Christian VII, Caroline Mathilde of Wales & Struensee

[rominet09]

It was not due to her behaviour but due to the people who remained loyal to her that George did not want her back in London. He feared that her court (like her court in Celle did) would become the home of Danish reformers turned revolutionaries. Sending her to Celle was a kind act of the king for his little sister, for Celle and the dukedom of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel was governed by a good friends from her childhood who were family to her: dukes Ernst and Karl of Mecklenburg-Strehlitz were the brothers of George's queen Sophie Charlotte and thus Caroline Mathilde's In-laws. She was very much loved by her family there and by the people of Celle because she believed in Struensee's ideas of enlightenment and opened up her court to the people. Her brother had forced the Danish to give back her dowry and let her have it, so she had enough money to spend on her palace in Celle, her gardens and her people.



it is known that her son Frederick (who for his whole life was very close to his half-sister Louise Auguste from the love affair with Dr. Struensee) planned to get her back to Denmark as soon as he took over the reign for his father. But he was still a child when his mother died from a disease she had gotten on carin g for a little girl she had taken on because she missed her own children so much.



So the real tragic was that she lost Struensee and then died herself so young that neither he nor she could see the changes they had brought to Denmark taking hold under her son as king.

Thank you for this info... this story is so heartbreaking.....

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Thank you for this info... this story is so heartbreaking.....

It was informative to learn that Caroline had relatives in Celle to rely on. Without them she would have been totally abandoned. That also would be heartbreaking.

 

[Kataryn]

It was informative to learn that Caroline had relatives in Celle to rely on. Without them she would have been totally abandoned. That also would be heartbreaking.

If you saw the movie "A Royal Affair", you could see that the Danish king had sent Caroline Mathilde's best friend and lady-in-waiting Louise von Plessen away from court because she had once too often chosen to speak for the queen. Louise was offered a new home my Caroline Mathilde's brother in Celle, so when Caroline Mathilde came there, she was already awaited by her best friend. Plus her sister Augusta (who was also her godmother) was the wife of the then duke of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (and the nephew of Juliane Marie of Denmark, who had been a princess of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel) and the sisters became close again, much to the annoyance of Juliane Marie in Denmark.



That was another point I think why George III. sent his little sister to Celle, because so she could be close to her eldest sister (who had only married two years before Caroline Mathilde, so for a long time had been like the second mother to her) and thus he could annoy Juliane, who was too much of a friend with Frederick the Grand of Prussia to let him sleep in peace.

 

[Ralf]

Dissolved marriage of Christian VII

The marriage between Christian VII and princes Caroline Mathilde ended on April 6, 1772. Does anyone know where/in what city that dissolvement took place?

 

[Muhler]

The marriage between Christian VII and princes Caroline Mathilde ended on April 6, 1772. Does anyone know where/in what city that dissolvement took place?

That must have been Copenhagen.
She was after all found guilty of adultery and banished to Germany.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

That must have been Copenhagen.
She was after all found guilty of adultery and banished to Germany.

Could Caroline have legally been banished to England? England was her native country.

 

[Muhler]

Could Caroline have legally been banished to England? England was her native country.

She could, but didn't.
Presumably she was politically embarrassing.
She was officially sentenced for having committed adultery - against a foreign king. In a country that had long been not an ally, but a country England in particular and Britain in general had been on friendly footing with for several hundred years! A pretty impressive track record!
She had a child - that even then was considered likely to be Struensee's child.

She could hardly walk around at the British court - that would be a snub towards Denmark, as well as embarrassing for the British king and his family.

So what to do? Ship her off to the ancestral homelands of the BRF, the German principalities. Out of sight - out of mind...
And she had the good grace to die in an appropriately short time afterwards.

One really can't help feeling sorry for her, eh?

 

[JR76]

Let's not forget that Celle was part of her family's hereditary lands which they had ruled for almost exactly 500 years when Caroline Mathilde was born. Her grandfather and brother were both Electors of Hannover and her father was born only 36 km away from Celle in the city of Hannover.

 

[rominet09]

The film made all the actors utterly likeable, even the King….a treasure of a film !

 

[Countessmeout]

She could, but didn't.
Presumably she was politically embarrassing.
She was officially sentenced for having committed adultery - against a foreign king. In a country that had long been not an ally, but a country England in particular and Britain in general had been on friendly footing with for several hundred years! A pretty impressive track record!
She had a child - that even then was considered likely to be Struensee's child.

She could hardly walk around at the British court - that would be a snub towards Denmark, as well as embarrassing for the British king and his family.

So what to do? Ship her off to the ancestral homelands of the BRF, the German principalities. Out of sight - out of mind...
And she had the good grace to die in an appropriately short time afterwards.

One really can't help feeling sorry for her, eh?

Celle seemed to be the place to ship off unfaithful wives. She was burried near her great-grandmother Sophia Dorothea, the wife of George I of GB. Sophia was exiled there after her marriage was dissolved for abandoning her husband. Like Caroline Mathilde, her own lover was not so lucky to face exile. Her lover was killed and dumped in a river.

Sophia though didn't have as you put it, the good graces to die quickly like Caroline did. She lived for thirty years in exile. In her case she was exiled home, as Celle was her native land. She wasn't imprisoned at Celle castle though like Caroline was.

Certainly interesting grave mates.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

There was no official celebration to mark Queen Caroline Mathilde's nineteenth birthday in 1770. "The Queen's birthday was not celebrated this time because she had wanted it this way herself." was the given reason.
Instead of celebrating her birthday with King Christian VII, Caroline Mathilde spent her special day with Struensee.

 

[Prinsara]

I don't think the movie really dwelled on the possibility that he was using her rather than (or in addition to) being in love, did it? As well as Christian being genuinely unwell and sadistic due to illness and background, not just eccentric and an unpleasant husband.

It is a sad story, and stranger for its brutal ending that it's Struensee's descendants and ideals that are still around today.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Caroline Matilda, Queen of King Christian VII, is arrested for her liason with the minister Struensee
http://www.maryevans.com/history/Caroline-Matilda-10199158

 

[CyrilVladisla]

In Royal Romances Leslie Carroll wrote: At Altona, she left her English life entirely behind. German was the official language of the Danish court; from then on she would speak German or French, using English only in letters to her family. Even her name changed from English to the Danish spelling, from Caroline Matilda to Caroline Mathilde.