page_title: Caroline Matilda of Great Britain
section_title: Affair and scandal
hierarchical_section_title: Caroline Matilda of Great Britain / Life / Affair and scandal
context_page_description: Caroline Matilda of Great Britain was by birth a Princess of Great Britain and member of the House of Hanover and by marriage Queen consort of Denmark and Norway from 1766 to 1772.
  The youngest and posthumous daughter of Frederick, Prince of Wales, by Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, Caroline Matilda was raised in a secluded family atmosphere away from the royal court. At the age of fifteen, she was married to her first cousin, King Christian VII of Denmark and Norway, who suffered from a mental illness and was cold to his wife throughout the marriage. She had two children: the future Frederick VI and Louise Augusta, whose biological father may have been the German physician Johann Friedrich Struensee.
  In 1769, Struensee entered the service of the Danish king; initially Caroline Matilda treated him coldly, but he quickly won the Queen's heart and they began a love affair. Struensee gained more and more power and instituted a series of reforms that Caroline Matilda supported. Struensee's reforms and his relationship with the Queen generated powerful enemies, who included Christian VII's stepmother Queen Dowager Juliana Maria and her son Prince Frederick.
context_section_description: The King returned to Copenhagen on 12 January 1769, bringing with him Johann Friedrich Struensee as Royal Physician. He had met Struensee in Altona at the beginning of his travels. During 1769, the King's mental health deteriorated, but Struensee could apparently handle the King's instability, which was a great relief to the King's advisers, and Christian VII developed a confidence in him. During 1769, Struensee encouraged the King in his attraction to Birgitte Sofie Gabel, reportedly because he believed a relationship with an intelligent woman would make the King more mentally stable and his insanity easier to handle, but this failed, and the attempt to provide the King with a mistress made the Queen hostile toward Struensee.
  After this, Struensee encouraged the King to improve his relationship with Caroline Matilda, and Christian VII showed his attention to her in the form of a three-day birthday party on 22 July 1769. The Queen was well aware that Struensee was behind these improvements, and her interest in the charming doctor developed. She was grateful that he improved the King's behaviour towards her, thereby also improving her position at court. Later, in the summer of 1769, Caroline Matilda had an attack of dropsy, and at the insistence of her husband, she turned to Struensee. He advised the Queen that entertainment and exercise were the best medicine; the royal physician's advice helped Caroline Matilda, and Struensee gained credibility with her. Her confidence in him was further strengthened when Struensee successfully inoculated the infant Crown Prince Frederick against smallpox. The attraction that had arisen between the Queen and the Royal Physician amused the King, but it was initially caused by Struensee's desire to bring together Christian VII and his wife. In January 1770, Struensee was given his own rooms at Christiansborg Palace. In the meantime, the King became more and more passive, isolated and uninvolved in government as his mental health deteriorated. He entrusted more and more of the daily state affairs to Struensee, as he had by then become accustomed to trusting him.
  By the spring of 1770, Struensee had become the Queen's lover. Later, during the divorce proceedings between Caroline Matilda and Christian VII, courtiers who accompanied the Queen during this time reported that they had suspected an affair since at least late 1769. The rumours forced the Queen to limit her contact with Struensee for a while, but not for long: by the summer of 1770 Caroline Matilda and Struensee were known to be close throughout the capital and the provinces. When the royal couple made a tour through the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein and the German border, accompanied by Struensee, he and the Queen were observed behaving in a suspicious manner towards each other, and rumors started spreading that they were lovers. With the help of Caroline Matilda, Struensee was able to expel Holck and other political enemies from court, including Margrethe von der Lühe, Holck's sister and Royal Mistress of the Robes, who, despite her blood relation with Caroline Matilda's enemy, was close to her.
  In the summer of 1770, Caroline Matilda's mother, the Dowager Princess of Wales, made a visit to the continent, where for various reasons she wanted to communicate with her daughter. The meeting was originally scheduled in Brunswick, but later was moved to Lüneburg, where Caroline Matilda saw her mother not earlier than August 1770. It was the last meeting between them; reportedly, the Queen received her in breeches, which at that time was regarded as scandalous. During this meeting, Struensee was constantly at the Queen's side, so the Dowager Princess of Wales had no opportunity to talk freely with her daughter and could only instruct Woodford, the British Minister to Saxe-Lauenburg, to caution Caroline Matilda about her behaviour. In the end, neither Woodford nor the Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh (who visited his sister in the same year in Copenhagen) succeeded in this purpose.
  In September 1770 came the fall of the Chancellor Co
caption: Caroline Matilda's royal monogram