View source for Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel

{{Short description|Member of the British royal family}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Augusta of Hesse-Kassel
| title        = [[Duchess of Cambridge]]
| image        = Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge - Beechey 1818.jpg
| caption      = [[Portrait of Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge|Portrait]] by [[William Beechey]], 1818
| succession   = Viceregal consort of the [[Kingdom of Hanover]]
| reign-type   = Tenure
| reign        = 7 May 1818 – 20 June 1837
| cor-type     = Viceroy
| coronation   = [[Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge|Prince Adolphus]]
| full name    = Augusta Wilhelmina Louisa
| birth_date   = {{Birth date|1797|7|25|df=y}}
| birth_place  = [[Rumpenheim Castle]], [[Offenbach am Main]]
| death_date   = {{Death date and age|1889|4|6|1797|7|25|df=yes}}
| death_place  = [[St James's Palace]], [[Pall Mall, London]]
| burial_date  = 13 April 1889
| burial_place = [[St Anne's Church, Kew]], [[Surrey]]<br />10 January 1930<br />Royal Vault, [[St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle]]
| house        = [[House of Hesse-Kassel|Hesse-Kassel]]
| father       = [[Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel]]
| mother       = [[Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen]]
| spouse       = {{Marriage|[[Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge]]|1818|8 July 1850|end=d.}}
| issue        = {{Ubl
  |[[Prince George, Duke of Cambridge]]
  |[[Princess Augusta of Cambridge|Augusta, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz]]
  |[[Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge|Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck]]
}}
}}

'''Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel''' (Augusta Wilhelmina Louisa; 25 July 1797 – 6 April 1889) was the wife of [[Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge]], the tenth-born child, and seventh son, of [[George III of the United Kingdom]] and [[Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz]]. The longest-lived daughter-in-law of George III, she was the maternal grandmother of [[Mary of Teck]], wife of [[George V]].

==Early life==
Princess and Landgravine Augusta of Hesse-Kassel, third daughter of [[Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel]], and his wife, [[Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen]], was born at [[Rumpenheim Castle]] (French: [[:fr:Château de Rumpenheim|''Château de Rumpenheim'']], German: [[:de:Rumpenheimer Schloss|''Rumpenheimer Schloss'']]), [[Offenbach am Main]], [[Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel|Hesse]]. Through her father, she was a great-granddaughter of [[George II of Great Britain]], her grandmother being George II's daughter [[Princess Mary of Great Britain|Mary]]. Her father's older brother was the [[William I, Elector of Hesse|Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel]]. In 1803, her [[William I, Elector of Hesse|uncle]]'s title was raised to [[Elector of Hesse]]—whereby the entire Kassel branch of the Hesse dynasty gained an upward notch in hierarchy.

==Marriage==
On 7 May, in Kassel, and then, again, on 1 June 1818 at [[Buckingham Palace]], Princess Augusta married her second cousin, the Duke of Cambridge, when she was 20 and he 44. Upon their marriage, Augusta became Duchess of Cambridge. They had three children.

From 1818 until the accession of [[Queen Victoria]], and the separation of the British and Hanoverian crowns in 1837, the Duchess of Cambridge lived in [[Hanover]], where the Duke served as viceroy on behalf of his brothers, [[George IV of the United Kingdom|George IV]] and [[William IV of the United Kingdom|William IV]]. [[Liberation of Hanover|Hanover had been liberated]] from French occupation in 1813 and the [[dynastic union]] with Britain restored.

In 1827 Augusta allowed that a new village, founded on  3 May 1827 and to be settled in the course of the cultivation and colonisation of the [[moorland]]s in the south of [[Bremervörde]], would bear her name. On 19 June the administration of the Hanoveran [[Stade (region)|High-Bailiwick of Stade]] informed the villagers that she had approved the chosen name Augustendorf for their municipality (since 1974 it is a component locality of [[Gnarrenburg]]). The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge returned to Great Britain, where they lived at [[Cambridge Cottage]], [[Kew]], and later at [[St. James's Palace]].

==Death==
The Duchess of Cambridge survived her husband by thirty-nine years, dying on 6 April 1889, at the age of ninety-one, at their home at Cambridge Cottage on [[Kew Green]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=12 April 1889 |title=THE DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/R3210613241/BNCN?u=rtl_ttda&sid=bookmark-BNCN&xid=a3150732 |access-date=12 July 2021 |work=Morning Post |page=5 |via=British Library Newspapers}}</ref> Queen Victoria wrote of her aunt's death: "Very sad, though not for her. But she is the last of her generation, & I have no longer anyone above me."

She was buried at [[St Anne's Church, Kew]], but her remains were transferred to [[St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle]] in 1930.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cambridge Mausoleum |url=http://www.mmtrust.org.uk/mausolea/view/319/Cambridge_Mausoleum |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813094841/http://www.mmtrust.org.uk/mausolea/view/319/Cambridge_Mausoleum |archive-date=13 August 2021 |access-date=25 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Royal Burials in the Chapel since 1805 |url=https://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/about-st-georges/royal-connection/royal-burials/royal-burials-chapel-since-1805/ |access-date=5 March 2023 |work=College of St George - Windsor Castle}}</ref>

==Titles and styles==
* 25 July 1797 – 7 May 1818: ''Her Serene Highness'' Princess Augusta Wilhelmina Louisa of Hesse<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=17365 |date=2 June 1818 |page=997}}</ref>
* 7 May 1818 – 6 April 1889: ''Her Royal Highness'' The Duchess of Cambridge

==Issue==
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had three children:
{| class="wikitable"
!Name
!Birth
!Death
!Notes
|-
|[[Prince George, Duke of Cambridge]]
|26 March 1819
|17 March 1904
|married 1847, [[Sarah Louisa Fairbrother]]; had issue (this marriage was contracted in contravention of the [[Royal Marriages Act]] and was not recognised in law).
|-
|[[Princess Augusta of Cambridge]]
|19 July 1822
|4 December 1916
|married 1843, [[Frederick William, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz|Friedrich Wilhelm, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz]]; had issue
|-
|[[Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge]]
|27 November 1833
|27 October 1897
|married 1866, [[Francis, Duke of Teck]]; had issue, including [[Mary of Teck]], later [[Queen consort]] of the [[United Kingdom]].
|}

==Ancestry==
{{ahnentafel
|collapsed=yes |align=center
|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;
|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;
|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;
|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;
|1= 1. '''Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel'''
|2= 2. [[Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel]]
|3= 3. [[Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen]]
|4= 4. [[Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel]]
|5= 5. [[Princess Mary of Great Britain]]
|6= 6. [[Charles William, Prince of Nassau-Usingen]]
|7= 7. [[Countess Caroline Felizitas of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Falkenburg]]
|8= 8. [[William VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel]]
|9= 9. [[Princess Dorothea Wilhelmine of Saxe-Zeitz]]
|10= 10. [[George II of Great Britain]]
|11= 11. [[Caroline of Ansbach|Princess Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach]]
|12= 12. [[Charles, Prince of Nassau-Usingen]]
|13= 13. Princess Christine Wilhelmine of Saxe-Eisenach
|14= 14. [[Christian Karl Reinhard of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Falkenburg|Count Christian Karl Reinhard of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Falkenburg]]
|15= 15. Countess Katharina Polyxena of Solms-Rödelheim
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{Cite news|last=Eilers Koenig|first=Marlene|date=October 2020|title=The Marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge|work=Royalty Digest Quarterly|url=https://www.royalbooks.se/produkt/126/32020.html}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Kassel}}
* {{NPG name|name=Princess Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge}}

{{Princesses and Landgravines of Hesse by birth}}
{{British princesses by marriage}}
{{Hanoverian princesses by marriage}}
{{Duchesses of Cambridge}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Augusta Of Hesse-Cassel, Princess}}
[[Category:1797 births]]
[[Category:1889 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century British people]]
[[Category:19th-century British women]]
[[Category:Wives of British princes]]
[[Category:Burials at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Crown of India]]
[[Category:Hanoverian princesses by marriage]]
[[Category:House of Hesse-Kassel]]
[[Category:Landgravines of Hesse-Kassel]]
[[Category:Women of the Victorian era]]
[[Category:Duchesses of Cambridge]]
[[Category:Royal reburials]]