Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel (Augusta Wilhelmina Louisa; 25 July 1797 – 6 April 1889) was the wife of

Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, (Adolphus Frederick; 24 February 1774 – 8 July 1850) was the tenth child and seventh son of the British king George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. He held the title of Duke of Cambridge from 18 ...

, the tenth-born child, and seventh son, of George III of the United Kingdom and

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was Queen of Great Britain and of Ireland as the wife of King George III from their marriage on 8 September 1761 until the union of the two kingdoms ...

. The longest-lived daughter-in-law of George III, she was the maternal grandmother of

Mary of Teck Mary of Teck (Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes; 26 May 186724 March 1953) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 6 May 1910 until 20 January 1936 as the wife of King-Empe ...

, wife of

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...

Early life

Princess and Landgravine Augusta of Hesse-Kassel, third daughter of

Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel Prince Frederick of Hesse-Kassel (11 September 1747 – 20 May 1837) was a younger member of the dynasty that ruled the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) and a Danish general. He was born as the youngest son of Hereditary Prince Fre ...

, and his wife,

Princess Caroline of Nassau-Usingen , house =Nassau-Usingen , father = Karl Wilhelm, Prince of Nassau-Usingen , mother =Countess Caroline Felizitas of Leiningen-Dagsburg , birth_date = , birth_place = Biebrich, Nassau-Usingen , death_date = , death_place =Rum ...

, was born at

Rumpenheim Castle Rumpenheim Castle is a '' Schloss'' located in the banks of the Main river in the German city of Offenbach am Main. History The origin of the palace dates back to the manor house of Johann Georg Seifert von Edelsheim, a politician serving the C ...

(French: ''Château de Rumpenheim'', German: ''Rumpenheimer Schloss''), Offenbach am Main,

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...

. Through her father, she was a great-granddaughter of

George II of Great Britain , house = Hanover , religion = Protestant , father = George I of Great Britain , mother = Sophia Dorothea of Celle , birth_date = 30 October / 9 November 1683 , birth_place = Herrenhausen Palace,Cannon. or Leine ...

, her grandmother being George II's daughter

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

. Her father's older brother was the

Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Kassel), spelled Hesse-Cassel during its entire existence, was a state in the Holy Roman Empire that was directly subject to the Emperor. The state was created in 1567 when the Lan ...

. In 1803, her

uncle An uncle is usually defined as a male relative who is a sibling of a parent or married to a sibling of a parent. Uncles who are related by birth are second-degree relatives. The female counterpart of an uncle is an aunt, and the reciprocal rela ...

's title was raised to

Elector of Hesse This is a list of rulers of Hesse (german: Hessen) during the history of Hesse on west-central Germany. These rulers belonged to a dynasty collectively known as the House of Hesse and the House of Brabant,''Burke's Royal Families of the World ...

—whereby the entire Kassel branch of the Hesse dynasty gained an upward notch in hierarchy.

Marriage

On 7 May, in Kassel, and then, again, on 1 June 1818 at Buckingham Palace, Princess Augusta married her second cousin, the Duke of Cambridge, when she was 20 and he 44. Upon their marriage, Augusta became Duchess of Cambridge. They had three children. From 1818 until the accession of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

, and the separation of the British and Hanoverian crowns in 1837, the Duchess of Cambridge lived in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, where the Duke served as viceroy on behalf of his brothers,

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

and

William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded h ...

. In 1827 Augusta allowed that a new village, founded on 3 May 1827 and to be settled in the course of the cultivation and colonisation of the moorlands in the south of

Bremervörde Bremervörde () is a town in the north of the district (''Landkreis'') of Rotenburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the Oste river near the centre of the "triangle" formed by the rivers Weser and Elbe, roughly equidistant from the cit ...

, would bear her name. On 19 June the administration of the Hanoveran High-Bailiwick of Stade informed the villagers that she had approved the chosen name Augustendorf for their municipality (since 1974 it is a component locality of Gnarrenburg). The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge returned to Great Britain, where they lived at Cambridge Cottage,

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...

, and later at St. James's Palace.

Death

The Duchess of Cambridge survived her husband by thirty-nine years, dying on 6 April 1889, at the age of ninety-one, at their home at Cambridge Cottage on

Kew Green Kew Green is a large open space in Kew in west London. Owned by the Crown Estate, it is leased to the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is roughly triangular in shape, and its open grassland, framed with broadleaf trees, extends to abo ...

. Queen Victoria wrote of her aunt's death: "Very sad, though not for her. But she is the last of her generation, & I have no longer anyone above me." She was buried at

St Anne's Church, Kew St Anne's Church, Kew, is a parish church in Kew in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The building, which dates from 1714, and is Grade II* listed, forms the central focus of Kew Green. The raised churchyard, which is on three side ...

, but her remains were transferred to

St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England is a castle chapel built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It is both a Royal Peculiar (a church under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch) and the Chapel of the Order of the Gart ...

in 1930.

Titles and styles

*25 July 1797 – 7 May 1818: ''Her Serene Highness'' Princess Augusta Wilhelmina Louisa of Hesse *7 May 1818 – 6 April 1889: ''Her Royal Highness'' The Duchess of Cambridge

Ancestry

Issue

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had three children: