Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 21.djvu/177

George II , and the Duke of Cumberland; but on ordinary occasions his temper was placable, though so irritable that he would sometimes kick his hat or wig about the room in a fit of ungovernable rage. He had a good memory, an understanding narrow but clear and active within its limits, spoke English fairly well but with a decided German accent, as well as French and Italian. He knew something of history and international law; but his favourite study was the genealogy of the German royal and princely families, and he considered the Denbighs the best of English nobility, because they traced their descent from the Hapsburgs. His neglect of polite letters brought upon him the satire of Pope's 'Epistle to Augustus' and Swift's 'Rhapsody,' and Lord Hervey testifies that his taste in pictures was as bad as it could possibly be. On the other hand he was fond of the opera, and patronised Heidegger and Handel, and founded the university of Göttingen (1734). His conversational powers were very slight, and his manner in society formal and, except to ladies, ungracious. He formed no intimate friendships with men, and chose his lady favourites rather for their physical than their mental qualities. He was totally incapable of any sort of dissimulation, or even simulation; honourable also, except when spite or avarice intervened, loyal to his allies, and an exact observer of his pledged word. His rationalistic queen never awakened in him any interest in theological controversy, or any form of speculative thought, and he remained to the day of his death an implicit believer in orthodox protestantism, ghosts, witches, and vampires (, Lettres, 1763, i. 218;, i. 33, 47-52, 57, 184-6, 289-93, ii. 525; , Memoirs, i. 175, 180, iii. 303-6; Suffolk Correspondence, i. 360, 376; , Reminiscences, ciii; , Letters, ii. 191; , Letters, 2nd ser. iv. 422; Lebensbeschreibung, 211; , 5; , Letters, ii. 434; , Works, ed. 1837, i. 121; , i. 417, 424; Walpoliana, p. 82; , i. 239-46, 299-303, ii. 43).

By Queen Caroline George II had issue eight children, viz. (l)Frederick Louis, prince of Wales (1707-1751) [q. v.] (2) Anne, Princess Royal, born at Herrenhausen in 1709, married on 14 March 1733-4 to the Prince of Orange. She was fat, ill-shaped, disfigured by the small-pox, and short, while the prince was deformed. The princess had leave to refuse him, but replied that she would marry him if he were a baboon. 'Well, then,' said the king, 'there is baboon enough for you.' The marriage was solemnised with the utmost pomp in the French chapel adjoining St. James's Palace. The princess soon appeared to be quite attached to her husband, who became very popular, and in consequence was hurried out of the country by the king (22 April). On the death of the queen the princess returned to England, in the hope of succeeding to her mother's influence with the king, who, guessing her motive, forthwith sent her back to Holland. On the death of her husband she became regent of the republic during the minority of her son George William. She was a good linguist and an accomplished amateur musician and painter, ambitious and rather haughty, and not without capacity for affairs of state. She died on 12 Jan. 1759 (, i. 235, 274, 306, 309, 320, 327;, Reminiscences, cxxxv; , Memoirs, i. 206, iii. 168; Gent. Mag. 1751 p. 473, 1759 p. 46. (3) Amelia Sophia Eleanora, born at Herrenhausen on 10 June 1710. She was long the intended wife of Frederick the Great, who corresponded with her until his marriage in 1733. At her death his miniature was found on her breast next her heart. During the life of the king she lived with him, and received the homage of the Dukes of Newcastle and Grafton. After the king's death she had a house in Cavendish Square and another at Gunners- bury. She died unmarried, at Cavendish Square, on 31 Oct. 1786, and was buried in Henry VII's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, on 11 Nov. (''Gent. Mag. 1786, p. 1000;, Reminiscences, cxxxv; , Memoirs, i. 182; , ii, 60; , Frederick the Great'', ii. 82). (4) Carolina Elizabeth, born at Herrenhausen in 1713, was her mother's favourite. She inherited her father's unswerving veracity. 'Send for Caroline,' the king or queen would say, 'and then we shall know the truth.' A hopeless passion for Lord Hervey combined with the grief occasioned by her mother's death to engender in her a perpetual melancholy, which undermined her health. For some years before her death she lived in retirement in St. James's Palace, seeing only members of the royal family, and dividing her time between religious exercises and the secret dispensation of charity. She died on 28 Dec. 1757, and was buried in Henry VII's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, on 5 Jan. following (, Reminiscences, cxxxv;, i. 312, ii. 83;, Memoirs, iii. 83; ''Gent. Mag. 1757 578, 1758 p. 41). (5) George William, the infant whose christening was the occasion of the rupture between his father and grandfather, born at Leicester House on 2 Nov. 1717, died on 6 Feb. 1717-18, privately buried in Henry VII's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, on the 12th (Hist. Reg.''