Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach (Wilhelmina Charlotte Caroline; 1 March 1683 – 20 November 1737) was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and Electress of Hanover from 11 June 1727 (O.S.) until her death in 1737 as the wife of King George II.
Caroline's father, Margrave John Frederick of Brandenburg-Ansbach, belonged to a branch of the House of Hohenzollern and was the ruler of a small German state, the Principality of Ansbach. After Caroline was orphaned at a young age, she moved to the enlightened court of her guardians, King Frederick I and Queen Sophia Charlotte of Prussia. At the Prussian court, her previously limited education was widened and she adopted the liberal outlook possessed by Sophia Charlotte, who became her good friend and whose views influenced Caroline all her life.
When she was a young woman, Caroline was much sought after as a bride. After rejecting the suit of Archduke Charles of Austria, a claimant to the Spanish throne, she married George Augustus, who was third in line to the English throne (and subsequently the British throne) and heir apparent to the Electorate of Hanover. They had eight children, seven of whom reached adulthood. Caroline moved to Britain permanently in 1714 when her husband became Prince of Wales. As Princess of Wales, she joined George Augustus in rallying political opposition to his father, King George I. In 1717, after a family row, George Augustus was expelled from court. Caroline came to be associated with Robert Walpole, an opposition politician who was a former government minister. Walpole rejoined the government in 1720, and George Augustus reconciled publicly with his father on Walpole's advice. Over the next few years, Walpole rose to become the leading minister.
Upon her husband's accession in 1727, Caroline became queen and electress, and her eldest son, Frederick, became Prince of Wales. He was a focus for the opposition, like his father before him, and Caroline's relationship with him was strained. As princess and as queen, Caroline was known for her political influence, which she exercised both through and for Walpole. Her tenure included four regencies, which occurred during George II's stays in Hanover; she is credited with strengthening the House of Hanover's place in Britain during a period of political instability. After her death in 1737, Caroline was widely mourned by her political allies as well as by the King, who refused to remarry.
Caroline was born on 1 March 1683 in Ansbach, the daughter of John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, and his second wife, Princess Eleonore Erdmuthe of Saxe-Eisenach. Her father was the ruler of one of the smallest German states; he died of smallpox at the age of 31, when Caroline was three years old. Caroline and her only full sibling, her younger brother Margrave William Frederick, left Ansbach with their mother, who returned to her native Eisenach.
In 1692, Caroline's widowed mother was pushed into an unhappy marriage with the Elector of Saxony, and she and her two children moved to the Saxon court at Dresden. Eleonore Erdmuthe was widowed again two years later, after her unfaithful husband contracted smallpox from his mistress. Eleonore remained in Saxony for another two years, until her death in 1696. The orphaned Caroline and William Frederick returned to Ansbach to stay with their elder half-brother, Margrave George Frederick II. George Frederick was a youth with little interest in parenting a girl, and so Caroline soon moved to Lützenburg outside Berlin, where she entered into the care of her new guardians, Frederick, Elector of Brandenburg, and his wife, Sophia Charlotte, who had been a friend of Eleonore Erdmuthe.
Frederick and Sophia Charlotte became king and queen of Prussia in 1701. The Queen was the daughter of Sophia, Dowager Electress of Hanover, and the sister of George, Elector of Hanover. She was renowned for her intelligence and strong character, and her uncensored and liberal court attracted a great many scholars, including philosopher Gottfried Leibniz. Caroline was exposed to a lively intellectual environment quite different from anything she had experienced previously. Before she began her education under Sophia Charlotte's care, Caroline had received little formal education; her handwriting remained poor throughout her life. With her lively mind, Caroline developed into a scholar of considerable ability. She and Sophia Charlotte developed a strong relationship in which Caroline was treated as a surrogate daughter; the Queen once declared Berlin was "a desert" without Caroline whenever she left temporarily for Ansbach.
An intelligent and attractive woman, Caroline was much sought after as a bride. Dowager Electress Sophia and British diplomat Edmund Poley both called her "the most agreeable Princess in Germany". She was considered for the hand of Archduke Charles of Austria, who was a candidate for the throne of Spain and later became Holy Roman Emperor. Charles made official overtures to her in 1703, and the match was encouraged by King Frederick of Prussia. After some consideration, Caroline refused in 1704, as she would not convert from Lutheranism to Catholicism. Early in the following year, Queen Sophia Charlotte died on a visit to her native Hanover. Caroline was devastated, writing to Leibniz, "The calamity has overwhelmed me with grief and sickness, and it is only the hope that I may soon follow her that consoles me."
In June 1705, Sophia Charlotte's nephew Prince George Augustus of Hanover visited the Ansbach court, supposedly incognito, to inspect Caroline, as his father the Elector did not want his son to enter into a loveless arranged marriage as he himself had. The nephew of three childless uncles, George Augustus was under pressure to marry and father an heir to prevent endangering the Hanoverian succession. He had heard reports of Caroline's "incomparable beauty and mental attributes". He immediately took a liking to her "good character" and the British envoy reported that George Augustus "would not think of anybody else after her". For her part, Caroline was not fooled by the prince's disguise, and found her suitor attractive. He was the heir apparent of his father's Electorate of Hanover and third-in-line to the English throne, then held by his distant cousin Queen Anne, after his grandmother Dowager Electress Sophia and his father the Elector.
On 22 August 1705, Caroline arrived in Hanover for her wedding to George Augustus; they were married that evening in the palace chapel at Herrenhausen. By May of the following year, Caroline was pregnant, and her first child Prince Frederick was born on 20 January 1707. A few months after the birth, in July, Caroline fell seriously ill with smallpox followed by pneumonia. Her baby was kept away from her, but George Augustus remained devotedly at her side, catching the infection himself. They both survived. Over the next seven years, Caroline had three more children, Anne, Amelia, and Caroline, all of whom were born in Hanover.
George Augustus and Caroline had a successful and loving marriage, though he continued to keep mistresses, as was customary for the time. Caroline was aware of his infidelities; they were well known and he told her about them himself. His two best-known mistresses were Henrietta Howard, later Countess of Suffolk, and, beginning in 1735, Amalie von Wallmoden, Countess of Yarmouth. Howard was one of Caroline's Women of the Bedchamber and became Mistress of the Robes when her husband inherited a peerage in 1731; she retired in 1734. In contrast with George Augustus and his mother, Sophia Dorothea, Caroline was known for her marital fidelity; she never made any embarrassing scenes nor did she take lovers. She preferred her husband's mistresses to be her ladies-in-waiting so that she could keep a closer eye on them.
After the union of England and Scotland in 1707, the succession of George Augustus's family to the united British throne was confirmed but insecure, since Queen Anne's half-brother James Stuart contested the Hanoverian claim, and Anne had fallen out with Dowager Electress Sophia. The Queen refused permission for any of the Hanoverians to visit Britain in her lifetime. Caroline wrote to Leibniz, "I accept the comparison which you draw, though all too flattering, between me and Queen Elizabeth as a good omen. Like Elizabeth, the Electress's rights are denied her by a jealous sister [Queen Anne], and she will never be sure of the English crown until her accession to the throne." In June 1714, Sophia died in Caroline's arms at the age of 83, and Caroline's father-in-law became Queen Anne's heir presumptive. Just weeks later, Anne died, and the Elector of Hanover was proclaimed her successor, becoming George I of Great Britain.