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CAROLINE (1683-1737)

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 380 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CAROLINE (1683-1737)  , wife of See also:George II., See also:king of See also:Great See also:Britain and See also:Ireland, was a daughter of See also:John See also:Frederick, See also:margrave of See also:Brandenburg-See also:Ansbach (d . 1686) . See also:Born at Ansbach on the 1st of See also:March 1683, the princess passed her youth mainly at See also:Dresden and See also:Berlin, where she enjoyed the See also:close friendship of Sophie See also:Charlotte, wife of Frederick I. of See also:Prussia; she married George See also:Augustus, electoral See also:prince of See also:Hanover, in See also:September 1705 . The See also:early years of her married See also:life were spent in Hanover . She took a continual See also:interest in the approaching See also:accession of the Hanoverian See also:dynasty to the See also:British See also:throne, was on very friendly terms with the old electress See also:Sophia, and corresponded with See also:Leibnitz, whose acquaintance she had made in Berlin . In See also:October 1714 See also:Caroline followed her See also:husband and her See also:father-in-See also:law, now King George I., to See also:London . As princess of See also:Wales she was accessible and popular, and took the first See also:place at See also:court, filling a difficult position with tact and success . When the See also:quarrel between the prince of Wales and his father was attaining serious proportions, Caroline naturally took the See also:part of her husband, and matters reached a See also:climax in 1717 . Driven from court, ostracized by the king, deprived even of the custody of their See also:children, the prince and princess took up their See also:residence in London at See also:Leicester See also:House, and in the See also:country at See also:Richmond . They managed, however, to surround themselves with a distinguished circle; Caroline had a certain See also:taste for literature, and among their attendants and visitors were See also:Lord See also:Chesterfield, See also:Pope, See also:Gay, Lord See also:Hervey and his wife, the beautiful See also:Mary Lepel . A formal reconciliation with George I. took place in 1720.: In October 1727 George II. and his See also:queen were crowned . During the See also:rest of her life Queen Caroline's See also:influence. in See also:English polities was very chiefly exercised in support of See also:Sir See also:Robert See also:Walpole; she kept this See also:minister in See also:power, and in See also:control of See also:church See also:patron-See also:age .

She was exceedingly tolerant, and the bishops appointed by her were remarkable rather for learning than for orthodoxy . During the king's absences from See also:

England she was See also:regent of the See also:kingdom on four occasions . On the whole, Caroline's relations with her husband, to whom she See also:bore eight children, were satisfactory . A See also:clever and patient woman, she was very complaisant towards the king, flattering his vanity and acknowledging his mistresses, and she retained her influence over him to the end . She died on the loth of See also:November 1737 . Caroline appears in See also:Scott's See also:Heart of Midlothian ; see also Lord Hervey, See also:Memoirs of the Reign of George II., ed. by J.W . See also:Croker (1884) ; W . H . See also:Wilkins, Caroline the Illustrious (1904) ; and A . D . See also:Greenwood, Lives of the Hanoverian Queens of England, vol. i . (1909) .

End of Article: CAROLINE (1683-1737)
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