Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh

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Princess Mary
Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh
Spouse Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester
Titles and styles
HRH The Duchess of Gloucester
HRH The Princess Mary
Royal house House of Hanover
Father George III
Mother Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Born 25 April 1776(1776-04-25)
Buckingham Palace, London
Baptised 19 May 1776
St. James's Palace, London
Died 30 April 1857 (aged 81)
Gloucester House, London
Burial 8 May 1857
St George's Chapel, Windsor

The Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh (25 April 1776 – 30 April 1857) was a member of the British Royal Family, the eleventh child and fourth daughter of George III.

She was married to Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, and was the longest living child of King George III.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Princess Mary was born, on 25 April 1776, at Buckingham Palace, London. Her father was the reigning British monarch, George III. Her mother was Queen Charlotte, the daughter of Charles, reigning Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

Mary danced a minuet for the first time in public at the age of sixteen in June 1791, during a court ball given for the king's birthday.[1] In the spring of 1792 she officially debuted at court.[2] Around 1796 Mary fell in love with the Dutch prince Frederick, while he and his family lived in exile in London. Frederik was a son of William V, Prince of Orange, the Dutch stadholder, and younger brother to the future King William I of the Netherlands. However Frederik and Mary never wed because George III stipulated that her elder sisters should marry first. In 1799 Prince Frederik died of an infection while serving in the army, and Mary was allowed to go into official mourning.

[edit] Marriage

Mary's upbringing was very sheltered and she spent most of her time with her parents and sisters. King George and Queen Charlotte were keen to shelter their children, particularly the girls. Mary, however, married on 22 July 1816, to her first cousin, Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, the son of George III's brother, Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, at the Chapel Royal in St James's Palace. On their wedding day, Mary's brother, The Prince Regent, raised the bridegroom's style from Highness to Royal Highness, an attribute to which Mary's rank already entitled her.

The couple lived at Bagshot Park, but after William's death she moved to White Lodge in Richmond Park. They had no children together. Princess Mary was said to be the favourite aunt of her niece, Queen Victoria.

Princess Mary was quite close to her eldest brother, and she shared his dislike toward his wife Caroline of Brunswick. When the latter left for Italy, Princess Mary congratulated her brother "on the prospect of a good riddance. Heaven grant that she may not return again and that we may never see more of her" [Charlotte Zeepvat's "George III's Children", p.106].

Princess Mary was the last survivor of George III's fifteen children, twelve of whom lived to adulthood. She was eighty one when she died.

[edit] Titles, styles, honours and arms

[edit] Titles and styles

[edit] Arms

As of 1789, as a daughter of the sovereign, Mary had use of the arms of the kingdom, differenced by a label argent of three points, the centre point bearing a rose gules, the outer points each bearing a canton gules.[3]

[edit] Ancestors

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lane, Henry M. (1911). The Royal Daughters of England, page 191. 
  2. ^ Lane, Henry M. (1911). The Royal Daughters of England, page 191. 
  3. ^ Marks of Cadency in the British Royal Family

[edit] See also