Caroline

From Philosopedia

Caroline of Ansbach (Queen Consort) (1 March 1683 - 20 November 1737)

Caroline, daughter of the Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, later became Queen of England. An arranged marriage with the Austrian Archduke was cancelled when she refused to convert to Catholicism. Marrying the Prince of Hanover in 1705, she became Princess of Wales in 1714 and the mother of three sons and five daughters.

After George’s accession in 1727, Caroline gave active support to Sir Robert Walpole, and her influence over the king lasted until her death. Her house near London was frequented by many English Deists of the time. When she had to administer the Kingdom in her husband’s absence, she refused to take the oath. She also refused the ministrations of the Church of England although she was pressed to do so by the Archbishop of Canterbury on her deathbed. Lord Hervey in his Memoirs described her as “a Deist believing in a future life.”

Freethought historian Joseph McCabe reported that correspondence with Leibnitz caused her to reject Christianity, and that her Richmond house "was more or less a Deistic center." McCabe declares it “is ludicrous of British writers to pretend that she was not a freethinker.”

Caroline ascended the British throne in 1727. When officiating as Regent several times in the King's absence, Acts of Parliament excused her from taking the oath. Horace Walpole, in his Reminiscences, recorded that Caroline was "at least not orthodox." Chesterfield, in Characters, reported that Caroline was "a Deist, believing in a future state."

Queen Caroline is the acknowledged patron of English landscape gardening, developing the Richmond and early Kew Gardens. Her gardening philosophy was "helping Nature, not losing it in art."

Lord Hervey spoke of “the irreligion of the Queen in desiring to have no clerical prayers by her death-bed,” causing much court tattle; whereupon Walpole revealed his sympathy with the Queen’s views by advising the Princess Emily in the presence of a dozen people, to “let the farce be played: the Archbishop will act it very well. . . . It will do the Queen no hurt, no more than any good; and it will satisfy all the wise and good fools, who will call us atheists if we don’t pretend to be as great fools as they are.”

{FFRF; JM; JMRH; RAT; RE; WWS}