The First Iron Lady: A Life of Caroline of Ansbach

The First Iron Lady: A Life of Caroline of Ansbach
Matthew Dennison

History has forgotten Caroline of Ansbach and yet in her lifetime she was compared frequently to Elizabeth I and considered by some as ‘the cleverest Queen consort Britain ever had’.The intellectual superior of her buffoonish husband George II, Caroline is credited with bringing the Enlightenment to Britain through her sponsorship of red-hot debates about science, religion, philosophy and the nature of the universe. Encouraged by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, she championed inoculation; inspired by her friend Leibniz and Samuel Clarke, she mugged up on Newtonian physics; she embraced a salon culture which promoted developments in music, literature and garden design; she was a regular theatre-goer who loved the opera, gambling and dancing. Her intimates marvelled at the breadth of her interests. She was, said Lord Egmont, ’curious in everything’.Caroline acted as Regent four times whilst her husband returned to Hanover and during those periods she possessed power over all domestic matters. No subsequent royal woman has exercised power on such a scale.So why has history forgotten this extraordinary queen?In this magnificent biography, the first for over seventy years, Matthew Dennison seeks to reverse this neglect. The First Iron Lady uncovers the complexities of Caroline’s multifaceted life from child of a minor German princeling who, through intelligence, determination and a dash of sex appeal, rose to occupy one of the great positions of the world and did so with distinction, élan and a degree of cynical realism. It is a remarkable portrait of an 18th-century woman of great political astuteness and ambition, a radical icon of female power.

(#u7131040f-5959-5843-a741-ab55ebf52a36)

Copyright (#u7131040f-5959-5843-a741-ab55ebf52a36)

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.WilliamCollinsBooks.com (http://www.williamcollinsbooks.com)

This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2017

Copyright © Matthew Dennison 2017

Matthew Dennison asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Cover images Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2017

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008121990

Ebook Edition © August 2017 ISBN: 9780008122010

Version: 2018-08-20

Dedication (#u7131040f-5959-5843-a741-ab55ebf52a36)

For Gráinne, with love

‘Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair … Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.’

Song of Solomon

Contents

Cover (#u5f5170c7-6a72-59b8-a850-0b93d7dd2958)

Title Page (#u7798591e-67ae-50cb-b7ab-098ab3ee470b)

Copyright (#u1578f6db-b4d7-54cb-834d-90c03c62eab5)

Dedication (#u97f26e6c-f210-5b5c-96c8-ac3cca4bcfac)

Family Trees (#u18d85f43-76e4-5449-9dfa-948906d4e5e8)

Epigraph (#ufdc15f14-2715-5013-a729-1e5c169df3a0)

Introduction (#ue8a1dba2-33c8-537e-93b0-0c4de7a84078)

Prologue: ‘Halliballoo!’ (#u88d6332b-fa40-53d6-88c0-6d454e1f7c07)

PART ONE: GERMANY (#uee383f62-c980-5ae9-9c1d-946279b3372a)

I Princess of Ansbach: ‘Bred up in the softness of a Court’ (#ub5ad7b8c-9f2f-5fb3-899e-a2234514567f)

II Electoral Princess: ‘The affections of the heart’ (#u8a087f58-8f02-5646-ade2-4ea65d498fdb)

PART TWO: BRITAIN (#litres_trial_promo)

I Princess of Wales: ‘Majesty with Affability’ (#litres_trial_promo)

II Leicester House: ‘Not a Day without Suffering’ (#litres_trial_promo)

III Queen: ‘Constancy and Greatness’ (#litres_trial_promo)

Afterword (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

Notes (#litres_trial_promo)

Bibliography (#litres_trial_promo)

Picture Section (#litres_trial_promo)

Index (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Matthew Dennison (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

(#u7131040f-5959-5843-a741-ab55ebf52a36)

Epigraph (#u7131040f-5959-5843-a741-ab55ebf52a36)

‘The darling pleasure of her soul was power.’

Lord Hervey, Memoirs