King That Never Was

Frederick, Prince of Wales, heir to George II and father of George III, has been confined to little more than a footnote in history. Yet he was an attractive and civilized man, as well as an affectionate husband and father, whose reputation as a fool and liar derives from the almost manic hatred of him by his parents. The running battles, farcical and tragic by turn, enacted between Frederick and his irascible father were the scandal of George II's reign. In this entertaining biography, Michael De-la-Noy rescues Frederick from oblivion and helps set the historical record straight. Prince Frederick spent his childhood in Hanover and was twenty-one when he first arrived in England. He quickly won the affection of the people, and though his informal manners drew criticism from the court, he enjoyed the company of intelligent men and women. A friend of Pope and Dryden, he became the most important royal patron of the arts since Charles I. Many of his acquisitions of paintings and silverware enhance the Royal Collection today. Michael De-la-Noy explores the roots of the virulent family discord that afflicted Frederick, who is shown as an engaging, hospitable friend and a pivotal political figure. He led the opposition to Sir Robert Walpole and the King, and his premature death in 1751 at the age of forty-four stunned his contemporaries, leaving the opposition to Henry Pelham's Whig ministry in total disarray. Not the least of the imponderables is what might have transpired if the eminently sane Prince Frederick had become King ahead of his blighted son, George III, whose interminable reign brought so many disasters, including the loss of Britain's American Colonies.