Editing Caroline of Brunswick (section)

==Death==
[[File:Modesty 1821.jpg|thumb|''Modesty!'', etching published by G. Humphrey, London, 1821: Caroline of Brunswick, at a theatre in Genoa, with her secretary and constant companion Bartolomeo Pergami]]
The night following Caroline's failed attempt to attend her husband's coronation, she fell ill and took a large dose of [[milk of magnesia]] and some drops of [[laudanum]].<ref>Robins, p. 312</ref> Over the next three weeks, she suffered more and more pain as her condition deteriorated. She realised she was nearing death and put her affairs in order. Her papers, letters, memoirs, and notebooks were burned. She wrote a new will, and settled her funeral arrangements: she was to be buried in her native Brunswick in a tomb bearing the inscription "Here lies Caroline, the Injured {{sic|Queen of England}}".<ref name="p313">Robins, p. 313</ref> She died at [[Brandenburgh House]] in [[Hammersmith]] at 10:25&nbsp;p.m. on 7 August 1821 at the age of 53. Her physicians thought she had an intestinal obstruction,<ref name="Shingleton" /> but she may have had cancer,<ref>Plowden, p. 276; Robins, p. 313</ref> and there were rumours at the time that she had been poisoned.<ref name="p313" />

Afraid that a procession of the funeral [[bier]] through London could spark public unrest, Lord Liverpool decided the Queen's cortège would avoid the city, passing to the north on the way to [[Harwich]] and Brunswick. The crowd accompanying the procession was incensed and blocked the intended route with barricades to force a new route through [[Westminster]] and [[City of London|London]]. The scene soon descended into chaos; the soldiers forming the honour guard opened fire and rode through the crowd with drawn sabres. People in the crowd threw cobblestones and bricks at the soldiers, and two members of the public—Richard Honey, a carpenter, and George Francis, a bricklayer<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/31505964@N08/12958254664/|title=Grave of Richard Honey and George Francis, St Paul's Hammersmith|publisher=Flickr|access-date=21 October 2014}}</ref>—were killed. Eventually, [[Chief Metropolitan Magistrate]] Sir Robert Baker ordered that the official route be abandoned, and the cortège passed through the city. As a result, Baker was dismissed from office.<ref>Robins, pp. 314–317</ref>

The final route (in heavy rain) took the following course: [[Hammersmith]], [[Kensington]] (blocked), [[Kensington Gore]] (blocked), [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]], [[Park Lane]] (blocked), return to Hyde Park where soldiers forced the gates open, Cumberland Gate (blocked), [[Edgware Road]], [[Tottenham Court Road]], [[Drury Lane]], the [[Strand, London|Strand]], and from there through the [[City of London]], then by way of [[Romford]] and [[Chelmsford]] to [[Colchester]]. The coffin was kept overnight at St Peter's Church, Colchester, where Caroline's executors tried unsuccessfully to replace the official [[Commemorative plaque|inscription plate]] with one including the phrase "Injured Queen of England".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.stpeterscolchester.org/resources/history-heritage/rumpus/|title=Rumpus – St Peter's, Colchester}}</ref> The next day, the coffin was taken to the seaport of [[Harwich]],<ref>Robert Chambers, Book of Days</ref> and placed on a ship bound for Germany. [[Brunswick Cathedral]] is Caroline's final resting place.