This Is London - May Holiday 2017

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The Music Party Frederick, Prince of Wales with
his Three Eldest Sisters, Philippe Mercier 1733.,
Royal Collection Trust © Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth 2017.
ENLIGHTENED PRINCESSES AT
KENSINGTON PALACE
A major new exhibition at Kensington
Palace – Enlightened Princesses:
Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte and the
Shaping of the Modern World – explores
the lives of three German princesses,
whose marriage into the British royal
family and wide-ranging interests placed
them at the very heart of the
enlightenment in progress in 18th
century Britain. The exhibition, which
has been on view at the Yale Center for
British Art, will open at Kensington
Palace opens on 22 June.
While much has been written about
the Hanoverian monarchs – the German
Kings who famously feuded with their
sons and lost control of the North
American colonies – the important role
played by their wives has never before
been carefully evaluated. Now, thanks to
new research emerging from a fruitful
academic partnership between Historic
Royal Palaces and the Yale Center for
British Art, their story will be told for the
first time. Three fiercely intelligent,
dynamic and culturally curious women
emerge from the shadows of history:
committed patrons of the arts and
sciences, and powerful advocates of
‘Brand Britain’. Their shaping of the
monarchy leaves its legacy to our
present day.
Caroline, Augusta and Charlotte were
German born, Protestant princesses,
who married into the Hanoverian dynasty
and moved to Britain; Caroline and
Charlotte became queens consort to
George II and George III respectively,
while Princess Augusta held the titles of
Princess of Wales, Regent, and Princess
Dowager, and was mother to King
George III. Each fulfilled their dynastic
role – providing heirs (they had over 30
children between them). From then on,
each would break the mould. From
advocating the latest scientific and
medical advances – crucial to women’s
health – to their involvement in charity
work and roles as patrons of British
trades and manufactures, Caroline,
Augusta and Charlotte would each subtly
alter the role women played in the
British royal family, with lasting results.
The three women lived in an
immensely dynamic and exciting time,
and actively fostered the culture of the
Enlightenment from their position right
at the heart of the British establishment.
Their glittering courts drew in the
leading cultural and intellectual figures
of the age. At Kensington Palace,
Caroline’s drawing room welcomed
writers Alexander Pope and Jonathan
Swift, scientist and astronomer Isaac
Newton – who performed light refraction
experiments there – and composer
George Frideric Handel, alongside a
steady stream of Prime Ministers and
international statesmen.
It wasn’t just within the confines of
their palaces, however, that the
princesses made their mark; Caroline,
Augusta and Charlotte made use of the
many products of the Empire – exotic
plants, rare birds and wild animals – to
create and recast each other’s gardens
with imports from the Caribbean, India,
Africa, China and Australasia. The Royal
Botanic Gardens at Kew still stand today
as a testament to their ambition and
skill. The three women were each mother
to future kings, and took a great interest
in education and child-rearing. Over the
course of their lifetimes, attitudes to
child-rearing changed rapidly, and the
princesses became active contributors to
the educational programmes devised for
their children, seeking to draw them into
experiences outside the palace walls.
Beyond their own children, the
princesses were involved in ambitious
and wide-reaching public philanthropic
projects, especially those connected to
health and social welfare. They
championed inoculation, and publically
supported the creation of London’s
Foundling Hospital to house deprived
and abandoned children.
The American Goldfinch the Acacia & the water
locust, Mark Catesby, Royal Collection Trust ©
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 2017.
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