CAROLINE AMELIA ELIZABETH (I , queen of George IV. of Great Britain, second daughter of Charles Wil liam Ferdinand, duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, was born on May 17, 1768. In she was married to the then prince of Wales (see GEORGE IV.), who disliked her and separated from her after the birth of a daughter, Princess Charlotte Augusta, in Jan. 1796. The princess resided at Blackheath; and as she was thought to have been badly treated by her profligate husband, the sympathies of the people were strongly in her favour. About 1806 reports re flecting on her conduct were circulated so openly that the king appointed a commission to inquire into the circumstances. The princess was acquitted of any serious fault, but improprieties in her conduct were pointed out and censured. In 1814 she left Eng land and travelled on the Continent, residing principally in Italy. On the accession of George IV. in 1820, orders were given that the English ambassadors should prevent the recognition of the prin cess as queen at any foreign court. Her name was also formally omitted from the liturgy. These acts stirred up a strong feeling in favour of the princess among the English people generally, and she at once made arrangements for returning to England and claiming her rights. She rejected a proposal that she should re ceive an annuity of £50,000 a year on condition of renouncing her title and remaining abroad, and arrived in England on June 6. One month later a bill to dissolve her marriage with the king on the ground of adultery with an Italian, Bartolomeo Bergami, whom she had taken into favour in Milan, was brought into the House of Lords. The trial began on Aug. 17, 1820, and on Nov. 10 the bill, after passing the third reading, was abandoned. The public excitement had been intense, the boldness of the queen's counsel, Brougham and Denman, unparalleled, and the ministers felt that the smallness of their majority was virtual defeat. The queen was allowed to assume her title, but she was refused ad mittance, to Westminster Abbey on the coronation day, July 19, 1821. Mortification at this event seems to have hastened her death, which took place on Aug. 7 of the same year.
See A Queen of Indiscretions, the Tragedy of Caroline of Brunswick, Queen of England, trans. by F. Chapman from the Italian of Graziano Paolo Clerici (1907), with numerous portraits, etc.; The Trial at large of Her Majesty . containing the evidence . speeches . . . etc. printed from the Journals of the House, 2 vols., 1821. Of contem porary authorities the Creevey Papers (1905) throw the most interest ing sidelights on the subject.