Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel

Princess Augusta
Duchess of Cambridge

William Beechey: Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge, 1818
Born (1797-07-25)25 July 1797
Rumpenheim Castle, Offenbach am Main
Died 6 April 1889(1889-04-06) (aged 91)
St. James's Palace, Pall Mall, London
Spouse Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge
Issue Prince George, Duke of Cambridge
Augusta, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck
Full name
Augusta Wilhelmina Louisa
House House of Hanover
House of Hesse-Kassel
Father Landgrave Frederick of Hesse-Kassel
Mother Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen

Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel (German: Auguste Wilhelmine Luise von Hessen-Kassel; 25 July 1797 – 6 April 1889) was the wife of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, the tenth-born child, and seventh son, of George III of the United Kingdom and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The longest-lived daughter-in-law of George III, she was the maternal grandmother of Mary of Teck, wife of George V.

Early life

Princess and Landgravine Augusta of Hesse-Kassel, third daughter of Landgrave Frederick of Hesse-Kassel, and his wife, Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen, was born at Rumpenheim Castle (French: Château de Rumpenheim, German: Rumpenheimer Schloss), Offenbach am Main, Hesse. Through her father, she was a great-granddaughter of George II of Great Britain, her grandfather having married George II's daughter Mary. Her father's older brother was the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel. In 1803, her uncle's title was raised to Elector of Hesse — whereby the entire Kassel branch of the Hesse dynasty gained an upward notch in hierarchy.

Marriage

On 7 May, in Kassel, and then, again, on 1 June 1818 at Buckingham Palace, Princess Augusta married her second cousin, the Duke of Cambridge, when she was 20 and he 44. Upon their marriage, Augusta gained the style HRH The Duchess of Cambridge. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had three children.

From 1818 until the accession of Queen Victoria, and the separation of the British and Hanoverian crowns in 1837, the Duchess of Cambridge lived in Hanover, where the Duke served as viceroy on behalf of his brothers, George IV and William IV. In 1827 Augusta allowed that a new village, founded on 3 May 1827 and to be settled in the course of the cultivation and colonisation of the moorlands in the south of Bremervörde, would bear her name. On 19 June the administration of the Hanoveran High-Bailiwick of Stade informed the villagers that she had approved the chosen name Augustendorf for their municipality (since 1974 it is a component locality of Gnarrenburg). The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge returned to Great Britain, where they lived at Cambridge Cottage, Kew, and later at St. James's Palace. The Duchess of Cambridge survived her husband by thirty-nine years, dying at the age of ninety-one.

She was buried at St Anne's Church, Kew, but her remains were later transferred to St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.[1]

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

Ancestry

Issue

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had three children:

NameBirthDeathNotes
Prince George, Duke of Cambridge26 March 181917 March 1904illegally married, 1847, Sarah Louisa Fairbrother; had issue
Princess Augusta of Cambridge19 July 18224 December 1916married, 1843, Frederick William, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz; had issue
Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge27 November 183327 October 1897married, 1866, Francis, Duke of Teck; had issue, including Mary of Teck, wife of George V

References

  1. ↑ Cambridge Mausoleum
  2. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 17365. p. 997. 2 June 1818.
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