Queen Caroline

Caroline of Ansbach   

Consort of George II
Born: 1683
Married: 1705
Died: 1737

• Daughter of John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, but spent much of childhood in Dresden and Berlin
• Surrounded by a circle of writers and intellectuals, with whom she shared a taste for the visual arts
• Commissioned William Kent to build Merlin’s Cave and the Grotto (1730s) in the grounds of Richmond Lodge,
• Commissioned Kent to erect a library building at St James’s (1736–7)
• Made a number of important acquisitions of portraits (including Holbein’s Sir Henry Guildford)
• Assembled miniatures, small drawings and paintings in her Closet at Kensington and a fine library at St James’s Palace
• Commissioned Rysbrack to make terracotta busts of the kings and queens of England
• Was a keen collector of jewellery, particularly of cameos and intaglios

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