Editing Caroline of Ansbach (section)

==Final years==
[[File:Highmore - Caroline of Ansbach - RCIN 406035.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait by [[Joseph Highmore]], 1735]]
In mid-1735, Prince Frederick was further dismayed when Caroline, rather than himself, again acted as regent while the King was absent in Hanover.<ref>Van der Kiste, pp. 139–140.</ref> The King and Queen arranged Frederick's marriage, in 1736, to [[Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha]]. Shortly after the wedding, George went to Hanover, and Caroline resumed her role as "Protector of the Realm". As regent, Caroline considered the reprieve of [[Captain John Porteous]], who had been convicted of murder in [[Edinburgh]]. Before she could act, a mob stormed the jail where he was held and killed him. Caroline was appalled.<ref>Arkell, pp. 258–259; Van der Kiste, p. 148.</ref> George's absences abroad were leading to unpopularity, and in late 1736 he made plans to return, but his ship was caught in poor weather, and it was rumoured that he had been lost at sea. Caroline was devastated, and disgusted by the insensitivity of her son, who hosted a grand dinner while the gale was blowing.<ref>Quennell, pp. 285–288; Van der Kiste, pp. 150–152.</ref> During her regency, Frederick attempted to start a number of quarrels with his mother, whom he saw as a useful proxy to irritate the King.<ref name=odnb/> George eventually returned in January 1737.<ref>Arkell, p. 264; Quennell, p. 291; Van der Kiste, p. 52.</ref>

Frederick applied to Parliament unsuccessfully for an increased financial allowance that had hitherto been denied him by the King, and public disagreement over the money drove a further wedge between parents and son. On the advice of Walpole, Frederick's allowance was raised in an attempt to mitigate further conflict, but by less than he had asked.<ref>Arkell, pp. 272–274; Van der Kiste, p. 154.</ref> In June 1737, Frederick informed his parents that Augusta was pregnant, and due to give birth in October. In fact, Augusta's due date was earlier and a peculiar episode followed in July in which the prince, on discovering that his wife had gone into labour, sneaked her out of [[Hampton Court Palace]] in the middle of the night, to ensure that the King and Queen could not be present at the birth.<ref>Arkell, p. 279; Van der Kiste, p. 155.</ref> George and Caroline were horrified. Traditionally, royal births were witnessed by members of the family and senior courtiers to guard against [[wikt:supposititious|supposititious]] children, and Augusta had been forced by her husband to ride in a rattling carriage for an hour and a half while heavily pregnant and in pain. With a party including her daughters Amelia and Caroline <!--the Duke of Grafton, Lord Essex,--> and Lord Hervey, the Queen raced over to St James's Palace, where Frederick had taken Augusta.<ref>Arkell, p. 278; Van der Kiste, p. 156.</ref> Caroline was relieved to discover that Augusta had given birth to a "poor, ugly little she-mouse", also called [[Princess Augusta of Great Britain|Augusta]], rather than a "large, fat, healthy boy" as the pitiful nature of the baby made a supposititious child unlikely.<ref name="vdk157">Van der Kiste, p. 157.</ref> The circumstances of the birth deepened the estrangement between mother and son.<ref name=vdk157/> According to Lord Hervey, she once remarked after seeing Frederick, "Look, there he goes—that wretch!—that villain!—I wish the ground would open this moment and sink the monster to the lowest hole in hell!"<ref name=odnb/><ref>Quennell, p. 295.</ref>

In the final years of her life, Caroline was troubled by [[gout]] in her feet,<ref>Arkell, pp. 229–230; Van der Kiste, p. 108.</ref> but more seriously she had suffered an [[umbilical hernia]] at the birth of her final child in 1724.<ref>Arkell, p. 225; Van der Kiste, p. 136.</ref> On 9 November 1737, she felt an intense pain and, after struggling through a formal reception, took to her bed. Part of her small intestine had poked through the hernia opening.<ref>Lucy Worsley, "The First Georgians The German Kings Who Made Britain", BBC Documentary 2014</ref> Over the next few days she was bled, purged, and operated on, without anaesthetic, but there was no improvement in her condition.<ref>Van der Kiste, pp. 161–163.</ref> George refused Frederick permission to see his mother,<ref>Arkell, p. 289; Van der Kiste, p. 161.</ref> a decision with which she complied; she sent her son a message of forgiveness through Walpole.<ref>Arkell, p. 289; Van der Kiste, p. 162.</ref> She asked her husband to remarry after her death, which he rejected saying he would take only mistresses; she replied "Ah, mon Dieu, cela n'empêche pas" ("My God, that doesn't prevent it").<ref>Arkell, pp. 290–291; Quennell, p. 323; Van der Kiste, p. 162.</ref> On 17 November, her strangulated bowel burst.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jones |first=Emrys D. |year=2011 |title=Royal ruptures: Caroline of Ansbach and the politics of illness in the 1730s |journal=Medical Humanities |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=13–17 |doi=10.1136/jmh.2010.005819 |pmid=21593245 |s2cid=207000346}}</ref>{{efn|The circumstances of Caroline's death led [[Alexander Pope]], an opponent of the court and Walpole, to write the [[epigram]]: "Here lies, wrapt up in forty thousand towels; the only proof that Caroline had bowels." (Warton, p. 308).}} She died on 20 November 1737 at St James's Palace.<ref name=Weir/>

Caroline was buried in Westminster Abbey on 17 December.<ref>{{Cite web |title=George II and Caroline |url=http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/royals/burials/george-ii-and-caroline |website=Westminster Abbey}}</ref> Frederick was not invited to the funeral. [[George Frideric Handel]] composed an anthem for the occasion, ''[[The Ways of Zion Do Mourn / Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline]]''. George arranged for a pair of matching coffins with removable sides, so that when he followed her to the grave (23 years later), they could lie together again.<ref>Van der Kiste, p. 164.</ref>