Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2019

Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester; Credit – Wikipedia

Prince William Frederick, 2nd Duke of Gloucester was a great-grandson of King George II and a nephew and a son-in-law of King George III. He married George III’s daughter Princess Mary. Born at Palazzo Teodoli in Rome, Italy on January 15, 1776, he was the only son and the youngest of the three children of Prince William Henry, 1st Duke of Gloucester and Maria Walpole. Frederick, Prince of Wales, the father of Prince William Henry, 1st Duke of Gloucester died when Prince William Henry was eight years old. At that time, William Henry’s eldest brother George became heir to the throne and would succeed their grandfather as King George III in 1760.

A little background on the marriage of the parents of Prince William Frederick, 2nd Duke of Gloucester:

William Frederick’s mother Maria Walpole was the illegitimate daughter of Sir Edward Walpole and his mistress Dorothy Clement.  Her grandfather, Robert Walpole, served as Prime Minister from 1721 – 1741. Prince William Henry, 1st Duke of Gloucester and Maria, the widow of James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave, were secretly married at her home in Pall Mall, London on September 6, 1766.

King George III’s brothers were a constant headache for him, but he was especially annoyed with Prince Henry, Duke of Cumberland. In 1771, Prince Henry married a commoner Anne Horton. George III considered Anne Horton inappropriate as a royal bride because she was from a lower social class and German law barred any children of the couple from the Hanoverian succession. George insisted on a new law that would forbid members of the royal family from legally marrying without the monarch’s consent. Although it was unpopular with both George III’s ministers and members of Parliament, the Royal Marriages Act 1772 was passed.

The Royal Marriages Act stipulated that no descendant of King George II, male or female, other than the issue of princesses who had married into foreign royal families, could marry without the monarch’s consent. Any member of the royal family over the age of 25 who had been refused the monarch’s consent could marry one year after giving notice to the Privy Council of their intention to marry unless both houses of Parliament expressly declared their disapproval. Any marriage in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act was void. Royal family members who made such a marriage did not lose their place in the line of succession but their children would be made illegitimate by the voiding of the marriage and therefore lose their succession rights.

However, King George III did not know that brother Prince William Henry, 1st Duke of Gloucester had secretly married Maria Walpole in 1766. For six years, King George III believed that his brother William Henry was a bachelor and that Maria was his mistress. In September 1772, five months after the Royal Marriages Act was passed, William Henry found out Maria was pregnant and confessed to his brother that he was married. King George III was quite upset not only by the marriage but also by William Henry’s deception. Because the provisions of the Royal Marriages Act could not be applied retroactively, William Henry and Maria’s marriage was considered valid. Their children were styled His/Her Highness Prince/Princess and used the territorial designation of Gloucester as great-grandchildren in the male line of King George II. However, due to the anger of King George III, Maria, now Duchess of Gloucester, was never received at court.

William Frederick’s surviving sister Princess Sophia Matilda of Gloucester; Credit – Wikipedia

Prince William Frederick, 2nd Duke of Gloucester had two elder sisters:

William Frederick also had three half-sisters from his mother’s first marriage to James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave:

Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester, in an engraving based on a portrait painted by Sir William Beechey, published 1826; Credit – Wikipedia

William Frederick was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and like his father, had a career in the British Army, attaining the rank of Field Marshal in 1816. He was an advocate for the abolition of slavery, served as President of the African Institution, and was Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. In 1805, upon the death of his father, William Frederick succeeded him as Duke of Gloucester.

William Frederick had been encouraged to remain unmarried so that there might be a suitable husband for his first cousin once removed Princess Charlotte of Wales, the heir to the throne after her father the future King George IV, if no foreign prince proved a suitable match. In May 1816, Princess Charlotte married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Sadly, within twenty months, Charlotte died in childbirth along with her son.

Princess Mary of the United Kingdom; Credit – Wikipedia

Princess Mary was the fourth of the six daughters and eleventh of fifteen children of King George III of the United Kingdom and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and the first cousin of William Frederick. Mary’s childhood was very sheltered. The living conditions of King George’s daughters came to be known as “the Nunnery.” None of the daughters was allowed to marry at the age when most princesses would marry. Perhaps this over-protection of King George III’s daughters was due to what happened to his sister Caroline Matilda when she married King Christian VII of Denmark. Christian’s mental illness led to Caroline Matilda having an affair, being caught, the execution of her lover, her exile, and her early death from scarlet fever at age 23. Eventually, three of the six sisters married, and one of them was Mary. Charlotte, Princess Royal married at age 31 which was a rather late age for marriage but Elizabeth was 48 and Mary was 40 at the time of their marriages.

For a while, Mary had been fond of her cousin William Frederick and after Princess Charlotte’s marriage, the two 40-year-olds became engaged. On July 22, 1816, at the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace, Princess Mary and Prince William Frederick were married. On the day of his marriage, Mary’s brother, The Prince Regent (the future King George IV), granted William Frederick the style of His Royal Highness. Mary and William’s marriage was childless. The couple lived at Gloucester House in Piccadilly, London, and Bagshot Park, now the home of Queen Elizabeth II’s youngest child Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex. Although William Frederick had wanted to marry Mary, he often treated her unkindly. Mary’s meddling sister-in-law Princess Sophia Matilda of Gloucester made her situation even more difficult.

Princess Mary at age 80 on the right with her niece Queen Victoria and two of Victoria’s children, Princess Alice and the Prince of Wales (future Edward VII); Credit – Wikipedia

On November 30, 1834, at Bagshot Park, William Frederik died at the age of 58 after being ill with a fever for fifteen days. He was buried in the Gloucester Vault at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. Mary survived him by twenty-three years and was a great favorite with all the members of the royal family particularly her niece Queen Victoria. Princess Mary, the longest-lived and the last survivor of her parents’ fifteen children, died at age 81, on April 30, 1857, at Gloucester House in London and was buried with her husband.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Maria, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria,_Duchess_of_Gloucester_and_Edinburgh [Accessed 13 Sep. 2018].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_William_Frederick,_Duke_of_Gloucester_and_Edinburgh [Accessed 13 Sep. 2018].
  • En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Prince William Henry, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_William,_Duke_of_Gloucester_and_Edinburgh_(father) [Accessed 13 Sep. 2018].
  • Flantzer, S. (2016). King George III of the United Kingdom. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-george-iii-of-the-united-kingdom/ [Accessed 13 Sep. 2018].
  • Flantzer, S. (2013). Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/april-30-daily-royal-featured-date/ [Accessed 13 Sep. 2018].
  • Fraser, Flora. Princesses: The Six Daughters of George III. (2004). New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
  • Van Der Kiste, John (2013). George III’s Children. New York: The History Press.
  • Van Der Kiste, John. (2000). The Georgian Princesses. Phoenix Mill: Sutton Publishing.
  • Williamson, David. (1996). Brewer’s British Royalty. London: Cassell.