15. A Princess of Wales Even More Unfortunate Than Diana
German noblewoman Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1719 – 1772) was the second youngest of a duke’s nineteen children and became Princess of Wales when she married the heir to the British crown. In 1736, at the young age of sixteen – and young for her age at that – she was sent to Britain, still clutching her doll, as the bride in an arranged royal marriage. She did not know a word of English when she arrived in England to wed Frederick, Prince of Wales, the son and designated successor of King George II.
To squelch rumors that the king’s heir was about to marry a British noblewoman, the royal family was in a rush to conduct the wedding. Almost immediately upon her arrival, Augusta was shoved into a wedding dress, and on May 8th, 1736, she was led up the aisle of the Royal Chapel in Saint James Palace to tie the knot with the 29-year-old Frederick. Her marriage, which lacked any semblance of love, began on a bad note with a terrible wedding ceremony and continued as poorly as it had commenced. To cap off her marital bad luck, Augusta was one of the only four Princesses of Wales who never got to become queen.
