Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1719-1772.)
The lovely Augusta was Princess of Wales between 1736 and 1751 and then became Dowager Princess of Wales after that. She was one of only three women who held that title and never became Queen Consort.
She was sent to Great Britain at the age of 16 to marry the eldest son of King George II- 29 year old Frederick, Prince of Wales. Their marriage seemed to be fairly happy, as they had nine children, but as with all my posts, there was a teensy-weensy bit of scandal later in Augusta’s life.
After the death of her husband, her role as mother to the heir-apparent became very closely watched and she was named prospective regent (her son became King George III). This caused public and political controversy for many reasons, however, the biggest problem was that she was being influenced by John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute- who happened to be her son’s tutor. It was his “back door” visits to tutor the prince that was turned into public scandal in the press. Widespread hostility ensued… and when she died of throat cancer at age 52, all sorts of crazies showed up during her funeral procession shouting horrible insults.
I really hope that doesn’t happen at my funeral.