Back to the front page
American History

The Secret Love Life of Marie Antoinette and More Historic Romance

Queen Caroline. Art UK

14. The Princess Who Kicked Off Her Married Life by Throwing Up on Her Wedding Dress and on Her Mother in Law

Princess Augusta found herself in an entirely new environment, rushed into a marriage ceremony conducted in a language she did not understand. Understandably, she got nervous. As the groom’s mother, Queen Caroline, translated from English into German and whispered it into Augusta’s ear, the bride suddenly threw up all over her wedding gown. As her mother-in-law lent a hand to wipe the mess off Augusta’s dress, the nervous bride had a second bout of the heaves and vomited all over the queen. Her marriage to Frederick, Prince of Wales, was just as awkward.

The new Princess of Wales continued to play with her dolls until her relatives finally forced her to stop. Her husband took advantage of his wife’s naivety. Among other things, he got Augusta to employ his mistress as her lady of the bedchamber after he convinced her that rumors of an affair were fake news. There was a lot of drama between the Prince of Wales and his parents, and Augusta was often dragged unwillingly into the middle of the mess and took fire from both sides. Despite the hassles and absence of love, she nonetheless performed her expected role and gave birth to nine royal children. However, she never got the hoped-for payout of becoming queen consort. Her husband died before his father, King George II, and upon the latter’s death, the crown went to Augusta’s son, George III.

Written by

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.

Keep reading

Advertisement