Princess Frederica Charlotte of Prussia

Princess Frederica Charlotte of Prussia (Friederike Charlotte Ulrike Katharina; 7 May 1767 – 6 August 1820) 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. Early life Born in Charlottenburg on 7 May 1767, Frederica Charlotte was the eldest child of the future Frederick William II of Prussia, and the only child of his first wife and cousin, Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Lüneburg. At the time of her birth, Frederica's childless granduncle Frederick the Great was on the throne of Prussia. Her father was the King's nephew and heir presumptive, while her mother was also the king's niece. Their union was extremely unhappy due to their mutual infidelities. After several affairs with musicians and officers, Frederica's mother became pregnant in 1769. She then plotted to escape from Prussia with her lover, but she was betrayed and captured, causing a public scandal. A divorce was quickly granted, and Elisabeth Christine was placed under house arrest in the castle of Stettin, where she remained for the next seventy-one years, until she died aged 93 in 1840, twenty years after the death of her only child, Frederica Charlotte. Frederica Charlotte was two years old at the time of her mother's disgrace, and never saw her mother again. Frederick the Great reportedly felt compassion for her mother, and entrusted Frederica Charlotte to the care of his own wife, Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern, with the words: "There is only this poor child remaining to her, and she can find no asylum save with you; let the little one have the apartments lately occupied by my niece of Holland." Frederica Charlotte reportedly had a happy childhood with Queen Elisabeth Christine, who had no children of her own. The Queen doted upon her grandniece and foster daughter, who kept in correspondence with her foster mother her entire life.