Research Catalog

Title

The first iron lady : a life of Caroline of Ansbach / Matthew Dennison.

Author

Dennison, Matthew

Publication

London : William Collins, 2017.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

x, 400 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"Thinker, politician, blagger, schemer, patroness and matriarch, Caroline of Ansbach is the great monarch Britain forgot it had. History has forgotten Caroline of Ansbach and yet in her lifetime she was compared frequently to Elizabeth I and considered by some as 'the cleverest Queen consort Britain ever had'. The intellectual superior of her buffoonish husband George II, Caroline is credited with bringing the Enlightenment to Britain through her sponsorship of red-hot debates about science, religion, philosophy and the nature of the universe. Encouraged by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, she championed inoculation; inspired by her friend Leibniz and Samuel Clarke, she mugged up on Newtonian physics; she embraced a salon culture which promoted developments in music, literature and garden design; she was a regular theatre-goer who loved the opera, gambling and dancing. Her intimates marvelled at the breadth of her interests. She was, said Lord Egmont, 'curious in everything'. Caroline acted as Regent four times whilst her husband returned to Hanover and during those periods she possessed power over all domestic matters. No subsequent royal woman has exercised power on such a scale. So why has history forgotten this extraordinary queen? In this magnificent biography, the first for over seventy years, Matthew Dennison seeks to reverse this neglect. The First Iron Lady uncovers the complexities of Caroline's multifaceted life from child of a minor German princeling who, through intelligence, determination and a dash of sex appeal, rose to occupy one of the great positions of the world and did so with distinction, elan and a degree of cynical realism. It is a remarkable portrait of an 18th-century woman of great political astuteness and ambition, a radical icon of female power."--

Subjects

• Great Britain
• Queens
• Great Britain > History > George II, 1727-1760
• Great Britain > Court and courtiers > History > 18th century
• Courts and courtiers
• Caroline, Queen, consort of George II, King of Great Britain, 1683-1737
• History
• Biography
• Biographies
• Queens > Great Britain > Biography
• 1700-1799

Genre/Form

• Biographies.
• Biography.
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Call Number

JFE 18-795

ISBN

• 9780008121990
• 0008121990

OCLC

1013950660

Author

Dennison, Matthew, author.

Title

The first iron lady : a life of Caroline of Ansbach / Matthew Dennison.

Publisher

London : William Collins, 2017.

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological Term

1700-1799

Research Call Number

JFE 18-795