Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was Queen of Hanover from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1841 as the wife of King Ernest Augustus. She was a German princess who married successively Prince Louis Charles of Prussia, Prince Frederick William of Solms-Braunfels, and her first cousin Ernest Augustus. Through her 1815 marriage to Ernest, then Duke of Cumberland, Frederica became a British princess and Duchess of Cumberland. Ernest was the fifth son and eighth child of Queen Charlotte and King George III of the United Kingdom, Frederica's paternal aunt and her husband.
Portrait by Johann Friedrich August Tischbein, 1796
Princess Frederica of Prussia with her sister Louise in 1795.
Famous Schadow statue of Frederica (right) and her sister Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The statue was initially deemed too erotic, and was consequently closed to public viewing.
Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover
Ernest Augustus was King of Hanover from 20 June 1837 until his death in 1851. As the fifth son of George III of the United Kingdom and Hanover, he initially seemed unlikely to become a monarch, but none of his elder brothers had a legitimate son. When his elder brother William IV, who ruled both kingdoms, died in 1837, his niece Victoria inherited the British throne under British succession law, while Ernest succeeded in Hanover under Salic law, which barred women from the succession, thus ending the personal union between Britain and Hanover that had begun in 1714.
Portrait by Edmund Koken, after 1842
The young Ernest Augustus by Thomas Gainsborough, 1782
Prince Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, c. 1795
Ernest Augustus in an 1823 miniature based on an 1802 portrait by William Beechey