Chapter Text
A Queen was judged by her ability to give their King an heir for their throne.
It was not anything different for Catherine de Braganza, Infanta of Portugal. She had gone several years without bearing a child, and her devotion to Catholicism wasn’t making her any more popular amongst her husband’s people. She faced the same problem her mother-in-law Princess Henrietta Maria of France had, but she also faced the problem of childlessness.
Her husband endlessly pursued women. He had countless mistresses to prove it.
The Iberian Princess should’ve known that her heart would be broken over and over again considering she had been arranged to marry a man obsessed with splendour and women, not too different from France’s legendary Sun King Louis XIV. She should’ve braced herself for this inevitable event, but now she suffered from loneliness and she didn’t even have a child to keep her company.
Yet unexpectedly, she did fall pregnant after letting her husband in her rooms for a couple nights. And on 29 September 1665, she gave birth to a living daughter. This time, she had not miscarried.
She named the girl after herself, naming her Catherine Joanna Louise Eleonore Henrietta Maria Stuart. And as long as her daughter lived, she would have some type of company while her husband was running around fathering children with his mistresses.
The birth of Princess Catherine Stuart of England did not elevate the Queen’s status amongst the British courtiers. Her strong Catholicism was still a point of contention.
Things took a turn for the worse when the Test Act of 1673 came around, banning those belonging to the Catholic faith from holding public office in Anglican England and Scotland, as many extreme Protestants were convinced that she and others were ‘in cahoots’ with the Vatican to instil Catholicism back in England after assassinating King Charles II and replace him with his 8-year-old daughter who could still be influenced into doing things by her Catholic mother.
It was at this time that the courtiers were calling for a strictly Protestant education for the Princess of Wales, and demanded that a Protestant husband would be sought. They were demands the King had to give in to, especially considering his younger brother The Duke of York had converted to Catholicism in ’68, in order to put the Protestant majority in his lands at ease.
Princess Catherine Joanna, Princess of Wales, had grown up during a period of distinct unrest and anti-Catholic sentiments within England and Scotland. Though she had been sheltered a lot by her mother, the political problems became apparent to her through tutoring sessions and religious education.
Until she turned 10, her mother had been her only companion. She didn’t see much of her cousins, Mary and Anne of York, as they lived in a different palace to her. On top of that, Mary was also married off to the Dutch Prince of Orange to establish stronger links with fellow Protestant dynasties. It was a fate which would likely befall Anne too, as well as the Princess of Wales.
As Crown Princess, her future marriage was a point of strong contention amongst the British people, the British aristocracy, and in Parliament. Sadly, she had little to no say in the ongoing negotiations with German and Scandinavian Princes. The only thing she was allowed to do was evaluate portraits.
Aged 17, she finally selected a personal favourite: Prince Frederick of Sweden, the 2nd son of King Charles X Gustav of Sweden and Duchess Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp. He was 8 years her senior.
Just a year after her cousin Anne married Prince George of Denmark, Joanna was married to the Prince of her choice at Saint James’s Palace on 9 November 1684 and the couple took up apartments at Kensington Palace.
The marriage had a rocky start, as the bridegroom was anything but happy to be married. He did not blame his new wife, but instead blamed his mother and older brother as he had been very content with his life in the Swedish mountains where he had been able to hike in the fresh air.
The Princess of Wales decided to take her husband to the Scottish mountains three months after her father died on 6 February 1685. There, his attitude towards married life improved. While holed up in Edinburgh Castle, the pair were rarely spotted alone in any of the rooms by staff and maintenance crew.
The new Queen and Prince Consort returned to London after staying in Scotland for 3 months to have their coronation ceremony take place at Westminster Abbey. The Queen must’ve returned to the capitol pregnant, as on 29 April 1686 her first child would be born.
The girl would also be named Catherine, after her mother, her mother’s mother, and her father’s father’s mother. Princess Catherine Eleonore Henrietta Frederica of England and Scotland. Yet unlike her mother, she would not remain an only child.
Seven more successful pregnancies followed. Two of those pregnancies resulted in the birth of twins, the remaining five in single births. In total, Queen Regnant Catherine would have 10 children: 5 sons and 5 daughters.
Nine of her children married members of other Protestant dynasties.
Her oldest daughter married her Swedish first cousin King Charles XII, but only bore him 2 daughters who both died before their 7th birthday. She was already widowed on 30 November 1718 after her husband died in battle. She did not remarry, but stayed in Sweden for the remainder of her life while her youngest brother Charles XIII Frederick reigned.
The English Queen’s first set of twins, Elizabeth Louise and Mary Anne, married Princes of minor dynasties. Elizabeth Louise married the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Mary Anne married one of the many junior Princes of Württemberg.
The first son, Prince George Henry Frederick, married Princess Antoinette Amalie of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. They would have 9 healthy children in total, 5 sons and 4 daughters.
The 3rd son, Edward, married Princess Johanna Charlotte of Saxe-Weimar.
Princess Margaret, the 4th daughter, married the Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and would go on to have 11 surviving children. She was the mother of the consort to Frederick the Great and a Queen of Denmark.
The 2nd youngest son, Louis, married another minor German Princess: Princess Henriette Albertine of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, who sadly died 8 years into their marriage after giving birth to their 2nd daughter Elizabeth Albertine. He remarried to Margravine Sophie Caroline of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (widow of George Albert, Prince of East Frisia) in 1736 but would have no further issue.
The second set of twins consisted of 1 girl and 1 boy. The girl, Christine, married at the age of 28 to Frederick III, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, and had 4 surviving children.
The youngest Swedish-British Prince, born Edward Charles Frederick The Duke of Cumberland, was chosen to succeed his childless brother-in-law over the previous King’s sister Ulrika Eleonora because he was younger, and a potential marriage or multiple marriages were more likely to result in issue. He married Princess Maria Josephina of Saxe-Zeitz, daughter of Moritz Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Zeitz, and Princess Marie Amalia of Brandenburg-Schwedt.
Only the 2nd son James, The Duke of Connaught, would marry a Catholic woman. He married Duchess Louise Adélaïde d’Orléans, the daughter of Philippe d'Orléans and Françoise Marie de Bourbon, his double 3rd cousin.
Queen Catherine of Great Britain reigned through one of the more difficult periods of Catholicism versus Protestantism, and even experienced a Catholic uprising led by her cousin James Edward Stuart The 2nd Duke of York, the son of his uncle James and his second wife Duchess Mary of Modena.
Despite somewhat sympathising, she had to crush the opposition.
The incident gave rise to the rumours about a Popish Plot which had been doing their rounds since the Queen was still a child. Perhaps they always would’ve, even under different circumstances.
All reigns saw internal and external issues, some more than others, and dealing with her staunchly Catholic cousin and his son Charles Edward Stuart was her internal issue. Her external issue: the War of Spanish Succession, fought out between the French Bourbon dynasty and the Austrian Habsburg dynasty.