Page:The Queens of England.djvu/556

CAROLINE WILHELMINA OF ANSPACH, CONSORT OF GEORGE THE SECOND. Caroline Wilhelmina was the daughter of the Margrace of Anspach, and was born in 1683. She lost her father when very young, and her mother, a princess of the house of Saxe Eisenach, marrying afterward the Elector of Saxony, the young Caroline was confided to the guardianship of Frederick of Brandenburg, subsequently King of Prussia, and thus derived the inestimable advantage of receiving her education under the superintendence of her aunt, his wife, the accomplished Sophia Charlotte, sister of George the First. No less amiable than in- tellectually gifted, the Queen of Prussia was honored and be- loved for her patronage of literature, science and art ; and her death, when only thirty-seven, was universally lamented. This melancholy event occurred in 1705, the same year in which her niece Caroline gave her hand to George, then Electoral Prince of Hanover. Caroline was distinguished by an earnest integrity of purpose, above and beyond the standard of her day: her rejection of the hand of Charles, son of Leopold the First, was honorable to her principles, whether it proceeded from personal indifference, or was, as it was considered, a striking proof of her adherence to the Protestant faith. There is no doubt the Electoral Prince was as truly and warmly attached to his bride as it was possible for a nature es- sentially coarse and phlegmatic to be; and abundant evidence also proves that his affection increased with years, as did her influence over his mind and actions. Caroline must have been eminently discreet in her conduct, or she could not have steered her difficult course as she did through the different cabals which began early in her married life. Long before the accession of George the First, the misunderstanding between him and his 504