Frederica’s support returned when she showed an interest in Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld; she agreed he was the best of all the princes who had come to court Charlotte. However, she told Charlotte, “I beg as a favour you will never let it be known you mentioned it to me, for as I happen to be nearly related to him… like him very much, and am in constant correspondence with him, it would be directly said that I managed this match.”1 As Charlotte lobbied for a chance with Leopold with her father, who was now the Prince Regent for his ailing father, she had the support of both Frederica and her husband. The couple was eventually married on 2 May 1816. They spent a honeymoon at Oatlands, but found the air polluted by the smell of the Duchess’s animals.
The newlyweds moved into Claremont House, which wasn’t far from Oatlands. Charlotte wrote, “We like her so much. We are excellent neighbours and very sociable.”2 They attended Frederica’s Christmas party in 1816 and Charlotte wrote, “Xmas eve is a great day always at Oatlands; the Duchess has a sort of fêtte and fair for everybody… It was the gayest and prettiest sight I ever saw I think, the numbers of children, their parents, and all the happy merry faces, the noises they make with their toys and things.”3
Charlotte was soon pregnant, and she was radiantly healthy for the duration of her pregnancy. Frederica and her husband were invited to a party to celebrate Charlotte and Leopold’s wedding anniversary in May. Charlotte’s tragic death in childbirth on 6 November 1817 devastated the family and the country. When Frederica faced the family again, she was described as “so altered.”4 As the unmarried brothers hurried to find a suitable bride to produce a new heir to the throne, Queen Charlotte’s health declined. Meanwhile, the Duke of Clarence married Princess Adelaide of Meiningen, the Duke of Kent married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (coincidentally the sister of Prince Leopold), and the Duke of Cambridge married Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel. Queen Charlotte was confined to her bedroom at Kew and died on 17 November 1818.
The first new royal heir was born on 26 March 1819 to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. The Duchess of Clarence gave birth to a stillborn daughter on 27 March 1819. The Duchess of Kent gave birth to the future Queen Victoria on 4 May 1819. Victoria went ahead of her Cambridge cousin as she was born to King George III’s fourth son, and he was born to King George III’s seventh son.
King George III died on 29 January 1820 at the age of 81, and the Prince Regent was King George IV at last. However, Frederica would not live to see his coronation.
Frederica’s health was declining as well. It was reported that, “The declining state of her royal highness’s health had long been a subject of fearful anxiety among her friends and domestics; but within a few weeks previous to her dissolution, nature seemed to have gained a triumph, and hopes were entertained that the virulence of her disease had received an effectual check. Unhappily, those expectations were fallacious, and the spasmodic attacks to which she had been long subject returned with alarming violence. […] On the evening of Saturday, however, he [the Duke] received a fresh summons and repaired with all possible despatch to Oatlands, where he found his amiable consort in the most dangerous state, and the spark of life fast declining towards final extinction.”5
The report added, “Everything that medical art could suggest, or diligence perform, to prolong the vital energies, was had recourse to, but in vain, and soon after nine o’clock on the morning of the 6th, her royal highness expired, in the presence of her husband and attendants. This event, though anticipated, produced the strongest sensations of grief in the mind of the Duke, and some time elapsed before he could collect his spirits sufficiently to communicate the sad intelligence to the members of his family, and the ministers of state .”
Frederica had died on 6 August 1820 after suffering from a “grave illness.”6 She requested that she be buried in a “small vault which was prepared by her own orders in the parish church of Weybridge.”7 She was buried close by “the remains of the former wife of Colonel Bunbury”, who had been a dear friend of hers.8
Her charitable acts were lauded with the words, “This illustrious princess never turned away her ear from the prayer of want, or the complaint of misery. On the contrary, she had a hand as open as day to melting charity; so that it might be truly said, the blessing of the poor and needy was upon her in life, and that their tears followed her to the grave.”9
Her husband was happy to continue her many charitable acts and donations. He survived her for seven years, dying on 5 January 1827.
- Caroline & Charlotte by Alison Plowden p.174
- Prinny’s Daughter by Thea Holme p. 230
- Prinny’s Daughter by Thea Holme p. 230
- Princesses by Flora Fraser p.304
- A Biographical Memoir of His Late Royal Highness Frederick, Duke of York and Albany by John Watkins p.493
- Princesses by Flora Fraser p.327
- A Biographical Memoir of His Late Royal Highness Frederick, Duke of York and Albany by John Watkins p.497
- A Biographical Memoir of His Late Royal Highness Frederick, Duke of York and Albany by John Watkins p.497
- A Biographical Memoir of His Late Royal Highness Frederick, Duke of York and Albany by John Watkins p.495
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