From TheBestLinks.com
His Royal Highness The Prince Frederick, Prince of Wales (Frederick Louis) (February 1, 1707 - March 31, 1751) was the only man of that name ever to hold the title Prince of Wales, and is best remembered as the father of King George III of the United Kingdom and as the subject of the epigram which begins:
"Here lies poor Fred,
Who was alive, and is dead..."
Prince Frederick Louis, the grandson of the then Elector of Hanover (later King George I of Great Britain) was born in Hanover, Germany as Duke Friedrich Ludwig of Brunswick-Lüneburg. His parents, Electoral Prince George and Princess Caroline of Ansbach, were called upon to leave the country when their eldest son was only seven years old, and they did not see him again until he arrived in England in 1728 as a grown man. By then, they had several younger children, and they rejected Frederick both as their son and as a person, referring to him as a "foundling" and nicknaming him "Griff", short for the mythical beast known as a griffin.
The motives for the ill-feeling between Frederick and his parents may include the fact that he had been set up by his grandfather, even as a small child, as the representative of the house of Hanover, and was used to presiding over official occasions in the absence of his parents. He had a will of his own, and there are various stories about his unpleasant habits, but these are not altogether borne out by the known facts: that he was, for example, a lover of music, science and the arts. He was summoned to England when his father took the throne as King George II of Great Britain, and immediately became a thorn in the side of his parents, thwarting their every ambition and making a point of opposing them in everything.
Quickly accumulating large debts, Frederick relied for an income on his wealthy friend, George Bubb Dodington. The prince's father refused to make him the financial allowance that the prince considered should have been his, and Parliament was obliged to intervene, resulting in further bad feeling between the two. Although in his youth he was undoubtedly a spendthrift and womaniser, Frederick settled down, on his marriage, in 1736, to the much younger Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, and soon became a devoted family man, taking his wife and eight children (his youngest daughter was born posthumously) to live in the countryside at Cliveden, since he was effectively banished from court. His political ambitions remained unfulfilled, because he died, in strange circumstances (usually attributed to an abscess created by a blow on the head by a cricket or tennis ball), at the age of forty-four. His death occurred at Leicester House in London and he was buried at Westminster Abbey.
Legitimate issue
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes
|
| HRH Princess Augusta, Princess Royal | 31 August 1737 | 31 March 1813 | married 1764, Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick; had issue
|
| HM George III, King of Great Britain | 4 June 1738 | 29 January 1820 | married 1761, Charlotte-Sophia, Duchess of Mecklenburg; had issue
|
| HRH The Duke of York | 14 March 1739 | 17 September 1767 |
|
| HRH Princess Elizabeth Caroline | 30 December 1740 | 4 September 1759 |
|
| HRH The Duke of Gloucester & Edinburgh | 14 November 1743 | 25 August 1805 | married 1766, Maria Walpole, Countess of Waldegrave; had issue
|
| HRH The Duke of Cumberland | 27 November 1745 | 18 September 1790 | married 1767, Olivia Wilmot; had issue
married 1771, The Hon. Lady Anne Luttrell; no issue
|
| HRH Princess Louisa Anne | 8 March 1749 | 13 May 1750 |
|
| HRH Prince Frederick William | 13 May 1750 | 29 December 1765 |
|
| HRH Princess Caroline Matilda of Wales | 11 July 1751 | 10 May 1775 | married 1766, Christian VII, King of Denmark, had issue
|
External link
de:Friedrich Ludwig von Hannover
sv:Fredrik Ludvig av Wales
Related links
Top visited
0 of
0 links
[no links posted yet]
>> place link >>
Discussion
Last posted
0 of
0 messages
[no messages posted yet]
>> post message >>
Watch
You can
add this article to your own "watchlist" and receive e-mail notification about all changes in this page.
