Princess Frederica Charlotte of Prussia
Princess Frederica Charlotte of Prussia was a Prussian princess by birth and a British princess by marriage. She was the eldest daughter of King Frederick William II of Prussia and the wife of Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, second son of King George III of the United Kingdom.
James Gillray: Fashionable Contrasts; – or – the Duchess's little shoe yielding to the magnitude of the Duke's foot, originally published by Hannah Humphrey on 24 January 1792. The print shows the feet and ankles of the Duke and Duchess of York in an obviously copulatory position.
Frederica of Prussia, Duchess of York
Frederick William II of Prussia
Frederick William II was king of Prussia from 1786 until his death in 1797. He was in personal union with the prince-elector of Brandenburg and sovereign prince of the Canton of Neuchâtel. As a defensive reaction to the French Revolution, Frederick William II ended the German Dualism between Prussia and Austria. Domestically, he turned away from the enlightened style of government of his predecessor and introduced a tightened system of censorship and religious control. The king was an important patron of the arts especially in the field of music. As a skilled cellist he enjoyed the dedication of various cello-centric compositions by composers Mozart, Haydn, Boccherini and Beethoven. He was also responsible for some of the most notable architecture in Prussia, including the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the Marble Palace and Orangery in the New Garden, Potsdam.
Portrait of Prince Frederick William, c. 1765
Frederick II and Frederick William II
John Moore
Portrait of Frederick William II, by Johann Christoph Frisch, c. 1794