Meanwhile in Britain
Frederick I of Great Britain had several daughters, but only one son, with Augusta of Saxe Gotha. And his son died prior to Frederick, and left no heirs, which made his eldest daughter, Augusta, his heir presumptive. When Augusta became Queen in 1785, her son Frederick the Black, was created as the new Prince of Wales.
Augusta's youngest sister was Caroline Matilda, Crown Princess and then Queen Consort, of Albion. Which means that the relationship between the two countries were eased by the two women's sisterhood. With Augusta's succession to the throne, the crown of Hanover, which had been held by the King of Great Britain for the past seventy years, moves sideways to Augusta's uncle, William Augustus, the Duke of Cumberland.
It was customary that when a new King or Queen was crowned, that an election was held, and the possibility of a new Prime Minister arose. It was this that would cause the first seeds of dissent to arise with the people she would rule.
Despite being married to a German Duke, Augusta was often described as being very English, very cynical and very independent. With her brother passing away shortly before her father, she had never been intended to become Queen and her education as a result lacked in the tools required to rule.
Charles, Duke of Brunswick Wolfenbuttel, having governed the German Duchy on the banks of the Rhine, took the reigns in Britain and began to rule the country through his wife. But the Duke was a renowned womanizer, with a multitude of mistresses, several of whom were married, and married to Members of Parliament. Oblivious to the fact that his affairs had caused a domino effect, Charles petitioned his wife to sponsor a Bill in Parliament to have him declared King jure uxoris, with the rights and privileges thereof.
Francis Osborne, the Duke of Leeds, and Prime Minister at the time advised the Queen that her ministers were unhappy with being ruled by her husband through her, and that him ruling directly would never do. The motion and bill would not pass through Parliament. Augusta, in turn, relayed this to her husband who merely suggested that she appoint those of her friends who either agreed with the plan, or who would support it to win her favour, to the House of Lords with the intent that they could push the bill through into law.
Thomas Townsend, the Foreign Secretary, got wind of the plan by the crown and advised the Queen that should the couple attempt to force it through, she would face the resignation of her entire government. Stacking the Lords was a little bit too much like proroguing Parliament, both were within the powers of the crown but that didn't mean it was a wise idea to exert those powers.
Parliament held it's breath, the next move was made by the Queen. Charlotte created Charles as Duke of Portsmouth, which gave him the right to sit in the House of Lords. And it was a right he took full advantage of, taking a lead role among the nobility by virtue of being husband of the Queen.
In Brunswick, Charles had brought in a cashflow by renting out his soldiers to the Grand Duchy of Rhode Island which frustrated Parliament. But the larger gambit was making it be known to the British public of the Queens desire to appoint her husband as King and of the Prime Minister's attempts to block it.
Because despite his affairs, Charles was generally well liked by his subjects and wanted to make several reforms. He used private funds from Brunswick to sponsor arts, science and math. He wished to reform elections, with some cities having no representation and others having a lot. The clash of power between monarch and government was like setting a match to dry kindling.
Several protests began to sweep across England, first in the country and then within cities such as London. Even though they were in conflict, and perhaps to try and stop further inflammatory acts, the Duke of Leeds advised the Queen and her family to abandon London for the relative safety of Beaumaris Castle in Wales. In actuality, this had a negative effect, being perceived by the public that the Prime Minister had driven the Queen from London and forced her into isolation in Wales.
That November, on Gunpowder Treason Day, the public burned effigies of the Duke of Leeds. Members of the Lords demanded the resignation of the Prime Minister ad events started to spiral out of control.
In Hanover, William Augustus and his wife, Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, watched the events developing in Britain with a smug satisfaction that he would never have let things build to crisis point. When Augusta begged her Uncle to take in her daughter and invalid sons, he refused for fear that the protests and riots would spread, however unlikely, to Hanover and thus Frederick the Black returned to Brunswick by ship from Anglesey whilst her other children were forced to remain in Wales.
If the Prince of Wales was alone, at least it wasn't in the increasingly unstable Britain.
Augusta turned to her sister, by that point, the Queen of Albion, to give refuge to Princess Caroline, and her two invalid brothers who had no claim to the crown, George and August. Which left only Augusta and Charles in Wales. The Queens sisters had married minor German princes and were likewise safe from harm.
Parliament had attempted to quash the civil unrest, having brought in the army to control the crowds. But that would only take them so far, and in 1790, the Houses of Parliament were set on fire in an act that would otherwise have been declared accidental, but was realised as arsen when a young man burst onto the stage where the Prime Minister was speaking, claimed he started the fire, and then shot the Prime Minister dead.
The young man was never even imprisoned, he was shot on the spot and with his death came martyrdom. The riots continued and with the Queen resident in Wales, Townsend stepped up as Prime Minister.
This was the beginning of the end. By the following Spring, the aged Field Marshall Henry Conway had martialed the armed forces and taken Townsend captive. Far from releasing the imprisoned Queen and Duke of Portsmouth, Conway had effectively led a military coup, usurped the deposer and all but declared himself as President of Britain aside from pockets of Parliamentarian and Royalist resistance across the country. The Queen and the Duke of Portsmouth were restricted to the grounds of Beaumaris Castle.
With the country relatively stable for the first time in 3 years and the Prince of Wales having returned from Brunswick, Conway headed to Wales for an audience with the Queen. In a bold move, Conway offered to recognise the Duke of Portsmouth as King jure uxoris even though the crown would retain almost no power with authority sitting with the Field Marshall.
Augusta cautiously agreed, believing such a move would be in the best interest of Britain. It was a move that should have worked, except Conway died a couple of years later, to be succeeded by Charles Moore, Marquess of Drogheda. Moore had rather different ideas about the role of Field Marshall and given the royal family had become almost purely ceremonial, he sought to remove them from the throne immediately and take onboard the crown lands as part of the government purse.
Moore gave an ultimatum, either Augusta, Charles and Frederick could voluntarily leave Britain, or he would have them imprisoned for life. Augusta knew that imprisonment likely meant execution and agreed to exile.
But Moore knew that the proximity of the Queen and her heir apparent in Brunswick would be dangerous, so he made a gamble, a power grab in which he handed Brunswick to Hanover and the Prince Elector. Augusta did wonder how much hand that her Uncle had in the enforced abdication claim.
But as it stood, by the summer of 1795, Augusta, Charles and Frederick were on a ship bound for the only territories they had been given permission to retain - the (at that time) sparsely populated and rather bleak Canadian colonies.
Augusta had started the year as Queen of Great Britain, she ended it as Queen of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, living at the (later rechristened) Albionoria Palace in Halifax.
America had acquired another monarchy.
Line of Succession, Great Britain
c. 1795
Sophia of Great Britain, r. 1714-1716, m. Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover
a) George, Prince Elector of Hanover, d. 1714, m. Sophia Dorothea of Celle
1)
George I of Great Britain and Hanover, r. 1716-1760, m. Caroline of Ansbach
a)
Frederick I of Great Britain and Hanover, r. 1760-1785, m. Augusta of Saxe-Gotha
1)
Augusta I of Great Britain, r. 1785-1795, of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland 1795-0000, m.
Charles III of Great Britain, r. 1793-1795, of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland 1795-0000
a) Frederick the Black, Prince of Wales/Duke of Halifax, m. Marie of Baden
2) Elizabeth
3) Louisa
4)
Caroline Matilda of Great Britain*, Queen Consort of Albion, m.
Philip, King of Albion
a) Louis, Crown Prince of Albion, Comte de St Pierre et Miquelon
b) William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, Prince Elector of Hanover-Brunswick, r. 1785-0000, m. Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst
* -
Caroline Matilda abdicated her claim to the British throne upon marriage, whether this remains true for the crown of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland remains to be seen