Life and Times of Her Majesty Caroline Matilda, Vol. 3 (of 3): Queen of Denmark and Norway, and Sister of H. M. George III. of EnglandWraxall, Lascelles, Sir
History
Life and Times of Her Majesty Caroline Matilda, Vol. 3 (of 3): Queen of Denmark and Norway, and Sister of H. M. George III. of England
Wraxall, Lascelles, Sir
Caroline Mathilde, Queen, consort of Christian VII, King of Denmark, 1751-1775; Denmark -- History -- Christian VII, 1766-1808
A general mourning was appointed in England, and on May 24 a committee
of the Lords, with staves, and also a committee of the House of Commons,
who were of the privy council, waited on his Majesty at St. James's, with
their address of condolence on the Queen of Denmark's death. To which
George III. replied: that "he returned his thanks to that House for the
concern they have expressed for the great loss which has happened to his
family by the death of his sister, the Queen of Denmark." The king also
recommended the succession of the late queen, for the advantage of her
children, to the care of the Regency of Hanover, and Baron von Seckendorf
was consequently entrusted with its administration.
The British court sent a formal notification of the death of Queen
Caroline Matilda to Copenhagen. It arrived on a day when a court ball
was appointed, and the vengeance of old Juliana Maria went so far, that,
careless of decency, she did not even order the ball to be put off.
The usual ceremonial, however, had to be observed--for instance, the
ordinary court mourning of four weeks--as for foreign reigning princes
and princesses, and the children of the deceased were placed in deep
mourning. It is nevertheless certain that this foolhardy behaviour on the
part of the Danish usurpers proved most offensive at the court of St.
James's, and heightened the aversion George III. felt for the Danes.
The unfortunate queen, however, was all the more regretted in the
land of her exile, and in the widest circles. The two Chambers of the
principality of Lüneburg, immediately after the death of this consoler
of all the poor and suffering in Celle, applied to her brother with a
request that they might be allowed to erect a monument to the deceased
queen, in that Jardin François of which she had been so fond, so that
there might be at this spot a memorial of the universal devotion with
which the great and noble qualities of the late Queen of Denmark were
revered among them, and to give remotest posterity an opportunity of
honouring, with silent emotion, the memory and reputation of the best and
most amiable of queens.
George III. expressed his thanks for this offer, and we can easily
understand how welcome to him was this public proof of the veneration and
love which were felt for his sister, who had been so cruelly hurled from
her throne.
After receiving the king's assent, the Chambers of Lüneburg had the
monument erected by Professor Oeser, of Leipzig, and to the present day
it is an ornament of the Jardin François, which travellers gaze on with
sympathy and regret.
The governor of Celle, a prince of Mecklenburg Strelitz, also had a
monument erected in memory of Caroline Matilda in his English garden, and
it is well known that the Danish poets Baggesen and Oehlenschläger have
erected permanent memorials to her in their works.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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