Different Wife for George IV

If the future George IV had been made to marry earlier (1780s rather than 1790s) what princess may have be chosen for him as a bride?
 
Princess Amalie Zephyrine of Salm-Kyrburg or
Landgravine Juliane of Hesse-Philippsthal or
Princess Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt or
Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen or
Princess Louise Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg or
Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern or
Princess Maria Carolina of Savoy or
Princess Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt or
Duchess Frederica of Württemberg.
 
I want to say that we can rule out Savoy due to religion. Stolberg-Gedern doesn't seem to have been anything more than a princess and wouldn't be important enough to attract a match with the Prince of Wales. Württemberg is likely already promised to a Russian match.

Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt had delicate lungs and might not appreciate British weather. Caroline of Nassau-Usingen is a grand-daughter of George II so I wouldn't be surprised if she were considered. Juliane of Hesse-Philippsthal seems like an interesting woman. Certainly she appears to have been more competent than George IV himself. If you can get Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt from the match with her cousin, the crown prince of Hesse. Then George might very well be pleased with her. I suspect the man needs a beautiful and fairly agreeable wife to be happy domestically. As well as someone to keep him from straying too far with mistresses.
 
I want to say that we can rule out Savoy due to religion. Stolberg-Gedern doesn't seem to have been anything more than a princess and wouldn't be important enough to attract a match with the Prince of Wales. Württemberg is likely already promised to a Russian match.

Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt had delicate lungs and might not appreciate British weather. Caroline of Nassau-Usingen is a grand-daughter of George II so I wouldn't be surprised if she were considered. Juliane of Hesse-Philippsthal seems like an interesting woman. Certainly she appears to have been more competent than George IV himself. If you can get Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt from the match with her cousin, the crown prince of Hesse. Then George might very well be pleased with her. I suspect the man needs a beautiful and fairly agreeable wife to be happy domestically. As well as someone to keep him from straying too far with mistresses.

Savoy - not gonna happen due to various acts of Parliament.
Stolberg-Gedern, Salm-Kyrburg and Hohenlohe-Langenburg are all too minor principaliies for them get any serious consideration.
As to the remainder:
Juliane of Hesse-Philippsthal - don't know much about her
Luise of Hesse-Darmstadt: only married her cousin because his first fiancé, Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg ditched him to marry the Russian grand duke. So, if we prevent that, there's no real reason she can't become princess of Wales (that I know of anyway).
Karoline of Nassau-Üsingen: again, besides Nassau-Üsingen (as well as Hesse-Philippsthal) perhaps being too small a player to make an alliance worthwhile, I can't see an impediment. @Titania's Rose she wasn't George II's granddaughter (different branch of the house of Nassau - namely Nassau-Weilburg - descended from him).
Auguste Wilhelmine only married Maximilian I after his older brother's only son died. His marriage to a Saxon princess had never been close, but after their son's death it fell apart completely IIRC. So, prevent little Karl Friedrich August of Zweibrucken from dying and you can maybe see it happening.
Friederike of Württemberg: Not sure how set in stone the marriage between her and the prince of Oldenburg was, so it might still fly. I think I read somewhere that the duchess of Württemberg wanted one of her daughters to become princess of Wales, but her husband/Prussian uncle wasn't in favour of it.

A candidate missing who I think is beautiful, fairly agreeable, and competent, and she was considered OTL, but George III preferred his niece: Luise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (OTL queen of Prussia). If George III had been a little more persuaded, (Queen Charlotte was quite vocal about her niece's candidacy, unlike her other niece that later became duchess of Cumberland, who she despised as having loose morals and a bad match for poor Ernest), and the prince of Prussia (FWIII) had wed elsewhere, his mother wanted him to marry Amalie of Baden (twin sister to Maximilian I of Bavaria's second wife), but he told her that he and Amalie would only ever be friends, we could see George IV marrying Napoleon's beautiful enemy.
Another one who might work is Amalie of Baden. OTL, she was considered for Clarence and then Kent, but negotiations were stopped when the duke of Teschen displayed some interest in wedding her. Unfortunately, the Empress died around the same time, and Franz II considered marrying her, and by the time Franz had made up his mind, Teschen had lost interest. Franz then tried to foist her on Kent again, but the English duke refused to take the emperor's "cast-offs" (as he termed it). And so, she never married.
 
Karoline of Nassau-Üsingen: again, besides Nassau-Üsingen (as well as Hesse-Philippsthal) perhaps being too small a player to make an alliance worthwhile, I can't see an impediment. @Titania's Rose she wasn't George II's granddaughter (different branch of the house of Nassau - namely Nassau-Weilburg - descended from him).

Ah, whoops! Sorry about that.
 
Sorry to bump this but this topic has been on my head recently and I though bumping a recent thread would be easier than making a new one. What do you all think about Princess Luisa Wilhelmina of Orange-Nassau (28 November 1770)? As the daughter of the Stadtholder of the Netherlands she seems to be one of the highest ranking potentials I can find. Britain and the Netherlands were traditional allies and the two were cousins, both descending from George II, so on paper the marriage seemed perfect. OTL Luisa married Karl Georg August, Hereditary Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, a match arranged as a way for the Oranges to show their appreciation for the Prince's father Karl Wilhelm's divisive role in the Prussian intervention in 1787 that restored the Stadtholder to power. Considering that the Prince was physically and mentally disabled the marriage was quite a waste. So lets say the Oranges make a different marriage with the Brunswicks (the Hereditary Prince of Orange and perhaps Caroline of Brunswick?) or don't feel the need to make a match, leaving Luisa single. Could she become Princess of Wales in this scenario and would this be a better and more fruitful relationship than that of George IV's OTL marriage?
 
Sorry to bump this but this topic has been on my head recently and I though bumping a recent thread would be easier than making a new one. What do you all think about Princess Luisa Wilhelmina of Orange-Nassau (28 November 1770)? As the daughter of the Stadtholder of the Netherlands she seems to be one of the highest ranking potentials I can find. Britain and the Netherlands were traditional allies and the two were cousins, both descending from George II, so on paper the marriage seemed perfect. OTL Luisa married Karl Georg August, Hereditary Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, a match arranged as a way for the Oranges to show their appreciation for the Prince's father Karl Wilhelm's divisive role in the Prussian intervention in 1787 that restored the Stadtholder to power. Considering that the Prince was physically and mentally disabled the marriage was quite a waste. So lets say the Oranges make a different marriage with the Brunswicks (the Hereditary Prince of Orange and perhaps Caroline of Brunswick?) or don't feel the need to make a match, leaving Luisa single. Could she become Princess of Wales in this scenario and would this be a better and more fruitful relationship than that of George IV's OTL marriage?

Hadn't the Netherlands recently fought against Britain in the ARW? It might take some doing to get Parliament/the royal family to stomach a Dutch match (although George III's daughter Mary was considered for either Willem VI or his brother, Prince Frederik). It sounds like a decent match - but I'm not sure how plausible it would be
 
As far as the state of the marriage goes, everything depends on when it happens. If somebody can (a) get to the prince in mid-1783 before he meets Maria Fitzherbert and (b) arrange it so he thinks the marriage is his idea, it will be rock-solid. He won't be faithful to her, but he won't be antagonistic either and will probably manage to have more than one child with her.

If it happens a few years later and they yank him directly out of a relationship or unrecognized marriage with a woman he loves and force him into a marriage with a stranger (the first time Parliament relieved his debts in 1787 might be an occasion for this) things might actually be worse than they were with Caroline, if that's at all possible. The one positive is you wouldn't have a royal mistress giving "advice" to the royal bride.
 
Hadn't the Netherlands recently fought against Britain in the ARW? It might take some doing to get Parliament/the royal family to stomach a Dutch match (although George III's daughter Mary was considered for either Willem VI or his brother, Prince Frederik). It sounds like a decent match - but I'm not sure how plausible it would be

Yes and no. The war was with the Republic but the Stadtholder was very pro-British and highly opposed to the war. Plus the later Patriot revolt of 1787 was suppressed with Prussian and British aid, so it doesn't seem like London held a grudge. In fact I found a brief mention of a possible Orange match in George IV by E. A. Smith; "In 1785 Hugh Elliot, a diplomat, was trying to find on behalf of the King and Pitt to discover whether the Prince was, or was about to be, married to Mrs Fitzherbert and was authorized to hint about the possible payment of his debts if he would consent to a betrothal with the Princess of Orange." As Luisa was the only Orange Princess unmarried, she was obviously the one being mentioned. Nothing came of it because of his attachment to Mrs Fitzherbert but clearly it was considered.

Plus, after doing some research, Luisa was described as "delightful, mild, lovable, witty and clever, not a beauty but still very pretty. In addition, she is said to be admirably kind to her boring consort." So it seems to me that she would fit in well enough with George IV. Not a love match but content enough. We definitely wouldn't see the kind of fights that dominated him and Caroline that's for sure.

As far as the state of the marriage goes, everything depends on when it happens. If somebody can (a) get to the prince in mid-1783 before he meets Maria Fitzherbert and (b) arrange it so he thinks the marriage is his idea, it will be rock-solid. He won't be faithful to her, but he won't be antagonistic either and will probably manage to have more than one child with her.

If it happens a few years later and they yank him directly out of a relationship or unrecognized marriage with a woman he loves and force him into a marriage with a stranger (the first time Parliament relieved his debts in 1787 might be an occasion for this) things might actually be worse than they were with Caroline, if that's at all possible. The one positive is you wouldn't have a royal mistress giving "advice" to the royal bride.

Wouldn't it be better for Mr Fitzherbert to simply live? I mean Thomas Fitzherbert was ten years younger than Maria and died quite suddenly. If she's not a widow Maria wouldn't give the Prince any serious consideration and sooner or later George would lose interest. But I don't think it would be possible to "force" him into a marriage. Well OK in theory but the King never pushed the issue with any of his sons.
 
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