A royal wish not to be a breeding

The main drive of my funded research has been to locate evidence of lost pregnancies, and of course, the emotional wrench that this takes on parents and families, balanced with the inevitable desire to ‘try again.’ Still, before widespread contraception, there was a clear sense that a sensible gap between pregnancies was wise and that husbands should allow their wives to recover after every pregnancy, full-term or not.

Occasionally though, evidence appears of women who find themselves with the nagging suspicion that they are pregnant yet again and are not too thrilled to be so. Work at Argyll Estates Archive, Inveraray Castle, revealed the case of Princess Augusta of Brunswick (1737-1813), eldest sister of Britain’s George III. She married Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, on January 16, 1764, becoming Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg and subsequently Princess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Together, Augusta and the Duke had seven surviving children, including most famously, Caroline of Brunswick, the allegedly unwashed spouse of George IV.

The Argyll Estates Archives conserve correspondence between Augusta and Elizabeth, the fifth Duchess of Argyll c.1733-1790, known as the ‘Double Duchess,’ as she had been previously married to the sixth Duke of Hamilton. Their clearly warm friendship may have been formed in London, before their respective marriages, or on one of Elizabeth’s trips through Germany, as a lady-in-waiting and as a convalescent. They supported each other through the loss of children, exchanged gossip and plotted marriages for their surviving offspring.

Woman dressed in a neo-classical, draped gown and robe, with an ornate diadem on her head. She is holding a baby, wrapped in drapery, and both are set in a neo-classical setting with draperies, columns and a vase.

Angelica Kauffman - Princess Augusta of Wales, (1767) [Royal Collection]

Where Elizabeth married twice for love, Augusta’s dynastic alliance was quite different, and we find her in 1773 fearful for her failing eyesight and resentful of the duke’s demanding attitude to the marital bed:

My dear Duchess

The physicians wish that I may not be a breeding as my eyes are still so weak, and as I give up so much to the Hereditary he might I think without loosing of his authority alow me first to get well, but men has no reason and I have nothing to do but to pray that good will be more merciful than H. S. H. [This has been struck through in the original]

The Queen writes every post to her brothers but I have never heard that you had done any thing to offend her. Prince Charles has lost his only son. The King of Prussia [Frederick the Great, 1712-1786] has been for two days at Langleben I find him grown very old.

[Bundle 395, 1 Jun 1773. Bronsvic]

Painting of a woman dressed in a loosely draped dress, and an ermine-lined red robe. She is leaning against a stone wall, with a tree in the background.

Sir Joshua Reynolds - Elizabeth Campbell, duchess of Argyll and suo jure Baroness Hamilton of Hameldon (1758–9) [Board of Trustees of the (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight)]

The duke had clearly insisted on the rights of the marital bed before his wife had recovered.

Of course, the most famous member of the family was Augusta’s daughter, Caroline (1768-1821), who in 1795 and at the advanced age of twenty-seven, married her cousin George, the Prince of Wales, later George IV (1762-1830). This resulted in a notoriously unhappy marriage, with the corpulent George complaining about Caroline’s lack of personal hygiene. Some years earlier though, Augusta was already worried about Caroline’s potential on the marriage market, telling the Duchess of Argyll that she blamed her husband for spoiling the children’s nature.

Brunsvic the 28 of Oct 1789

You are very kind dear Duchess my spirits are up again with the hope of marrying my daughter, she was the only thing that used to hurt me […] I heard that our manner of life would friten young men from wishing a nearer connection with us, but providence is too just to punish me for others faults.

 I am the happiest creature in the world to know Caroline settles before my death, all my wishes have been for these twenty years for them that they might turn out well for I have looked on myself as a widow, for the Duke does not care about them nor do the Children love him as a parent, those that are handsome he flatters which has vex’d me, as it cost me much more trouble to keep them in order. Caroline knew exactly how to humour him which would have been her ruine if she had remain’d longer with us. 

[Bundle 395]

So, was this conditioned character fault, rather than any fault in personal hygiene, the real root of the notoriously troubled marriage of Caroline and George?

Research for my project sends me in all sorts of directions. I never intended to research the marriages of the Hanoverians, but such is the richness of eighteenth-century correspondence, all things are possible. Moreover, working in private and estate archives, has pointed to the incredible depth and wealth of materials on our doorstep for researching social and family history. I am so grateful to be collaborating with members of SACHA (Scottish Association of Country House Archivists), and in this case, my thanks go to Alison Diamond and Donald MacDougall for their help and warm welcome into the SACHA community.