Frederick, Prince of Wales

His Royal Highness The Prince Frederick, Prince of Wales (Frederick Louis) (February 1, 1707 - March 31, 1751) was the only man of that name ever to hold the title Prince of Wales, and is best remembered as the father of King George III of the United Kingdom and as the subject of the epigram which begins:

"Here lies poor Fred,
Who was alive, and is dead..."

Prince Frederick Louis, the grandson of the then Elector of Hanover (later King George I of Great Britain) was born in Hanover, Germany as Duke Friedrich Ludwig of Brunswick-Lüneburg. His parents, Electoral Prince George and Princess Caroline of Ansbach, were called upon to leave the country when their eldest son was only seven years old, and they did not see him again until he arrived in England in 1728 as a grown man. By then, they had several younger children, and they rejected Frederick both as their son and as a person, referring to him as a "foundling" and nicknaming him "Griff", short for the mythical beast known as a griffin.

The motives for the ill-feeling between Frederick and his parents may include the fact that he had been set up by his grandfather, even as a small child, as the representative of the house of Hanover, and was used to presiding over official occasions in the absence of his parents. He had a will of his own, and there are various stories about his unpleasant habits, but these are not altogether borne out by the known facts: that he was, for example, a lover of music, science and the arts. He was summoned to England when his father took the throne as King George II of Great Britain, and immediately became a thorn in the side of his parents, thwarting their every ambition and making a point of opposing them in everything.

Quickly accumulating large debts, Frederick relied for an income on his wealthy friend, George Bubb Dodington. The prince's father refused to make him the financial allowance that the prince considered should have been his, and Parliament was obliged to intervene, resulting in further bad feeling between the two. Although in his youth he was undoubtedly a spendthrift and womaniser, Frederick settled down, on his marriage, in 1736, to the much younger Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, and soon became a devoted family man, taking his wife and eight children (his youngest daughter was born posthumously) to live in the countryside at Cliveden, since he was effectively banished from court. His political ambitions remained unfulfilled, because he died, in strange circumstances (usually attributed to an abscess created by a blow on the head by a cricket or tennis ball), at the age of forty-four. His death occurred at Leicester House in London and he was buried at Westminster Abbey.

Legitimate issue

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
HRH Princess Augusta, Princess Royal	31 August 1737	31 March 1813	married 1764, Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick; had issue
HM George III, King of Great Britain	4 June 1738	29 January 1820	married 1761, Charlotte-Sophia, Duchess of Mecklenburg; had issue
HRH The Duke of York	14 March 1739	17 September 1767
HRH Princess Elizabeth Caroline	30 December 1740	4 September 1759
HRH The Duke of Gloucester & Edinburgh	14 November 1743	25 August 1805	married 1766, Maria Walpole, Countess of Waldegrave; had issue
HRH The Duke of Cumberland	27 November 1745	18 September 1790	married 1767, Olivia Wilmot; had issue married 1771, The Hon. Lady Anne Luttrell; no issue
HRH Princess Louisa Anne	8 March 1749	13 May 1750
HRH Prince Frederick William	13 May 1750	29 December 1765
HRH Princess Caroline Matilda of Wales	11 July 1751	10 May 1775	married 1766, Christian VII, King of Denmark, had issue