[1] Frederick was the son of Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, and Luise von Degenfeld of Strasbourg. The couple married in 1656 when Luise was the lady in waiting to the wife of Rupert's brother, Charles I Louis, Elector of Palantine. Charles was not happy in his marriage and was pressuring Luise to be his mistress, which she refused. Rupert was visiting his brother, even though he'd thought of England as his home where he'd served his uncle, Charles I, in the Civil War. Rupert and Luise fell in love and against his brother's wishes, the couple married and moved to England to make their home after the Restoration of his cousin, Charles II.
Frederick was born in 1662 after two failed pregnancies and the birth of his older sister, Elizabeth, in 1659. He was named after his paternal grandfather, Frederick of the Palatine, and his sister was named after their paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Stuart the Winter Queen, daugher of James I Stuart. His father died in 1682 when Frederick was 20 and he went from being the Earl of Cumberland to being the Duke of Cumberland.
He was raised a devout Anglican and was a soldier and statesman, serving diplomatically for his second cousins, William and Mary, and then later Anne. When Anne's son died, Parliament passed a law that only Protestants could be heirs to the throne and that meant only the issue of Prince Rupert or of his sister, Sophia of Hanover. By the time he inherited the throne at the age of 52, the Act of Union had united the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into one United Kingdom.
Frederick had married Landgravine Elisabeth Henriëtte of Hesse-Kassel (1661-1730), his second cousin. They had numerous children, many surviving to adulthood, before he became King.
Frederick's reign was short lived as he died in 1718 from what we now believe was lung cancer.
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[2] Born 11th May 1689, the eldest son of Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, was named after his third cousin and godfather, William III of England, baptised three days later as William Rupert Frederick by Henry Compton, Bishop of London.
The accession of William and Mary, were enshrined in the Bill of Rights 1689, with their heir presumptive as Anne, Duchess of York and Albany {a}. William, Earl of Cumberland was fourth in line, with Anne still childbearing age and her own son William, Duke of Gloucester, doing well.
His father arranger for Thomas Smith (1615–1702) Bishop of Carlisle, since 1684, graduate of The Queen's College, Oxford and chaplain to King Charles II, to be William’s tutor until Thomas death, when 13 year old William received the final years of tutoring under Nathaniel Crew, 3rd Baron Crew (1633-1721) Bishop of Durham from 1674, graduate of Lincoln College, Oxford and former Clerk of the Closet to Charles II.
In 1693, five year old William joined the "Horse Guards", a miniature army, under the command of his five year old distant cousin, Duke of Gloucester, which started off with 22 boys and ended with 90.
This gave his nickname “Cumberland Will” as well as his love for military, like his father and grandfather.
On the 30 July 1700, 6 days after his cousins birthday party in Windsor Earl William awoke to the news of the Duke of Cumberland’s death and met the coming months in mourning and self reflecting on his own mortality, now he was third in line to the throne with only, aging childless Anne and his father ahead of him.
Two months after the duke of Gloucester’s death, September 1700, Sophia of Hanover, sister of Rupert; met her cousin King William III of England at Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. Sophia had heard that Parliament had passed a law that only Protestants could be heirs to the throne and that meant only the issue of Prince Rupert or herself. Knowing that England would prefer Frederick over her, Sophia persuaded that to stop her son, Georg Ludwig of Hanover contesting the throne, a compromise could be arranged where Frederick’s heir marries her granddaughter,
Sophia Dorothea of Hanover.
The proposal was supported by William III and Parliament, as well as his father.
The wedding took place on William, Earl of Cumberland’s 16th birthday in 1705, with 18 year old, Sophia said to be the happiest woman in all of Europe.
Their marriage was an extremely happy one and produced sixteen children.
On 1 August 1714, William was awoken to the news of Queen Anne’s death and the accession of his father to the throne. His wife Sophia and he, were investitured as the new Prince and Princess of Wales.
Although they didn’t hold this title for long, as two years later, his father died and 25 year old, William, became the fourth king of his name.
His reign was only just in its first year when he would see the
Jacobite rising in 1715, commanded by the Catholic claimants,
James Francis Edward Stuart.
The rising was quickly squashed, with minor English casualties, however it wasn’t the last. Three more attempts would be made during William’s nearly 44 year reign, all failing with the final one seeing the last descendant of James II killed in battle. These were the only military skirmishes that the United Kingdom would see under William’s reign.
In British domestic politics, William was heavily involved, holding regular meetings with parliament, discussing taxes, bills, foreign policy and military appointments openly with members on both side of the country’s two main parties, Torys and Whigs.
Personally William kept no mistresses, preferring the love and company of his wife. Having exercised regularly, ate healthily and drunk little alcohol, William was a figure of good living.
Losing his wife in 1757, came as a hard blow to the king, who slowly began showing his age, physically, while mentally being fine.
His death in February 1764, at the age of 74, came after a short illness during the cold winter storm. Mourned by all he was succeeded by his eldest son; William, Prince of Wales.
[3] William was the third born child of William IV and his wife, but the first to survive infancy. His elder brothers; Robert of Wales (b.&d. 1710) and George William of Wales (b. & d. 1712) both lasted little over a month, and so when William made his first year, it was believed great things were to come.
A different man to his two predecessors, while they embraced English traditions and form, William Louis would embrace his ancestral Palatinate, travelling frequently to the Electorate during his years as Prince of Wales, becoming close to his cousin; Charles III who had ruled the Electorate since the death of his father; Charles II in 1699. it was in 1741 where the sixty year old Charles III named William as his heir, and five years later when William would inherit the Electoral Palatine as Wilhelm I. Following this inheritance, William would argue that the true name of their royal house was Wittelsbach-Palatine, stating that Cumberland was a mere titular duchy as opposed to a family name, and when his grandfather took the throne, the title was absorbed back into the monarchy, bringing an end to it, and so he used the Dynastic name of Wittelsbach-Palatine for the remainder of his life.
With his fathers permission, William IV would marry Maria Ana Francisca of Portugal in 1751, and they would produce four sons and two daughters. Maria Ana would convert.to Anglicanism in 1752, after the birth of their first child. William would rule for sixteen years, and at the age of 65 would pass in his sleep, and the Throne would pass to his eldest daughter, Mary.
(4) Born 1752 as the eldest child of William V and Maria Ana Francisca of Portugal, Princess Maria Francesca of the United Kingdom of England and Scotland became Queen as Mary III at the age of 28, after having survived all four of her younger brothers. Whilst her mother had yearned for a Portuguese match, the candidacy for Mary's future husband would turn decidedly more northern, with the lead being Augustus of Anhalt-Zerbst, whose father had supported William V during the American Crisis that had rumbled through his reign.
Mary and Augustus would marry in 1772, with Augustus being made Duke of Gloucester, and were soon with child and would end up having a total of five children, but only three would survive to adulthood. Whilst her father embraced his German ancestry, Mary sought her way into the hearts of her people by becoming very English and touring both England and Scotland, often acting as Regent for her father during the last 8 years of her reign whilst he was abroad.
If only it were that simple, Mary was forced to face The Irish Problem as one particularly odious MP deemed it in Parliament. When the United Kingdom had been declared 73 years earlier, it had been done so with the Kingdom of Ireland (as with Wales many years before it) being subsumed into England. Whilst the heir was often made Prince of Wales, another of their titles would be Duke of Ireland (OOC - IOTL a title first used in 1386).
This would lead to grievances in Ireland as the Parliament of Ireland was effectively disbanded and subsumed into Westminster. Whilst the powers of the Irish Parliament had been limited, even these were lost in Westminster in a Parliament dominated by the English. By 1780, there was open dissent in the Irish streets, and inspired by the semi successful rebellions in America which had seen the colonies attain some devolved powers. But Ireland was closer and Mary and Westminster could more effectively crackdown on the rebels, with some limited concessions being made such that the Irish MPs in Parliament would, as a group, be given a greater voice in any bills that would affect Irish domestic affairs. This was putting a sticking plaster on a deep wound - it might work in the short term, but the resentment would fester.
Mary would die at the age of 50, future scientists would determine that she had developed high cholesterol and likely died of a heart attack. She would be succeeded by Christian, her son.
(5) Christian Augustus Ascania, named after his paternal grandfather, was born in 1779. He was the third child and second son of Queen Mary and the Duke of Gloucester. His older brother, Frederick William, who was born in 1774, died in 1793 at the age of 19 while visiting their great aunt, Catherine the Great of Russia, in order to meet his intended, Catherine's granddaughter, the daughter of the future Czar Paul I, Constance Romanov (b. 1779). (TTL's alter to OTL Grand Duke Konstantine). Frederick was hunting in the winter of Russia when he caught a cold which became pneumonia and he died. Christian, now at the age of 14, became the Prince of Wales and heir.
(His other siblings were Princess Royal Elizabeth (b. 1777), Prince Edward Arthur (b. 1783), and Prince George Charles who died three weeks after his birth in 1786.)
Upon the death of his older brother before he could marry Constance Romanov, who was not yet of age to marry, the alliance with the Romanov Empire was continued with Constance and Christian being matched. They married in 1797. Like his brother, Christian had gone to Russia to meet his fiancé, but he went in the spring and didn't go hunting. They then journeyed to London where they were married. Accompanying them was the Princess's favorite lady in waiting, Alexandria Romanov, a distant cousin.
The Prince and Princess of Wales had their first attempt at having a child in 1798 that resulted in a miscarriage. This was the result of a conjugal union on their wedding night, one they both didn't desire. The truth was that Constance was a Lesbian and Alexandria was her romantic partner. She did not let the Prince into her bed chambers again until after he was King in another attempt to have a child.
The Prince instead took a mistress, Jessica Reynolds, an actress, setting her up in a household of her own, where he would visit. They eventually had three illegitimate children before he ended the relationship in 1809.
He became King in 1802 only a few months shy of turning 22. Immediately the Irish Problem returned, as well as war with France, which had become a Republic in 1800 after a bloody Revolution. The rebels in Ireland declared Ireland a republic and allied with France. This war saw the United Kingdom allied with the Romanovs and the Prussian Kingdom, while France allied with the Republic of Venice, which now dominated northern Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Crete, and parts of the Peloponnese in Greece. The war also was fought in North America between the British colonies and the French colonies of Quebec, Arcadia, and Louisiana-Ohio.
The British Navy was victorious at sea and the British won quickly in North America, as the British colonists were loyal due to the local governments the Kingdom had set up for them. While the war on the Continent was at a stalemate except in the East, the Kingdom focused on Ireland. By extending to the Irish the same promise of their own Parliament while at the same time having representation at Westminster and by officially recognizing that Ireland was Catholic, the loyalists in Ireland and the British forces destroyed the Republicans. After the victory there, a new Act of Union was passed by Westminster and a new Irish Parliament in 1805, which resulted in each former kingdom (including Wales) having a sub-Parliament as well as full and equal representation in the Parliament of the British Isles.
Meanwhile the war on the Continent dragged on. This was a different kind of warfare than had been common in the 18th Century as professional armies faced each other on a field of battle. Now vast armies of citizen soldiers filled with Nationalism engaged in ongoing battles, destruction of the countryside and of towns, and, learned from the tribes in North America, guerilla warfare. Back and forth land was exchanged in northern France between the French and British armies. Then in 1809, after forcing Prussia into submission, the Prime Consul of France, Robespierre, invaded Russia, where he was defeated primarily by the Russian Winter. He died on the field of Battle.
The Monarchy was restored to France and peace was made. Russia expanded into eastern Europe, The Republic of Vienna was split up into smaller states, and it was clear that the great powers were now Britain and Russia.
It was in 1804 that the King and Queen once again shared a bed and she again became pregnant. This time the child was born only to be horribly disfigured and the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. He was named George, but died within hours.
As his siblings had had issue by then, giving Christian legitimate heirs, the Queen refused to share her bed again with the King.
Christian ended his relationship with Jessica Reynolds in 1809, but continued to provide for her and their children. He started a relationship with a different actress, Barbara Smythe, who was only 20, setting her up in a household. They had two sons.
After the French and Irish War, the Kingdom was prosperous and peaceful. The solution of sub-Parliaments pacified Ireland. Now the Industrial Revolution that had begun in the late 18th Century took off as railroads and factories became the new norm across the Isles. Also colonization moved ahead with new settlements in the South Pacific, New Zealand, and Australia, and along the West Coast of North America between Spanish California and Russian Alaska. Trading Companies chartered by Parliament and sponsored by the King, established themselves in India, Eastern Africa, and China.
In 1823, the King ended his relationship with Barbara Smythe, but as he had with Jessica Reynolds, continued to support her and their children. He did not establish a new ongoing mistress, but began to visit with prostitutes when he felt a need to meet his carnal urges. The Queen retired from London and lived in an estate on the Isle of Wight with Alexandria.
Unlike previous Kings who provided for his illegitimate children by granting them titles, Christian instead made sure his sons got lucrative positions in the various Trading Companies and his daughters married in to prosperous families involved in the Industrialization of the Isles.
The King died at the age of 69 after a long bout of Syphilis. He was succeeded by his nephew, Prince Edward, Duke of Cambridge.
