The Hanovers 1714-1901

[LouisFerdinand]

Prince Frederick threatened to divorce Sophia Dorothea the same year they married, accusing her of not wanting to be married to him.

[Blue Clover]

Wow! Sounds like an arranged marriage gone wrong.  :censored2:

[Curryong]

They were first cousins and he chose Sophia Dorothea out of a choice of three princesses. He'd been attracted to her since his early teens but she disliked him from childhood. They had absolutely nothing in common, and in spite of several children had a miserable marriage.

[LouisFerdinand]

Crown Prince Frederick William and Princess Sophia Dorothea had a common grandmother. She was the Electress Sophia of Hanover. Sophia commissioned her niece, Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess of the Palatinate to procure Sophia Dorothea's trousseau in Paris.

[LouisFerdinand]

William IV was on the throne when the Tolpuddle Martyrs were transported to Australia.

[LouisFerdinand]

When William III became the King of England in 1689, should not the royal house have been the House of Orange? After all, William III was from The Netherlands.

[Curryong]

^ No, because his wife had the primary right to the throne of England through her father who was a King and a Stuart. William did have a link to the Throne through his mother, who was a sister to Charles II. It was agreed during the negotiations towards William and Mary's accession that they would be dual Monarchs but that didn't place William ahead of his wife. Remember, their successor Queen Anne was married to a Prince of Denmark but the House name of Stuart didn't change then either.

[LouisFerdinand]

When Princess Charlotte had a holiday in Weymouth, she went to performances at the Theatre Royal and the occasional ballet at the Assembly Rooms. She was allowed to give dinner parties. She invited some of the aristocracy and gentry who came to stay in rented houses or at Ressell's Royal Hotel.

[LouisFerdinand]

Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg with Princess Charlotte at Esher Church in 1816   
Princess Leopold of Saxe-Coburg , nee Princess Charlotte of Britain,... News Photo - Getty Images

[LouisFerdinand]

In 1699 King William III appointed Bishop Gilbert Burnet as tutor to Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, the son of Princess Anne.   
In 1699 King William III appointed Bishop Gilbert Burnet as tutor to Stock Photo: 87952863 - Alamy

[LouisFerdinand]

King William III called the legislature to convene every year. He needed this for war revenue and it reassured the lawmakers that he would not govern without them.

[LouisFerdinand]

On February 3, 1689, Prince William of Orange declared that he could not agree to rule as regent or as Mary's consort. He demanded the full power and sovereignty of a monarch, jointly held with his wife. They became William III and Mary II.

[LouisFerdinand]

1814 First meeting between Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold   
1814 First meeting between Princess Charlotte of Wales and Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld | Grand Ladies | gogm

[LouisFerdinand]

Princess Charlotte asked Henry Brougham to write a short statement to the effect that she was determined never to marry the Prince of Orange. If ever there should be an announcement of such a match, it must be understood to be without her consent and against her will. When it was written, Charlotte asked for six copies to be made. She signed all of them and gave one to each person present.     

:xmas6: :xmas6: :xmas6: :xmas6: :xmas6: :xmas6:

[LouisFerdinand]

After George IV became king, the government tried to get a divorce for the King by act of parliament. For George IV to divorce his wife Caroline of Brunswick, was it necessary to have Parliament involved?

[Curryong]

Of course Parliament had to involve themselves in a monarch's divorce. That would be so even today albeit only with a speech in the Commons after the divorce was granted.
It was the House of Lords, not the Commons, who tried to placate George IV by trying to ensure a divorce. In those days there were no divorce courts and wealthy people, including peers who wished to divorce had to petition the House of Lords.

A former investigation of Caroline's morals and behaviour in and out of the U.K. called The Delicate Investigation had failed, largely because no absolute proof beyond servants gossip was declared as sustainable, Lord Brougham a well known lawyer, MP and Radical, galloped to her defence and the authorities were also wary of mob violence.The poor and radicals were on Caroline's side. In the end, due again to a speech by Lord Brougham, the Lords attempt came to nothing.

Caroline died shortly after the coronation anyway, following a very unbecoming scene of her attempts to enter the Abbey on George's Coronation day.

Queen Caroline of Brunswick, wife of George IV

[Amabel2]

yes that was the only way you could get a divorce by a private Act of Parliament.. and it had to go through teh Commons and the Lords, didn't it. 

[Curryong]

Yes, basically between the 17th century (when there was a famous case that started it all) and 1857 when the Matrimonial Causes Act reformed things a bit in England and Wales, establishing a Divorces Court on very restrictive grounds, the only way to get a divorce so that you might possibly marry again was satisfying the Canon Courts that the marriage could not be saved and then, through a Private Act, going through the whole rigmarole again through the Commons and the Lords. The Commons proceedings required a full sitting of the House, which must have been very edifying, talk about airing dirty linen! It was all time consuming, difficult and expensive with no guarantee of success.

The vast number of such Acts between 1670 and 1857 were brought by wealthy (and determined) men. I've never been sure of what Canon courts did what in Doctors Commons. There were obscure judiciaries like Court of the Arches. I think Dickens made fun of them in his early years. However, although they allowed for a separation of bed and board they did not permit remarriage, so it was off to Parliament if you wanted a new wife! I imagine the vast majority of the population just quietly separated, lived in sin with another, or suffered in silence!

[Amabel2]

Of course, people either separated or deserted or put up with things.  A divorce cost about ?1000 I think so very few people could afford it and it was only in cases of really hating a wife or her makinga public scandal... or possibley needing a legitimate heir.. that anyone would go through all the hassle of a divorce.  But George did hate Caroline adn Vice Versa...

[Curryong]

Yes, George didn't want anything to do with Caroline and certainly didn't want her enthroned beside him as Queen Consort. He had basically married her to get his debts paid by Parliament, and they were unimpressed with each other from the moment they met. He did treat her very badly.

IMO it was six of one and half a dozen of the other with those two, however. He was a spoiled and shallow spendthrift and fantasist who couldn't sustain a long term relationship anyway. Neither could Caroline, who was vulgar and unstable and unsuitable to be a consort to any Prince or sovereign. She supposedly had been brought up reasonably carefully but was careless and wilful. A match made in hell, really. At least their only child found happiness for a short while in a happy marriage. 

[Amabel2]

True Caroline was a disaster.  I think she must have had some kind of learning difficulties, which drove her to crazy antics, silly pranks and affairs with unsuitable men...Bad as George was, one cant really blame him for wanting a divorce, as she really should not have been married to anyone who had any kind of public role.  They coudl have ketp her quietly at home surely, romping and seducing the footmen. 
Double post auto-merged: December 30, 2020, 09:28:56 AM

As far as I can remember, when there was the Delicate Investigation into her conduct after she and George separated, George III said something on the lines that Caroline's behaviour was such that he could not really condone it.. that if she'd had one lover because she was lonely and a deserted wife, he could have understood and concealed it but her behavior was too awful...
Am I right in remembering that @Curryong ?  YOu usually know these things.

[LouisFerdinand]

In August 1818 the Prince of Wales (the future King George IV) appointed a three-man commission to investigate his wife's adulterous activities.   
Queen Caroline or Caroline of Brunswick (1768 ? 1821), was the wife Stock Photo - Alamy

[LouisFerdinand]

King George IV ate a lot of pies.   
The sheer gluttony of King George IV - YouTube

[Nightowl]

I would gather to believe that King George IV was am emotional eater, he ate to fill that void inside of him.

[LouisFerdinand]

Do you believe that if George IV would have had a wife he could have gotten along with, he might not have eaten so much?  :shemademe: :shemademe: :shemademe: :shemademe: