ambitions he became a close part of the royal retinue at first strony was disliked by Caroline Matilda because of his first strange attempts at helping the king King's Health which involved trying to set him up with a noble woman named berit Sophie Gable this was apparently because strony believed that a relationship with an intelligent woman would help make the king's mental instability more stable which was an absolute double insult to Caroline Matilda herself this failed and then stry attempted to set the king up with other Mistresses which increased Caroline Matilda's anger towards him stry was a known philanderer with his own love affairs and so she saw him as no different from the usual Scoundrels her husband made friends with but this would start to change from July onwards at some point the doctor seems to have decided it was more beneficial to help repair the relationship between the king and queen and he encouraged Christian to show his neglected wife more attention Christian actually did this throwing a three-day celebration on the 22nd of July 1769 for Caroline Matilda's 18th birthday Caroline Matilda wasn't stupid however and she quickly realized the king's Newfound interest in her was down to strony strony was apparently quite charming and Caroline Matilda began to take more notice of him when during the summer she had an attack of dropy Christian suggested she ask strony his advice warming up up to the doctor the queen did this and St SE told her she needed to exercise more and enjoy entertainment such as dancing this helped reduce the water retention in her legs and Caroline Matilda's confidence in strony grew this was only increased further when he successfully inoculated the toddler Crown Prince Frederick against smallpox a very new procedure at the time it started to become obvious that there was an attraction growing between the pair and it's hardly surprising for Caroline Matilda considering how lonely and isolating her life was oddly Christian himself seems to have been aware of the Romantic relationship stirring between his physician and his wife and allowed this cck Old Situation to continue somewhat willingly if not publicly by January 1770 strony had his own rooms within the palace and by the spring Caroline Matilda and the physician were lovers Christian became more withdrawn and passive as he usted more and more of his state affairs to strony something that worried the king's advisers and rightly so during that year when the royal couple took a tour of their provinces they were accompanied by stry he was observed behaving towards the queen in a very over friendly Manner and rumors grew that the pair were romantically linked something about her Newfound love made Caroline Matilda grow in her own confidence as Queen and she found a new resolve against those at court who had worked against her by May 1770 strony was on the Royal Council and the Pair worked to remove Hulk from Court however strony was now working to his own political gain and he also had Margaret V Delo removed from Court as she was the the sister of Hulk this likely didn't go down too well with Caroline Matilda who was close to her by then but she was under str's spell by this point when the court moved to Holstein for the summer Caroline Matilda created even more Scandal by appearing on Horseback in equestrian outfits this was something that she would be mocked for when the Free Press was finally allowed in 1771 ironically Allowed by her lover strong see Caroline Matilda's brother George III and the rest of their family were growing very nervous about the reports they were receiving about her behavior in August 1770 Caroline Matilda's mother austa made her way to lunberg in Hamburg to visit her daughter it would be the last meeting between them and Augusta was horrified when Caroline Matilda greeted her wearing breaches it was obvious from certain language used that The Dowager Princess of Wales wanted to warn Caroline Matilda off from the affair but as stry was by the Queen's side the entire time it was impossible to speak of openly all Augusta could do was instruct others to caution Caroline Matilda including her other son William Duke of gler in Edinburgh who visited his sister that year in Copenhagen by September another courtier had been removed moved the chancellor count Johan Hartwig earns Von bernoff the British royal family were a gust at this as bernoff had worked to create an alliance between Sweden and Denmark against the rise of Russia as the dominant Baltic power at that time when austa wrote to her daughter to ask about her involvement in this Caroline Matilda's reply was arrogant pray Madam allow me to govern my own kingdom as I please Christian was still allowing strony a great deal of power and on the 18th of December the physician became a privy counselor and by July 1771 it was publicly declared that any order signed by strony would have the same effect as if it had been written by the king's own hand strony was now effectively de facto ruler alongside Caroline Ma Builder between the 20th of March 1771 and the 16th of January 1772 he would hold complete power but Christian wasn't completely forgotten by the queen or perhaps it was simply that she had to keep up appearances to honor him on his birthday on the 29th of January 1771 Caroline Matilda founded the Matilda ordinant or order of matild this was in intended to only honor the royal family and their closest friends the presentation of this order happened that day at dinnertime and included the king himself Caroline Matilda strony the queen Dowager uliana Marie and Prince Frederick Christian's half brother as well as close friends of strony this order would later be abolished with Caroline Matilda's banishment but it was a clear signal that the King was certainly not being pushed out by the two lovers but rather that there was an uneasy sort of acceptance between them all by this point stry was basically King in all but name and issued the equivalent of three cabinet orders a day this resulted in him being accused of having a Mania for reform but In fairness the large majority of the reforms were modernizing and very forward thinking some of his reforms included the abolition of torture of noble privileges of nobles being chosen for places in office Banning the slave trade in the Danish colonies allowing freedom of the press introducing attacks on gambling in order to pay for the nursing of foundling children assigning Farmland to peasants a reform of State institutions the abolition of capital punishment for theft abolition of the eut rules at court and rewarding only actual achievements with feudal titles and properties rather than it passing from Noble father to Noble son it all sounds good right but I expect you can guess there were many people mainly from the upper classes in aristocracy who were not impressed with the changes and despite his modern thinking when it came to reform strony could be a bit too zealous in other areas Caroline Matilda was heavily involved in her son Frederick's UPR bringing but so was her lover strony adhered strongly to the teachings of Jean jaac rouso and his ideas about returning to nature but he had his own thoughts on how to apply raso's philosophy Frederick would receive an Enlightenment education but stry also believed Frederick should be largely isolated and left to do things by himself to create Independence and that much of his learning should be self-d directed through playing with two young commoner boys while there's nothing really wrong with this in theory montauri teaching is very similar it seems Frederick wasn't always shown the infection you might expect alongside this and he was rushed to learn things stry also had other strange ideas such as Russell's advice about the cold being beneficial for children being taken very literally and he would order that the Young Prince was only SP fastly clothed during the winter both stry and Caroline Matilda openly went against their traditions and customs of both the Danish and Norwegian nobility and this pitched them against the more conservative members of Court not least the queen Dowager uliana and her son Prince Frederick Caroline Matilda made this worse by introducing a law that allowed middleclass people to dine with the royal family and she began to make friends outside the restrictive aristocratic Circles of Court strony also only conducted business in German rather than Danish or even French the courtly language and he dismissed whole Departments of people replacing them with men loyal to him who knew little about the country they were now helping govern at first public feeding had been on the side of the new reforms But as time went on they began to dislike the way in which Christian was being sidelined Caroline Matilda and stry now made no effort to conceal their relationship and the queen often went out riding dressed fully in men's clothing Christian was mostly made to do as he was told only occasionally lashing out at those around him once when the king refused to do as enal Brandt a courtier and one of str's right-hand men told him to do Christian threatened to flog him the two men ended up in a fist fight and brand struck the king across the face the shock of the Court when nothing happened to brand for this was palpable in June 1771 the court moved to hsol Palace North of Copenhagen for the summer everything seemed idilic and the queen was painted with her young son in the newest country style living happily with strony like a normal family except that the situation was anything but normal on the 28th of June Caroline Matilda sent a letter to her brother George and his wife Queen Charlotte to congratulate them on the recent birth of a prince one of her nephews but what she failed to mention was that she herself was heavily pregnant it was unusual to not share such momentous news a few weeks later on the 7th of July 1771 Caroline Matilda gave birth to a little girl Louise austa the event was greeted somewhat coldly there probably wasn't a single person who really believed the little girl's father was Christian but the king officially recognized her as his own daughter officially a princess of Denmark and Norway daer Queen Yuliana agreed to be the girl's godmother if Caroline Matilda agreed read as well whether this was from a genuine hope Louise was indeed the king's child as for Christian to accept this Caroline Matilda must also have still been sleeping with him as well or from the King simply not being sure due to his mental state or from a compassion for none of this being the baby's fault Louise's position at court would never be in question due to her mother's Behavior to this day there is no way of really knowing the truth but it does seem very likely strony may have been Louise's father while Louise's birth was not itself the cause of the downfall that would now come to Caroline matild and stry it may have been the Catalyst rumors began after her birth that Caroline Matilda and her lover wanted to imprison the king and declare the queen regent in his stead the whole thing made no sense as the only way stry had any real power was if the King still lived and there was the pretense of putting out orders on Christians behalf but strony had made too many enemies and Caroline Matilda began to worry that Juliana was plotting against them both again while the daer queen would later move against them she hadn't at this point abolition of the freedom of the press was hastily brought in but it was too late there were Whispers that strony had begged the queen to let let them both leave the country but she had refused and even that a British Diplomat had tried to bribe strony to leave with a sum of money whatever the truth both stry and Caroline Matilda were in danger by the time the court returned to the capital on the 8th of January 1772 count shakal Rau a one-time supporter stry had fallen out with him over a disagreement on political views and he now saw his opportunity to overthrow his rival ransa took fake evidence to uliana claiming the lovers were indeed planning to bump off and overthrow Christian and this convinced her to move against the lovers by the 15th of January a case had been detailed and made against them in secret at Yana's residence and the conspiracy was to be enacted the following night on the 16th after a masked ball held at christiansborg Palace in in the evening everything went smoothly and strony and brand were both arrested and led away along with many of their followers and Caroline Matilda was captured and taken with her daughter to cromberg Castle Rano stated that only a single maid of honor Freda Lise moing could accompany the queen and unfortunately for Caroline Matilda she did not get on with her other attendants would be added over the coming days but they were all courtiers who disliked the queen Christian was driven around Copenhagen the next morning on the 17th in a golden carriage in light of his perceived Liberation the party was over stony's interrogation began on the 20th of February but was largely concerned more with his taking over of royal power than of his affair with the queen he claimed that the king had known of all decisions made and had agreed to them modern analysis of Christian's illness suggests he may have had schizophrenia and the nature of this means he may indeed have acquest to the orders made but not necessarily that he fully understood them at the time a few days later strony admitted to crimes of an affair with Caroline Matilda but tried to shift much of the blame onto her alongside this Caroline Matilda's household was questioned and much of the evidence from her closest female attendants and ladies in Waiting was damning a committee of four Nobles traveled to Caroline Matilda to interrogate her but she refused to speak with them stating that she recognized no court but the Kings At first she denied the relationship with strony until she was presented with his signature on a confession of course Caroline Matilda then changed her story to admitting the crime taking most of the blame in a hope to save her lover from a worse fate although there is debate over how much of this was forced on her all the arrest warrants and orders were signed by Christian but under pressure from his stepmother Juliana which was a hint of the way things would play out from that point on on the 8th of April Caroline Matilda was notified that her marriage to Christian had been dissolved and her name was no longer to be spoken in in church services strony was found guilty of a Litany of charges but principally with the crime of usurping Royal Authority made worse by the fact he wasn't nobility he and Brandt faced a terrible execution on the 28th of April both men had their right hands cut off before they were beheaded their bodies were then drawn and quarted George III had been informed of his sister's arrest and attempts had been made to to secure her release when it was discovered Branton strony might be allowed to go into Exile from Denmark threats were made to break off diplomacy between the two kingdoms and British ships were sent to the shores of Copenhagen but while Christian reportedly tried to see his Queen and was prevented he had managed to secure a promise that she was not going to be tried for any crime and the return of her Dowry was made to Britain this suggests there was at least some truth to the story strony and Caroline Matilda told their interrogators that the entire relationship between the three of them had been conducted with the knowledge and acceptance of the King by May 1772 it had been decided by the British and danish governments where to put the disgraced Queen at the suggestion of King George Caroline Matilda was to live at C Castle in his hanovarian domains on the thir th of May Caroline Matilda boarded British royal Navy ships and departed for Hanover she would never again see her son Frederick and her daughter Louise who both remained in Copenhagen with Christian a court was organized for her by the time she made her official entry into cah on the 20th of October and she would rarely leave the city afterwards Caroline Matilda led a quiet life at C castle and was reunited with with her beloved Countess Louise Von pissen in her household her main entertainment became a library at the castle and a small Theater built for her Amusement although she was still important as the mother of the era parent she really wanted nothing to do with the Danish Court except for news regarding Christian and her children with Juliana now firmly in charge and her son the Elder Prince Frederick 15 years the senior of the young Crown Prince Frederick Caroline Matilda feared for her children but she was also fearful over how her former husband was being treated there were still those who were on Caroline Matilda's side and they wanted her to return to copenhagen's Regent taking place by the side of the Crown Prince the Danes who wanted this were mostly centered about Hamburg within easy reach of Caroline Matilda's court and she reported reportedly was on board with the idea but only if her brother George agreed while the British king seems to have remained understandably impassive on the subject he made it clear he would give his support but only if the coup was successful in taking the capital and gaining power Caroline Matilda wrote at least four times to her brother asking for his Aid in this scheme for my son's happiness but before anything could be arranged Caroline Matilda died suddenly on the 10th of May 1775 after just a few days illness with fevers and rashes it's now thought she died of scarlet fever possibly with other complications she was only 23 years old she was buried at stader St Marian's Crypt near her paternal great grandmother Sophia Dortha of Brunswick lomberg who herself had been divorced and sent into Exile by George I although Caroline Matilda only lived a short life she certainly made the most of it she was a princess that divided opinion down the middle and she continues to do so on the one hand she was a lonely and spurned wife isolated in a foreign country with few friends and with a husband who wanted nothing to do with her when strony showed her affection and attention it's not hard to understand why she fell in love with him especially as the two seem to have also shared many ways of thinking and shared beliefs on the other hand she cuckolded a husband who was possibly not mentally able to fully comprehend what was happening around him and she allowed her romantic relationship to bleed not only into politics but into the succession through the question of her daughter's parentage Caroline Matilda was certainly modern in her thinking in wanting to be friends with people of all social classes of not caring for court etiquette and seeming to enjoy shocking people when possible such as wearing what she liked instead of what was expected and what must also be remembered is how young she was like other tragic female figures Catherine Howard Maran wette being young and in public view made any character outside of the expected Norm a very difficult fit and Caroline Matilda was disliked for this by those who wanted the status quo to remain and liked by those who wanted change whether the opinion on whether Caroline Matilda was right or wrong in how she acted she certainly became a focus point for an era where people began questioning how they lived why they lived that way and who they were in society if you enjoyed this video don't forget to like And subscribe so you don't miss any new [Music] documentaries

Channel: History's Forgotten People

Views: 24,216

Keywords: christian vii of denmark, british history, caroline matilda of great britain, queen of denmark, danish history, george iii, queen who became a mistress, royal mistresses in history, 18th century history

Id: PsJYdoZTd8c

Length: 38min 23sec (2303 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 25 2024