Zoom Presentation on Frederick, Prince of Wales

Son of a King and father of another, the monarch who never was: Frederick, Prince of Wales (1707-1751), was the eldest son of George II and Queen Caroline of England who reigned from 1727-1760. His reputation as a flamboyant carouser is partly true but much of the information about his life was left out of British history, as his parents so heartily disapproved of him. The antithesis of his staid royal parents, Frederick became a noted patron of the arts, while his father was little interested. 

Grandson and son of George I and II, and like those two, born in the German state of Hanover, Frederick was raised German, and was left behind in Hanover when he was seven, to hold on to the family’s title as Elector of Hanover, when his parents and sister moved to England. By the time his father became King in 1727, and he arrived as Prince of Wales in London the next year, Frederick had acquired a taste for political independence, a budding interest in the arts, and adopted habits of drinking and gambling. Frederick became a thorn in his father’s side, opposing his parents in everything—politics, opera, architecture, and art. Frederick supported the new stylistic taste for Rococo design that was popular in Paris, and the best artisans.

The lecture focuses on some of the great objects Frederick commissioned but also notes the political tensions between father and son, and the disinformation about Frederick’s life that excluded him from much of the history of the second quarter of the eighteenth century in England in which he played a more active role than has been acknowledged until recent years.

This presentation will be by Sarah Coffin O’Connor, CHV member curator and architectural historian.  If you would like to attend this Zoom presentation, please register by clicking on the green REGISTER button below. The Zoom link will be sent out the day before the presentation.

Tom O'Connor, event host

Carnegie Hill Village