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 Caroline devoted to the queen (ib. iii. 209). Towards the princess royal her affection appears to have been warm rather than deep (ib. 334).

As a rule, the political opinions of Queen Caroline were in complete accord with those of her husband. Though at times eloquent in her praise of English institutions, she was a German princess at heart, 'always partial to the emperor' (ib. i. 273), jealous of the prerogative, and as fond of troops as was the king himself (ib. ii. 253). Walpole declared that she was in the habit of accusing him of 'partiality to England' (ib. ii. 63), and it is certain that 'the militant flame in her was blown' by such counsellors as the Hanoverian minister Hattorf (ib. ii. 38-9). Though true to the whig leader in the main, she had no love for the whigs as a party (ib. iii. 65), and had a strong dislike of the minister's brother Horace, of Newcastle (iii. 134-5), and of Carteret (iii. 161). She was liberal in sentiment towards Jacobites and Roman catholics, and promised Swift to use her best endeavours for Ireland (Suffolk Letters, i. 700-1). Though she was at all times active in influencing appointments (, ii. 268), her interest in politics most fully exhibited itself when she acted as regent during the king's absence in Hanover in 1729, 1732, 1735, and 1736-7. From first to last, much to the chagrin of the Prince of Wales, the king invariably appointed her to this office, and an act of parliament was passed for the express purpose of exempting her from taking the oaths (ib. ii. 296). More especially during his last absence she took an active part in the conduct of affairs, and showed great vigour in dealing with the troubles which arose during this period, and with the Edinburgh Porteous riots, and their consequences in particular. At the same time she conciliated the king's weakness by avoiding any display of state during his absence, and by residing out of town at Kensington, notwithstanding his pretended wishes to the contrary (, ii. 362). Towards the church Queen Caroline's position was peculiar. The bench of bishops as a whole she treated de haut en bas (see her rebuke of them for their opposition to the Quakers' Tithe Bill in 1736,, ii. 276); but for several members of it, such as Sherlocke, Secker, Butler, and Pearce, she entertained a strong regard. Her relations with Hoadly, whom Hervey maintains she hated, but whom she helped to promote to the see of Winchester, must have been of a more complex nature. She would gladly have placed on the bench Dr. Clarke, for whose learning and character she had the deepest respect, but he repeatedly declined (see as to her relations with Clarke, and her 'arbitration' between him and Leibniz,, ii. 273-4). It pleased the world and the wits who set it talking (see especially Croker's note to, ii. 140) to impugn the orthodoxy of her creed. That she thought soberly on the highest subjects is shown by her letter to Leibniz concerning his 'Theodicee' (, 533-4); it was not her fault that she could not help, as he had hoped, to incline the church of England in the direction of a reunion of the protestant churches (ib. 541-5).

The health of Queen Caroline was seriously affected in the autumn of 1734 (the report of her death in 1731 was a mere stockjobber's invention; see Wentworth Papers, 474); and in August 1737, after receiving a letter offensive in form from the Prince of Wales, she fell ill of a violent fit of the gout (, iii. 227). But the fatal illness which began on 9 Nov. of the same year had its origin in a rupture which she had for years carefully kept concealed, and for which a painful operation was performed, it is said, only two days too late. She died on 20 Nov. quite peacefully. Not long before her death she made a simple and touching declaration of her endeavours on behalf of the king and nation. There was much gossip as to her having declined to receive the sacrament; her last words were a request for prayer. The king lamented her with loud and half-selfish passionateness, but he scrupulously provided for her servants, declaring that he would have nobody feel her loss but himself. He was afterwards buried by her side in Henry VII's chapel in Westminster Abbey (, iii. 377-80, chiefly from Dr. Essay towards the Character of Queen Caroline;, iii. 294-348; Reminiscences). By her will she left all her property to the king, including the seat at Richmond, on which she had spent so much money (his, according to Reminiscences, 305), but it seems to have been an idle invention that she died rich. 'Caroline the Good' was a genuinely able and, notwithstanding her power of dissembling, a true-hearted woman. Her learning was not deep, but she was able to appreciate some of the best thought of her times, and she made some attempt to encourage poets and other men of letters by her patronage. She was not ill-read in French history, and took some interest in English literature, though she never learnt to speak English correctly, and conversed with her family in French. Of eminent men of science, Newton and Halley had her active goodwill; and she was a benefactress of Queen's College, Oxford. Of course she was for Handel with the king, and against the prince. Though